By Dr Sarah Selzer, Soundiagnosis. January 2025
History: A 5 year-old female (unconfirmed desexing status), Foxhound X was presented to a Melbourne veterinary clinic for a routine abdominal ultrasound to investigate an apparent small kidney noted on a previous examination. The patient was well and had a history of a gastropexy a few years prior. A recent routine blood results revealed mildly low reticulocytes but all other parameters were normal.
Soundiagnosis abdominal ultrasound findings: The ultrasound revealed normal kidneys but a large anechoic anechoic to hypoechoic fluid filled tubular structure with some echogenic foci in its lumen, that was visualised just cranial and dorsal to the bladder. It appeared closely associated to the left ovary, which was visualised as a hypoechoic ovoid structure just caudal to the left kidney. The right ovary could not be identified
Diagnosis: Suspected retained left uterine horn (with possible pyometra, hydrometra or mucometra) and left ovary, with an ovarian cyst. No evidence of the right uterine horn or ovary.
Images:
Image 1: The left ovary (right of image); hypoechoic ovoid structure closely associated and just caudal to the left kidney (left of image)
Image 2: Suspected left uterine horn visualised as a large anechoic to hypoechoic fluid filled tubular structure with some echogenic foci in its lumen (visualised cranial and dorsal to the bladder)
Image 3: The suspected left uterine (left of image) closely associated to the left ovary (right of image) and both closely associated to the left kidney (bottom of image)
Video: Left uterine horn (anechoic to hypoechoic tubular structure) visualised cranial to the bladder (anechoic filled structure). Note their similarity in appearance.
Comments and Outcome: The patient had an exploratory laparotomy performed. The right ovary and uterine horn was found to be absent. However, a large grapefruit sized cystic tubular structure with a smaller cystic structure was located in close proximity to the left ovary. Both structures were removed and sent for histopathology. The results revealed and confirmed a benign left uterine horn (cystic tubular structure) and ovary, with a small benign cyst attached to the left urine horn.
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