TDK conference 2019

Pyometra is an uncommon disease in cats. The hormonal backgrounds and the development of the disease is not yet completely clear thus it is being rarely researched.

During my research the main sources of data collected were at University of Veterinary Medicine, Small Animal Clinic and I also visited the three largest animal hospitals in Budapest: PrimaVet Kisállat-rendelőintézet, Budatétényi Állatkórház, FeliCaVet Állatkórház. Data were collected between April and September 2019 for the incident numbers and related data of the disease in the last 10 years. During the research data of 144 cats were processed.

The results showed that most of these cats were older with an average age of 6.5 and in 76.2% of the cases their breed was European shorthaired. The main cause for the latter is that in Hungary the population rate of exotic cats is quite low. Cats infected were predominantly (96.15%) intact females, although in some cases (3.15%) they were sterilized with the infection caused by a stump left after sterilization, although it requires further studies. Based on the data collected the most common treatment used against the disease is sterilization of the animals, 80.75% of cats were sterilized using the method called ovariohisterectomia. 14.49% of cats received conservative treatments based on good results during medical examination. Further 4.76% did not receive any treatment or were euthanized requested by their owners.

The most conspicuous symptom of pyometria is vaginal discharge, which occurred in 41.98% of all cases. The most common symptom was lethargy affecting 46.99% of cats studied. Other common symptoms were undulation during abdominal palpation or abdominal discomfort – 43.53%. 29.25% of cats suffered from fever, and 11.34% also from PU/PD. In most cases (62.36%) the disease was diagnosed by ultrasound examination with the following symptoms: thickened uterine wall, enlarged lumen and some possible fluids accumulated therein. Perforation and abdominal fluids also occurred in rare, 4.17% of cases.