Transcript Ziggy`s Necropsy - Prydelands Ranch

Ziggy’s Necropsy
Diagnosing Enterotoxaemia
8 week old bottle kid
Vocabulary
• Clostridiums: Normal, ever present, bacteria
of gut that must be swept along by normal
digestion.
• Enterotoxaemia: The disease name/condition
when clostridiums multiplying causing toxicity
and illness.
• Cecum: Part of the intestine where the small
intestine joins the large intestine.
• Rumen: Four-chambered stomach of a
ruminant animal.
History
• Kid vaccinated twice, eating 24 oz. milk a.m. and
p.m., free access to hay, concentrates.
• Appetite/Behavior normal at 7 p.m.
• Bloating and stretching at 10 p.m. but still upright
and interested in surroundings.
• Aggressive treatment for bloat and possible
Enterotoxaemia.
• Flat out by 12:30 a.m.
• Gone by 1:45 a.m.
Milk Curd in Stomach
After opening Ziggy, I could immediately see that the problem lies past the
duodenum/cecum area in the intestines. Out of curiosity, I checked the rumen
contents and found a mixture of curding milk and digesting hay/grain, all normal,
and contained in a healthy, but very bloated rumen.
Normal Rumen Tissue Color
My hand is on part of the ruminant stomach. You’ll note the white color. This is
the normal color of an uninfected digestive tissue. The intestinal loops at the
bottom of the picture are red hot and necrotic. (Ignore the lady bug sitting on
the cecum, she was “helping”)
Syringe for scale
Note here the healthy, but bloated rumen, following into duodenal loops of small intestine
that are distressed with air and are bloated as well. Then on to the Cecum which is HUGELY
inflated and following the lower intestines that are positively inflamed and infected. NOTE: A
healthy cecum for a kid this age should be about 2 inches long. His measures easily 8 inches.
and is filled with gas and fluid from the clostridiums producing toxins.
Healthy to
unhealthy tissue
• I’m pointing at the small
intestines. They are still a
“more” normal color, however
they are inflated with gas from
the clostridiums producing
toxins. My other hand is on the
cecum. All the intestinal loops
after the cecum area are dead
and were dead before Ziggy
died. Something to note, the
cecum is kind of like the human
appendix. So it can be said
Ziggy died of appendicitis, but
livestock people would look at
you crazy.
• This is the point where
the cecum attaches
into the lower
intestines. The
clostridiums are
trapped in the cecum
and produce the
toxins that cause
gas/bloat and infect
and compromise the
remaining intestinal
tissue. Ziggy was a
dead goat walking
before I even started
working on him .
So which came first, the bloat or the
Enterotoxaemia?
• In this case, the Entero. By the time we saw
Ziggy’s symptoms, the clostridiums had already
settled into the cecum and produced enough
toxins to kill his lower intestinal tract. Ziggy still
ate well and his rumen was curding his milk and
digesting properly. What caused the bloat –
which was the first visible symptom - was a case
of Enterotoxaemia already well seated and
damage done.
Does Entero always precede bloat or
vice versa?
• Sometimes a bloat can cause Entero by
stopping the normal flow of digestion so the
clostridiums that cause Entero have time to
hang out long enough to produce toxins and
not be swept out by normal digestion.
• Sometimes the clostridiums that cause Entero
get trapped (i.e.: in the cecum) cause toxic gas
build up, hence the visible symptom “bloat”,
but the damage is already done.
Prevention
• Vaccination is key.
– Vaccinate pregnant does with CD-T
– Vaccinate kids at birth with C & D Antitoxin, who
come from unvaccinated does
– Vaccinate kids over 1 month of age with CD-T and
then follow up every 3 weeks for up to 3 shots
– Boost Annually
Prevention
• Feed milk in small amounts OR
• Feed milk in lambar buckets cold to encourage
sipping, not guzzling.
• Change feeds slowly.
Remember that vaccinations and
careful feedings are not bullet proof.