“Foundations of Veterinary Medicine: Understanding Animal Diseases, Diagnosis, and Treatment”

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

1. Health:
   • Defined by the WHO as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
2. 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

1. 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).
2. 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).
3. 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

1. Snapshot Diagnosis:
   • Immediate diagnosis based on initial observation. May be prone to errors.
2. Differential Diagnosis:
   • The process of distinguishing between diseases with similar presentations (e.g., red urine in cattle: cystitis, enzootic hematuria, babesiosis, etc.).
3. Tentative Diagnosis:
   • Based on initial clinical examination findings, pending confirmatory tests.
4. 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.