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Objective— To report femoral nerve dysfunction caused by focal iliopsoas muscle injury and treated by performing tenectomy of the muscle insertion. Study Design— Case report. Animals— A 4-year-old, castrated male, English Mastiff. Results— Iliopsoas muscle injury caused femoral nerve deficits and severe pain. Focal injury was not detected by ultrasonography or computed tomography but was visible on magnetic resonance (MRI) images. Tenectomy of the insertion of the iliopsoas muscle relieved signs of pain. Conclusions— Femoral nerve dysfunction may occur with iliopsoas muscle injury. Clinical Relevance— Iliopsoas muscle injury should be considered in patients with hip pain and MRI is a useful test for diagnosis. Tenectomy may be indicated for relief of chronic iliopsoas muscle pain.

Objective— To examine the fracture failure surfaces from Thoroughbred horses that had sustained a catastrophic condylar fracture. Sample Population— Bone specimens from the failure surface were obtained from 12 Thoroughbred racehorses with catastrophic injury and 2 non-racing horses with accidental long bone fracture. Methods— Bone specimens from the failure surface of each fracture were incubated with gold microspheres to label microcracks before examination at ×50 to ×60,000 using scanning electron microscopy. Microcracking at the failure surface was assessed using a visual analog scale. Results— Branching arrays or clusters of microcracks were seen over a range of magnifications in adapted subchondral bone in the distal end of the MC3/MT3 bone from racing Thoroughbreds with a catastrophic displaced condylar fracture. In the palmar/plantar region, microcracking was associated with the formation of an array of macroscopic cracks in the condylar groove. A different pattern of microcracking was seen in specimens of bone from distal metaphyseal and diaphyseal MC3/MT3 failure surfaces from Thoroughbred racehorses with catastrophic fracture and non-racing horses with an accidental diaphyseal long bone fracture. Few microcracks were seen and typically did not form branching arrays. Conclusion— These data suggest that propagation of condylar fracture in Thoroughbred racehorses is initiated by the formation of nanoscale microcracks in adapted subchondral bone that form during exercise-induced bone adaptation. Clinical Relevance— Accumulation and coalescence of branching microcracks into arrays or clusters appears to eventually lead to the development of macroscopic subchondral cracks in the condylar groove and initiation of a condylar fracture.

Objective—To determine clinical outcome of permanent tracheostomy in cats with upper airway obstruction. Design—Retrospective case series. Animals—21 cats. Procedures—Medical records were reviewed for information on history, signalment, clinical signs, results of preoperative clinicopathologic testing, cause of upper airway obstruction, surgical procedure, postoperative complications, and outcome. Results—Causes of upper airway obstruction included neoplasia (squamous cell carcinoma [n = 6] or malignant lymphoma [2]), inflammatory laryngeal disease (5), laryngeal paralysis (4), trauma (3), and a laryngeal mass of unknown cause (1). Fourteen cats had dyspnea in the immediate postoperative period; dyspnea most often resulted from mucous plugs at the stoma or elsewhere in the respiratory tract. Eleven cats died, including 6 cats that died while hospitalized after surgery and 5 cats that died after discharge; 7 cats were eu-thanatized, most often because of progression of neoplasia; and 2 were still alive at the time of the study. The remaining cat was lost to follow-up after discharge from the hospital. Overall, median survival time for the 20 cats for which information was available was 20.5 days (range, 1 day to 5 years). Cats that underwent permanent tracheostomy because of inflammatory laryngeal disease were 6.61 times as likely to die as cats that underwent permanent tracheostomy for any other reason. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results indicated that permanent tracheostomy was an uncommon procedure in cats with upper airway obstruction that was associated with high complication and mortality rates.