| Livestock Disease Summaries | नेपाली भाषा |
Pregnancy Toxemia and Ketosis
Pregnancy toxemia and ketosis are closely related diseases caused by the greatly increased demand for energy that occurs during late pregnancy and lactation. Pregnancy toxemia occurs during late gestation in goats, sheep, and cattle. Ketosis is typically seen within days to weeks after birth in high producing dairy cattle.
Causes of Pregnancy Toxemia
In goats and sheep, this disease is also known as twin lamb or twin kid disease because it occurs most frequently in animals with multiple fetuses. In late gestation, there is a huge increase in demand for energy, especially in animals carrying more than one fetus. When energy intake is low, the animal begins to rapidly break down body fat, which results in high concentrations in blood and urine of molecules called “ketones” and low blood levels of glucose.
Pregnancy toxemia also occurs in cattle late in gestation, again due to the greatly increased demand for energy when nutrition is poor.
Clinical Signs of Pregnancy Toxemia
Pregnancy toxemia usually occurs during the last 1-3 weeks of gestation. Commons signs of this disease in all ruminants include:
- Lack of appetite – the animals are “off feed” and will often eat grass but not grain.
- Depression and increased time spent laying down.
- Signs of neurologic disease including incoordination, apparent blindness, head pressing, constant licking, lip twitching, mild convulsions, and muscle tremors.
These clinical signs of disease often progress to inability to stand, coma and death of the fetuses first and then the mother.
Diagnosis of Pregnancy Toxemia
The two common methods to diagnose pregnancy toxemia are:
- Typical clinical signs: animal in late gestation that stops eating and is depressed.
- Biochemical tests: the most practical is to check the animal’s urine with test strips to determine whether there is an increase in ketones. The animal will also have low blood levels of glucose.
If the animal dies, it is valuable to perform a necropsy. The most common finding at necropsy is a fatty liver: the liver appears distinctly yellow rather than the normal dark red color. In cases that are due to poor nutrition, there may be few visible fat reserves around major organs and the blood vessels under the skin can be easily observed.
The diagnosis of pregnancy toxemia is usually not difficult, but other diseases can cause very similar clinical signs. These include “polio” in sheep and goats, calcium deficiency, enterotoxemia and even rabies. Never ignore the possibility that that your initial diagnosis is wrong.
Treatment of Pregnancy Toxemia
The first comment to make is that many animals with pregnancy toxemia will not survive despite efforts at treatment – this is a disease with high mortality. If the mother is valuable, it may be best to induce birth by administered a drug like dexamethasone – once the fetuses are delivered there will be a reduction in energy demand for the mother.
The most important goal in treating pregnancy toxemia is to correct the low energy balance. This can be done in two ways:
- If the animal shows serious signs of disease (e.g. cannot stand), the most effective treatment is intravenous infusion of glucose (50 to 100 ml of 50% glucose).
- For animals that have mild or moderate signs of disease (lack of appetite, depression), oral administration of glycerol or propylene glycol (approximately 100 ml for a goat or sheep) with a syringe or stomach tube is a good treatment. Administration of B vitamins, calcium gluconate and pain medication such as flunixin may improve survival rate in down animals.
Animals being treated for pregnancy toxemia should be keep warm, feed a high energy diet and have easy access to drinking water.
Prevention of Pregnancy Toxemia
The key to preventing pregnancy toxemia is to be sure the animals are well fed in late gestation, including feeds high in energy and protein.
Ketosis in Cattle
Ketosis is essentially the same disease as pregnancy toxemia but occurs days to weeks after birth and is due to inadequate energy intake and the high energy demands of milk production. Clinical signs include loss of body weight, depression, incoordination and, in severe cases, inability to stand and coma.
Cattle with ketosis often have the abnormal sweet smell of acetone on their breath. This disorder can be diagnosed by finding elevated ketones using a urine dipstick diagnostic as described above. Normal urine should be negative for ketones. More than a trace of ketones on the urine test confirms a diagnosis of ketosis.
Cattle with ketosis should be treated by ensuring good nutrition and daily oral administration of 300-500 ml of glycerin (glycercol) or propylene glycol for several days. Glycerol can be diluted in water and given by stomach tube or by mixing in grain. Intravenous administration of glucose may be valuable in animals with severe signs of disease.
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