Diagnosis of verminous pneumonia via sonography-guided fine-needle pulmonary parenchymal aspiration in a cat.

A 9-year-old, male neutered, indoor-outdoor domestic shorthair cat from the northern Alabama countryside presented for a 3 week history of coughing, lethargy and an episode of self-resolving dyspnea that occurred 1 week prior to presentation. Three-view thoracic radiographs revealed a moderate-to-severe, diffuse, mixed bronchial to structured interstitial (miliary-to-nodular) pulmonary pattern in all lung lobes with peribronchial cuffing and multifocal areas of mild patchy alveolar opacity. Ultrasound-guided evaluation and fine-needle aspiration of the caudodorsal lung parenchyma was performed with sedation. Cytology revealed many widely scattered larvae and ova. Upon the confirmed diagnosis of verminous pneumonia, treatment with fenbendazole and selamectin resulted in complete resolution of clinical signs within 6 weeks of the initial diagnosis. We report herein the first documented case in the Americas of verminous pneumonia diagnosed via cytologic evaluation of an in vivo, percutaneous ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirate of affected lung. Additionally, to our knowledge, we offer the first account of the sonographic (pulmonary) features of the disease.