2001 - 70 (1)

The local skin temperature is an important clinical parameter in lameness examination in horses. New cost effective devices to measure local temperature are now widely available these days. Several important areas of the equine legs can quickly and easily be screened and clinically important differences in local temperature can be measured without disturbing the horses.

This case report intends to introduce a diagnostic technique into veterinary science. CT-guidance provides a safe and accurate means of obtaining a percutaneous guided biopsy of deep lesions. Furthermore, it is a good alternative for surgical biopsies.

An acute salimonycin poisoning was diagnosed in a pig farm, in this case in one compartment housing 200 weaning piglets. The poisoning was caused by a drug incompatibility due to the administration of salinomycin in the feed and the presence of traces of tiamulin left in the drinking water, resulting from the fact that tiamuylin had been administered to fattening pigs housed in the stable four months before the appearance of the clinical symptoms in the piglets. The main symptoms of poisoning were loss of appetite and locomotor disturbances. The locomotor symptoms consisted of weakness of the posterior body half and lateral decubitus in more severe cases. Finally, 35 of the 200 piglets died. Histological study of the skeletal muscles, biochemical study of the blood, and chemical analysis of the drinking water for tianulin were performed to establish the diagnosis.

This case report describes a special case of a bulk milk quality problem in a well managed, high yielding dairy herd. The number of colifrom bacteria per ml milk was too high. The problem was caused by a chronic Klebsiella oxytoca-infection in one udder quarter of one cow. Apparently, chronic udder infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria may give rise to profuse shedding of bacteria, causing problems with bulk milk quality.

A set of two biochemical analysers which is commercially available for use in animals was evaluated for the determination of alanine aminotransferase, albumin, alkaline, phosphatase, amylase, aspartate aminotransferase, calcium, cholesterol, creatine kinase, creatinine, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, globulin, glucose, inorganic phosphate, lactate dehydrogenase, lipase, total bilirubin, total protein, triglycerides, urea nitrogen, uric acid, sodium, potassium and chloride concentrations in pigeon plasma. The results indicated that the analysers are reliable for use in this bird species. Reference values for all parameters were established through examination of healthy pigeons.

Fifty triple pelvic osteotomies were performed in 30 young dogs with hip dysplasia and hip joint laxity. In affected hips, the mean pre-operative angle of Ortolani was 30º, whereas the mean angle of luxation was 18º. The mean radiographic femoral ‘overlap’ came to 26% and the mean angle of Norberg was 88º After surgery, these values changed to respectively 2 and 0° for the clinical angles and 69% and 113° for ‘overlap’ and Norberg. Loosening of the screws was observed on post-operative radiographs in 36% of the cases. Three months after surgery, forty-seven hips functioned very well to perfect. In three operated legs we observed neurological problems. Two of these legs were operated on for a second time; they healed later on. One year after the last surgical intervention, sixteen patients were examined. All of them showed stable femoral ‘overlap’s’ and Norberg angles. The animals functioned well. Three or more years after the operation(s), a telephone enquiry was carried out among 19 owners. None of the dogs had been in pain or had suffered from distress or stiffness; their mobility had been excellent.

As pain is a sensation generated in the brain, the validity of the distinction that is often made between physical and psychic pain can be questioned. We postulate that the distinction is irrelevant for the person experiencing pain or grief. Both physical and psychic pain, as well as other causes, can lead to mental suffering. The medical profession, and society in general, take psychic pain and mental suffering much less seriously than physical pain. We discuss existential depression, which affects the stability and integrity of the entire personality, and argue for a more prominent place of psychic pain and mental suffering in medical and bio-ethical discourses.

Pain is a subjective phenomenon with those characteristics that typify the mind: experience of the self representation, time integration, intentionality. Without consciousness there is no pain. Although pain is usually felt at the site of injury, the anatomical substrate of pain experience is the brain. Representational and psychic states are attributed to cortical activity as evidenced by novel functional brain imaging techniques. The sensory discriminative component of pain is assigned to bilateral activity in secondary somatosensory cortex areas (SII) with somatotopy and stimulus-response functions. Under narcosis, the cortex cannot explore the kind, size or site of the hurting event as SII activity is blocked. Consequently, pain is not felt. The nociceptive impact induced during surgery, however, may still reach pain-relevant structures in the brain, eliciting nocifensive responses, motor withdrawal reflexes and changes in blood pressure and circulation, and heart action. The emotional-aversive component is very important for the perception of pain. It describes its negative quality, and is attributed to the posterior cingulated cortex. Intimate fibre connections link the relevant neuronal assemblies with the parietal lobe and other structures which evaluate the adversity of the stimulus. Opiates drastically reduce activity in precisely these areas.

This paper defends against objections the widely accepted truism that pain is bad and therefore should be avoided or minimized. This truism seems to be in conflict with our attitudes towards, and treatment of, non-human animals. It may therefore have sweeping implications regarding our treatment of them.

Pain is an aversive sensation and feeling associated with actual or potential tissue damage. A pain system involving receptors, neural pathways and analytical centres in the brain exists in many kinds of animals. Feelings of pain in many species are indicated by physiological responses, direct behavioural responses and ability to learn from such experiences so that they are minimised or avoided in future. Species differ in their responses to painful stimuli because different responses are adaptive in different species but the feeling of pain is probably much less variable. In early evolution, pain must have involved cell sensitivity and localised responses but efficacy would have improved with efficient communication within the individual and sophisticated brain analysis. Pain systems have probably changed rather little during vertebrate evolution. Pain may be a greater problem for animals with less cognitive ability. The distinction between pain and nociception does not seem to be useful.