How to prevent and treat selenium deficiency in raccoon dogs? Farmers need to master these methods

Selenium deficiency has obvious regional characteristics. Generally, a selenium-deficient geological environment causes selenium deficiency in humans and livestock, especially in years with abundant autumn rain, when selenium in the surface soil is lost with the rainwater, and herbivorous or omnivorous animals find it difficult to obtain enough selenium from plants, thus causing selenium deficiency.

The narrow belt from Northeast to Southwest China is all selenium-deficient areas, with western Heilongjiang Province and Liangshan in Sichuan being the most deficient. In selenium-deficient animals, the selenium concentration in the organs and tissues of the body decreases. Under actual production conditions, liver necrosis may occur, or it may appear together with muscular dystrophy, mulberry heart, and white muscle disease. Clinically, various animals show different manifestations, but the common manifestations are decreased productivity, reduced number of offspring, infertility, movement disorders, and in mammals, retained placenta. When raising animals in selenium-deficient areas, attention should be paid to selenium supplementation.

Raccoon dogs are omnivorous animals. Under artificial rearing conditions, plant-based feed accounts for the majority of their diet. There are relatively many @#@252@#@ in Heilongjiang Province, and the plant-based feed is all produced locally (in selenium-poor areas). Therefore, appropriate amounts of trace element selenium and vitamin E must be added to the diet.

Clinical manifestations: There are no obvious symptoms at the beginning of the disease, and it is often overlooked. As time goes on, after dozens of days, due to long-term selenium deficiency, there will be reduced appetite or complete loss of appetite, depression, a preference for lying down, inflexible movement of the hind limbs, arched lower back, and difficulty walking. When forced to move, the two forelimbs kneel down and the hind limbs drag along the ground as it crawls forward, sometimes assuming a sitting-like posture. Due to long-term malnutrition, the body becomes weak, until it dies of exhaustion. This disease mostly occurs during the rapid growth period of young raccoon dogs. If the gestational diet lacks the trace element selenium, the newborn raccoon dogs will be unable to suckle (wooden tongue disease) and die.

Necropsy changes: Degeneration of skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle. The skeletal muscle is dry, pale in color, cloudy, with a rough and uneven cut surface, depressions, and necrotic foci, appearing pale yellow or white, and this is more obvious in the longissimus dorsi muscle and the muscles of the buttocks and hind limbs. The cardiac muscle has reduced fat, fades in color, is cloudy, lacks luster, and the ventricles are dilated, with the heart wall becoming thin and soft. The tongue coating of the young animals is white.

Prevention and control measures: Feed a complete-price diet, and when mixing feed yourself, pay attention to supplementing selenium and vitamin E to prevent the occurrence of this disease. Treatment method: First supplement selenium, preparing a sodium selenite solution with physiological saline at a concentration of 0.1%. For those under 5 months of age, the therapeutic dose is: intramuscular injection of 1.1 mg, oral administration of 2.0 mg; the preventive dose is: intramuscular injection of 1.0 mL, oral administration of 1.5 mL. While supplementing selenium, injecting 5.0 mg to 10.0 mg of vitamin E solution intramuscularly or subcutaneously per animal per day will enhance the therapeutic effect.

Because the therapeutic dose and toxic dose of sodium selenite are very close, it must be used with special caution. Commercially available sodium selenite-vitamin E injection can also be used. When using it, be sure to follow the instructions, or calculate the dosage each time based on its sodium selenite content before use, to avoid causing selenium poisoning. Long-term intake of 5 mg to 10 mg of feed selenium per kg by various animals can produce chronic poisoning, manifested as emaciation, anemia, joint stiffness, sloughing of hooves (nails, claws), hair loss, and effects on reproduction, etc. A single intake of 500 mg to 1000 mg/kg feed selenium can cause acute or subacute poisoning; in mild cases, the animals walk unsteadily and blindly, and in severe cases, they die.