A 12-year-old, 4 kg, castrated male Persian cat was referred with a 2-month history of sneezing and bilateral mucopurulent nasal discharge. Rhinoscopically acquired nasal biopsies at this time revealed bilateral lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis. A tapering dose of oral prednisone caused the complete remission of the clinical signs, but 2 months after discontinuation of the therapy, the rhinitis recurred and the OD became exophthalmic. Computed tomography showed a soft tissue mass in both sides of the nasal cavity, both frontal sinuses, the right orbit, and to a lesser extent the left orbit. A fine needle aspirate of the right orbit revealed pyogranulomatous inflammation and Aspergillus spp. hyphae. Repeat nasal biopsy demonstrated multi-focal necrosis and a mixed inflammatory cell process which now included macrophages and scattered septate fungal hyphae. A few days later the cat became bilaterally blind and a contrast enhancing lesion involving the optic chiasm was found on magnetic resonance imaging. Despite a poor prognosis, therapy consisted of exenteration of the right orbit and trephination of both frontal sinuses before the planned initiation of medical antifungal therapy. Unfortunately, the cat died of cardiac arrest intraoperatively. Aspergillus fumigatus was cultured from both orbits at necropsy. Orbital aspergillosis has been rarely reported in cats and its relationship with lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis is unclear. In this patient lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis or previous antibiotic/corticosteroid therapy may have allowed secondary fungal invasion of the nasal mucosa and subsequently both orbits and the brain. Alternatively, Aspergillus infection may have preceded the lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis.

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Summary Seventeen racehorses were referred with a history of poor performance, recurrent fever, coughing and/or nasal discharge. All patients underwent a thorough diagnostic procedure, including physical examination, complete blood count, plasma fibrinogen estimation, arterial blood gas analysis, thoracic radiology and ultrasonography, endoscopy, tracheal aspiration with cytological and cultural evaluation, including sensitivity test. According to these procedures, bacterial pneumonia was diagnosed in 14 horses and bacterial pleuropneumonia in 3 horses. Streptococcus spp. were isolated in 11 cases (61.2%), Rhodococcus equi in 3 cases (16.6%), Klebsiella pneumoniae in 3 cases (16.6%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in one case (5.6%).