Cardiovascular diseases Flashcards
Nutritional/toxic causes of CV disease
Iron deficiency anaemia
Vit E/Selenium deficiency
Vit K deficiency (Warfarin toxicity)
Thiamine deficiency
Monensin toxicity
Nitrite/nitrate toxicity
Carbon monoxide toxicity
Infectious causes of CV disease
Erysipelas
Mycoplasma suis
Immune mediated causes of CV disease
Neonatal haemolysis
Thrombocytopaenic purpura
Porcine dermatitis nephropathy syndrome
Iron deficiency anaemia
piglet born with 12 g haemoglobin / 100 ml which declines to 8 g / 100 ml by eight days of age
Piglet requires 15 mg iron / day
mostly seen at about 3 weeks of age and over
strikingly pale and may appear slightly yellow in colour
exercise intolerance, dyspnoea and the apex beat of the enlarged heart may be visible through thoarcic wall
blood haemoglobin < 7 g / 100 ml.
Gross cardiac enlargement with thinning of the walls. Liver also enlarged/mottled.
Microcytic, hypochromic anaemia.
Treat with iron injection as iron dextran
Vitamin E / Selenium deficiency: Mulberry Heart Disease
if animals fed barley treated with propionic acid
Mostly seen in fast growing animals in good condition
may be found dead and is often the best in the group.
Living pig may be dull, reluctant to move, be dyspnoeic and the skin over the withers may be slightly cyanotic and cold
Post mortem - pig in very good condition, excess fluids and fibrin tags in all body cavities including the pericardium
Multiple haemorrhages are visible under the epicardium and the endocardium - lesions may be worse in the right side of the heart. Other signs of congestive heart failure may be seen
Treat by injecting whole group with Vit E/ selenium
Hepatosis Dietetica
Vit E/selenium deficiency but not often seen alongside mulberry heart
Seen chiefly in young growing pigs at 3 - 4 months of age
often found dead with liver lesions - pale or haemorrhagic lobes of liver
vomiting, depression, ataxia and some jaundice
Warfarin poisoning
Sporadic after exposure to and eating of rat poison.
Vit K deficiency is induced.
Blood clotting mechanism compromised and fatal haemorrhages follow normal physiological movement and activity
0.2 - 0.5 mg warfarin / kg body wt needed for > 6 days to produce symptoms
Weakness, pallor,
recumbency, anorexia, blood in faeces, epistaxis
Treatment - Vit K 50 mg / kg by i/m injection.
Navel bleeding in piglets / potential Vitamin K deficiency
failure of the umbilicus and its vessels to close or relaxation after previous closure
Vitamin C deficiency or Vitamin K deficiency have been suspected
Umbilical cord bleeds either at birth or suddenly starts a few hours after birth
piglet is pale, weak and showing all the signs of anaemia
Treatment - ligation or clamping of the umbilical cord.
Endocarditis
usually only found at post mortem inspection
Lesions usually develop on the atrio-ventricular valves and may or may not be associated with congestive heart failure.
exercise intolerance, cyanosis (blueness), cardiac murmur and signs of heart failure including ascites
significant finding at meat inspection since the potential for detachment and embolism to distant locations is possible
most common aetiological agents include Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (erysipelas), Streptococcus suis and Trueperella pyogenes
Myocarditis
may arise due to infection or cardiomyopathy may arise due to deficiency or toxicity
Pericarditis
relatively common finding at slaughter
Often extension of respiratory pathology
Causal agents include the pathogens of pneumonia and pleurisy and opolyserositis (G. parasuis, S. suis, Mycopl. hyorhinis).
Erysipelas endocarditis and septicaemia
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae
found in normal pigs - especially in the tonsils
Septicaemic pigs excrete the organism in their urine and faeces
Treated with high doses of penicillin and NSAIDs in severe cases
Endocarditis has grave prognosis
Vaccination with bacterin
Peracute erysipelas
pigs found dead with bloating of the carcase and purple / reddish discolouration of the skin.
Several pigs in a group may be affected with others being acutely ill with pyrexia (T 42 C), dullness and sometimes collapse.
Other pigs in the group may show signs of acute erysipelas
Acute erysipelas
Affected pigs are dull, depressed and pyrexic (T 41 - 42 C).
Characteristic diamond shaped and elevated skin lesions (necrotic vasculitis) seen on the skin within 24 hrs of onset of disease.
In black pigs the lesions are less easily seen but readily palpable.
Skin lesions are initially pink then turn red and finally black in undiagnosed cases.
Rarely the individual lesions may coalesce and become necrotic.
In most cases following treatment the skin lesions become pale and disappear.
Sow in late pregnancy may abort.
Suckling and unweaned piglets on an infected sow rarely show signs of the disease.
There may be fibrinous polyarthritis.
Chronic erysipelas
Chronic arthritis: Lameness and unwillingness to walk. Temperature often normal. All limb joints may be affected – especially the hip, stifle, hock and carpus.
Endocarditis: vegetative lesions develop on the heart valves - especially on the atrio-ventricular valves. Sudden deaths may occur in undetected cases. Exercise intolerance, tachycardia and cyanosis of mucosae
