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Ruminal obstruction associated with non-digestible materials in a muturu cow: a case report


C. A. Eze

Abstract

A five-year-old muturu cow in a semi-intensively managed herd with advanced pregnancy suddenly became anorexic, moribund and recumbent. While in recumbency, there was abdominal distension and the animal groaned respiration. Emergency slaughter was carried on the animal within 12hours of on set of these signs. A large nylon rope and a cloth (rag) with sediments of sand were found in the rumen. The foreign bodies together with pockets of sand in the cloth weighed 1.83kg.. Semi-intensive husbandry practice does not give the animal the opportunity of optimal grazing and as such some animals develop pica which include chewing of tethering rope and geophagia. This, coupled with pregnancy in this report predisposed the animal to pica. It is concluded that only good husbandry practices nutrition and environment can eliminate reproductive loses. Management practices and environment contribute to the presence and kind of foreign bodies present in the ruminal stomach. Again, field diagnosis of the presence of ruminal foreign bodies is naturally a difficult one except where exploratory surgery is involved.


KEY WORDS: Foreign bodies, rumen, muturu cow.


(Nigerian Veterinary Journal: 2002 23(2): 60-64)

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eISSN: 0331-3026