Efficacy of Abdominal Ultrasonography for Differentiation of Gastrointestinal Diseases in Calves

Gastrointestinal diseases represent one of the common causes of bovine acute abdomen, such as abdominal distention, abdominal pain, and cessation of defecation. In addition to the observable signs when performing routine auscultation, rectal palpation, and biochemical examinations of ruminal fluid and blood, these clinical observations can provide evidence suggestive of these diseases, but they generally result in an inconclusive diagnosis. Therefore, exploratory laparotomy is often used because it facilitates both diagnosis and therapeutic decisions. For bovines, abdominal ultrasonography is frequently utilized as a convenient imaging modality to assist accurate diagnosis and contribute to subsequent appropriate therapeutic choices for bovine gastrointestinal diseases. According to recent trends in human medicine and small animal practice, technical improvements have led to developments in the diagnostic value of abdominal ultrasonography, including scanning methods and the establishment of valuable diagnostic signs specific to a particular disease, e.g., a target sign for intussusception.

This study investigated the clinical efficacy of abdominal ultrasonography for abomasal dilation in three calves, intestinal volvulus in five calves, intussusception in one calf, and internal hernia in one calf. In the abdominal ultrasonograms of the abomasal dilation cases, this disease was commonly characterized by severely extended lumens, including heterogeneously hyperechoic ingesta without intraluminal accumulations of gas. In the animals with intestinal volvulus and intussusception, a to-and-fro flow was observed to be a common ultrasonographic characteristic that led to suspicion of an intestinal obstruction. The use of abdominal ultrasonography for five cases with intestinal volvulus gave no reason to suspect this disease, despite its efficacy in one case, based on an acutely angled narrowing. Although three of five animals with intestinal volvulus had intestinal ruptures, no ultrasonographic evidence could be obtained. When abdominal ultrasonography was used for one case with intussusception, this pathological condition could be strongly suspected, as a “target” sign was observed. This finding supported surgical intervention for this case, followed by treatment with manual reduction, resulting in a favorable outcome. In terms of the differential and definitive diagnosis for various intestinal diseases, abdominal ultrasonography may be poor at providing indicative evidence, but very helpful for confirming intestinal obstruction.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).