2019 - 88 (2)

Aan de hand van een Franse monografie wordt een idee gegeven van de abominabele toestandendie in de 19de eeuw heersten in de grootstad Parijs betreffende het wegruimen en verwerkenvan dierenkrengen, in die tijd vooral paarden. Er mag geconcludeerd worden dat de Parijsevilbeluiken anno 1897 absoluut niet voldeden, noch voor wat betreft de volksgezondheid, nochvoor het verhinderen van besmettingsgevaar voor andere huisdieren. Dit wordt in een naschriftaangevuld met enkele van de schaarse gegevens over Belgische toestanden en wetgeving daterenduit het begin van de vorige eeuw.Naar ‘Des Clos d’Equarrissage’ (1897) door Theophile Alphonse Morel, vétérinaire sanitaire duDépartement de la Seine (Collectie Diergeneeskundig Verleden, Faculteit Diergeneeskunde, Merelbeke.Vertaling en bewerking door Johan De Smet).

The equine metabolic sydrome (EMS) is defined as a collection of risk factors for the developmentof endocrinopathic laminitis. In the pathogenesis of this syndrome, the presence of insulin dysregulationis the key determining factor. Important risk factors for the development of insulin dysregulationin horses are the type of feed, the body condition score and genetic factors. Several diagnostic methodshave been described, each of them with their own advantages and disadvantages. Treatment and managementof horses and ponies with EMS rely heavily on the reduction of the risk factors and are mainlybased on dietary interventions.

In human medicine, the prevalence of allergies has increased during the last decades. A similar tendencyis suspected in small animal veterinary medicine. Unfortunately, only little information is availableabout the prevalence of allergies in dogs in Flanders. In this study, veterinarians and owners wereasked about the five most common types of allergy, i.e. atopy, flea allergy, food allergy, contact allergyand allergy to medication and injections. The median prevalence, estimated by the veterinarians, wasrespectively 15%, 10%, 5%, 2% and 1%. Some remarkable differences with the literature were noticed.A blood test was mentioned by the owners as the most frequently used test to diagnose food allergies.Living in an urban environment could not be linked with an increased risk to develop allergies, and11% of the veterinarians reported washing-powder as a contact allergen. In the opinion of more thanhalf of the veterinarians, the number of dogs with an allergy has increased during his/her career.

Although breeding pedigree cats is increasingly popular, there is still a lack of scientific data aboutparturition and the problems that might occur. The incidence of kitten mortality varies between 15 and40 %. In this study, information was collected by means of a questionnaire on six popular breeds inFlanders. Information from 151 litters was obtained. An average gestation length of 65.1 ± 2.64 daysand an average litter size of 4.5 ± 1.73 kittens were extracted from the questionnaire. The litter size incats older than four years old was found to be significantly smaller (3.6 ± 1.48 kittens) than in youngercats (4.8 ± 1.71 kittens) (P = 0.001). A caesarean section was performed in 8.5% of the litters. Onaverage, in 6.8% of the litters, a congenital defect in one or more kittens was reported. A mortality rateof 21.4% was observed from birth until weaning. A significant higher rate of stillbirths was observedin small (1-3 kittens: 12.2%) and in large litter sizes (6-9 kittens: 7.3%) than in litters of four (4.8%)or five (3.5%) kittens (P = 0.016).

In this paper, necrotizing eosinophilic dermatitis with an acute onset and a rapidly progressiveclinical course is reported in three dogs. Early skin lesions were characterized by intensely pruritic,erythematous and firm intact papules and plaques. The lesions enlarged and evolved quickly intocoalescing nodular target shaped lesions with central exudation, ulceration and necrosis. Thelesion distribution pattern was mainly the neck and the dorsolateral trunk. Oral involvementwas observed in one dog. The histopathology was characterized by eosinophilic dermatitis andpanniculitis targeting dermal and subcutaneous blood vessels with secondary involvement ofhair follicles. While causation remained unproven in these cases, a hypersensitivity reaction tomedications or other foreign antigens was suspected.

Surgical site infections (SSI) are common complications with a prevalence of 0.8 to 18%.Many risk factors, such as patient, environmental and treatment factors can contribute to thedevelopment of SSI. Two dogs that developed a SSI after forelimb amputation are discussed. Thefirst dog was presented with an open comminuted intra-articular fracture of the right elbow. Thesecond dog was diagnosed with a soft-tissue sarcoma at the right elbow. Perioperative cefazolinwas administered in both patients. Only in the first patient, antimicrobial therapy was continuedin the postoperative period. Both dogs developed an SSI within four to five days postoperatively.Yet, prophylactic antimicrobials can help to prevent SSI, provided that the correct antimicrobialis used at the correct dose, at the right time and given IV. Factors, such as hypothermia, violatingthe Halsted’s principles and the number of people present in the theater may increase therisk of SSI. Besides the meticulous use of antimicrobials, perioperative management is thus alsoimportant in SSI prevention.

When a male dog is not able to ejaculate, epididymal spermatozoa can be used to artificially inseminatethe bitch. In the present study, two methods to collect epididymal sperm after castration werecompared, i.e. the float-up method and the aspiration method. With the float-up method, more spermatozoawere collected than with the aspiration method (1810±718.1 million versus 694±244.5 millionrespectively, p-value = 0.018). A trend towards a higher post-thaw motility was observed when usingthe float-up method compared to the aspiration method (52±9.4% versus 44±9.4%, p-value = 0.060).Semen samples collected with the float-up method showed more blood contamination than with theaspiration method; however, this seemed to have no effect on the quality and quantity of the semen. Itcan therefore be concluded that the float-up method is the method of choice when epididymal spermhas to be collected in dogs.

This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the serum concentrations of lidocaine/monoethylglycinexylidide (MEGX) and their effects on several systems in horses. Five healthy,conscious horses received a two-hour placebo intravenous infusion followed by a two-hour lidocaineinfusion (bolus of 1.3 mg/kg over ten minutes followed by a continuous rate infusion of0.05 mg/kg/min). Lidocaine and MEGX serum concentrations were sampled every ten to fifteenminutes during the experiment, and the presence of muscle fasciculations and loss of balance aswell as the respiratory, digestive and cardiovascular systems of the five horses were evaluated bymeans of different non-invasive methods. During the lidocaine infusion, the mean (± SD) lidocaineand MEGX concentrations were respectively 768.88 ± 93.32ng/ml and 163.08 ± 108.98 ng/ml. Theinfusion of lidocaine significantly influenced the presence of fasciculations, caused a statisticallybut non-clinically significant decrease of systolic and diastolic blood pressures, which were bothcorrelated with lidocaine and MEGX serum concentrations, and it increased the duodenal contractionsfrequency, which was correlated with the serum lidocaine concentration. In this study,mild hypotensive and prokinetic effects of short-term lidocaine infusion were observed.