Abstract
The clinical and pathological findings in a 1.7‐year‐old Simmental heifer with pituitary abscess syndrome due to sphenoid osteomyelitis, presumably resulting from a frontal sinusitis that developed subsequently to dehorning, are described. The heifer presented with depression, head‐neck extension, persistently dropped jaw with impaired mastication, drooling and dysphagia. On physical examination, purulent discharge was draining from the right horn stub of the recently dehorned animal. Clinical biochemistry revealed increased concentrations of total protein, a reduced clotting time in the glutaraldehyde test and metabolic acidosis due to loss of bicarbonate. Because of the poor prognosis, the heifer was euthanased. On postmortem examination, a necrotising sinusitis of the right frontal sinus and a severe purulent‐ascending osteomyelitis of the sphenoid bone, extending into the pituitary fossa, were present.
Trueperella pyogenes
was cultured from the perihypophyseal abscess.