Ruminant Urogenital Flashcards
How would you examine the urinary system?
History-how long/other signs?
Frequency/ease of urination
Urine-smell/appearance-sample
Rectal exam-palpate left kidney, bladder, diseased ureters, pain?
Catheterisation (sub-urethral diverticulum)
Prepuce
Where does the bladder sit in the female cow?
Ventral to vagina
What is the normal specific gravity of cow urine?
1.020-1.045
What should you check on a urinalysis when investigating the urinary system?
Colour Pus/blood? Specific gravity (1.020-1.045) pH (normally alkaline) Protein-usually trace only Glucose-usually trace only
Give some clinical signs of urinary disease and possible causes
Abdominal pain (pyelonephritis, calculi)
Dysuria (pyelonephritis, calculi, cystitis, vaginitis)
Oliguria (pre-renal, renal, post-renal)
Proteinuria (renal amyloidosis-breed)
Haematuria +/- pus +/- calculi
Polyuria (diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus, idiopathic in calves)
Anuria (obstruction by calculi)
Give some possible causes of haematuria (blood in urine)
Pyelonephritis (+ pus) Cystitis Urolithiasis Enzootic haematuria Acute bracken poisoning Toxic nephrosis (acorns) Glomerulonephritis, renal infarction etc
Give some possible causes of haemoglobinuria
Babesiosis ('redwater', breakdown of RBCs in circulation) Post-parturient haemoglobinuria Bacillary haemoglobinuria (Clostridium haemoliticum)
What is hypospadia?
Congenital abnormality
Urethra opens anywhere along length of penis at one or more locations
What would you see in a calf with a patent urachus?
Urine dribbling from umbilicus
Which bacteria classically causes pyelonephritis?
Corynebacterium renale
Also E.coli
Give some clinical signs of pyelonephritis
Abdominal pain
Chronic weight loss +/- mild pyrexia
Appetite usually ok
Dysuria
Blood and pus in urine (pus on vulval hairs)
Examine per rectum: swollen painful kidney, involvement and thickening of ureter and bladder
How do you treat pyelonephritis?
What is the prognosis like?
Long course antibiotics (penicillins, oxytet)
1/3 get better, 1/3 get better but recur, 1/3 never get better
What condition is often associated with pyelonephritis?
Cystitis
Cystitis can occur secondary to what?
Dystocia (ascending infection)
What are the clinical signs of cystitis?
Similar to pyelonephritis (Abdominal pain
Chronic weight loss +/- mild pyrexia
Appetite usually ok
Dysuria
Blood and pus in urine (pus on vulval hairs)
Examine per rectum: swollen painful kidney, involvement and thickening of ureter and bladder)
Straining more pronounced
How do you treat cystitis?
Antibiotics (penicillins, oxytet)
Describe amyloidosis in the cow
Not common
Deposition of amyloid and ab/ag complexes
Can be primary or secondary to other chronic infections
What are the clinical signs of amyloidosis?
Off food and ill Profuse diarrhoea (rule out Johnes disease) Generalised subcutaneous oedema PUPD Proteinuria Low plasma albumin Pale swollen kidneys
Describe enzootic haematuria in the cow
Haemangiomata (benign tumours of blood vessels) in bladder
Associated with long-term ingestion of bracken
Older cows
Blood clots in urine
Tumours in guts (SCC)
Enzootic haematuria is associated with long term ingestion of what?
Bracken
How can bracken poisoning affect sheep?
‘Bright blindness’ (retinal atrophy)