Impression smear of liver tissue from a rabbit.

A 7to 11-week-old female rabbit from a commercial rabbit farm with a history of diarrhea and sudden death was submitted alive to the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University for euthanasia and necropsy. On presentation, the rabbit was thin with reduced fat stores and muscle wasting. The rabbit weighed 2 lb 4 oz. The hair coat was rough, and fecal material was adherent to hair on the perineum. Primary gross pathologic changes were observed in the small intestines and liver. The small intestines were distended and filled with gray-green semisolid ingesta. Undigested food pellets were present in the colon. The liver had multiple 1to 3-mm–diameter, slightly raised, discrete to coalescing, yellow-white nodules scattered throughout the parenchyma. Many of these nodules contained yellow-white caseous material. The remaining parenchyma was severely congested and edematous. Air-dried scrapings and impression smears of the nodules were prepared and stained with an automated Wright’s stain (Hematek, Bayer Diagnostics, Elkhart, Ind; Figure 1).