Wildlife Vets Namibia
Our next Post-Mortem course is already coming soon! We have limited space left, so if you are interested kindly let us know asap. We are more than happy to sent you the more detailed course outline.
What? Post-Mortem course
Where? SAROA Lodge (Nina district)
When? 09-10 July 2022
We have been advertising and talking about our Post-Mortem course a lot lately. Perhaps you are getting a bit tired of it. However doing a PM (nadoodse ondersoek) is really important! You as a farmer and us as vets can gain a lot of knowledge – you to keep your herd in an optimal condition, and we learn more about general diseases in Namibia. In this article we would like to show you how much information you could gain. We will first give you the history, and the PM findings. As you read through the text and photos, think for yourself what this can mean. At the end we will explain what our interpretations were.
History
This case happened during the harsh drought of 2019. The roans were fed lucerne and boskos. Two roan heifers had died recently. A third heifer appeared sick, and we were called out. By the time we got to the farm the roan heifer unfortunately died.
External examination
The heifer appeared to be bloated, even tough she died just a few hours ago. She was in a poor body condition, and her mucous membranes were blue/purple.
Post-Mortem findings
On the rumen (grootpens) we found haemorrhages (small bleedings). Around the coronary groove of the heart was no fat.
The other organs did not show major abnormalities. The rumen was very full, and the content was dry and impacted. The next stomach, the reticulum (ruitjiespens) was completely empty (yellow arrow). The following stomachs, the omasum (blaarpens – blue arrow) and abomasum (melkpens) were impacted with dry content. The duodenum (first part of the small intestines) was completely empty.
The omentum (thin membrane that covers the stomachs and intestines) did not had any fat (see-through) and no fat was observed around the kidneys.
So now what?
What was remarkable for you in this case? You might have thought all the lack of fat is not right… Very correct! The poor body condition, and especially the absence of fat around the heart, omentum and kidneys indicate that the roan was starving. Fat around the organs is the last fat that gets absorbed by the body – meaning a very poor body condition.
The blue mucous membranes are abnormal, indicating a lack of oxygen (cyanosis). This was likely caused by suffocation due to rumen pressure on the diaphragm.
The third observation is the bloat. As the roan was opened up, small bleedings were found. Remember this… dead animals don’t bleed. So, the bleedings on the rumen happened before the animal died. This is an important observation; would there not have been bleedings, then the bloat most likely happened after the roan died. In this case, as the roan bloated, the small blood vessels teared and started to bleed.
Conclusion
The conclusion is up to your vet. With your info and photos, the vet should be able to ‘make an educated guess’. The fresher the carcass, the better the vet can help. The absence of fat around the heart, omentum and kidney indicated that the roan was starving. Her rumen was completely full and impacted, but the food did not pass though. This suggests poor digestibility of the food. Most likely, the lignin content of the boskos food was too high (late stage of the season with no green left around the branches), making the boskos of inferior quality. This resulted in starvation and disturbance of rumen flora, and leading to bloat.
Advice
Drastically reduce or take away the boskos, and feed good quality lucerne and game pellets.
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