Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparisonFox, Herbert
Science
Disease in captive wild mammals and birds : $b incidence, description, comparison
Fox, Herbert
Veterinary medicine
The response of the heart to a continued demand upon its working
capacity will, as already indicated, lead to increased muscle bulk or to
larger chamber size. Whether hypertrophy be purely the building of a
bigger engine or be accompanied by, or due to, muscular disease as had
been suggested by certain authors, was a question to which an answer was
hoped, but it would seem that the solution is no nearer than can be
obtained in human pathology. Fifteen of the 34 cases showed some degree
of myocardial damage. Some of the other cases may have been instances of
so-called essential hypertrophy, enlargements due to hard work or to low
grade hidden infection. Aubertin[8] ascribes such cardiac muscle
increase to overwork under the stimulus of intoxication from intestinal
sources or from irregular constitutional functions. For information
concerning this and pathological enlargements one may consult the Table
(2) of Hypertrophies and Dilatations; in advance the method of charting
must be known. Since it is usually impossible to decide what may be the
single important factor in the cardiac disease, all of the accredited
factors have been listed with the hope that the resulting figures would
be significant. Thus an animal may have recorded pericarditis, nephritis
and arteriosclerosis—who shall say which was primary or most potent in
the cardiac change.
Essential hypertrophy is limited to those cases for which there was no
concomitant pathology that might have been responsible for the
overgrowth. There was one in a carnivore (fox) and one in a raptatory
bird (buzzard). Idiopathic dilatations on the other hand are much more
common, but they still bear a relation to the apparent vulnerability of
the heart. Their distribution is as follows: Primates 1, Carnivora 1,
Pinnipedia 1, Ungulata 1, Marsupialia 4, Anseres 1. These may be cases
such as Plimmer described, of cardiac failure, indicated by dilatation,
the result of inactivity. Besides these special instances and the ones
accounted for in the list, there were three acute dilatations apparently
due to shock, two ungulates and one marsupial, probably incidental to
fright when being caught by the keepers.
The association of secondary dilatation with hypertrophy is only evident
in three instances. One case and perhaps the most interesting, is that
in which the principal antecedent pathology was thyroid hyperplasia and
nephritis; the dilatation was perhaps agonal or shortly before the last
struggles. It would seem that all of the dilatations occurred shortly
before death because long standing passive congestions and dropsies of
cardiac origin are exceedingly rare; only one certain case is recorded
(carnivore).
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