Question of the Day

This dog has pneumonia of the left cranial lung lobe. There are diffuse alveolar infiltrates within the left cranial lung lobe with air bronchograms. The pleural space and cardiac silhouette are normal.

Cancel the procedure and wake up the patient because she is hypoxic. Can consider repeating radiographs once she is awake to rule out any component of atelectasis due to recumbency and sedation. However, atelectasis does not usually cause this degree of respiratory compromise.

The incidental gastric foreign body (metal opacity) is not the direct cause of hypoxia, though vomiting from a foreign body may cause aspiration pneumonia in some patients.

The dog also has spondylosis deformans, which is a very common and incidental radiographic finding in older dogs.

Click here to see normal canine thoracic radiographs.

Radiographic interpretation and images courtesy, Dr A. Zwingenberger and Veterinary Radiology. Normal radiograph links courtesy, Imaging Anatomy, Univ. of Illinois Vet Med.