Input please: isolated lung lesion.

Hi Nick, culturing the lesion takes ages as I mentioned earlier - it's a reflection of the Mycobacteria as a group they are very slow growing organisms. Richard's 6 month delay is ridiculous and will be a combination of factors that are mostly due to the culture within MAFF/DEFRA. It's a lethal mixture of poor efficiency and an attitude of not giving out disease information that has been a problem for many years.

Thanks, sounds like no lessons learnt by then from the Foot & Mouth debacle...
 
Dear all,


20mins ago I had a call from a vet in Winchester. He hadn't been directly involved directly with my specimen but reported that the lab found no evidence of TB. No alternative diagnosis was offered and no further tests are planned.


On the one hand, I'm relieved. I would have liked to know what the lesion was.
 
Eospinophils will give you a green puss so parasitism next most likely.

To the very best of my knowledge there is no test that can conclusively rule out TB in that timeframe..........

(I have mused to myself why a rapid PCR cannot be developed and give a rapid result)
 
Great that is 'clear' and great that you got a swift response from them. Only worry is Buchan and Apache's comments (they are both vets) as to how the lab was able to be so conclusive so quickly!
 
I suspect that either:

1. The lab performed an inspection of the lungs and found no macroscopic evidence of disease, possibly failing to find the area of concern. However, they have the same photos as in this thread.

2. They identified an alternative cause for the lesion. If so, I'd have liked to know what!
 
There is no test to rule out TB that quickly on a lesion.

LAck of PCR I think relates to lack of genetic material, although they can do them on middens I think.
 
I suspect that either:

1. The lab performed an inspection of the lungs and found no macroscopic evidence of disease, possibly failing to find the area of concern. However, they have the same photos as in this thread.

2. They identified an alternative cause for the lesion. If so, I'd have liked to know what!

:doh:
I'm not even a tiny bit convinced by either of your theories.
 
Back to the OP, you say you emailed them initially, not being a smart ass but i have their number programmed in my phone, they are available 24/7

The first time i contacted them over a red hind they really didn't know what to do on first contact, this was the deer that proved to be positive.
It only had 2 infected nodes in the mesenteric chain, all other nodes we check and lungs were clear, the vet said 'i will just check the pre scapula nodes', cut through the skin and was met with an explosion of puss!

The second time was a Roe deer, this took over 3 months, but it was me chasing them to get an answer again, but this proved to be negative but like you they wouldn't say what it was/could have been.

But you did the correct thing by informing them.

Cheers

Richard
 
Back to the OP, you say you emailed them initially, not being a smart ass but i have their number programmed in my phone, they are available 24/7

But you did the correct thing by informing them.

Cheers

Richard

I have never contacted them before and used the details in the sticky thread to get to the website. Email was responded to with a number for a duty vet, which I duly called.

Subsequent calls took place with the person picking up the specimen. He also wanted the pics emailed to him, which I did, along with a request for feedback, when available.

Another member here also feels that this abscess should have been investigated more thoroughly and is chasing it up.

I'm going to email the only named person involved (the chap who picked up the specimen) as the Winchester vet's number was "No caller ID" and I didn't catch his name (I was in a meeting, so not great timing!)

My only prior experience with TB has been in humans, usually when operating on their destroyed spine, or on one occasion, hand.
 
After making some enquiries I had a phone call today from a VLA vet in Devon, which is where the specimen ended up. It was frozen on arrival and had a thorough examination, including a Zeihl Neelsen stain of the suspect area, which was negative. The vet felt there was nothing else there to indicate TB.

As a post script to this, I'd caution against freezing such samples, just keep as cool as possible.
 
After making some enquiries I had a phone call today from a VLA vet in Devon, which is where the specimen ended up. It was frozen on arrival and had a thorough examination, including a Zeihl Neelsen stain of the suspect area, which was negative. The vet felt there was nothing else there to indicate TB.
Probably the lab in Starcross where mine have been taken in the past, and yet the reply i got (eventually!) was from near Southampton if i remember correctly.
As a matter of interest was the vet a Spanish sounding lady who you could barely understand?
Cheers
Richard
 
Out of interest what is the problem with freezing them?

Cellular destruction.
Cells, including those of bacteria etc, consist primarily of water. Freeze them and the cells lyse. Certain identifying proteins also suffer degradation due to freezing.
 
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