Differential diagnoses in ruminants with neurological signs.

摘要

A total of 96 cattle and 86 sheep and goats with neurological signs were examined to achieve a more detailed description of neurological diseases and their differential diagnoses. Following a species-adapted neurological examination, a diagnostic plan was made in consideration of the individual differential diagnoses. Additional diagnostic methods were examined for their validity. Findings of animals undergoing necropsy (n=67) were compared with the clinical neuroanatomical localization and clinical diagnosis to validate the clinical diagnostics. The systematic neurological examination yielded a good correlation to pathological findings (neuroanatomical localization: small ruminants [SR]: 90%, bovine [B]: 86%; clinical diagnosis SR: 80%, B: 78%). The most common causes of neurological signs were inflammatory-infectious (B: 23%, SM: 34%) and metabolic-toxic (B: 33%, SR: 53%) diseases. A third major category, traumatic disease (36%), was found in bovines (SR: 9%). The cell count in the CSF was a valuable diagnostic tool. However, in some cases, laboratory diagnostic findings of blood and urine must be considered in addition to differentiate between metabolic-toxic and inflammatory-infectious diseases. In all cases, the applied examinations led to a diagnosis or, in case of aetiologically unclear cases, to exclusion or diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) by immunohistology. According to the results, the most important differential diagnoses to TSE were metabolic-toxic diseases which were difficult to clarify aetiologically, even after using highly sophisticated methods. The applied neurological examination was useful to clinically define diseases associated with neurological signs in bovines and small ruminants. It was possible to analyse the neurological status of the individual patient, going far beyond the description of individual symptoms.