What Is Your Diagnosis? Severe Anemia in an Adult Alpaca
A 10-year-old male alpaca presented to the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for evaluation of lethargy, hyporexia, and pallor of a one-week duration.Physical examination revealed pale mucous membranes, BCS of 1/5, FAMACHA score of 4/5, bilateral popliteal lymphadenomegaly, and caudal hindlimb edema.Initial stall-side testing revealed marked anemia (PCV 7%; total solids 4.4 g/dL; RI 22%-45%, 6.0-7.5).Serum biochemical analysis performed on the Vitros 4600 (Ortho Clinical Diagnostics Inc., Rochester, USA) identified hypoalbuminemia (2.1 g/dL; RI 2.9-4.3),mild hypocalcemia (7.7 mg/dL; RI 8.2-10.1),mildly increased BUN (47 mg/dL; RI 10-30), and hyponatremia (136 mg/ dL; RI 146-155).McMaster's fecal egg count demonstrated a high number of trichostrongyle-type eggs (2950/g).Despite treatments,
Authors
- J. Greenberg
- Mary B. Nabity (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6787-822X)
- Dusty W. Nagy
- Pabasara Weerarathne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2328-6868)
- Guilherme Verocai
- Brittany N. Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4387-1343)
- Mark C. Johnson
Institutions
- Texas A&M University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Veterinary Clinical Pathology
- Published
- 2026-08-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/vcp.70139
- Primary Topic
- Veterinary Oncology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00