Barren rearing environment and early Weaning of piglets can lead to a high level of distress, behavioural disturbances and reduction in weight gain. The main aim of this thesis was to study the effects of potential enrichment objects on piglet?s behaviour and weight gain during the pre- and post-Weaning period. The second aim was to examine what type of object stimulated the highest frequency of interaction. The study was carried out at the Swedish Livestock Research Centre in Lövsta where a batch of litters from 10 first-parity Yorkshire sows were used.

The abrupt and early Weaning of intensively kept lambs may have serious animal welfare implications, but relatively little is known about this. Weaning includes the breaking of the mother-young bond and abrupt replacement of milk by solid food, often coinciding with changes in the (social) environment. Altogether, these changes are likely to affect lamb welfare significantly. This study aimed to establish how strong and persistent lamb welfare is impaired following abrupt Weaning by means of measuring behaviour parameters indicative of affective state. Also, we investigated the existence of a diurnal rhythm in play behaviour, which is considered an important indicator of positive affect and good welfare.

Holmström, M & Jangvert, M Protokolliserad urträning från respirator. Att ha en plan är viktigare än hur den ser ut och en plan fungerar bara om du använder den. Examensarbete i omvårdnad 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö högskola: Hälsa och samhälle. Utbildningsområde omvårdnad 2011. Respiratorbehandling är en livsavgörande behandlingsinsats för kritisk sjuka in-tensivvårdspatienter.

When beef calves are weaned abruptly at 5 to 6 months of age this triggers a strong stress reaction, since the animals have not yet untied the bonds to their mothers or stopped suckling. This is displayed as extensive vocalization and restlessness. Attempts to diminish the negative effects of Weaning on sucking calves have been showing varying results. The study presented here emanates from the observation that when calves are weaned without human interference they are only prevented from suckling, but are still allowed to have social contacts with their mothers. The hypothesis was that calves weaned in two steps would be calmer, gain more weight, and be healthier than animals that were abruptly weaned. To investigate this, 15 calves where weaned in two stages (Group 2), by fitting the calves with nose tags that prevented them from suckling during 5 days prior to the separation of the cows and calves.

Weaning is a standard procedure at most studs, and the methods of Weaning varies greatly. The method used at the stud in this particular study is supposed to decrease stress. The purpose of the study was to compare the behaviour of foals in group before and after stepwise removal of their mares. Standardbred foals with their mothers were kept in three different groups at pasture (12, 11 and 11 foals, respectively, mixed sexes). They had free access to silage and the foals were fed concentrate in a creep-feeding area. By the time the foals were 5 months old, the mares were stepwise removed from the pasture.

By tradition horses are weaned at an age of 5-6 months. This study illuminates weaned foals misdirected suckling behaviour, which means that they try to suckle another foal. Since no information about this issue is presented, we decided to perform a behaviour study on weaned foals. The misdirected suckling behaviour was studied on a group with 7 foals, with both fillies and colts. In the group the Weaning age varied between 147 days and 215 days, and the first time we observed them, they had been separated from the mares for 12 days.

Background: Patients with cervical spinal cord injuries are often dependent on a mechanical ventilator due to the damage on the innervation to breathing musculature. During rehabilitation they have to be trained to regain own breathing. This unWeaning process may give respiratory complications, which are main causes to morbidity and death. These respiratory complications are traditionally treated in an intensive care unit (ICU), which means that the patients have to return back to these emergency units.Aim: To investigate number, length and causes of returns to intensive care units and the length of the Weaning process. Further, to compare if a multidisciplinary approach to the Weaning process may reduce ICU returns and to shorten the Weaning process.

Swedish horse breeders have generally very few mares producing a few foals a year and the breeders have relatively few traditions, little knowledge and experience to breed foals successfully. It is therefore important to provide adequate information about new findings in horse nutrition. However, there is not much research about feeding the suckling foal to ensure a sound growth. Current feeding recommendations in the literature seems to be different. This gives a confusing message and the information is difficult to apply. This paper reviews some publications in the area of feeding the suckling and Weaning foal. Most authors stress that it?s important to start feeding the foal early in life.

Cross-suckling, i.e. when an offspring nurses a female other than their own mother, occurs in pig production systems where sows are group housed during lactation. As production systems where several sows and their litters are housed together during lactation are getting more common, the need of knowledge regarding cross-suckling increases. The overall aims with this thesis was to investigate how sow behaviour and productivity are associated with the occurrence of cross-suckling, and to investigate consistency in sow nursing behaviour related to cross-suckling. The study included information about the first 4 parities of 40 LxY sows kept in outdoor and indoor production environments. Sows were single housed the first 2 weeks after farrowing and group housed (4 or 5 sows per group) from 2 weeks after farrowing until Weaning, 7 weeks after farrowing.

The number of weaned piglets per sow and year is a good measurement of sow productivity since it is affected by the number of piglets born alive, the pre Weaning mortality (i.e. mortality of live born piglets between birth and Weaning) and the number of litters per sow and year. This measure is also closely connected to the number of piglets produced per year, which partly determines the profitability of the piglet producer. During this study, eleven successful piglet-producing herds were visited. Eight of the producers were Swedish and three of the producers were Danish.

Weaning is one of the most critical events in the piglet production with problems such as growth check and post-Weaning diarrhea as a result. The lighter the piglets are when the growth check occurs, the harder they have to get back to normal growth rate. Creep feeding of piglets is used to reduce the problems by increasing the Weaning weight and adapting the digestive tract to a starter diet. Hodge (1974) showed that the sow?s milk can not provide enough nutrients for maximal growth rate.

The piglet mortality rates have become a major issue in today?s pig production. While other production traits such as number of born piglets or produced piglets per sow have been improved, the mortality rate has escalated. High mortality rates before Weaning does not only affect the economy but must also be looked at as both an animal welfare problem and an ethical issue. The background to this problem has been addressed many times, and its salvation has also been addressed by breeding.

Den naturliga process där stoet avvänjer sitt föl strax innan hon ska föla igen ger den unga hästen möjlighet att gradvis ändra sitt val av föda och mogna till en självständig individ. Den tidigare och mer abrupta avvänjningen som ofta sker av domesticerade hästar är mycket stressande för fölet. Negativa effekter som kan ses är en ökad skaderisk, försämrat immunförsvar och utveckling av onormala beteenden som stereotypier. Eftersom hästägare och uppfödare vill ha friska och sunda hästar är det viktigt att börja med en god välfärd för fölet som kan ligga till grund för den framtida hästens välmående. Det finns i dagsläget studier som redovisar avvänjningsmetoder som orsakar fölet mer eller mindre stress.

Konsekvenserna av långvarig ventilatorbehandling i form av ökat antal komplikationer och ökade kostnader är väl dokumenterade. Patienten behöver tränas ur ventilatorn med en adekvat metod, utan fördröjning. Urträningsprotokoll kan minska risken för ineffektiv vård och medicinska misstag genom att tillhandahålla en enhetlig strategi och gemensam terminologi. Syftet med studien var att beskriva innehållet i de ventilatorurträningsprotokoll som förekommer inom Svenskintensivvård. Studien utgjordes av en totalundersökning där samtliga svenska intensivvårdsavdelningar tillfrågades om de hade urträningsprotokoll.

Bakgrund: För tidig eller för sen urträning från ventilator kan ge negativa konsekvenser för patienten, därför bör det identifieras när patientens tillstånd tillåter detta. Med anledning av det och att ansvaret för urträningen övergått mer från läkarna till sjuksköterskorna har det utvecklats hjälpmedel såsom evidensbaserade urträningsprotokoll. Dessa medför en mer samstämmig behandling och har också visat sig leda till kortare behandlingstid med ventilator. Olikheter i vårdpersonalens kunskap, utbildningsnivå, erfarenhet, ansvarsområden och hur organisationen ser ut påverkar hur urträningen genomförs. Syfte: Att beskriva intensivvårdssjuksköterskors uppfattning om urträning från ventilator. Metod: En empirisk fokusgruppintervjustudie med kvalitativ och deskriptiv ansats genomfördes.