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Objective: To report clinical features and outcomes of cats undergoing either stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) or surgical excision for the treatment of intracranial meningioma., Animals: 61 client-owned cats., Methods: Medical records were retrospectively reviewed of cats with intracranial meningiomas that were treated with surgical removal and/or SRT between 2005 and 2017. Signalment, clinical signs, duration of clinical signs, diagnostic imaging reports, histopathology reports, treatment protocol, complications, recurrence or progression, and survival time were obtained from the medical record and through follow-up phone calls., Results: Of the 61 patients, 46 had surgery, 14 had SRT, and 1 had surgery followed by SRT for initial treatment. Significantly more cats that underwent surgery had peritreatment complications compared to the SRT group (P < .0001). Cats that received surgery initially had a significantly longer median survival time (MST) of 1,345 days compared to the MST of 339 days for the SRT cats (P = .002). Fourteen (30%) cats in the surgery group and 4 cats in the SRT group (28%) had MRI- or CT-confirmed tumor regrowth or new tumor growth (P = 1.00). Five cases that had SRT for subsequent recurrence had an MST of 700 days (range, 335 to 1,460 days) after the last treatment., Clinical Relevance: SRT proved to be a safe, alternative treatment option for feline patients with intracranial meningiomas; however, the survival times with surgery alone were significantly longer. SRT for the treatment of recurrence following initial surgery may show promising results.

This retrospective report describes perioperative and short-term postoperative complications of gastrointestinal biopsies obtained via a laparoscopic-assisted technique compared with laparotomy in a population of 60 client-owned dogs and cats with naturally occurring gastrointestinal disease. The medical records were examined for patients that underwent surgery for diagnostic gastrointestinal biopsies. Data were collected regarding perioperative complications such as hypotension, hypercarbia, and hypoxemia, and short-term postoperative complications including seroma and incisional infection/inflammation. The perioperative complication rate was 17.6% for the laparoscopically assisted group and 16.6% for the control group. The short-term postoperative complication rate was 5.9% for the laparoscopically assisted group and 0% for the control group. There was a 0% rate of intestinal dehiscence. There were no statistically significant differences in complication rates between the 2 groups, showing that laparoscopic-assisted gastrointestinal biopsies can be performed with acceptable perioperative and short-term postoperative complication rates.

Objective: To evaluate hip joint laxity in 10 breeds of dogs via 2 radiographic techniques., Animals: 500 clinically normal dogs., Design: Prospective study., Procedure: Radiographs obtained via routine hip joint evaluations performed in sedated dogs of 10 popular breeds were randomly selected from a database. Measurements of distraction index (DI) and hip-extended index (HEI) on 1 hip joint radiograph randomly chosen from each dog were made., Results: Mean age of dogs was 20.7 months. Mean HEI was 0.17 (range, 0.0 to 0.72) and mean DI was 0.44 (range, 0.07 to 0.96). Borzois had uniformly tight hip joints as judged by use of both methods and were considered the gold standard by which hip joint laxity was judged (all Borzois had DI < or = 0.32). Overall, DI was significantly greater than HEI. Within each breed, mean DI was always greater than mean HEI. Significant differences were detected among breeds for HEI; however, compared with DI, the magnitude of differences among breeds was less., Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Distraction radiography detected the greatest range and magnitude of passive hip laxity in the 10 breeds of dogs. The difference in values between breeds known to have high prevalence of canine hip dysplasia and those in Borzois was greater for DI than for HEI. Breeds must be evaluated individually because of inherent differences in hip joint laxity.