Animal, Plant & Soil Science

1. Animal, Plant & Soil Science Lesson C5-1 Evaluating Animal Health

2. Objectives • Describe animal health through visual and tangible observations. • Explain how vital signs can be utilized when detecting sickness. • List and describe emergency medical situations and possible solutions.

3. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • When producers observe their animals on a regular basis, animal familiarity exists, making it easier to notice that animals are sick or missing from the herd. • Producers need to know the normal behavior in each animal and be keenly aware of subtle changes that may indicate health issues.

4. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • Livestock familiarization is one part of good animal husbandry—the practice of raising animals and tending to animal health. • With all animals, there is a chance that a disease, parasite, or medical problem will occur. • One of the main responsibilities of animal owners or producers is to keep records of their animals and any illnesses suffered.

5. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • A. Animal appearance is often indicative of animal health. • 1. Pale membranes (e.g., inner eyelids or the gums) indicate anemia, which is a deficiency of red blood cells that carry oxygen to organs and muscles. • Anemia may result from internal parasites that feed off the host’s blood (e.g., worms).

6. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • For animals that are wormed regularly, anemia can be a sign of a far more serious disorder. • Prolonged anemia can cause irregular pulse, lethargy, increased susceptibility to other illnesses, and even death. • Tests such as a fecal examination (a microscopic evaluation of an animal’s feces) can determine if anemia is caused by internal parasites or if it requires a diagnostic examination.

7. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • 2. Diarrhea is a condition caused by many factors—some serious and some minor—and should be treated quickly. • Animals with diarrhea are more prone to dehydration, which is an excessive loss of metabolic water that the body needs to function. • Levels of dehydration can be determined by pinching an area of skin and timing how long the skin takes to return to its normal shape and color.

8. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • B. Animal body language and behavior is another indication of health status. • A few observable indications of poor health in animals may include: • 1. Lethargy or depression • 2. Droopy ears that are not held in an alert position • 3. Dull, rough hair coat or hair loss

9. How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • 4. Head held in a lowered position • 5. Coughing or labored breathing • 6. Discharge from the eyes, nose, mouth, or reproductive tract • 7. Discolored or abnormal feces or urine • 8. Solitary behavior (abnormally isolates itself from the group, a sign of weakness)

10. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • If animals appear sick, the owner should check the vital signs: pulse rate, respiration rate, and body temperature. • Vital signs vary among different species. • A. Knowing the normal range of the vital signs for each species allows producers to determine when problems exist.

11. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • 1. Higher or lower than normal body temperatures in animals indicate poor health. • An elevated temperature is a fever. • This is a warning of poor health. • Sick animals with below-normal temperatures (hypothermia) are in serious condition. • However, others factors (e.g., exercise, digestion, or extreme surrounding temperatures) may influence body temperature.

12. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • 2. Respiration rate, or breathing rate, varies since it is influenced by exercise, excitement, and animal size. • However, it is known to increase with fever, pain, infections, or lung illnesses. • Thus, an abnormal respiration rate may indicate poor health.

13. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • 3. The heart rate, or pulse rate, varies significantly due to excitement, exercise, digestion, high temperature, and animal size. • In addition, young animals have a more rapid heart rate. • Veterinarians typically check the pulse characteristics, such as the force, fullness, and rhythm of the beat.

14. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • The pulse may be quick and abrupt, hard and long, or slow and soft. • A healthy rhythm in horses and cattle is steady. • An abnormal heart rate rhythm may be considered a sign of disease.

15. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • B. Vital signs on some animals may include specific body sounds, such as those that emanate from the lungs or stomach through a stethoscope (medical instrument used to listen to internal body sounds). • For example, cattle sometimes ingest small metal articles, such as small pieces of wire or nails. • By listening to the stomach and diaphragm of a cow, certain sounds can indicate injury by foreign objects. • This is commonly called “hardware disease.”

16. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • C. Stress is a major factor in the development of health problems in many animals. • Stress is the result of fear or injury that occurs from transportation and other factors. • Stressed animals often go off-feed and water, making their bodies more susceptible to diseases transmitted from other animals.

17. How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • Stressed animals often show different vital signs than content animals. • The heart rates and respiration rates of stressed animals may be greatly increased. • Temperatures may also fluctuate because of stress.

18. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • While many producers and pet owners are able to treat minor health situations, a veterinarian is required in emergency situations. • Sometimes, veterinary medicine is the only way to treat animals that require professional diagnosis, prescription medications, or surgery to solve various emergency problems.

19. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • A. One example emergency surgery is Caesarian section (C-section). • In a C-section, a veterinarian surgically removes offspring from the pregnant female because of birthing complications. • C-sections are the most common emergency surgery for livestock.

20. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • 1. C-sections are performed on companion animals and livestock. • Veterinarians usually perform C-sections on livestock in emergency cases, but companion animal C-sections are often scheduled. • 2. Bulldogs commonly undergo C-sections because the heads of puppies are usually too large for the female to give birth naturally.

21. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • 3. Small breed cattle bred to bulls known for large birth weight calves are the most common livestock case of C-sections. • These cattle would not be able to have their calves without the aid of a veterinarian.

22. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • B. Another type of emergency surgery is orthopedic surgery, which deals with the correction of skeletal injury. • Veterinarians are often able to correct broken bones or musculature caused by injury to horses, dogs, and cats. • One of the most successful cases of orthopedic surgery is Mariah’s Storm, a racehorse born in the early 1990s. • Two-year-old Mariah’s Storm broke her cannon bone. • Through surgery, this racehorse healed and began racing again with much success.

23. What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions? • C. Veterinarians are often called to remove foreign objects (non-organic objects) from animals after ingestion. • Cattle that experience hardware disease are sometimes candidates for foreign body removal by either opening the diaphragm or by using an endoscope that slides down the throat to remove the object.

24. Review • How can animal health be detected through visual or tangible observations? • How can vital signs be used to determine animal health? • What are some instances of emergency situations and solutions?