 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An emergency case is any condition which endangers the life of your animal and which requires immediate attention.
Guidelines in handling emergency cases
- Quickly evaluate the condition of the animal and closely monitor it. If possible, transfer the animal to a more comfortable place.
- Be calm in handling the situation.
- Protect the animal from other stresses.
- Continue with specific treatment as needed.
- If you diagnose the disease to be contagious, separate all healthy animals from the sick ones. Do not mix with other herd. Practice quarantine.
- In cases of infectious disease outbreaks, report immediately to the nearest office of the Bureau of Animal Industry.
Disease conditions which require immediate action are:
- Poisoning
- Fresh (bloody) wounds
- Bloat
- Fracture.
Poisoning
Young calves and kids are curious and, therefore, particularly susceptible to poisoning. However, young and old, male and female animals can be poisoned.
Common causes
- Eating plants sprayed with pesticide.
- Eating toxic
plants.
Examples of poisonous plants:
—young shoots of urai/Kulitis (Amarantus spinosus); —bark and seeds of tubang bakod (Jathrotas curcas); —leaves of sapinit (Lantana camara); -fronds of pakong bundok or wild ferns.
- Licking or drinking water contaminated with pesticides.
-
Eating old or moldy feeds.
- Eating excessive amounts of salt.
-
Overexposure of animals to pesticides used in the treatment of external
parasites.
Symptoms
|
Ruminants |
Pigs |
|
- Salivation |
- Salivation |
|
- Abdominal pain |
- Arched back |
|
- Bloat |
- Weakness |
|
- Diarrhea in arsenic poisoning |
- Fever |
|
- Constipation in lead poisoning |
- Staggering or swaying |
| |
- Bleeding from the mouth |
| |
- Swollen face |
Chicken
Symptoms of poisoning in chicken are seldom seen.
Treatment
Treatment for poisoning will depend on the.
External poisoning
- Immediately bathe the animal. Repeatedly wet the animal until its condition improves.
Internal poisoning (except chicken)
Make the animal vomit by giving any one of the following:
- For adults, tablespoonful of salt placed at the back of the tongue; 1 teaspoonful for young animals.- Mix 3 tablespoonfuls of salt in 1 liter of water. Drench.
- Bum and pulverize 3 heads of garlic. Mix with 1 cup of water. Drench.
Caution: Avoid making the animal vomit if it is having convulsion or is stiff.- After the animal has vomited, drench 5-10 egg whites.
- Drench the cattle and water buffaloes once with 1 liter of paraffin oil or vegetable oil, e.g., coconut oil.
Fresh (bloody) wounds
Cuts to body tissue may be caused by:
- Injuries from sharp objects.
- Fights and bites.
Wounds heal by forming a scar. The scar starts to form in the first three days after the injury. The healing process is faster if the skin is brought together and if there is no infection.
Remember: If an animal has a wound, stop the bleeding first before cleaning and treating it.
Minor wounds
Minor or small wounds may heal by themselves. If the wound needs attention:
1. Take a clean cloth or a piece of cotton and a pail of warm, soapy water.2. Carefully clean the wound from inside-out. Pick out any pieces of dirt or soak the wound long enough to soften any dried blood or serum.
3. Rinse it well with clean water.
4. Pat it dry with clean cloth or cotton.
5. Spray fly repellent, if available.
How to control severe external bleeding
1. Put pressure on the bleeding wound by tying a freshly laundered clean cloth.
2. If severe bleeding continues, tie a tight bandage or clean cloth above the point of bleeding. Loosen the tight bandage every 15-20 minutes. If bleeding does not stop, seek professional help.
Stitching a wound
If the edges of the skin do not come together, the wound should be stitched. Old, dirty and infected wounds should not be dosed. Treat this wound with "AB-C" (refer to treatment of wounds).
Things needed:
- Ordinary sewing needle
- Thread
- Cotton
- 70¾ alcohol
How to stitch a wound
1. Boil sewing needle and a thin thread for 20 minutes. Tip: If no timer is available, put some rice grains along with the needle and thread. It takes 20 minutes for rice grains to be cooked.2. Wash your hands with soap and clean water.
3. Remove the dirt in the wound and wash it with soap and water.
4. Stitch the wound.
- Make the first stitch in the middle of the wound. This will be the basis for spacing of other sutures to be properly placed at regular intervals.- Make additional stitches to close the wound. Leave stitches for 10-15 days for complete healing.
- Remove the thread by cutting it on one side of the knot. Pull the knot.
5. If available, spray fly repellent.
Some common stitches
Simple interrupted suture
Continuous suture
Interrupted sutures for deep wounds
Indigenous ways of treating minor wounds
- Crude oil
Using a feather, apply crude oil to wounds infested with maggots.
- Patani (Phaseolus lunatus)
Pound a handful of leaves. Apply the juice on the maggotinfested wound, three times a day until the wound is healed.
- "A -B- C"
This is used to treat old wounds that do not heal. Collect equal amounts of fresh leaves of avocado (Persea americana), banaba (Anona muricata) and star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito). Boil the leaves in a part of water for 20 minutes. Cool. Use a clean cloth dipped in the water to wash the wound. Do this twice a day until the wound is healed.
Prevention
- Keep the animal areas free of sharp objects.
Bloat
Bloat is the abnormal accumulation of gas in the stomach of animals, especially ruminants. It is common among adult animals.
Common causes of bloat
- Eating too many leguminous younger grasses or grasses that have been overly fertilized with nitrogen.
- Sudden changes to certain types of feed rations.
- Eating ripe fruits and other feedstuffs that ferment easily.
- Eating plastic or foreign matter.
- Constipation.
- Tumors in the neck region.
Symptoms
- Animal's abdomen is enlarged on the left side. It sounds like
a drum when you tap it.
- Thick and foamy saliva
- Stops eating or
chewing.
- Fast breathing.
- Restlessness.
- Hind legs kicking the
abdomen.
- Bluish color of the gums.
Treatment
All bloat cases cannot be treated in the same way. Why? Because bloat occurs for several reasons. Here are some things one can do to help save the life of a bloated animal. You can do one or two of the following measures:
- Tie a large stick or rope crosswise in the mouth. A small rope is fastened to each end. The free ends are tied tightly together behind the ears. Draw them well back in the corners of the mouth.
- Keep the animal walking.
- Feed the animal with a pile of chopped banana leaves.
- Knead the left side of the stomach to force the gas out of the rumen.
- In extreme emergency cases, pierce the left side of the animal, between the last rib and the hip bone, four fingers below the backbone.
Bloat that starts suddenly is very dangerous. It can kill the animal within a few hours if not treated. Watch for these symptoms:
- The animal lies down on the ground
- The legs are stiff, spread out when standing.
- The animal refuses to move.
- Green discharge with chewed feed comes out of its nose and mouth.
If you see these symptoms, pierce the left side of the stomach as the last resort. Then, seek professional help.
Piercing the stomach
Things needed
- Cotton
- 70¾ alcohol
- Bamboo stem hollow inside)
or sharp knife.
Procedure
1. Shave and disinfect the area.
2. Puncture the bloated animal at the highest point (toward the backbone) of the bloat with the use of a bamboo stem or knife.
3. Insert the bamboo stem or knife further to let the gas escape without contaminating the surrounding areas.
4. After the gas is released, drench the animal with any one of these mixtures:
- Half pint of warm milk and half pint of kerosene Repeat treatment every half hour.- Powdered detergent dissolved in water. In severe cases, put a handful of powdered detergent at the back of the tongue.
- Vegetable oil. One half pint for young animals and one pint for adult animals.
6. Reduce the animal's grain and water ration for one week.
If a sharp knife was used in piercing
the stomach, do not immediately remove the knife. instead, turn the knife to
enlarge the passage. Once the gas is released, remove the knife and spray a fly
repellent on wound. In case the wound is quite big and the content of the
stomach spread inside, suture the wound and inject the animal with penicillin.
Fracture
A break or a crack in a bone is called a fracture. It is usually caused by accidents or falls. Unless it is immediately treated, the affected area may become useless. A severely fractured animal which is not used for breeding can be slaughtered immediately for food.
Fractures to some parts, like the nose and ribs, usually heal without treatment.
Symptoms
- Swelling at the fracture site.
- The fracture site is
painful to the touch.
- You can hear a crackling sound when you touch or move
the fracture.
- The animal has difficulty using the affected part.
-
Fractured leg often appears longer than the healthy leg.
Treatment for minor fractures
1. Position the animal carefully and comfortably.
2. Straighten the fractured leg and align the bones. For larger animals, a rope can be used to pull a broken bone into alignment
3. If possible, shave the affected area. Clean the affix ted part with clean water. Pat dry.
4. Wrap the entire leg leg a clean clean Do not make it so tight that the blood circulation is cut off.
Newspapers can also be used to
immobilize the animal.
- Pour vegetable oil on the newspaper. Wrap several layers of newspaper around the joint as a cast to keep it from moving. This helps reduce the swelling slightly. Leave on for 1 day.
- The next day, remove the newspaper. Tie a clean cloth around the area to cover the fracture and protect the skin.
- Tape thin, stiff bamboo sticks on all sides of the padded leg to keep it from bending at the factured site. Extend the splint above and below the adjacent joints. Normally, four splints are needed around a leg.
- Tie a clean cloth around the leg. It must not be too tight. You should be able to insert your finger under it.
For a young animal, healing occurs in 10 days; while adult animals will take one to two months. Too much movement of the affected limb will delay healing.
After treating the fracture
- Allow animal to rest.
- Give the animal nutritious
feed.
- Add a handful of ground limestone or eggshells to every 10 kg of
feed.
- If the splint falls off, replace it immediately with a fresh
one.
 |
 |
