Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common disease in cats with an unclear cause. A number of studies have indicated that most cases of upper respiratory disease in the cat are complicated by secondary bacterial infections. Antibiotic therapy is frequently employed to treat feline CRS. A study published in the Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery evaluated the effect of sampling method on culture results in 44 cats. The results indicate that aerobic and anaerobic cultures were positive significantly more often from nasal flush samples than from tissue biopsy samples. Culture results did not differ for Mycoplasma species between flush and biopsy samples, though there was discordancy in eight of 44 sample pairs for Mycoplasma species. This indicates that a failure to culture Mycoplasma species from a nasal flush might not be a true reflection of the absence of Mycoplasma species in the nasal cavity.
