1 Fluid Distribution in Body and Assessment of Dehydration

Transcript

Welcome to all! Now we are going to deal with fluid therapy in cattle.

This is Dr.Vijaykumar, Professor of Veterinary Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics, working in Tamilnadu Veterinary Animal Sciences University.

So we will split this course into 5 lessons and we will see what we are going to see in this class step-wise.

Now, first, we should know, why this Fluid Therapy has been taken?

To know this, we should know, what are the functions of Water?

Basically, Water is involved in

• the transport of nutrients and hormones,
• it helps in maintaining the body temperature,
• it acts as a source for eliminating the waste from the body,
• it provides input for the production of milk,
• saliva to the cattle, and
• moreover, it is important in maintaining the osmotic pressure

So what are the economic importance for this topic :-

Basically, any disease involves a reduction in feed intake and water and the animal becomes of it and there is dehydration. So because of this the animal also goes down in milk production and ultimately the farmer suffers a loss of production. In certain cases, the animal dies.

So farmer meets out with the reduction in milk production as well as mortality. This ultimately affects it’s per capita daily, so that is why this fluid therapy is taken.

Adding on to this there is heat stress in the case of cattle as well as in the case of buffaloes when there is heat stress:

• there is a 0.23 kg per day loss in the feed intake,
• 1 kg of milk loss is there for every degree centigrade rise in the environmental temperature,
• a record says there is a 2% loss in milk production in India because of the heat stress,
• during humid and warm climate there is 50% reduction in the milk production, and
• certain animals like buffalo go for silent heat and we are not able to detect the estrum and conception becomes low.

We are taking Dairy cattle requires approximately 15 to 30 gallons of water. This shows how much water should be taken by cattle to maintain its maintenance and production. So, NRC cattle 2011, has given an indication of water requirement by a means of a formula which also includes the milk yield, sodium intake, and average temperature in the environment. In this slide, we are going to discuss, what are the lessons we are going to take up in this course? These are split up into 5,

1. In the first lesson, we are going to deal with Fluid distribution in the animal and how to diagnose dehydration.
2.  Lesson number two, we are going to deal with the calculation of fluid deficit and what is the choice of fluid for us.
3.  Chapter number three, we are going to discuss Acid-base imbalances (part I) and
4.  continuation of that, we are going to deal in chapter number four, because that is a very big fairly big topic (part II), and
5.  chapter number five, we are going to deal about Heat stress fluid therapy in cattle now we are going to discuss in the first lesson.

Fluid therapy in cattle:

Now we are going to discuss in the first lesson:

Fluid therapy in cattle namely the fluid distribution in animals and how to assess dehydration. Of the total body weight, we already understand 60% is composed of water and 40% is others. The 60% is composed of 40% intracellular fluid and 20% in extracellular fluid. We are more bothered about extracellular fluid because this constitutes 5% plasma, less than 1% transcellular fluid (<1%), and 50% interstitial fluid.

Why we are bothered about plasma, because we cannot enter into the animal without plasma, so transcellular fluid is less than 1% (<1%), what is that these are the meningeal fluid, cerebral sternal fluid, and the fluid in between the joints.

The take-home point is of the 60% water – 20% ECF which is 1/3rd and 1/4th of ECF is plasma, so to put it in nutshell, the total body water 1/12th is the plasma. why I am restressing is we need this for the calculation of fluid deficit in the animal.

Total deficit = TD

ECF = TD * 1/3

PLASMA = ECF * 1/4

OR = (TD * 1/3) *1/4

= TD * 1/12 (Showing the Slide)

So we are explaining the Sunken Eyeballs in the cattle, by means of a cattle, these two beautiful pictures explain how the eyeball has gone deep inside the orbit which is called as enophthalmos, which is important clinical sign in dehydration.

The next slide shows the Skin Tent test: how to do this Skin Tent test, pull the skin on the neck, and then assess the time for the pulled skin to regain the original status this is called a Skin Tent test, one of the important parameters we use for assessment of dehydration, and

Next slide we are going for how to calculate Capillary Refill Time: this beautiful video shows, how to calculate the Capillary Refill Time, so we have to press the gum and allow the gum to regain its original color. so we are pressing the gum to make it blanched and assess the time for the blanched mucous membrane to become the normal color, so you calculate the time as

• 1000-1
• 1000-2
• 1000-3
• 1000-4
• …………..

At what point exactly the blanched mucous membrane regains the original color, is taken as the second so don’t look for a sports watch or electronic watch or android watch to calculate it because you will as you move like this you get spondylitis, so best is calculate 1000-1,1000- 2,1000-3,1000-4,………….. and this is a universal way to calculate the Capillary Refill Time in case of animals. T

his is a video that shows CRT in a calf, as a beautiful video, we will reassess it, because this is more important for assessing the dehydration case of the calf. So, this the person clinician is blanching the mucous membrane and counting it to assess the CRT in case of the calf.

(Showing the Slide)This shows assessment of dehydration on the left side we have got % of dehydration and on the right side we have got the clinical signs:

• Less than 5%(<5%), the clinical signs is not detectable,
• 5-6%, there is a subtle loss in skin elasticity, which means the increase in the Skin Tent time,
• 6-8%, there is a marked loss in skin elasticity, that is a Skin Tent test, which is more than 2-4 seconds and Capillary Refill time is 2-3 seconds, the mucous membrane becomes pink and hardy and sticky,
• 8-10% , please note this point is more important, 8-10% the Skin Tent is going more than 5 second , Capillary Refill time is 4-5 second and there is a marked Sunken Eyeballs what do you call as enophthalmos and the mucous membrane becomes dry,
• The dehydration is 10-12%, there is a skin elasticity increased to 6-10 seconds, capillary refill time goes for 6-8 seconds, there is a severe enophthalmos and mucous membrane becomes dry,
• the last one which is 12-15% dehydration skin elasticity becomes 20 seconds, marked and capillary refill time is more than 8 second(> 8 second), enophthalmos, the animals Recumbent
• shows early signs of shock, you have got fixed eyeballs, moribund, and death is imminent.

This is more important please note, down these clinical signs because it is needed for pronouncing the prognosis to the farmer and intensive critical care has to be taken if at all if you want to save the life of the animal.

(Showing the Slide)So this table shows the dehydration in the calves, more or less similar to that what we have seen in the case of cattle.

Here we have got the 4 columns: first is the percentage % dehydration, next is Sunken Eyeballs Skin Tent test and Mucous membrane.

Please note down, the last two rows which are important for us, because 9-10%, where we need to give your Fluid therapy by intravenous roots, may be less than that we can face the fluid therapy by oral root, wherein 9-10% we get the Sunken Eyeball and the % mm of the Sunken Eyeballs going away from the orbit is more than 5 mm(> 5mm), in case 11-12 % the gap is 5-10 mm gap.

  Dehydration in Calves:

please note down this is dehydration in calves, so which is a thumb rule, the Dehydration is equal to the degree of eye recession into the orbit in mm multiplied by 1.6. I.e.,

Dehydration = (degree of eye recession into the orbit in mm) X (1.6)

This will give a rough idea of how much fluid has to be lost. please again I repeat dehydration is equal to the degree of eye recession in millimeter multiplied to 1.6.

This gives a laboratory analysis based upon Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Total Solid (TS), and pH.

So we have given 3 rows, in this first row is a Normal and next one in which animal needs a Fluid Therapy (FT) and the last row which shows the Unfavorable, namely the PCV of more than 60% (> 60%), Total Solid more than 12% (>12%), pH of more than 7 or 7.1(>7.00-7.10), is a critical thing where the animal is having an unfavorable prognosis.

  Laboratory Analysis

(Showing the Slide) This slide shows the cattle which is in the standing posture becomes Recumbent and that shows how much severe is the dehydration and the next stage becomes lateral recumbency, the animal goes for death.

Coming on to summary, in this lesson 1, we have seen:

• What are the importance of Fluid Therapy?
• How it is being distributed in the body and
• We have taken the points in the calculation of the Dehydration in cattle and calves.

In the next lesson we are going to see:

• How to calculate the Fluid Deficit, and
• What are the choices we have for us in the field to meet out the Dehydration?

Thank you!