In 23 cows suffering from a secondary indigestion, in most cases with septicaemia, the syndrome of functional pyloric stenosis or vagal indigestion developed. The signs were anorexia, ruminal distension with fluid material, abomasal reflux into the ruminoreticulum, dehydration, hypochloraemic, hypokalaemic metabolic alkalosis and uraemia. These signs often disappeared after treatment of both the primary causative disease and the secondary indigestion. The importance of recognising this condition is emphasised, because the serious signs of the secondary indigestion may dominate the causative disease. The prognosis depends upon the causative disease and is not necessarily bad.
In the complex called vagal indigestion two main types of stenosis can be distinguished, pyloric stenosis and stenosis between the reticulum and omasum or reticulo-omasal stenosis. Laboratory examinations of blood and rumen fluid were carried out in 10 cows with reticulo-omasal stenosis. The results are discussed with respect to the differential diagnoses of pyloric stenosis. In the cows with reticulo-omasal stenosis no metabolic alkalosis occurred and consequently dehydration and uraemia did not develop. For the clinician valuable points of difference were a more prolonged and chronic course and, on physical examination, the absence of serious circulatory disturbances and the absence of an ammoniacal-uraemic odour in the expired air. The clinical picture of reticulo-omasal stenosis strongly resembles a syndrome described as failure of omasal transport.
The possible involvement of the pituitary-adrenocortical axis with severe pre- and post partum udder oedema was studied in a herd of 60 Holstein/Friesian cows. The prevalence of udder oedema in this herd was about 75 per cent. The animals were fed a diet containing high levels of potassium (average daily potassium intake 410 g per cow). The concentrations of sodium, potassium, chloride and total protein in the plasma of the cows were within their normal ranges. In one animal a very low plasma cortisol concentration (2.30 ng/ml) was accompanied by normal plasma glucose and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations. The adrenal responsiveness of two heifers with severe udder oedema was impaired one month after parturition in comparison with 11 normal animals (increases from 3.27 to 38.8 and 23.2 to 37.8 ng cortisol/ml compared with 8.02 +/- 1.19 to 146 +/- 16.7 ng cortisol/ml but returned to normal spontaneously after 175 days. One cow was diagnosed as having primary adrenocortical insufficiency.
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