This work is about euthanasia and how to use it on horses, dogs and cats. A description for each animal is done, about when it is time, why, which methods can be used and who is allowed to use them, how and where it shall be done. The methods we have concentrated on are: - Chemical destruction and the most common drugs for euthanatize horses, dogs and cats. - Physical disruption of the brain activity by a captive bolt, only for horses. The captive bolt only makes the horse unconscious and must always be followed by cutting off the vena jugularis. Then the horse dies because of loss of blood. No matter which method used for euthanizing, the animal must be declared to be dead by the operator before other measures. The testing criteria for death: muscle relaxation and cyanosis, cessation of reflex activity and pupillary dilatation, cessation of respiratory activity and cessation of all cardiac activity.

Cats and dogs are often unattended by their owners both indoors and outdoors, and therefore there is always a risk that they will get hurt. In the past, poisoning cases was considered unusual, but nowadays they are considered more common. As a veterinary nurse, it is important to know the common symptoms of poisoning, especially when working with emergency veterinary care. A very essential part of the profession as a veterinary nurse is to inform pet owners about the potentially dangerous substances and how poisonings can be prevented. The purpose of this report was to find out what is written scientifically about some common poisonings in dogs and cats and to present available statistics that covers the number of animals poisoned by various substances in Sweden. Hopefully this essay can also be used as a handbook for professionals in animal health care and to assist in educating pet owners. The report mainly covers groceries found in many homes, often easy accessible.

Williams, E. 2003 Radiologic sign of lung oedema in the dog and cat. To determine if the descriptions of lung oedema in the literature accurately describe the presence and frequency of radiologic signs, thoracic radiographs of 55 dogs with mitral regurgitation due to endocardiosis (ME), 46 dogs with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), 9 dogs with hunting oedema, and 20 cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) were analysed. The location, type (diffuse or patchy, without or with air bronchograms) and presence of pleural oedema, bronchial wall thickening, widened pulmonary veins, and heart enlargement with subjectively and by the VHS measurement, were determined, and analysed by chi squared test with respect to disease. The dogs nearly always had diffuse oedema, whereas 35% of the cats had a patchy pattern, which agreed with the literature. The common occurrence of cranioventral and caudioventral oedema in heart failure was not described.

The cat has become a popular pet. To secure a prosperous cat-human relationship, the cat owner has to understand what kind of animal the cat is and what requirements need to be fulfilled. The purpose of this literature review is to summarize kittens? needs of socialization, anthelmintics, nutrition, vaccination and gonadectomy, until the age of six months and to give the cat owner information on how to care for the cat during this period. Articles were search for in ScienceDirect, Primo and Scopus.

The cat has evolutionary become an obligate carnivore. Today it is common to feed the cat a dry food. Studies have shown that the dry formula can have negative consequences for the cat. A literature study where conducted to investigate whether the cats origin makes it incapable to compensate for the changes a dry food entails. The impact and implications regarding water intake, energy intake and blood glucose concentration when feeding the cat dry food where examined.

Intramuscular injections to cats can generate strong reactions in some individuals while reactions of the same extent, according to the author, not always are recognized when using the subcutaneous route. The reactions are probably caused by fear, stress and/or pain. When the injection can generate pain one has to take that into account, which can be a limitation in treatment. It is well known that injections generate pain, but knowledge about the cause and processes of the injection-associated pain is limited. This is mainly due to the difficulty in finding objects to study pain on, high cost of use of laboratory animals and difficulty to obtain objective measurements. Although there is evidence that there may be a local muscle injury by intramuscular injection, it is not always that the extent of damage is related to the pain experienced. Facts about the causes of injection-associated pain have been studied in a literature review.

Serum thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) activity is used as a tumor marker in disease monitoring in veterinary and human medicine. TK1, an intracellular enzyme, is involved in a salvage pathway of DNA precursor synthesis. TK1 is used in DNA precursor production by catalyzing the transfer of the gamma-phosphate-group from a phosphate-donor to the 5?- hydroxyl-group of thymidine forming thymidine-monophosphate. Nucleoside monophosphosphates are finally converted into thymidine-triphosphates. TK1 activity significantly rises in the G1 and the S phase of the cell cycle.

We know that more than 2/3 of insured dogs in Sweden are put to death by a veterinarian, which means that almost one third are killed in trauma, lost or die in some other way. An unknown number of these are killed by their owner with no veterinarian involved. This graduate thesis contains a specification of the laws that control euthanasia of dogs and cats in Sweden, and the veterinary medical basics on how to perform euthanasia. The objective is also to give understanding on how pet owners choose to put their animal to death and why, and to discuss whether that is an animal welfare problem. It is legal to kill dogs and cats by shooting, using a sporting gun, provided that it is done according to laws and regulations.

Pets like dogs and cats have a considerable importance for humans and research demonstrate a variety of positive economic and social effects in society due to our pet companions. The presences of pets are increasing on a global scale with correlation to economic development in low- and middle income countries. For example dogs have doubled in India over a five year period. The feed industry for dogs and cats is also the fastest growing sector in the food industry and certain pets have a significant animal protein intake which, depending on the choice of resources may provide a high ecological footprint. Examples of environmental effects with distribution and manufacturing of pet food are increased greenhouse gas emissions, waste, use of water and energy.

Two haematological instruments intended for small animal clinic use were evaluated at the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden. The QBC-V and Vet abc were compared to a reference instrument, the Cell-Dyn 3500. Fresh blood samples were obtained from canine and feline patients from the University Veterinary Hospital, SLU. The QBC-V was used for 111 canine samples and 78 canine blood samples were analysed with Vet abc. From cats, 23 samples were analysed with both instruments.

This report includes common helminths, symtoms, routes of infection, diagnostic laboratory techniques and prophylactic methods to prevent infection. We have pointed out where there is a risk of zoonotic transmission and how to avoid contamination and infection. We have restricted the number of species to the most common helminths. Some of these helminths do not naturally occur in Sweden (yet) but are nevertheless of current interest when we travel across borders with our horses, dogs and cats. The diagnostic part of our report tells about different techniques to find an occurance of helminths in samples of faeces, blood, urine or saliva from a horse, dog or cat. We also write about some recommendations on treating parasitic infections and the development of anthelmintic resistant helminths that originates from incorrect use of anthelmintic drugs .

Spritt över världen finns en mängd frilevande hästar av varierande storlek och ursprung, gemensamt för dem alla utom Przewalskihästarna är att de är ferala. Ferala hästar härstammar från domesticerade hästar som av någon anledning återförvildats. Vissa har rymt ur fångenskap, andra har släppts fria. Ytterligare andra används som landskapsvårdare och är utplacerade av människor i syfte att återskapa en naturtyp som inte längre finns kvar. Hur välfärden för dessa djur bör bedömas och hur mycket ansvar vi har för deras välfärd varierar dock forskare emellan.

During one week (9-13 May, 2005) the use of veterinary diets for the hospitalised patients att the University clinic was registered. The animal owners were interviewed by telephone six months later about the feeding after coming home. Four out of ten animal owners answered yes to the question if the veterinarian had asked what food their animal normally consumed. Out of 35 animals, 15 (43%) were prescribed to a veterinary diet. Among cats it was 8 out of 14 (57%) and among dogs it was 7 out of 21 (33%). Four animals out of ten were recommended a veterinary diet when going home, but 20% did not follow the recommendation all the way through and stopped feeding their animal the veterinary diet. Reasons that were given was that the diet didn't last the entire period, that the animal didn't need the diet anymore according to the owner and one dog that became to lean when fed the diet. The diagnosis for these three dogs was vomiting, foreign body in the digestive system and bloody diarrhoea.

Individual identification of pigs could be used in commercial herds for production monitoring, disease monitoring and breeding evaluation. This study investigates the possibility of using microchips designed for dogs and cats to identify individual pigs from birth, through rearing to carcass at the slaughter plant. Two different sizes of microchips, and two different ages of the pigs at injection were tested. Castrates and gilts from ten litters were evenly distributed between chip sizes and injection ages. All pigs were identity marked with both electronic ear tags and injected with microchips.

FLUTD - Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease ? is a complex disease and a common sight in the veterinary setting. Although FLUTD excluding urethral obstruction may be discomforting for the cat and its owner due to symptoms such as periuria, stranguria, hematuria, dysuria and pollakiuria, obstruction presents an acute and potentially lethal form of the disease as a result of uremia and disturbances in fluids, electrolytes and acid-base balances. A study of literature has been performed to investigate the causes of FLUTD with urethral obstruction and the actions available to the owner to avert them. Potential causes of obstructive and non-obstructive FLUTD have been found to include infections, uroliths, urethral plugs, neoplasia, anatomic abnormalities, trauma, neurogenic or iatrogenic causes. Most commonly a cause cannot be identified and the terms idiopathic FLUTD or feline idiopathic cystitis are used. As the mortality rate due to urethral obstruction likely is somewhere around 5.8-8.9% and FLUTD including and excluding urethral obstruction constitute great inconveniences, precautionary measures are warranted.