IMAGING DIAGNOSIS—BACTERIAL DISKOSPONDYLITIS IN A GOAT GWENDOLYN J. LEVINE,WESLEY T. BISSETT,ROBERT C. COLE,JARED J. JANKE,JAIRO NUNES,BRIAN PORTER, JONATHAN M. LEVINE A 3-year-old intact male Boer goat was evaluated for paraplegia. Computed tomography (CT) indicated the presence of diskospondylitis, which had previously not been reported in this species, and significant compressive myelopathy. Chronic bacterial pneumonia, epididymitis, nephritis, and soft-tissue abscesses were believed to result in hematogenous spread of bacteria to the affected disk spaces. Staphylococcus spp. and Archanobac- terium pyogenes were both identified from postmortem cultures of the vertebral column. Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound, Vol. 47, No. 6, 2006, pp 585–588. Key words: caprine, myelopathy, spinal cord, infectious Signalment T HREE-YEAR-OLD intact male Boer goat. History The goat was referred to the Texas A&M University Large Animal Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital with a history of paraplegia. The animal, which was housed in a pen with several other males, had been found acutely re- cumbent 3 weeks before admission. The goat was treated with Dexamethasone (route and dosage unknown), which resulted in a transient improvement in pelvic limb function. A similar episode, which responded to corticosteroid ther- apy, had occurred 5 months before referral. Physical Examination and Bloodwork Increased bronchovesicular sounds and referred upper airway sounds were apparent on auscultation of the lung fields. The left testicle was large, firm, and crepitant and the right testicle was small and soft on palpation. The goat was paraplegic with absent patellar and flexor withdrawal reflexes in the pelvic limbs. No perineal reflex was present and there was little appreciable anal tone. Urine was easily expressed from the bladder, suggesting the presence of lower motor neuron dysuria. The cutaneous trunci reflex was absent caudal to the mid-thoracic area. The goat did not react to cross-clamping of the second phalynx or the tail with hemostats. Paraspinal hyperesthe- sia was not appreciated. Given the pelvic limb areflexia and absent perineal reflex, the lesion was localized to the L4–S3 spinal cord segments with likely extension into the T3–L3 spinal cord, based on the mid-thoracic cutaneous trunci cutoff. There was leukocytosis (21,400 cells/ml; reference range, 400–13,000 cells/ml), monocytosis (3852 cells/ml; reference range, 0–550 cells/ml) and basophilia (214 cells/ml; reference range 1–120 cells/ml). The white blood cell morphology re- vealed few Dohle bodies, few toxic changes and few react- ive lymphocytes. A microcytic (MCV, 14.6 fl; reference range, 16–25 fl) anemia (packed cell volume 15.6%; refer- ence range, 22–38%) was also present. There was moderate poikilocytosis on examination of the red blood cell morph- ology. The plasma protein concentration (9.4 TS-g/dl) and fibrinogen concentration (500 mg/dl; reference range, 100–400 mg/dl) were increased. Ultrasonographic Findings Ultrasonographically, Ã the left testicle contained areas of parenchymal hypoechogenicity to anechogenicity. The left epididymis appeared dilated and contained anechoic fluid-like contents with flocculent hyperechoic material. There were regions of linear hyperechogenicity with acous- tic shadowing within the right testicle. Based on these findings, epididymitis, orchitis, and testicular atrophy were suspected. Radiographic Findings In standing radiographs of the thoracolumbar vertebral column, there was dorsal narrowing of the T13–L1 and L1–L2 intervertebral disk spaces with possible lysis of the caudal endplate of T13 and cranial endplate of L2 (Fig. 1). Ventral spondyles were seen at the caudal endplate of T13 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. J.M. Levine, at the above address. E-mail: jlevine@cvm.tamu.edu Received January 28, 2006; accepted for publication April 5, 2006. doi: 10.1111/j.1740-8261.2006.00190.x From the Departments of Small Animal Clinical Sciences (Levine, Le- vine), Large Animal Clinical Sciences (Bissett, Cole, Janke), and Veter- inary Pathobiology (Nunes, Porter), College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University-College of Veterinary Medi- cine, 4474 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843. Ã Biosound EsAote MyLab 300 CV, Indianapolis, IN. 585