Abstract
We report two cats living in the same house which had respiratory probems (dyspnea, cough) and enlarged lymph nodes. Case one was a three-year-old male cat with dyspnea. A tumor attached to the chest wall was removed, and it consisted of an enlarged lymph node wiht granulomatous lymphadenitis. The cat died 11 months after surgery in spite of careful symptomatic medical treatment. Postmortem histopathological examination revealed Zieh1-Neelsen stain positive bacteria at the granulomatous foci, which indicated infection by a specific kind of mycobactera. The other case was a four-year-old female cat which had continual cough for six months. This cat was brought in ten months after the first visit of Case One. Palpation and radiography suggested the presence of tumors in the abdomen and chest, so exploratory laparatomy was done. An extremely enlarged lymph node was found on the mesenterium, but could not be removed completely. Thoracotomy was not performed. Histopathologically, the excised tumor was diagnosed as showing purulent granulomatous lymphadenitis. Medical treatment was initiated with rifampicin, isoniazid, and enrofloxacin for probable mycobacterial infection. Two months of medication effectively normalized the volume of the lymph nodes, and cured the cough. This cat has been in good health since then. Although mycobacteria were not actually detected by microbiological examination,the clinical and histopathological findings and the effectiveness of medication suggested that the disease was systemic mycobacterial disease.
