Metastatic subcutaneous sarcoma and abdominal carcinoma in a peach-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis)

A 2-year-old male peach-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis) with a subcutaneous sarcoma on the right carpus was treated by surgical amputation. Three months after surgery, lung metastases causing clinical signs of dyspnoea were diagnosed radiographically and subsequently the bird was euthanased. At necropsy, a tumour firmly attached to the right testis, kidney and lung was found, and several tumours were present in the lung parenchyma. Histopathology revealed a mesenchymal growth pattern in the carpal subcutis and lung neoplasms, and an infiltrating epithelial pattern in the abdominal one. Immunohistochemistry for muscle actin, keratin, neurone-specific enolase and chromogranin confirmed the different cell lineage of the neoplasms, thus leading to the diagnosis of a fibrosarcoma in the subcutis with pulmonary metastases, and a carcinoma of indeterminate origin in the cranial abdomen.