2017 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

After receiving probiotics, coverage in BAL (mean AE SD, 269 AE 23 to 11,122 AE 23,546 reads/sample; P = 0.002), and blood (269 AE 43 to 1,513 AE 631 reads/sample; P = 0.002) significantly increased. There was no significant difference in coverage in OP and fecal swabs (P = 0.56, and P = 0.59, respectively). Richness in the upper (from 105 AE 8 to 124 AE 13; P = 0.030) and lower airways (from 27 AE 4 to 68 AE 31; P = 0.002) and blood (from 15 AE 6 to 28 AE 11; P = 0.041) significantly increased. In feces All values are expressed as mean +/-standard deviation followed by the range in parentheses Total Loss = Total blood loss Loss % BW = Blood loss as a percentage of body weight Bleeding Time = Time to stop bleeding P Value category "disease" represents the difference between parameters with regards to underlying disease category (neoplastic vs inflammatory) P Value category "treatment" represents the difference between parameters between YB and control groups *A P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant richness did not significantly differ after probiotics (P = 0.485). The probiotic capsule resolved to the OTU level consisted of the following taxa: genus Bifidobacterium (36%), Bifidobacterium animalis (23%), genus Streptococcus (26%), Lactobacillus zeae (12%), and genus Lactobacillus (3%). B. animalis and L. zeae were not detected in any sample site at baseline. L. zeae was detected in all sites post-treatment, and B. animalis was detected in OP, BAL, and feces, but not blood. The overall composition of the upper and lower airway microbiota underwent the most changes in regards to relative abundance of predominant OTUs with 4.8% and 6.9% of OTUs changing significantly in OP and BAL samples, respectively. In contrast only 0.5% of OTUs in feces changed significantly from baseline. PCA revealed distinct microbiomes in each site; samples clustered more tightly at baseline and had more variation after probiotic administration. This is the first study describing the effect of oral probiotics on the respiratory microbiota of healthy cats. Finding bacterial species present in the oral probiotics in the upper and lower airways provides pilot data suggesting that oral probiotics could be investigated as a tool to target dysbiosis occurring in inflammatory airway diseases such as feline asthma. Histoplasmosis is a common fungal infection that has the potential to result in severe clinical disease, with the majority of cats having pulmonary involvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate thoracic radiograph findings in cats diagnosed with histoplasmosis. Medical records of cats presenting to the Oklahoma State University VTH between 2005 and 2015 were reviewed. Cats included in the study had orthogonal thoracic radiographs performed, a complete medical record, and a definitive diagnosis of histoplasmosis based on identification of H. capsulatum, positive urine antigen, and/or positive fungal culture. A radiologist blinded to the clinical severity of each patient evaluated all radiographs to determine the predominant pulmonary pattern and severity score (0normal, 1-mild, 2-moderate, 3-severe) for each lung lobe. Fortyseven cats (27 female, 20 male) were included in the study with a median age of 7 years (range: 0.7 -19 years) of which 32 (68%) were presumed to be alive at the time of this abstract. The predominant pulmonary pattern was bronchial in 38 cats (81%) and 6 cats (13%) had a mixed pulmonary pattern (combination of bron