Capillaria in the bladder of an adult cat.

Abstract

4-year-old, neutered male domestic shorthair waspresented to a local veterinary clinic with a com-plaint of recent lethargy after a fight with another cat. Thephysical examination revealed a mild fever (40.0°C),2 bite wounds localized in the lumbar region, and acuteback pain near the left coxofemoral joint. The bladderwas distended but painless. According to the owner, theanimal had no history or clinical signs of lower urinarytract disease. The cat was hospitalized for 2 d; it receivedoral antibiotics and was then released because of sig-nificant clinical improvement. Eight days after the ini-tiation of treatment, the cat became lethargic and occa-sional vomiting was reported by the owner. At thattime, examination by the veterinarian revealed no sig-nificant findings, except a distended nonpainful bladder.Results from routine blood analyses (complete blood cell(CBC) count and biochemical panel) were within ref-erence ranges. A urine sample was collected by cysto-centesis to determine the cause of the enlarged bladder.The urine was submitted to the clinical pathology diag-nostic service of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,University of Montreal, in Saint-Hyacinthe.