Vaginal atresia with transverse septum in a cat.

A six and half-year-old nulliparous mixed breed cat which had the complaints of vomiting, abdominal distention and depression was presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Osaka Prefecture University. She was suspected of pyometra by clinical signs and tests. By laparotomy, it was clarified that both uterine horns and vagina showed distension by the accumulation of secretions, and the vagina ended blindly leaving a tough connective tissue at the border between cranial and caudal part of the vagina. Postoperative contrast-radiograph of the remaining vagina proved it had no persistence of the hymen. From these findings, the condition was diagnosed as a feline atresia vaginalis with the transverse vaginal septum which is caused by the embryonic failure of canalization of the paramesonephric duct between the end of the Müllerian duct and the urogenital sinus.