Veterinary Snippets

Snippet #5: Hydrops Allantois in the Cow

Tom — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:44:39 +0000

Hydrops allantois describes excessive accumulation of allantoic fluid, up to 200 litres. It can be easily visualised externally as a bilateral abdominal distension, and the cattle are often distressed, anorexic and have reduced rumen sounds. The accumulation of fluid often results in dehydration leading to recumbency. It is possible to repeatedly drain the allantoic fluid, but this quickly refills. Birth should be induced if a stage of gestation compatible with fetal survival has been reached.

This little snippet was inspired by this photo I found on flickr the other day:

Does anyone know what this bovine might have? I suspected hydrops, but it could presumably be an abdominal muscle rupture too? The link to the original photo is here.

Snippet #4: Winter Dysentry

Tom — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:30:46 +0000

Winter dysentry is a fairly common cause of diarrhoea in cattle. It is thought to be caused by a highly contagious coronavirus (similar to that which causes neonatal diarrhoea in calves, and due to its highly contagious nature, and faeco-oral route of transmission, it tends to occur most commonly in housed cattle; in most cases during the winter months. It causes acute onset diarrhoea (which can be profuse), and significant milk-drop in affected cattle. The diarrhoea is usually short lived (2-3 days), but milk drop often persists for a number of weeks.

The only treatment necessary is symptomatic, and normal hygiene measures should be observed to limit spread.

The Merck Veterinary Manual has a useful quick section on winter dysentry.

Snippet #3: Propofol and Heinz Body Anaemia in Cats

Tom — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:00:50 +0000

It seems that repeated use of propofol as an induction agent in cats can lead to a Heinz Body anaemia. Whether this results in a clinical anaemia is unknown, but suggests that care should be taken to avoid repeated dosing. Perhaps other induction agents should be considered for cats requiring repeated anaesthesia?

Read this interesting article about Heinz Body Anaemia in Cats – it mentions (and references) the propofol study.

Snippet #2: Hypertension in Cats – How High Is Too High?

Tom — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:47:15 +0000

Cats get hypertension for a number of reasons, the most common causes being chronic renal failure, hyperthyroidism and cardiac disease, but how do you know if a measured systolic blood pressure is pathological?

It seems that it is generally accepted that anything above 200mmHg is abnormal, but it may be most useful to measure trends in blood pressure, particularly in cats at risk of developing hypertension. This can help to identify problems before obvious signs of hypertension, such as retinopathy, become apparent.

Caney (2007) In Practice 29: 398-403

Snippet #1: Oral Canine Malignant Melanoma

Tom — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:26:03 +0000

Welcome to the very first Snippet – a quick point of interest about Oral Canine Malignant Melanoma (CMM).

Oral CMM is a highly aggressive tumour of melanocytes, and until recently, the mainstay of treatment has been surgical resection of the primary tumour. Control of secondary spread has been extremely difficult. However, recent work in America on immunotherapeutics has paved the way for a CMM DNA ‘vaccine’. Full details can be found at http://www.petcancervaccine.com/vets/label.shtml

Welcome

Tom — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:09:18 +0000

Welcome to ‘Veterinary Snippets’. I am hoping that this site will become one of those places you quickly visit when you check your emails in the morning over a cup of coffee. Each day I will post a new ‘Snippet’ – a short summary of anything of veterinary interest that catches my eye. The idea is for it to be informative, but time-efficient. If you like the sound of the snippet, I’ll post links to more information. If not, then you can just get on with your life. Easy!

It was originally going to be called ‘Vet Learnings’, but the deplorable grammar upset me so much that Snippets was the perfect alternative.

So what’s the ethos? Well..

Time-efficient. You can read what goes up in a couple of minutes. Visit every day, and you’ll get alot of hours of information over a year, without wasting any time. Perfect!
Fully referenced. I’m not out to plagiarise. If you think something’s referenced wrong, please get in touch.
Accurate. I’m currently a final year vet student, and this is as much a positive learning experience for me as it for anyone reading. If you feel that anything is inaccurate, again, please let me know, for all of our sakes!
One might worry that this is trivialising veterinary medicine. I hope that no-one uses this as a sole source of information – the whole point is that it’s a portal to further information, and a useful place to discover something you may never have thought about before.