Severe hypercapnia associated with a chemodectoma causing profound tracheal narrowing in a cat

Abstract

An 11‐year‐old, domestic short‐haired cat presented out‐of‐hours with a 1‐day history of dyspnoea and open‐mouthed breathing. Ninety minutes after arrival, the cat acutely deteriorated. Butorphanol (0.2 mg/kg) was administered intravenously via a preplaced cephalic vein cannula, after which anaesthesia was induced (1.3 mg/kg alfaxalone). The cat’s trachea was intubated with a 3.5 mm internal diameter cuffed endotracheal tube (ETT), but it was not possible to give a manual breath and a capnograph trace was absent; therefore the ETT was replaced with a 4.5 mm internal diameter cuffed ETT. A manual breath was still not possible but a capnograph trace was present (end‐tidal carbon dioxide tension of 95 mmHg (12.7 kPa)). Intravenous dexamethasone (0.15 mg/kg) and terbutaline (0.01 mg/kg) were administered. Computed tomography revealed a heart base mass compressing the trachea and decreasing its lumen to 1 mm diameter. The cat was euthanased due to poor prognosis. Histopathology revealed a chemodectoma.

Case report: Malignant chemodectoma with hepatic metastasis in a cat

“…In general, chemodectomas are non-functional, spaceoccupying, and locally invasive masses, with a low reported metastatic potential (up to 22% in canine tumors) (2,28). Similarly, in feline, five out of the 13 case reports have reported metastasis to other tissues within the thoracic cavity including lungs and diaphragm (20,27,30,31). Carotid body neoplasms are known to be more malignant and often metastasize to other organs than aortic body neoplasms.…”