Poorly Flashcards
Illthrift?
Wasting?
A tail on the mob?
Forage? Concentrates?
Illthrift, wasting, failure to thrive causes?
*Where there are no other major obvious signs
Diagnostic approach Illthrift, wasting, failure to thrive
Illthrift and wasting in individual animals?
In a mob?
The mob
*Nutritional problems: not enough energy, not enough protein, too much fibre, mineral deficiencies, water problems
* Parasitism
* Other diseases
Nutrition basics
* Energy, protein, fibre water
* Macro elements, trace elements
Energy
* describe energy in terms of:
- Metabolizable energy
- per kg
- of dry matter
* MJ ME/KgDM
* This saves us worrying about water content and undigested energy of feeds
Sources of energy
* Energy is just another name for digestibility
* Everything digested has the same energy concentration and the rest passes out undigested
* ME = 0.156 x digestibility % - 0.535
Rule of thumb fo energy?
Energy requirements
Protein
A diet with 15% protein
A diet with 7.5% protein
Fibre
Carbohydrate digestion
How do you measure a diet?
Feedtest
Macrominerals and microminerals
Trace elements
Copper physiology
Copper defiency causes what? Poisoning causes what?
Copper Deficiency
* Grasses have lower Cu than clovers
* In both concentration declines from winter to late spring
* Availability increases during the summer
* Cu deficiency can be seen in the winter and late spring and resolve itself in the summer
Cu Deficiency
* Primary copper deficiency is uncommon
* Secondary copper deficiency is common
* Molybdenum (pasture fertilizer)
* Sulphur (Fertilizer, acts with Mo)
* Zinc (need 20 x dietary req.)
* Iron (e.g. water, soil)
* Others (Cd, Se)
Cu needs of cattle
Cu and Molybdenum?
Diagnosis of Cu Deficiency
Treatment/ prevention of Cu Deficiency
Cobalt physiology
Often on lush green grass and the animals just aren’t growing producing… blame it on the drench often
Cobalt deficiency
Selenium
Risk factors for Se deficiency
Selenium Syndromes
* CPK (Creatine Phosphokinase) sky high
Se and Cu Seasonal Distribution
Se Diagnosis
* Beware… many of these diseases are multi-factorial
* Cows with RFMs and low Se levels may not respond to Se treatment
** Because of vitamin E early blood tests can be false negatives (cattle on lush green feed)
Selenium deficiency treatment
* toxic, do not give too much
( copper and selenium bullets–> rumen letting off)
Other trace element deficiencies other than the big 3
Water quality
* Water quality problems can look like trace element problems
* Tail on the mob
* Chronic diarrhoea
* Illthrift
* Reduced production
* Smell, taste, analyse the water
Parasites in cattle that might cause illthrift and wasting
Diagnosis:
* Faecal eggs, faecal larvae, plasma pepsinogen, fluke ELISA, bulk milk ELISA
Diagnosis of illthrift in a mob
Lab diagnosis of illthrift
summary of diagosing illthrift
Setting a target weight
Body size v. production
Benefits of reaching target weights
Measuring heifer performance
Monitoring weights of heifers
Assessing the diet
Step 1 Work out growth rate required (current heifer weight and growth rate required)
Assessing the diet step 3
Assessing the diet step 5
CU Co Se where/when they occur? Which tests we would use? Limitations of those tests
Straw- just the husks (hay is when you dry grass)
* not enough grass otherwise
About to calve
Retained winter coat- Se def is not the main problem
just not being fed enough
Copper deficiency
Likely cobalt deficiency because no diarrhoea– illthrift in the midst of plenty
Brassica- less than a third of the diet
Clinical exam weight loss and poor performance
Check brisket, jugular veins, prescapular LNs in weight loss and poor performance
Cutaneous lymphoma
EBL v. SBL
Warts, ringworm, and SBL/EBL are the most common skin differentials
Symmetry of the head
Facial paralysis
Otitis media
* Eustacian tube or hematogenous spread
* Tilted head
* Mild circling
* Purulent discharge
* Antibiotics
Licking or chewing
Check eyes and eyelids
Eye lesions
Pink eye (IBK)
Pink eye Treatment
* Benzathine cloxacillin, both eyes treated even if both aren’t clinically affected
* Nil meat and milk withholding times and long inter-treatment intervals
* Early tx will minimize risk of permanent scarring of the eye. Susceptibility testing of AUS M. bovis isolates suggests that resistance is uncommon in AUS field isolates.
* Bulbar subconjunctival injection of antibiotics with or without corticosteroids (e.g. dexamethasone) can be used
* Severe cases with imminent danger of rupture of an ulcer, often benefit from covering the eyes with an eye patch
Pink Eye Prevention
Bovine iritis
Other nasal signs
* Intestinal phytobezoars often have green rumen contents discharge
* Respiratory disease is often associated with a mucopurulent discharge
* More likely a granuloma or FB if unilateral
* Epistaxis is often due to vena caval syndrome
Stridor- aka?
continued:
* Treatment is by prolonged (> 2 weeks) antibiotic therapy. Corticosteroids relieve the symptoms.
Diphtheritic membrane- a thin coating on the surface of an epithelial lined organ (e.g. intestine) that is composed of necrotic cellular debris, inflammatory cells and fibrin
Corticosteroids
Check mouth
* oral lesions common
* Excessive saliva (ropse hanging down) and usually with chewing movements– FB in the mouth or inflammatory conditions of the oral mucosa or the tongue or diseases of the CNS (e.g. botulism)
* Size and shape of the oral papillae is best assessed at the commissures of the mouth– vesicles, erosions, ulcers, and papules
* Incisor teeth can be examined by everting the lower lip and opening the mouth.
* Ruminant incisors are normally quite loose and can be moved considerably. Excessive movement of an individual tooth may be detected at the base of the affected tooth.
Mouth
Palate
continued:
* The soft palate, have a less marked effect on ingestion so may present post-weaning or simply as poor growth rates. The condition is not treatable.
Occasionally
the malocclusion can be sufficiently severe to interfere with grazing although
interference with eating concentrate feeds is more probable. There is no
treatment. Affected animals should not be used for breeding herd
replacements and, ideally, no further progeny should be bred from the animal’s
sire or dam.
Defects of the molars are rare in cattle. Very occasionally, deciduous
premolars may be retained as ‘molar caps’, causing interference with
mastication and rumination. Impaction of food in deep tooth sockets may have
similar results. Irregular molar wear can sometimes cause problems with
mastication. Less rarely, abscesses of the molar roots can develop,
presumably as a result of trauma. These usually result in chronic osteomyelitis
of the jaw, which, if it occurs in the lower jaw, needs to be differentiated from
infection with
Actinomyces bovis
(actinomycosis or ‘lumpy jaw’). Treatment of
tooth root abscesses with antibiotics is relatively unrewarding and more
aggressive treatment methods are seldom, if ever, economically justifiable.
Teeth for ageing cattle
* Associated with chronically increased intakes of fluoride, usually from industrial pollution or (in Australia) deep wells that contain excess fluoride, resulting in wear of teeth and osteoporosis. Clinical signs relate to difficulty in prehension, lameness and/or general unthriftiness.
Diagnosis by demonstrating elevated fluoride concentrations in blood, urine, feed, or drinking water. Chronic fluorosis– chalky, brittle bones at post mortem examination and/or discolouration of tooth enamel and excessive wear of teeth.
Palpate/ visualize tongue and mucosa
Any swelling or hardness of the normally soft mandibular tissue is significant. There may be subcutaneous oedema as part of a general oedema, or cellulitis with heat and pain. Enlarged LNs may indicate metastatic spread of eye cancer.
Jaw and tongue
Swellings around the jaw
* aerobic, gram negative coccabacillus
The classic presentation is as woody tongue, in which granulomata of the
tongue causes pain and difficulty in swallowing that results in inappetence,
salivation and submandibular swelling. Infection probably occurs through
traumatic injuries to the buccal cavity
* Treated with antibiotics or with sodium iodide IV often only a single dose– repeat dosing may cause toxicity (Streptomycin not allowed in food producing animals in AUS)
* Anecdotal evidence of Sodium Iodide IV causing abortion in late pregnant cattle and some practitioners recommend it be given subcutaneously as a 60 ml dose.
What does Sodium Iodide tx?
There is usually unilateral swelling around the mandible, which is initially
greater in the soft tissue than the jaw.
Thereafter there is progressive destruction of bone tissue, exostosis formation,
deformity of the jaw and malalignment of the molars. Pain and difficulty in
prehension lead to inappetence and weight loss.
Diagnosis can be confirmed by the honey-like pus that discharges from the
lesion and in which
A. bovis
and sulphur granules can be seen.
Treatment is with intravenous sodium or oral potassium iodide and broad-
spectrum antibiotics. Prognosis depends upon the extent of bony damage and
deformity of the jaw
*Ingestion of foreign material land drenching gun injuries
* local abscess formation, which may or may not interfere with eating; mechanical interference with eating; pain, resulting in unwillingness to eat, masticate and/or ruminate; stertorous respiration
* Following clinical signs include: dysphagia, excess salivation, swellings, abscesses or discharging sinuses, signs of discomfort, pain, and resenting examination of the mouth
* Septic cellulitis may develop leading to a grossly enlarged retropharyngeal region affected animals are pyrexic and anorexic and usually have malodorous breath
Salivary glands
* Rare, sporadic infections of salivary glands occur, resulting in localized swelling or abscess formation
* Tx of antibiotics surgical drainage of the abscess. Antibiotic treatment needs to be provided over a relatively long period (7 days)
Phlegmon
Impaired venous return
Decreased oncotic pressure
Oral necrobacillosis
Mucosal lesions
In FMD, mucosal lesions can be used to “age” the disease:
◦
Day 1 Blanching of epithelium followed by formation of fluid fi
lled
vesicle
◦
Day 2 Freshly ruptured vesicles characterised by raw epithelium
, a
clear edge to the lesion and no deposition of fibrin
◦
Day 3 Lesions start to lose their sharp demarcation and bright
red
colour. Deposition of fibrin starts tooccur.
◦
Day 4 Considerable fibrin deposition has occurred and regrowth
of
epithelium is evident at the periphery of the lesion.
◦
Day 7 Extensive scar tissue formation and healing has occurred.
Some fibrin deposition is usually still present
Station 4- the head and neck
Symmetry of the head
Exotic cattle diseases
- Haemorrhagic Septicaemia
- Theileriosis (East Coast Fever)
- Rift Valley Fever
- Lumpy Skin Disease
- Bluetongue
- Heartwater (Cowdriosis)
erosive exotic diseases and endemic differentials
Miscellaneous exotic diseases
Screw worm fly
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia
Bovine TB
Bovine Brucellosis
EBL v. SBL
Other exotic diseases
Haemorrhagic septicaemia
Theileriosis v. Benign Theileriosis
Rift Valley Fever
Lumpy skin disease
Bluetongue
Heartwater
