Cervical intervertebral disk disease in an alpaca
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Peruvian Best, a 10-year-old intact male alpaca, presented to the Cornell University Farm Animal Hospital with a seven day history of limb weakness, difficulty walking, and finally recumbancy. Inability to rise or bear weight was the only abnormality found on physical examination. Best was treated for presumptive infection with Parelaphostrongylus tenuis but a cerebrospinal fluid tap indicated chronic inflammation without eosinophils present. Cervical radiographs showed a collapsed disk space at C5-C6 along with chronic bony changes. Computed tomography revealed intervertebral disk disease with a calcified and extruded disk at C5-C6 causing extradural spinal cord compression. Best was euthanized after CT while under general anesthesia. There are two forms of IVDD classified in small animal medicine as Hansen types I and II, both of which cause secondary changes in the spinal cord and result in clinical neurologic signs.
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Seminar SF610.1 2006 V36