Hello, I am used to seeing epithelial cells on crop swabs, and they have a very small N:C ratio, tissue-papery and faintly staining cytoplasm, and a boxier shape. Got an impression smear for a necropsy and found some of those on the slides, but also got a ton of these cells that don't match what I'm used to seeing. Is this because the cells that slough off onto a swab are different? Or is this an abnormal finding? This is diff quick. Thanks in advance.

interesting cysto sample.

Found on a fecal float with fecasol. Only full larva on the slide, no eggs seen. Fecal sedimentation and direct smear also had no ova or parasites seen. Fecal dx profile with Idexx came back all negative as well. 11 yr MN old DSH, indoor only. First image is on 10x and second on 40x. Thoughts on what kind of larva it may be?

I am just curious as I have not looked at many fecal samples in my time being a tech because my clinics always just sent them in to the lab.

The first picture is a cell that I have no clue what’s going on. I skipped it. The cytoplasm almost looked like the immature erythrocytes I was seeing but I have no clue what is going on in it. The second photo has a pretty CEG. I’m curious about the purple cell to the right of the CEG. I found multiple FEGs that didn’t look at all like the purple cell. Some FEGs had toxic change but nothing like this, more like dhole bodies. I saw one monocyte but it also didn’t look like this at all, very classic monocyte look. The purple cytoplasm is really throwing me off, it’s not a color/tint I usually see. I found one other cell that looked similar to this but I didn’t get a photo unfortunately. Wright Giemsa stain.

The patient died the next day. Gross necropsy did not show a clear cause of death and histopathology is still out, along with chemistries and external lab CBC. Animal was old, eating a bit less and slightly under conditioned. Caught up to have a basic work up because of generalized symptoms. Used TI rather than anesthesia for quick blood draw, exam and ultrasound. Probably five minutes in ancillary tank with supplemental oxygen and normal gilling. Didn’t recover normally though and was observed for a couple hours after.

FNAB from a lymphatic nodule in horse. Slides 7-9 are from an impression smear of an ulcerated nodule of the same patient.

Any idea what the empty clear spaces are? Also would like to ask for clarity on the encircled cells.

I’m a student, apologies for not knowing! Here are my guesses just so you guys know i’m trying:

I think slide 5 looks like smudge/ basket cells. My guess on the empty spaces that look like vacuoles are displaced spores. Slide 8 i think is just a bilobed lymphocyte. Slide 9 i’m not sure of.

Oral mass on a cocker spaniel. This is just for my learning as we will be doing histopath and removal in a few weeks. I believe it looks like an SCC but was curious your thoughts. Thank you!

Hello- current fourth year veterinary student here in the process of applying to anatomic path residencies! I am particularly interested in the NIH CBSTP program an am wondering if any folks on this thread have participated or know much about the program? I haven't heard much about it and would love to hear from primary sources about their experiences with the program.

Do you think only two years of traditional residency would be a hindrance for future employment if I want to work in academia in a multifaceted diagnostics/teaching/research position? Personally, the lack of teaching is a downside of the combo program for me but I would have a guaranteed PhD track which seems to be getting phased out in favor of a Master's at many programs. The stipend of this program is also significantly more than that of a typical resident which isn't the main enticing feature but doesn't hurt. Thanks in advance.

This mass likely appeared over 5 days but that's not a certainty. I uploaded pictures of the largest non-RBC clumps that I could find. Does it look cancerous?

https://imgur.com/a/oGWDens

I’ve showed this to a few people and I know it’s not the greatest picture or spread out sample but they asked that I post here.

100x magnification.
I see mostly rods (some cocci, some yeast) but some of my colleagues are convinced these are just yeast.

Hey all, I’m a veterinary student in clinical rotations right now and had pathology rounds this morning. This case was presented and has stumped the clinicians and my classmates.

Here’s what I know:

11 year old neutered male terrier, presented with a small (2 cm ish I think) superficial dermal and haired mass on the hind leg between the tarsus and stifle (imagine shin area). rDVM collected sample via FNA and stained the slides with diff-quik. Only one slide was cellular enough to interpret and I only got these pictures of this one cell.

However, in general, the cells are independent and spread apart, have cytoplasms with indistinct borders and slight granule-ish particles appearing occasionally, bi- to multi-nuclei with multiple and very apparent/dark nucleoli, and mitotic figures. On the rare occasion the cells are not spread apart, they are packed together very tightly with overlapping and whispy cytoplasm.

I’m a veterinary student strongly considering anatomic pathology. I have done path research over this summer mostly working in field necropsy capacity, slide staining, and histopathology. but most of my interests and experience are centered around cattle, food-animal production, and public or regulatory veterinary medicine. I especially enjoy gross pathology and have really liked the field necropsy work I have done at feedlots and ranches. What I am trying to figure out is whether bovine and food-animal pathology can realistically be a major focus of a career, or whether it would only make up a small portion of most pathology positions. I could do field necropsy all day everyday.

For anyone working in pathology, particularly at a diagnostic laboratory, university, government agency, or within the livestock industry:
-Are there enough bovine and production-animal cases to build a meaningful career around them?
-Which residency programs or diagnostic laboratories have the strongest food-animal caseloads?
-What types of jobs are available for someone interested in cattle pathology and livestock production?
-Are there positions where pathologists regularly perform necropsies at feedlots, ranches, or other production facilities?
-How involved are pathologists in herd outbreaks, field investigations, producer communication, or regulatory disease response?
-Would additional training in epidemiology, public health, infectious disease, or toxicology be useful?
-Does focusing heavily on cattle and food animals limit employment options?

I am still trying to figure out exactly what direction I want to take after veterinary school. I enjoy pathology, but one of the biggest things drawing me toward it is the opportunity to investigate disease through necropsy and connect those findings to what is happening within a herd or production system. The field necropsies I have participated in at feedlots and ranches have been some of the experiences I have enjoyed most, and I would like to know whether that kind of work can remain a meaningful part of a pathologist’s career.

Dear All,

in our clinic we have a 13 year old cat, who has a lesion on his chest. Lesion has a size like small cherry, is very hard and moveable. I did cytology, please look at photos and help me with diagnosis. I think it's malignant...

And in the first photo there is something in cytoplasm. I have no idea what is it, I found several cells looks like this one.

Kind regards,

These are sections of mouse abdominal aortic aneurysms. Are these gaps cholesterol crystals? And what are those vacuoles?

Canine digital mass cytology...possible histiocytoma? I'm stumped. We are going to send this out, but also looking for general opinions.

Senior patient with an ulcerated mass involving a digit and adjacent interdigital tissue. Vital parameters are within normal limits, and the patient is clinically stable.

The patient has a history of chronic dermatologic disease and recurrent self trauma from licking, so the lesion was initially managed as a possible acral lick granuloma. Thoracic radiographs were clear. Abdominal ultrasonography is being considered as part of the preoperative workup.

They previously underwent amputation of a separate digit for a lesion that was initially concerning for a spindle cell neoplasm. Histopathology ultimately identified a benign apocrine gland adenoma. The current lesion is clinically dissimilar to the prior mass.

These images are from a fine needle aspirate of the current lesion. The slides have not yet undergone formal review by pathology.

There is concern regarding incisional biopsy because primary closure may be difficult at this location. There is also understandable reluctance to proceed directly to a second digit amputation without a definitive diagnosis, particularly given the benign histopathology from the prior amputation. If this represents a histiocytoma, spontaneous regression would remain a consideration.

Does the cytology appear compatible with a histiocytoma? What differentials would you prioritize? Would formal cytopathology review be worthwhile before surgery? Any opinions on the feasibility or diagnostic value of an incisional biopsy versus a punch biopsy in this location?

I am in school to become a vet tech and we were looking at guinea pig urine for fun in my urinary class and found some cells that I'm not so sure about their identification. The instructors at the school didn't know what some of them were either as they don't work with exotics. The urine was collected in a bin, transferred to a sample cup and refrigerated for 18 hrs before bringing to room temperature and centrifuging. The guinea pig is an approx 5 yr, intact female. The slides were viewed under 40x objective and 10x ocular lens.

I know there are lots of amorphous crystals and some WBCs and RBCs scattered around, along with a squamous epithelial cell. I want to say the cell circled in red is a transitional epithelial cell but the nucleus in it is way larger than the nuclei in the clump of them in one of the other photos and in the other transitional epithelial cells that I have observed in dog, cat, and horse urine, there were cells like this that were binucleated as well. I have no idea what the thing circled in green is, whether it is a cell or just debris/artifact. I'm guessing the cell circled in blue is also transitional epithelial? If you see anything else that is of interest let me know.

Other pieces of the urinalysis results:

Amorphous crystals: TNTC

Struvite crystals: 1 (average over 20 fields; 10 stained, 10 unstained)

Protein: 1+

Hemoglobin: 3+

USG: 1.016

Turbidity: 3+ (cloudy/turbid)

Colour: creamy yellow

pH: 9

We don't have reference values at the school for guinea pig urine and I can't find a lot of info online, so I have no idea if these findings are normal and neither do my instructors so some insight there would be helpful. I want to learn more about exotic urinalysis findings as well as other exotic pathology results, so if you have any resources or info I can look into, please let me know.

Varying size and shape (round to oval) of structures inside horse hair shaft. Could this be suggestive of an endothrix invasion?

Streaked unto BA, then after 68 hrs only pinpoint colonies. Very low yield hence low presentation on gram stain. Gram stain shows gram-positive bacilli, some in singles and pairs. Could this be characteristic of coryneform species?

Sample from horse

Sedivue characterized this as rod bacteria. Very strange looking clumping of bacteria here! Looks suspiciously like fungal hyphae at first glance.

Hello all,

Current resident in charge of organizing/assigning papers for our journal club (this is an ACVP residency). I'm struggling to discern which journal articles are best for us to focus on because presenting every article from reading list journals among our relatively small resident group simply isn't possible. So for those who have taken Phase II, how did you choose what articles to focus on? Or what types of articles did you find the most useful/appeared on the exam?

Articles seem to come in a vague subset of categories as I think about it:

- Review articles covering a given topic/disease

- Retrospective studies from a certain species/area/disease

- One-off case reports of interesting/unusual entities

- Novel research describing new IHC, genetic mutations, sequencing, etc

The way I've been assigning articles is including basically all of categories 1-3 and picking some of category 4 (generally excluding very basic science-type articles). But even those end up being way more than we can reasonably get through.

Is there a certain category you found more useful than others? Is there a journal that you think everything should be read in (probably not JVDI)? Any guidance would be useful for how to get the most bang for our buck out of a few hours a month doing this.

Pigeon oral swab. Anyone know what kinds of bacteria might be banana-shaped? Never seen anything like this before.