Nasal adenocarcinoma in a 14-year-old cat

A fourteen-year-old male castrated Domestic Shorthair cat presented to the Cornell University Hospital for Animals’ Internal Medicine Service for evaluation of chronic epistaxis of the right nostril associated with intermittent sneezing. The patient had worsening clinical signs and had become increasingly anorectic before initial presentation. Based on the patient’s history, clinical signs, and physical exam findings, the top differential diagnoses were neoplasia of the nasal cavity and fungal disease. Computed tomography of the head showed a soft tissue mass in the right nasal passage, along with turbinate destruction and bony lysis of the right orbit. A biopsy of the mass was obtained and histopathological evaluation of the sample yielded a diagnosis of nasal adenocarcinoma.