Diagnosis and surgical removal of brain abscesses in a juvenile alpaca. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • CASE DESCRIPTION: A 1-month-old female alpaca was examined because of progressive clinical signs consistent with an intracranial lesion. CLINICAL FINDINGS: Clinical signs included signs of depression, lethargy, tetraparesis, and neck weakness. Two large isointense intracranial masses could be seen on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images. On T2-weighted images, the masses contained concentric rings of hypointense and hyperintense material. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME: 2 abscesses were removed via a craniotomy that incorporated removal of the sagittal crest and surrounding skull and transection of the sagittal sinus. The bony deficit was replaced with polypropylene mesh. The alpaca recovered within 2 weeks and was fully integrated into the herd within 1 month after surgery. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Findings indicated that surgical removal is a feasible means of successfully treating intracranial abscesses in juvenile alpacas.

published proceedings

  • J Am Vet Med Assoc

author list (cited authors)

  • Talbot, C. E., Mueller, K., Granger, N., & Jeffery, N. D.

citation count

  • 13

complete list of authors

  • Talbot, Catherine E||Mueller, Karin||Granger, Nicolas||Jeffery, Nick D

publication date

  • November 2007