A middle-aged man with rheumatoid arthritis, without pulmonary involvement, on disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) presented with right sided pleuritic chest pain due to recurrent, right sided, loculated pleural effusion. Non-typhi Salmonella was isolated from pleural fluid sampling and the patient was successfully treated with open thoracotomy with decortication and six weeks of antibiotic therapy. Pulmonary salmonellosis is a rare infection typically found in immunocompromised patients that typically presents abruptly and requires prolonged antibiotic therapy.