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Spleen

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A number of anomalies have been found in the cat through out the dissection sessions. The anomalies were an enlarged spleen, enlarged thymus and enlarged lymph nodes.
3.1 The Spleen
The spleen is an organ of the immune system (lymphatic system). It function is filter the blood and maintain it in a healthy way. The spleen produces two types of pulp to perform its function, the red and the white pulp (Goodenough & McGuire, 2014). The red pulp filters the damaged blood cells, palates and foreign materials in the blood, so it recycles the blood. On other hand, the white pulp is composed from lymphocytes, macrophages and plasma cells that help clean the blood. These two pulps work interchangeably to make sure the blood is filtered completely from any foreign materials and dead cells.
Splenomegaly, which is the enlargement of the spleen, could happen due to four main causes, which were cancer, infection, liver or blood diseases (Kuntz, 2006). An enlarged spleen causes hypersplenism; it is a process where the spleen increases the filtration process of the blood cells. This causes the spleen to recycle more blood and consider it to be a foreign material. Consequently, more RBCs, WBCs and palates in the blood plasma are …show more content…

After witnessing the enlarged spleen, thymus gland and lymph nodes, it was evident the cat had undergone some dilemmas with its lymphatic and immue system. With the first discovery, which was the spleen, the following discussion was presented: the chances that the cause of splenomegaly is a liver or blood diseases are low, because of the normal appearance of cat’s liver and the blood of the cat was drained. The chances are higher with the other causes, which are more related to the lymphatic system. There might have been an infection, lymphoma or inflammation of the nodes in the

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