Objective: The well described oesophageal worm, Spirocerca lupi, can cause several different lesions in the oesophagus, gastric wall, aorta, columna vertebra, mediastinum and distal extremities. The aim of this study was to find, if the radiological findings of typical and atypical Spirocerca lupi cases.

Materials and Methods: Age, breed, sex, clinical signs, faecal analysis and clinical outcome were recorded in 39 confirmed cases. Two orthogonal good quality thoracic radiographs were evaluated by two radiologist individually. Further radiographs were done to find secondary changes in other parts of the body. CT of the oesophageal lesion was performed in three cases. Radiological changes were divided in 4 groups: typical and atypical radiological signs with and without signs of complications.

Results: The typical oesophageal mass is located caudal to the eighth thoracic vertebra (n=27). Oesophageal air near to the mass was seen in 20 cases, spondylitis in 10 cases. Complications, such as pleural effusion, bronchial or tracheal displacement/compression, metastasis, mediastinitis, pneumothorax/-mediastinum, mineralization, hypertrophic osteopathy, were visible in 17 cases. An atypical location was seen in 6 cases, 4 with air in the oesophagus and 3 with spondylitis. In 4 cases complications were visible.

Conclusion: Two good quality orthogonal radiographs show most oesophageal granulomas larger than 2 cm in the typical location. Nearly all complications of the respiratory system can be evaluated on these radiographs. Orthopaedic changes like spondylitis and hypertrophic osteopathy were also seen. Involvement of the cardia (important for surgical treatment) is only detected with CT.