Cow With Abdominal Pain Flashcards
What is the optimum pH for rumen function?
Why?
6.2-7 (slightly acidic pH)
Organisms digesting cellulose operate best at this pH. DO NOT FUNCTION below this pH.
What is the main VFA produced at normal pH?
What does this make?
Acetate
Milk fat
What percentage of fat in milk would suggest a healthy rumen?
4%
What foods result in a decreased rumen pH?
How does this affect rumen microorganisms?
Starch and Sugar (digestion)
Organisms which are tolerant to lower pH predominate.
What VFAs are produced by organisms which can tolerate a slightly lower pH than optimal?
Proprionate and Butyrate
What is produced by organisms which can tolerate a very low pH?
What does this lead to?
Lactate
Rumen acidosis and rumen stasis
BACTERIAL POPULATION CHANGES
Why is salivation important in cows?
Buffering system in rumen
Why can saliva act as a buffering system?
Contains bicarbonate
How is saliva produced in cows?
By chewing and ruminating encouraged by fibre in diet.
What management factors promote rumination?
Fibre in diet,
Comfortable housing
How long do cows need to spend ruminating?
14 hours per day
What is usually the cause of acute ruminal acidosis?
Sudden ingestion of large amounts of fermentable carbohydrates.
E.g. animals breaking into feed stores, over feeding of concentrates, sudden lack of forage or straw bedding.
How serious is acute ruminal acidosis?
LIFE THREATENING CLINICAL EMERGENCY
Poor prognosis
What are the clinical signs associated with rumen acidosis?
Dull and/or recumbent
In-coordination / ataxia
Anorexia, blind, dehydration
Laminitis - sore, hot feet
Rumen stasis and abdominal distension
Dehydrated, increased pulse, sunken eyes
How can you treat rumen acidosis?
Sodium bicarbonate in IV
isotonic IV fluids
Oral Magnesium Hydroxide
Rumenotomy/ rumen lavage
What does a rumenotomy involve?
Empty rumen contents out
—— is it worth doing?
What does SARA stand for?
Sub
Acute
Rumen
Acidosis
Who is affected by SARA?
herd
How can milk be used to detect SARA?
Milk fat percentage lower than 4,
Lower milk yields
Why might it be difficult to detect SARA from average herd milk fat percentage?
Some members of the herd may not be affected therefore may raise the overall percentage.
What clinical signs are associated with SARA?
Low milk fat and depressed yield
Laminitis Reduced appetite Liver abscesses Haemoptysis Epistaxis High herd culling rate
What is meant by the terms haemoptysis and epistaxis? Why are they associated with SARA?
Haemoptysis = coughing up blood (due to bleeding into lungs)
Epistaxis = nose bleed
Caused by thrombosis of causal vena cava
Why are liver abscesses associated with SARA?
Bacteria can cross the rumen wall into the liver
What abdominal observations are associated with rumen bloat?
How could these indicate severity?
Distension of LEFT FLANK
Mild - Left sub lumbar fossa
More severe - distension of whole left flank
VERY severe - entire abdomen distended
What other clinical signs could be associated with bloat?
Sudden death
Distress, dyspnoea
Recumbency
May be standing quietly with distended left flank.
What are the two types of bloat?
Frothy bloat
Free gas bloat
What happens in frothy bloat?
Stable foam forms in rumen
This traps gas which therefore cannot be eructated out.
What management factors contribute to frothy bloat?
Cattle at pasture - caused by foaming properties of SOLUBLE LEAF PROTEINS
Turning cows out on to lush pasture when they are very hungry
Cereal rich diets
What plants are associated with frothy bloat?
Legumes, clovers, alfalfa and rich lush pastures (especially if cows hungry)
Describe the onset of frothy bloat.
Can be sudden and severe - potentially SUDDEN DEATH
Cows can die overnight after being turned out onto lush pasture
How can you treat frothy bloat?
CLINICAL EMERGENCY
Remove cattle from pasture/food source
Treat ORALLY with antifoaming agent e.g. mineral oil / corn oil (cooking oil)
-this allows foam to disperse.
Sit cow in sternal recumbency
What oral treatments can be given for frothy bloat?
Proloxalene (Bloat guard)
Mineral oil/ corn oil
Simethicone (BIRP)
How could management techniques be used to prevent frothy bloat?
Careful pasture management
Care when turning out onto lush pastures, especially those with lots of clovers
Consider strip grazing or buffer feeding to prevent rapid intake of large quantities of lush pasture.
What is buffer feeding?
Feeding hay/silage before turning out after milking.
Animals don’t go out to pasture starving so less likely to gorge.
What are the potential causes of free gas bloat?
Excessive carbohydrate intake
Oesophageal obstruction
Milk fever
Lateral recumbency
How can milk fever cause free gas bloat?
Hypocalcaemia
Stops rumen turning
How can lateral recumbency cause free gas bloat?
Blocks cardiac sphincter
What can cause an oesophageal obstruction (CHOKE)?
Lesions of the oesophageal groove
- Vagus indigestion
- Actinobacillus
Enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (e.g. following pneumonia)
Tetanus
How can you treat free gas bloat?
Stomach tube
Rumen puncture
How would you perform rumen puncture?
Use (Red Devil) trocar and cannula
Draw a triangle between tuber coxae and top of last rib,
Make a small hole with a scalpel in the middle of the triangle, and put the trocar in.
How might you perform a rumenotomy?
Make an incision in the rumen
Stitch the rumen to the body wall
Evacuate rumen contents
Where do metal objects tend to stay if eaten by a cow?
The reticulum
What ‘normal’ metal objects might you find in the reticulum at the abattoir?
Worming boluses
Magnets
What might happen if a cow eats a sharp metal object?
May penetrate the wall of the reticulum
This can lead to:
Local and diffuse peritonitis
Pericarditis
Liver abscess
What clinical signs may be associated with traumatic reticulo-peritonitis?
Vague and numerous presentations: Drop of milk yield and appetite Increased temperature Arching of back Reduced rumen contraction Reduced reticulo-rumen movements (mixing cycle) Marked jugular pulse Splashing sounds over heart
What might cause splashing sounds over the heart?
Pericardial fluid
How could you diagnose traumatic reticulo-peritonitis?
Withers Pinch
Pole test
Eric Williams test
How could a Withers pinch tell you if a patient has traumatic reticulo-peritonitis?
When withers pinched, patient will dip down
If pain when dipping down (grunting), reticulum is sore
How would you perform the pole test?
Put metal bar behind front legs and lift
If pain seen, reticulum sore
What are the two types of rumen cycle?
Reticulum-rumen, no eructation
Rumen only with eructation.
What is the Eric Williams test?
If pain is seen before the reticulum-rumen phase of the rumen cycle, TRP
Look for grunting, holding breath, shuffling feet.
How might you treat TRP?
Conservative
— tie animal up with front feet higher than back feet
— Parentral antibiotics
— Analgesics
Rumenotomy to remove wire
Slaughter
Why might bolus magnets not be successful in preventing TRP?
Only magnetic metals get picked up
Where does the abomasum usually sit?
Ventrally, just to the right of the midline
What animals are prone to LDAs?
High producing dairy cows
Within 6 weeks of calving
What can cause a LDA?
Poor management over TRANSITION PERIOD - dry to post calving period
High concentrate diet Insufficient fibre Diet changed too quickly Milk fever or retained foetal membranes (RFM) Genetic factors
What clinical signs may be associated with an LDA?
Signs may be mild initially but highly variable.
Drop in milk yield
Changed appetite
Raised ketone levels in blood and urine
Reduced BCS and rumen contractions
How could you diagnose a LDA?
Place stethoscope and flick over whole left flank
PING
Place stethoscope on caudal ventral abdomen and shake
TINKLE
How can you treat a LDA?
Rolling the cow
Roll and toggle
Right or left flank omentopexy
Right paramedian abomasopexy
What, other than a LDA, can cause a left sided ping?
Bloat
Rumen collapse
Vagal indigestion
Pneumoperitoneum
Why might a RDA be more severe than a LDA?
Can twist, resulting in abomasal torsion or volvulus
This causes acute intestinal obstruction, compromising of blood supply and ischaemic necrosis.
How might a cow with an RDA present?
Sick
Shocked
Dehydrated
In pain
How would you treat a cow with a RDA?
Surgery within hours or slaughter on humane grounds.
What can cause right sided pings?
RDA
Abomasal volvulus
Caecal dilation or volvulus
Gas in spiral colon
What causes gas in the spiral colon?
Sometimes after diarrhoea
NOT CLINICALLY RELEVANT
How can you distinguish Caecal dilation from LDA
Right ping paralumbar fossa
Rectal examination - can palpate caecal apex coming into pelvic inlet - Sausage coming towards you
What can caecal dilation progress to?
Free caudal end may twist causing volvulus.
