Abstract: Background Nasal foreign bodies (FBs) have been reported as a common etiology of nasal disease.
Objectives Description of clinical presentation and diagnostic findings in dogs and cats with confirmed nasal FBs.
Animals Sixty-three dogs and 8 cats were included.
Methods Retrospective descriptive study. Clinical presentation, imaging and rhinoscopy findings of dogs and cats, between 2010 and 2022, were reviewed.
Results Median length of clinical signs was 7 and 45 days in dogs and cats, respectively. Most common clinical signs were sneezing (46/71 cases) and nasal discharge (43/71 cases). Among patients with nasal discharge, 17/43 presented with epistaxis. The discharge was unilateral in 37/43 cases. Despite detection of a FB in only one nasal cavity, 6 cases had bilateral discharge. Imaging, predominantly computed tomography, was performed in 48/71 cases, with direct visualisation of the foreign body in 5 dogs and 3 cats. Unilateral changes were described in 40/48 cases with turbinate destruction in 19/48 cases, being focal in 16/19 cases. Foreign body removal was achieved through rhinoscopy or nasal flushing in 66 and 4 cases, respectively. It was not possible to retrieve the FB in one case.
Conclusions and clinical importance Based on the findings of this study, although unilateral nasal discharge was more common, nasal FBs should still be a differential diagnosis in bilateral cases and cats seemed to have a more chronic presentation. Visualization of the nasal foreign body in advanced imaging was only reported in small minority of cases, consequently, inability to identify it does not exclude it.
