Foreign bodies syndrome in farm animals

 

Professor Dr. Laith Mahmoud Al-Qattan\College of Veterinary Medicine\University of Mosul

Specialization: Doctorate of Veterinary Surgery

 

Animal wealth constitutes a major source of the country’s national income, as it represents a large and significant aspect to meet the growing and increasing needs for animal protein and is part of national food security. The increasing growth of this wealth requires us to pay attention to this wealth and then direct it in the right direction and address many problems that negatively affect the growth of this vital national product.

One of the problems we face and constitute an obstacle that negatively affects the country’s animal wealth and requires serious dealing with it is foreign body syndrome, which is a common phenomenon mainly in ruminants, which mainly includes cows due to the nature of cows’ nutrition and the way they eat food, which makes them swallow food without crushing and chewing it. Therefore, they swallow all materials in their various forms without feeling them. That is why we see it swallowing foreign bodies such as skins, plastic materials, bones, glass materials, and various sharp and non-sharp metal pieces.

The animal cannot return these materials to the mouth and then regurgitate them as in normal cases during the normal process of eating food, as these metal and plastic materials and other foreign solid materials usually remain that the stomach cannot deal with, so they remain for a long time in the stomach, which consists of four parts, the largest of which is the rumen in terms of absorbing different materials, and some of these materials, especially the metal ones, may pass to the other part of the stomach, which is the retina, which is close to the chest cavity and then the heart, and this condition may lead to the animal’s reluctance to eat and the appearance of signs of endocarditis and reticulitis, which leads to the animal’s death as a result of the metal body penetrating the heart and thus settling in it and leading to death.

 

 

 

Important signs of this condition are the sudden occurrence of this condition without warning, the animal’s reluctance to eat, constipation, strong stools, a sudden noticeable decrease in milk production, bloating, lethargy of the animal, and a rise in temperature. In this case, a specialist surgeon is consulted to make the appropriate decision. In the case of foreign body accumulation, bloating is observed on the animal, a gradual weight loss, and then an unacceptable appearance of the animal, as the animal is observed to be emaciated and the skin loses its shine and luster.

This syndrome is usually diagnosed by a specialist doctor. As for the history of the case that the doctor takes with the help of the animal’s owner, and then some clinical examinations that the doctor needs to obtain a final diagnosis, in addition to some laboratory tests that confirm infection with this syndrome, to make the decision to refer the case to a specialist surgeon to give advice on the possibility of performing a surgical intervention by performing a rumen opening operation to extract metal, plastic and leather materials, which is one of the successful operations after which the animal regains its health and then returns to its normal activity.

As for sheep, this phenomenon occurs less severely than cows due to the difference in the nature and method of eating food. This phenomenon occurs especially in sheep raised in areas close to the city and close to waste and garbage. Especially during the dry season and the lack of green grass, these are cases that require awareness in the first place for sheep owners to stay away from waste areas, which are often polluted. Cases of animal poisoning may occur with some different chemical materials, which are often toxic and are present with waste, and the animal may need surgical intervention as a result of the accumulation of a large amount of leather and plastic materials that exceed the capacity of the animal’s rumen. Consequently, the animal may lose its life as a result of the animal’s gluttony with these strange materials, and the animal dies if it is not treated with surgical intervention in a timely manner.

The surgical intervention is to perform a rumen opening operation after giving the animal a medium dose of anesthesia to avoid lying down and not giving general anesthesia because of the risks to the animal’s life, as it disrupts the belching process and thus causes bloating and the entry and return of the rumen contents through the esophagus and then entering the trachea, where pneumonia occurs as a result of withdrawing these food materials returning from the rumen to enter the respiratory tract.

 

The animal is prepared after giving it an appropriate dose of medium anesthesia to avoid lying down and then the preparation of the operation site begins with the animal in a standing position. A local linear anesthesia is performed parallel to the last rib of the animal in the flank area, and then the area is sterilized well with the appropriate sterilizer and a longitudinal incision is made parallel to the last rib in the left flank area and then in the subcutaneous tissue. The rumen is fixed using one of the most common methods, the most famous of which is the fixation method with the rumen ring and rumen hooks, as shown in the figure. The abdominal cavity is examined and then the rumen is fixed with special rumen ring forceps. Then the rumen is opened and it is ensured that no part of the rumen contents enters the abdominal cavity during the surgical procedure. After that, part of the rumen contents is emptied and foreign bodies are removed and the presence or absence of penetrating metal objects in the retina area is ensured, provided that the rumen contents are not completely emptied. Then the rumen is sutured with two rows of internal sutures and absorbable surgical thread. Then the rumen is washed well and returned to the abdominal cavity. After that, the muscles and skin are sutured separately. Then, antibiotics are given to avoid infection.

The animal owner is then instructed to keep the animals away from the source of foreign bodies and improve the quality of the food provided to avoid recurrence of this syndrome. In this regard, we advise owners of animals raised in the city to choose appropriate food for domestic animals and avoid places containing waste and industrial waste. It is preferable to hold awareness seminars for this purpose to avoid contracting this syndrome.