The diagnosis and treatment of a thoracic abscess in an alpaca

6-month-old alpaca presented for lethargy, failure to thrive and leucocytos is. Diagnostic procedures, including thoracic ultrasound, radiographs and a computed tomography scan, were used to document a thoracic mass. Based on appearance and ultrasound-guided aspiration of purulent material, the mass was determined to be a large abscess. The abscess was treated with surgical drainage and long-term antibiotic therapy. The origin of this thoracic abs cess was felt to be the caudal mediastinum, secondary to bacterial seeding of the caudal mediastinal lymph nodes. Although an aetiological agent was n ot definitively determined, the most likely was Actinomyces spp or Arcanoba cterium pyogenes. The alpaca made a complete recovery following treatment.