Feline lower airway disease: A retrospective study of 22 naturally occurring cases from Greece

Abstract

In this retrospective study of 22 cats with lower airway disease of either intermittent (23%) or persistent nature (77%), the Siamese breed (55%) was significantly over-represented. Females (68%) were slightly but not significantly over-represented. No significant association was found between the clinical stage of disease and the physical findings, thoracic radiographic changes or the response to treatment. Cough, the most common presenting complaint, was the only symptom detected in the cats with intermittent disease, yet the two most severely affected animals did not show it. Thoracic auscultation did not reveal any abnormality in 41% of the cats. Haematology revealed eosinophilia in 46% of the cats. A bronchial pattern was the most common radiographic abnormality (73%), followed by alveolar (32%) and interstitial patterns (23%). Interestingly, thoracic radiographs were normal in 23% of the cats. The combination of short-term corticosteroids and bronchodilators resulted in complete and long-term remission of symptoms in nine cats, while the other 11 required ongoing medication because of relatively frequent relapses. One of the remaining two cats died during an asthmatic crisis, while the other was lost to follow up.

Health and Behavioral Survey of over 8000 Finnish Cats

“…RN was found only in Ragdolls. Of the other diseases mentioned, at least one of the breeds found overrepresented in our study had also been found overrepresented in previous studies, including sequester of cornea (35, 36), entropion (37, 38), asthma (28–30), strabismus (39, 40), and hip dysplasia (41). RCM had been found overrepresented in non-pedigree shorthairs.…”

“…Asthma was found phylogenetically associated with Korats and the Siamese–Balinese–Oriental–Seychellois group in our study. It has been associated with the Siamese breed in many previous studies also (28–30). No study was found, in which asthma would have been connected to Korats, but association was found to Birmans (31).…”

Clinical features and radiographic findings in cats with eosinophilic, neutrophilic, and mixed airway inflammation (2011‐2018)

“…Inflammatory airway disease (IAD) is common in cats and is an important differential diagnosis for cats presenting with a history of cough, wheezing, or increased expiratory effort 1‐5 . Inflammatory airway disease has been proposed to encompass 2 distinct syndromes: asthma and chronic bronchitis 4,6,7 .…”

“…Asthma in cats is considered to result in predominantly eosinophilic inflammation and chronic bronchitis in predominantly nonseptic neutrophilic inflammation. 4,6,7 However, marked airway eosinophilia has been reported in clinically normal cats, 11,12 and techniques used to collect and evaluate airway samples have been inconsistent across studies 1‐5,7,9,12‐14 …”

High resolution computed tomographic evaluation of bronchial wall thickness in healthy and clinically asthmatic cats

“…It is not readily applicable to cats [4]. Therefore, the diagnosis of feline asthma is typically based on changes on plain radiography and therapeutic response to glucocorticoid after excluding other disease, such as pneumonia, neoplasia, infectious bronchitis and cardiac disease [1,13].…”