Polioencephalomalacia in small ruminants followed in the Hospital of Large Animals at the Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife-PE

Abstract

Describes four cases of polioencephalomalacia in goats and sheep bred as pets in the Recife metropolitan area with ages varying from four months to three years. In three cases animal were fed grass remains of human food and bark of beans and two consumed feed and wheat bran. On three cases the animals were fed with grass, leftover human food (rice, beans, pasta), shell beans, bread, fruit and corn meal, one goat grass, grain, corn stover and mineral salt and sheep feed, threshed beans and wheat bran. Clinical signs were characterized by blindness, head pressing from objects, circling, bruxism, incoordination and opisthotonos. Among the five animals treated with thiamine and dexamethasone, four recovered and one death. The diagnosis was made based on recovery after treatment and epidemiological evidence. The clinical course varied from five to eight days. An animal at postmortem examination presented areas of cavitations in gray and white matter in the bulb in the histological findings. In four cases, we suggest that polioencephalomalacia has occurred due a deficiency of thiamine once because had responded to treatment.