I. Introduction to Veterinary Medicine
- Definition: Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science focused on diagnosing, treating, preventing, and studying diseases in animals, particularly domesticated ones.
- Specializations:
- Veterinary Therapeutics: Treatment of animal diseases, including medications, vaccines, hygiene, and dietetics.
- Farm Animal Medicine: Diseases in farm animals.
- Pet/Companion Animal Medicine: Diseases in pets or companion animals.
- Food Animal Medicine: Diseases in animals raised for food.
- Clinical Veterinary Medicine: Diagnosis and treatment at the patient’s bedside.
- Preventive Veterinary Medicine: Control and prevention of animal diseases.
II. Key Concepts
- Health:
- Defined by the WHO as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
- Disease:
- Any deviation from normal health, whether physical, mental, or social.
- Indicators: Inability to maintain physiological functions or optimum productivity despite adequate nutrition and environment.
III. Major Classifications of Diseases
- Based on Etiological Factors:
- Specific Disease: Caused by a single agent (e.g., Foot and Mouth Disease, Tetanus).
- Non-specific Disease: Resulting from multiple factors (e.g., Vomiting due to gastritis, parasites, or renal failure).
- Based on Causative Organism:
- Infectious Diseases: Caused by living organisms (e.g., viral, bacterial, protozoal diseases).
- Non-infectious Diseases: Due to non-living factors (e.g., nutritional deficiencies, hereditary conditions).
- Contagious Diseases: Spread through close contact with infected animals (e.g., Canine parvo, FMD).
- Based on Onset of Clinical Signs:
- Per-acute: Signs within 24-48 hours (e.g., per-acute mastitis).
- Acute: Signs in 3-7 days (e.g., bacterial enteritis).
- Sub-acute: Signs in 8-14 days.
- Chronic: Signs develop over weeks (e.g., parasitic infections).
IV. Disease Terminologies
- Carrier: Animal harboring a pathogen without clinical signs.
- Sign: Observable disease manifestation (e.g., vomiting in renal failure).
- Symptom:
- Subjective: Patient-reported (more relevant in humans).
- Objective: Observed by the clinician (e.g., limb edema).
- Premonitory Symptoms: Early warning signs of disease (e.g., prodromal period in seizures).
- Syndrome: Group of symptoms due to disease in a specific system (e.g., nephrotic syndrome).
V. Diagnostic Processes
- Snapshot Diagnosis:
- Immediate diagnosis based on initial observation. May be prone to errors.
- Differential Diagnosis:
- The process of distinguishing between diseases with similar presentations (e.g., red urine in cattle: cystitis, enzootic hematuria, babesiosis, etc.).
- Tentative Diagnosis:
- Based on initial clinical examination findings, pending confirmatory tests.
- Confirmatory Diagnosis:
- Diagnosis established using laboratory tests or special investigations.
VI. Treatment and Prognosis
- Treatment:
- Administration of drugs, supportive care, and management of the animal’s diet and environment.
- Prognosis:
- Prediction of disease outcome based on clinical and diagnostic findings.