2 Clinical Examination of Downers

Transcript

Dear veterinarians, I welcome you to the second lesson.

In the first lesson, the previous lesson we have seen about the introduction of the downer cows, and the various etiological factors of the downer cows, and also the classification of how you have to classify the alert and non-alert downers in the first lesson.

In this lesson we will be going in detail about the we are going to see about the clinical examination of the downer cows. So, for example when your downer cow is brought to you or when you are going to examine your downer cow, how to examine a clown downer. In detail about the clinical examination we are going to see in this lesson.

So, the clinical examination of the downers is an important part in the clinically I mean the examination of the downer cows. So first you have to see the temperature of the downer cow or whether the temperature is elevated or not whether it is a normal temperature or subnormal temperature you have to rule out. If it is having subnormal temperature you see whether the animal is having anaemia is there or not or septicaemia is developed or not that you have to Indicate. If the animal is having temperature then you have to think about any infectious origin or septicaemia. Then you have to evaluate the heart rate of the downer cows, hear that heart rate will be elevated whether you have to see whether it is the normal range or it in the elevated range. If it is in the normal range it is ok if it is in the elevated range i mean tragic idea is that you have to think about any foreign body Syndrome, or any other septicaemia conditions you have to think about. So heart rate evaluation is very very mportant for example in case of acidosis when the animal is recumbent when you are seeing a heart rate if the heart rate is above 100 then you have to evaluate the prognosis. Accordingly, the heart rate will be very much useful in the diagnostic aspect, and you have to see the mucous membrane color whether it is normal, pale, pink in nature or whether it is anaemic in nature or whether it is a trich in nature, or whether it is congested in nature, or not. If it is trich in nature you think about blood protozoan diseases, if it is congested then you have to think about septicaemia. Then you have to see the mental status of the animal whether the animal is in the normal I mean whether any expression is abnormal expression is there or not, or the animal is dull and depressed or not, whether it is active and alert or not that you have to assess the mental status of the animal.

Suppose some animals may be recumbent, but it may show the frenzy behavior so in rabies or hyper magnesium tetany the animal may be excited so you have to see the mental status and the clinical examination and you have to evaluate whether the animal is taking feed or not, whether the animal is ruminating or not, if it is having rumination and taking feed and all it comes under the classification of alert Downer. And you have to evaluate whether the animal is passing dung or not if it is passing little quantity of the dung or nothing no dunk is voided then you have to think about the peritonitis or intestinal obstruction. If the animal is surpassing scanty faeces then you have to think about the foreign body syndrome, peritonitis or for stomach disorders like that you have to classify accordingly, and whether the animal is widening urine or not that you have to assess and the reflexes to the external stimuli for example when you are doing the pinprick stimuli then whether the animal is responding to your pinprick stimuli is there or not that at all we have to assess.

And regarding the rumen consistency you have to see whether the rumen is hard in nature or if the rumen is having fluid splashing sound if there is fluid flashing sound and diarrhoea it indicates the acidosis, ruminal acidosis, and you have to see whether the animal is trying to get up or not. So in the some conditions when you are going and examining when you are giving some external stimuli the animal may be trying to get up and trying to get up this all the indicators of some science so that you can assess the musculoskeletal disorders whichever it is affected. And you have to see the reflex whether there is any menace reflex is there or not. Menace reflex palpable reflex all these things you have to evaluate during the clinical examination of the animal.

So in regarding the reflexes you can see the pinprick reflex, and menace reflex. Menace reflex means just you can have you take your fingers and just open it near the eyes so that whether the animal is blinking is there or not that you can see very well and the reflexes are the palpebral reflexes present or not or corneal reflexes present or not all these things you can Evaluate. And you have to evaluate the other examination is important sometimes in downer cows the animal may be having in mass studies. so, it may be because of mass status it could have developed a septicaemia it may be recumbent. So, you have to examine the whether the milk is normal in nature or watery in nature and you have to assess the color of the milk and the consistency of the milk. And you have to palpate the both the hind limbs and you have to see whether both the hind limbs are symmetrical in nature so whether it is having symmetrical nature or any other one limb is extended or not that you have to evaluate so that you can identify the dislocated limb very easily. And you have to evaluate the Achilles tendon I will show the pictures and do the rectal Examination. Rectal examination is very very important only then the clinical examination will be completed and see whether that is a dung material is present or not or complete absence of the dung so that you can able to assess your diagnosis. If there is complete absence of the dung it indicates intestinal abstraction or iliac. If it is a scanty faeces it indicates for stomach Disorders and see whether the animal is in the Posture, posture of the animal whether the animal is in the sternal recumbency or whether the animal is the lateral Recumbency. so you have to assess the things and knuckling of the fetlock is will be that sometimes when you are able to lift the animal the animal may be may not able to bear the weight so knuckling of the fetlock will be there. That will be seeing in detail in the coming lesson the musculoskeletal disorder in detail. So here in this picture you can able to see the actually stand on so, you have to see whether the actually standard is very intact or very loose in nature. So you can palpate the actual standard very easily and you can assess whether it is intact in nature or flexible in nature. So in this picture you can able to see the hind limb. I am palpating the hind limb so just to see how i am palpating the hind limbs in one hand by one hand you keep your hand on the hip joint in another thing you keep your other hand on this stifle joint and see any crepitation is there or not this is one of the important clinical signs in the examination of the downer cow. See in this video you can able to see I’m examining the hind limb so I’m examining the hind limb and able to flex the hind limb and whether you are seeing any crepitation in the stifle is there or not and also the stifle the hind limb the stifle joint should not go for the 90 degree flux 90 degree angle deviation. So, in this case the 90 degree angle deviation is there so that indicates the stifle dislocation. So, this is one of the important clinical sign you have to do in all the cases whether there is any repetition in the stifle joint is there or not and the 90-degree angle deviation of the stifle joint is there or not so that you can assess. If the animal is a normal animal it won’t come behind the 40-degree angle. So, if it is coming above 90 degrees then you have to think about stifle dislocation. So, these are all the important clinical examination that you have to keep it in mind during the examination of the downer cow and regarding the serum biochemical profile for examining the downer cow, you can collect the serum and you can go for the evaluation of calcium, phosphorus, Potassium, magnesium.

All these things are very important in assessing the etiological factors of the downer cow and also, you can able to see the creatinine level creatine kinase not creatine it’s a creatine kinase creatinine kinase can be given, and also AST is the important the prognostic indicator in case of downer Cow.

So, in this lesson we have seen about in detail about the clinical examination of the downer cow and in detail about the clinical examination of the stifle joint and hip joint in detail and regarding the biochemical parameters what are the biochemical parameters you have to collect in case of downer cow syndrome so in the next lesson third lesson we will be seeing about the downer cows due to metabolic disorders in detail

Thank you