Tratamento conservativo e cirúrgico em 22 ruminantes com fraturas em membros

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi relatar os principais locais de fraturas em membros de 22 ruminantes e determinar a eficiência dos tratamentos utilizados. Foram incluídos no estudo oito caprinos, oito ovinos e seis bovinos Em casos de fraturas distais, o tratamento conservativo com imobilização foi o método de eleição. Em casos de fraturas proximais e fraturas expostas de metatarso ou metacarpo, os ruminantes foram tratados cirurgicamente. Observou-se maior frequência de fraturas envolvendo o metacarpo ou metatarso (54,5%), seguido por fraturas de tíbia (22,7%), fêmur (9%) e casos isolados de fraturas de falange medial, úmero, rádio e ulna (4,5% cada). O índice de recuperação total alcançou 95,4%. A imobilização com gesso associada à tala de Thomas, ou apenas com talas de madeira em animais jovens, foi eficiente na redução de fraturas de metacarpo, metatarso, tíbia, úmero e rádio nos ruminantes tratados. Enquanto no caso de fratura de falange medial, a imobilização com uso apenas de gesso foi suficiente para proporcionar reparação óssea adequada. A fixação esquelética externa ou interna deve ser considerada uma opção no tratamento de fraturas metacárpicas, metatársicas, tibiais e femorais em ruminantes, principalmente quando o animal for de baixo peso corporal

Behaviour of confined sheep fed with different concentrate sources

In this study we examined the effects of different feed concentrates on sheep behaviour. Our hypothesis was that citric pulp would stimulate rumination and be capable of replacing other concentrates traditionally used for feeding in confinement, to reduce the risk of urolithiasis. Ten adult Santa Inês sheep were distributed in a Latin square with five different diets, one control diet with 80% hay and 20% commercial feed and four diets containing 30% coast-cross hay and 70% of the following concentrates: pelleted citrus pulp, citrus pulp meal, cornmeal or wheat bran. After 21d of adaptation to each one of the five diets, the sheep were visually monitored for 24 h at 3 min intervals to record the time spent ruminating, time spent eating and time spent resting; the animals' positions (standing or lying down) were also noted. Daytime was considered to be from 06:00h to 18:00h. The data were evaluated using ANOVA, with Tukey post-hoc test or throughout Two-sample T test for circadian and position assessment. Citrus pulp diets resulted in time spent ruminating similar to the control diet (601, 590 and 669 min, respectively), but greater (P<0.05) than the cornmeal group (421min), which showed that citrus pulp generated effective rumination. The estimated saliva production in the control diet (26L) was greater than in the other groups, and was greater in the citrus pulp groups (24L/d) than cornmeal (21L/d). Feeding with cornmeal led to shorter time spent eating and time spent ruminating than all other diets. The sheep had higher time spent resting at night when fed concentrates (P<0.05). For all diets, about 90% of the time spent ruminating occurred with the animals lying down. Pelleted citrus pulp, citrus pulp meal and to a lesser degree wheat bran, led to adequate time spent ruminating. The use of citrus pulp can act as a preventive management measure to reduce the incidence of urolithiasis in sheep flocks