What are the treatment methods for bovine nutritional exhaustion syndrome?
Bovine nutritional exhaustion syndrome generally occurs frequently in winter and becomes dangerous in spring. Especially since last winter and this spring, the Jiangnan region has experienced prolonged rain, cattle have had little grazing time and too long housing time, leading to a higher incidence and wider scope this spring. Affected animals lose their economic value, seriously affecting farmers' spring plowing and draft use.
1 Etiology
Bovine nutritional exhaustion syndrome differs from acute failure of a specific organ such as heart failure or kidney failure. Its root cause is a negative balance between nutritional supply and consumption in the body, leading to accelerated decomposition and severe depletion of stored fat, protein and glycogen, ultimately producing a series of symptoms of malnutrition progressing to exhaustion. There are three main causes:
1.1 Due to natural drought, seasonal withering and growth of pasture grass, and poor forage quality, cattle fail to gain autumn body condition. Especially with prolonged rain and snow in winter and spring, insufficient grazing time, combined with poor winter feeding management by some farmers and delayed supplementary feeding, the nutritional level declines. This is the main cause of bovine malnutrition and exhaustion syndrome.
1.2 Malnutrition combined with chronic wasting diseases such as trypanosomiasis, piroplasmosis, fascioliasis hepatica, etc., due to failure to treat or unreasonable treatment, will induce or aggravate nutritional exhaustion.
1.3 Under conditions of malnutrition, excessive plowing during the busy spring farming season, exposure to wind and rain, increasing the body's energy consumption, will all lead to the occurrence of exhaustion or death.
2 Pathogenesis
Under the state of insufficient nutritional supply and excessive physical consumption, the affected animal immediately develops physiological hunger. The body is then forced to mobilize its stored nutrients such as fat, protein and glycogen for autolysis. As the state of malnutrition progresses, the digestive function of the gastrointestinal tract gradually declines, and the limited nutrients that can be ingested cannot be fully digested and absorbed. At the same time, the liver's detoxification function also decreases, leading to liver malnutrition. In particular, the autolysis of muscle protein causes severe depletion of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in the liver and muscles, and the activity of glucokinase and adenosine triphosphatase declines, thereby producing a series of clinical reactions of nutritional exhaustion, such as progressive emaciation, decreased body temperature, gastrointestinal atony and congestive heart failure.
3 Clinical symptoms
The most prominent symptom is progressive emaciation. The cattle's entire skeletal frame becomes exposed, with arched back, rough and lusterless coat, dry and scaly skin with reduced elasticity, atrophy of important skeletal muscles throughout the body, decreased muscle tone, mental depression, weakness in movement, extreme fatigue, sometimes low body temperature, cold extremities, though usually maintaining a certain appetite. As the disease progresses, if prolonged rain and snow occur in early spring, the affected animal finds it extremely difficult to resist the cold, leading to lying down and being unable to rise. In this way, pressure sores or breaks can develop on protruding body parts. Before death, there is extreme exhaustion, complete loss of appetite, decreased body temperature, gastrointestinal atony, constipation or diarrhea, and even rectal prolapse. The disease course is usually about 1 month.
4 Prevention and treatment
If autumn body condition of draft cattle is well managed, winter feeding management is strengthened, work is moderate, and active treatment is given for the primary causes, the occurrence of this disease can be prevented.
For cases with obvious nutritional exhaustion, care of the sick animal should be strengthened. In practice, combining Chinese and Western medicine for treatment can achieve better results. The treatment principle is generally based on supplementing nutrition and enhancing energy metabolism. Western medicines include glucose and calcium preparations, along with symptomatic medication, and when necessary, "adenosine triphosphate" can be tried.
Traditional Chinese veterinary medicine holds that nutritional exhaustion belongs to deficiency of qi, blood and essence fluids of the body, often involving multiple organs simultaneously, with the spleen and kidney being the most important. One should focus on these two organs, distinguishing their order and severity, and tonify accordingly.
Prescription 1: Codonopsis pilosula, Atractylodes macrocephala, Poria cocos, honey-fried Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Angelica sinensis, prepared Rehmannia glutinosa, Paeonia lactiflora, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Astragalus membranaceus, Cinnamomum cassia. This prescription is formed by adding Astragalus membranaceus and Cinnamomum cassia to Sijunzi Tang and Siwu Tang. Sijunzi Tang strengthens the spleen and benefits qi; Siwu Tang nourishes blood and invigorates blood circulation; combined with Astragalus and Cinnamon, the effect is specifically to benefit qi and nourish blood. It is suitable for regulating and treating nutritional exhaustion syndrome in the early and middle stages.
Prescription 2: Prepared Rehmannia glutinosa, Dioscorea opposita, Cornus officinalis, Lycium barbarum, Angelica sinensis, Eucommia ulmoides, Cuscuta chinensis, prepared Aconitum carmichaelii, Cinnamomum cassia. This prescription belongs to the category of "augmenting the source of fire" formulas, with the action of warming kidney yang and supplementing essence and blood. It can be used for severe depletion of essence, qi and yang, and extremely severe cases where various functions are at their lowest, such as decreased body temperature and lying down unable to rise.
The above two prescriptions, applied selectively according to the different clinical symptoms of the sick animal, have good effects.