Management of a geriatric alpaca with multiple neoplasms in a zoological setting

Abstract

During a routine health check, a 22-year-old female alpaca presented with an infected mass on the sternal pad. A squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed on histopathology. Systemic antibiotics and topical treatment were initiated. Thoracic radiographs and blood analysis showed no abnormalities; therefore, surgical resection was performed, and the wound was allowed to heal by second intention with therapeutic laser therapy. The treatment plan for this animal was developed with the collaboration of the keeping team and zoo managers and considered the health status of the animal, overall prognosis and the possibility of frequent restraints with minimal stress. Six months after initial presentation, the alpaca showed dramatic weight loss and severe urine scalding with a mass identified in the urinary bladder and was euthanased on welfare grounds. Postmortem findings included squamous cell carcinoma metastases in the tributary lymph nodes and in the lung, adenocarcinoma in the lung, and a polyp in the urinary bladder.

Neoplasia and Proliferative Lesions of New World Camelids: A Systematic Literature Review and Retrospective Study of Cases Submitted to Colorado State University From 1995 to 2020

“…In cases from the CSU-VDL database, only two squamous cell carcinomas were found to have metastasized at the time of the diagnosis, indicating that complete excision of these tumors could be potentially curative in affected animals. Reports from the literature find these tumors to be more aggressive than our database suggests, but this may represent a skewed dataset where only novel and aggressive lesions are published (3,15,16,20).…”

“…In addition to the benign and proliferative lesions previously discussed, there were a number of non-neoplastic proliferative lesions diagnosed in the CSU-VDL submissions and in the literature including polyps; hamartomas; bone cysts; polycystic liver; cystic rete testes; and thyroid, adrenocortical, lobular mammary, and endometrial hyperplasia (5,15,(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83).…”