Ultrasound is a diagnostic aid often overlooked by the veterinary practicioner who works with farm-animals. However, it?s use increases, particulary for breeders where ultrasound has long been used to evaluate ovaries and to diagnose pregnancy or disturbances in reproduction. There is much knowledge in how to examine ovaries and uterus by transrectal ultrasound, but when it comes to doing ultrasound of other organs in the Abdomen the knowledge is more limited. Cows are very large animals, so it is not possible to examine everything inside the Abdomen with ultrasound, simply because the ultrasound beam has a limited penetration. There is also lots of gas inside the gastro-intestinal tract of a cow, mainly in the large intestine and the rumen, and that makes it impossible to examine the organs behind the gas since the ultrasound waves are reflected when reaching the soft tissue-gas interface.

The aim of this study was to investigate the intraoperative surgical stress response in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy and to compare acepromazine and medetomidine as premedications. 15 dogs diagnosed with pyometra were used in this study. Blood pressure and heart rate were used as parameters to measure surgical stress response. The surgery was divided into four phases. Phase 0 was the period 10 minutes before the skin incision, phase 1 was skin incision and opening of Abdomen, phase 2 was manipulation of uterine horns, ligation and transection of mesovarium and phase 3 was ligation of cervix, removal of organs and closing the Abdomen. The results showed that phase 2 was the most intense phase of surgical stress, regardless of which premedication the dogs received. When acepromazine and medetomidine were compared the results showed that within phase 3, all dogs that were given medetomidine had higher blood pressure compared to dogs that were given acepromazine. The dogs that were given acepromazine had higher heart rate than the dogs that were given medetomidine in phase 0, phase 2 and phase 3. .

The aim of this study was to see if an increased amount of gas could be seen in the small bowel of cats subjected to trauma and if measuring the amount of gas could be of any use in the clinical evaluation of the patient. When the peristaltic waves in the small bowel decreases due to neurological damage or chock the microorganisms of the gut grow in number and possibly produce more gas and toxins. When the cat is stressed it can swallow more air then usual, and the air that is in solution with the chyme in the lumen of the gut separates from the ingesta. When the bowel isn?t moving it becomes easier for bacteria and toxins to penetrate the wall of the gut, and then get access to the bloodstream.

Ultrasound is still a relatively new method for the diagnosis of abdominal conditions in cattle. The objective of this study is to evaluate ultrasound as a diagnostic tool for the common diseases affecting high-producing dairy cattle, for example traumatic reticuloperitonitis, right- and left displacement of the abomasum, fatty liver, wound infections and abscesses. This paper is a combined litterature study and a report of the results from ultrasound examinations of bovine patients at the ruminant clinic at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The study includes two healthy cows from the ruminant clinic, and seven patients with abdominal related diseases. The examinations were made with a 2-6 MHz curvilinear transducer and both the right and left sides of the Abdomen were scanned.

Pyometra, chronic purulent metritis in metoestrus, is a common disease in intact bitches. About 25% of all bitches in Sweden have contracted the disease before ten years of age. Clinical signs of the disease are varied, and the course may be either slow or acute. The diagnosis is most commonly made by radiographical or ultrasonographical examination of the Abdomen in combination with blood biochemical and hematological analyses. The safest and most efficient treatment of pyometra is surgical ovariohysterectomy.There is room for improvement of both diagnostic tools and possible prognostic indicators for pyometra.Mast cells are large leucocytes, with granule that contain inflammatory mediators.

Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) is an ongoing project at Volvo Cars where they measure, amongst other parameters, inhalation and exhalation through a device called Respiratory Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP), on drivers. RIP measures changes in the cross-sectional area of the chest and Abdomen. When the driver is in motion, such as when she is turning the vehicle, the cross-sectional area changes and noise in the RIP signal may arise.The noise results in a large number of manual adjustments in the analysis of the RIP signal, which is very time consuming and the validity of the device for measuring inhalation and exhalation is questioned.The purpose of this study was to improve the efficiency of the analysis of the RIP signal. The goal was to create a new data processing tool in Matlab that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation from a RIP signal with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.In this study, nine tests were performed on drivers while they were driving in different scenarios such as highway, country road and in city traffic. Inhalation and exhalation was measured using a RIP, a pneumotachograph with a tightly sealed facemask and a thermocouple placed between the nose and mouth, which was used as reference to the RIP.The result of this study was a data processing tool that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.

Finnålsaspirat (FNA) är en metod som används för att ta ut cellmaterial från vävnad. Med hjälp av ultraljud kan man även ta FNA från vävnader inne i kroppen, till exempel från brösthålans och bukhålans organ. Syftet med den här studien var att göra en sammanställning över ultraljudsguidade FNA som tagits från bukhålan på hund på Universitetsdjursjukhuset under en fyraårsperiod. Det som undersöktes var hur finnålsaspiraten fördelades på bukens organ, vilka cytologiska diagnoser som kunde ställas med hjälp av FNA, hur många FNA som var ej diagnostiska och orsaker till detta, uppföljande histopatologi och hur normal ultraljudsundersökning motsvarades av cytologi och vice versa. Totalt undersöktes 199 FNA tagna mellan 1 januari 2007 och 31 december 2010. Flest FNA togs från lever, mjälte och prostata.

Volvo Human Monitoring (VHM) is an ongoing project at Volvo Cars where they measure, amongst other parameters, inhalation and exhalation through a device called Respiratory Inductance Plethysmograph (RIP), on drivers. RIP measures changes in the cross-sectional area of the chest and Abdomen. When the driver is in motion, such as when she is turning the vehicle, the cross-sectional area changes and noise in the RIP signal may arise.The noise results in a large number of manual adjustments in the analysis of the RIP signal, which is very time consuming and the validity of the device for measuring inhalation and exhalation is questioned.The purpose of this study was to improve the efficiency of the analysis of the RIP signal. The goal was to create a new data processing tool in Matlab that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation from a RIP signal with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.In this study, nine tests were performed on drivers while they were driving in different scenarios such as highway, country road and in city traffic. Inhalation and exhalation was measured using a RIP, a pneumotachograph with a tightly sealed facemask and a thermocouple placed between the nose and mouth, which was used as reference to the RIP.The result of this study was a data processing tool that automatically detects inhalation and exhalation with higher validity compared to the previous data processing tool.

Most of the beef production in Sweden has been integrated with milk production. Since the 1990:s, the number of dairy cows has decreased. A specialised beef production has developed in purpose to compensate for this decrease. The consumption of beef have increased in the last decade, but the Swedish production has no followed this trend. In 2004, the percentage of beef self-sufficiency in Sweden was 60 %.

Sarcoid is the most common tumor in horses all over the world. The sarcoid is a benign, locally invasive, usually fibroblastic proliferative skin neoplasm. Even if the etiology is not completley verified, the epidemiology and clinical behavior suggest a infectious intervention, probably BPV type 1 or type 2. However, it is known that the cause is multifactorial. A genetic prepdispositon has been identified associated to genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), but also to breed, age and perhaps gender.

Sarcoid is the most common tumor in horses all over the world. The sarcoid is a benign, locally invasive, usually fibroblastic proliferative skin neoplasm. Even if the etiology is not completley verified, the epidemiology and clinical behavior suggest a infectious intervention, probably BPV type 1 or type 2. However, it is known that the cause is multifactorial. A genetic prepdispositon has been identified associated to genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), but also to breed, age and perhaps gender.

In the farrowing pens the amount of bedding material and the quality of the concrete floor has a huge impact on both the sow and the piglets. In this study imbedding of rubber flooring on the solid area in the farrowing pen was used to see if it had any effects on the sows lying behaviour when compared to concrete. Another important aspect was to evaluate if the rubber floorings had a high enough durability to resist the normal wear in a farrowing pen. Concrete flooring is assumed to have a higher thermally conductive effect then rubber which can affect the sow?s chance to cool down.