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- Author or Editor: Joerg Mayer x
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Abstract
Abstract
Veterinary education is becoming more and more complex, but the ultimate goal—providing an education that will prepare students for entry-level positions in the profession—remains the same. Often, hands-on work with living animals aimed at achieving core competencies is relegated to the final year of the veterinary curriculum. But, incorporating honeybees allows introduction of these important concepts during earlier years of veterinary student training. In addition, honeybees are under severe threat from a multitude of health problems, and this has dire implications for our own food supply. Veterinarians need to be actively involved in addressing this health crisis. Ever since the US FDA implemented its Veterinary Feed Directive rule, which dictates how certain antimicrobials can legally be administered in the feed or water of food-producing animals, and made changes to its policy on the use of medically necessary antimicrobials on bees, honeybees have fallen under the direct purview of veterinarians, highlighting the need for greater literacy in honeybee health. The present manuscript describes reasons why and ways how honeybees can play a larger role in the education of veterinarians in the United States.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess effects of photobiomodulation, silver sulfadiazine, and a topical antimicrobial product for the treatment of experimentally induced full-thickness skin wounds in green iguanas (Iguana iguana).
ANIMALS 16 healthy subadult green iguanas.
PROCEDURES Iguanas were anesthetized, and three 5-mm cutaneous biopsy specimens were obtained from each iguana (day 0). Iguanas were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups, each of which had a control treatment. Wounds in the topical treatment group received silver sulfadiazine, a topical antimicrobial product, or no treatment. Wounds in the laser treatment group received treatment with a class 4 laser at 5 or 10 J/cm2 or no treatment. Wound measurements were obtained daily for 14 days. Iguanas were euthanized, and treatment sites were evaluated microscopically to detect ulceration, bacterial contamination, reepithelialization, necrosis, inflammation, fibrosis, and collagen maturity.
RESULTS On day 14, wounds treated with a laser at 10 J/cm2 were significantly smaller than those treated with silver sulfadiazine, but there were no other significant differences among treatments. Histologically, there were no significant differences in ulceration, bacterial infection, reepithelialization, necrosis, inflammation, fibrosis, and collagen maturity among treatments.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Photobiomodulation at 10 J/cm2 appeared to be a safe treatment that was tolerated well by green iguanas, but it did not result in substantial improvement in histologic evidence of wound healing, compared with results for other treatments or no treatment.
Abstract
Objective—To determine the prevalence of heart murmurs in chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera) and determine whether heart murmurs were associated with cardiac disease.
Design—Retrospective multi-institutional case series.
Animals—260 chinchillas.
Procedures—Medical records of all chinchilla patients evaluated at the Tufts University Foster Hospital for Small Animals between 2001 and 2009, the University of California-Davis William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital between 1996 and 2009, and the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital between 1998 and 2009 were reviewed.
Results—Prevalence of heart murmurs was 23% (59/260). Of 15 chinchillas with heart murmurs that underwent echocardiography, 8 had echocardiographic abnormalities, including dynamic right ventricular outflow tract obstruction, mitral regurgitation, hypertrophy of the left ventricle, tricuspid regurgitation, and hypovolemia. Echocardiographic abnormalities were approximately 29 times as likely (OR, 28.7) to be present in chinchillas with a murmur of grade 3 or higher than in chinchillas without a murmur.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results suggested that heart murmurs are common in chinchillas and that chinchillas with heart murmurs often have echocardiographic abnormalities, with valvular disease being the most common. On the basis of these results, we believe that echocardiography should be recommended for chinchillas with heart murmurs, especially older chinchillas with murmurs of grade 3 or higher. Further prospective studies are needed to accurately evaluate the prevalence of cardiac disease in chinchillas with heart murmurs.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether an enrofloxacin–silver sulfadiazine emulsion (ESS) labeled for treatment of otitis externa in dogs has ototoxic effects in rabbits following myringotomy.
ANIMALS
6 healthy adult New Zealand White rabbits.
PROCEDURES
Rabbits were anesthetized for brainstem auditory-evoked response (BAER) tests on day 0. Myringotomy was performed, and BAER testing was repeated. Saline (0.9% NaCl) solution and ESS were then instilled in the left and right middle ears, respectively, and BAER testing was repeated prior to recovery of rabbits from anesthesia. Application of assigned treatments was continued every 12 hours for 7 days, and rabbits were anesthetized for BAER testing on day 8. Rabbits were euthanized, and samples were collected for histologic (6 ears/treatment) and scanning electron microscopic (1 ear/treatment) examination.
RESULTS
Most hearing thresholds (11/12 ears) were subjectively increased after myringotomy, with BAER measurements ranging from 30 to 85 dB in both ears. All day 8 hearing thresholds exceeded baseline (premyringotomy) values; results ranged from 30 to 85 dB and 80 to > 95 dB (the upper test limit) in saline solution–treated and ESS-treated ears, respectively. All ESS-treated ears had heterophilic otitis externa, epithelial hyperplasia of the external ear canal, various degrees of mucoperiosteal edema, and periosteal new bone formation on histologic examination. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that most outer hair cells in the ESS-treated ear lacked stereocilia or were absent.
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results supported that ESS has ototoxic effects in the middle ear of rabbits. Further research is needed to confirm these findings. Myringotomized laboratory rabbits may be useful to study ototoxicity of drugs used in human medicine.
Abstract
CASE DESCRIPTION
A client-owned 12-year-old 10.3-kg (22.7-lb) female shusui koi (Cyprinus carpio) was evaluated because of an ulcerated mass on the left body wall, hyporexia, and decreased activity.
CLINICAL FINDINGS
The patient was anesthetized with a solution of eugenol in water for all examinations and procedures. An approximately 7 × 5-cm smooth, raised, ulcerated, and firm mass was present ventral and lateral to the dorsal fin on the left body wall. Whole-body CT images obtained before and after contrast administration revealed an encapsulated, homogeneous, fat-opaque mass within the muscle. The mass was fat echoic with poor vascularity on ultrasonographic examination. Histologic evaluation of an ultrasound-guided needle biopsy specimen was suggestive of a lipoma.
TREATMENT AND OUTCOME
The mass was excised, and the fish was placed in water with 0.3% salinity for 3 weeks after surgery. Postoperative antimicrobial administration was not indicated, and additional postoperative analgesic administration was considered impractical. The patient had noticeable improvement in appetite and activity with no indication of discomfort immediately following surgery. Five weeks after surgery, the incision site had healed with minimal scarring, and evaluation of CT images revealed no evidence of mass regrowth or regional osteomyelitis.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Antemortem evaluation and diagnosis of a lipoma in a teleost with subsequent excision was described. This report highlighted the logistic challenges associated with anesthesia, advanced diagnostic imaging, and surgery in fish and showed that they can be successfully overcome so that high-level medical care can be provided to such patients.
