Veterinary Science & Technology

A four years age male (jack) Donkey from Wolaita Zone Zagare Kebele was presented to Damot Gale Woreda Veterinary clinic on 02 February 2022, with the history of wound on the back; improper harnessing, padding, overloading and overworking. The main clinical signs were wound on back due to Overloading for long distances without proper harness (padding) were the most cause of donkeys back sore wound. This case revealed that there is no variation in the treatment offered to donkeys with different risk factors sex, age, cause of sore and body condition score. Majority of donkeys with back sore wound was not gained any treatment. This infers that back sore is the major health and welfare problems of donkeys that compromise performances of working donkeys. After Bathe the wound with cold, clean water and ensuring treatments (wound spray) and procaine penicillin the wound of donkey heals in the best possible way followed by Donkeys with the back sore should get sufficient rest and Regular and continuous community education about the proper use of harness on their donkeys should be given.

Dog bites are a serious and often underestimated public health problem and associated with physical and psychological trauma, they cause wound infection by different microorganisms and the risk of rabies transmission. Tens of thousands of people in developing nations die of rabies each year, and tragically dogs are the vectors in over 98 percent of human rabies cases. Ethiopia has a high dog population and is estimated to have the second largest number of rabies deaths of all African countries. One of the strategies of rabies control and prevention is mass dog vaccination campaign. For successful implementation of vaccination campaign and to reduce the risk of dog bite, using effective dog restraint tool is crucial. For this purpose, we developed dog restraining technology package which contains three tools namely dog muzzle mask, dog catching net and dog restraining crush. These dog restraint tools are easy to use or apply on dogs, safe for vet practitioner and animal owners. They are also cost effective, very easy to maintain, can be made from easily accessible locally available materials. After developing the technology package, it was tested in different veterinary clinics and on field and it works perfectly. The stakeholders were also trained on how to prepare and use the technology. After the training, we hand over one technology package for each Gondar administrative zone that can be used as a model, and facilitate the dissemination, implementation and sustainability of the technology. The stakeholders who have taken the training and used the technology reported that situation of working with dogs was easy after the training: doing clinical examination, taking vital signs, giving interventions (drug, vaccine) and undertaking surgical procedures on dogs. They also reported that the decrement of dog bite and improvement of welfare of dogs after the technology transfer.

Begait, Hararghe highland and Somali goats are known and economically important indigenous breed in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to compare the traits of Begait, Hararghe high land and Somali goat for better utilization. Performance data also collected from 58 Hararghe highland and 58 Somali goats at Haramaya University goat farm. Total of 60 household were interviewed to access the status and performance of Begait goat at farmer level production system. Feed shortage, disease, vet facility and limitation of browsing area were the challenges in ascending order in the production area of Begait goat. The reproductive and production characteristics of Begait goat were: 19.30 ± 0.73 kidding interval, 4.76 ± 0.119 age at poverty, 12.51 ± 0.203 age at first calving, 6.11 ± 0.129 months weaning age, 26.07 ± 0.51 kg yearling weight, and 6.11 ± 0.129 kg weaning weight. Whereas for the Hararghe highland goats were: 19.19 ± 0.45 kgYearling weight, 3.5 ± 0.07 months weaning age, 12.69 ± 0.28 kg weaning weight, 10.55 ± 0.17 months kidding interval and 2.39 ± 0.06 kg birth weight. Somali goat reproductive and production performance characteristics were also: 20.72 ± 0.32 kg yearling weight, 3.63 ± 0.070 months weaning age, 15.83 ± 2.03 kg weaning weight, 9.88 ± 0.13 months kidding interval and 2.99 ± 0.14 kg birth weight. The Begait goats were found as prolific breed area where there is shortage of feed and water, and high prevalence of disease. The productivity and Reproduction Performance of Somali goats were slightly higher than Hararghe highland goat. But, the Begait goat had good productivity and production performance than both breeds.

Background: Even though livestock are the main stay of the livelihood of the majority of the human population, the presence of many infectious and non-infectious diseases have resulted in low productivity, stunted growth, and signification loss of economic gain among the producer. Of the non-infectious diseases of livestock, ingestion of indigestible foreign bodies is extremely common especially in developing countries like Ethiopia.

Case presentation: A 2 years old male Jersey Bull (body weight: 215kg) owned by Holeta Agricultural research center was presented to Animal health research and veterinary clinic department with enlarged abdomen, inability to walk, frequent abdominal distention, reduced feed intake, progressive weight loss and dullness. Based on the clinical examination and case history, the Jersey Bull was suspected to have Indigestible foreign body in its rumen. After taking all the necessary preoperative precautionary measures, rumenotomy was conducted and all indigestible foreign body was removed.

Conclusion: After opening the rumen, indigestible foreign materials like plastic bag, rope, curled clothes and others were removed. This indigestible foreign body is known to induce significant negative impact on the wellbeing of the animals and economic gain of the county. Therefore, overall animal health management improvement and provision of good quality feeds are the best way to prevent its occurrence whereas, rumenotomy is the best surgical intervention to handle confirmed case.

Background: This particular case illustrate the possibility of managing a compound fracture using POP and splints in a dog. Conventionally, management of such fractures requires the use of either intramedullary pin or bone plates as internal fixatives or Illizarov apparatus, Octopod and Taylor spatial frame as external fixatives. Due to the expensive nature of using such fixatives, some clients sometimes have no option than either to take back their pets unattended to or abandon their pets in the hospital for someone else to adopt and manage the underlying condition. As a result, we improvised this particular technique which is affordable to low income clients and less traumatic to the dog, with less hospital stay.

Presentation of case: A case of compound fracture of both radius and ulnar which occurs from trauma as a result rodent’s trap was presented to the small animal unit of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Maiduguri with the chief complaint of trauma and severe bleeding which was haphazardly managed before presentation. It was then referred to the Surgery and Radiology unit of the hospital, where it was managed using external fixatives consisting of Plaster of Paris and splints around the unaffected area, where the affected area was sutured and treated as open wound until it healed.

Discussion: Fracture repair progression involves some complex cascades of events at cellular level right from the inflammatory stage to the hard callus stage. Furthermore, management of compound fractures requires the use of internal and, or external fixatives which are relatively expensive to some dog owners, hence the need to improvise less expensive procedure that will aid the repair process without any obstruction. In this case, the fractured bones were closely managed post operatively for six (6) weeks. The Plaster of Paris and the splints used in this procedure were removed and the dog was able to bear weight on the affected limb with ease. The dog was discharged home, twelve weeks after, there was no any sign of wound dehiscence, mal union or non-union, hence the fracture healed completely.