Digestive problems in rabbit production: moving in the wrong direction?

Digestive problems, both those with a clear pathogenic origin (e.g., Escherichia coli) and those without obvious pathogen involvement [e.g., syndromes like epizootic rabbit enteropathy (ERE)], are common in production rabbits and account for the majority of losses in meat rabbit production. A multitude of nutritional, genetic and housing factors have been found to play a role in the occurrence of digestive problems. However, the exact early pathophysiological mechanism, including the links between aforementioned risk factors and subsequent development and expression of gastrointestinal disease, is less clear, especially in non-specific enteropathies without obvious pathogen involvement. In this review, we aim to shed more light on the derailment of the normal gastrointestinal functioning in rabbits. We discuss a conceptual integrated view of this derailment, based on an "overload" pathway and a "chymus jam" pathway, which may occur simultaneously and interact. The "overload" pathway centers around exposure to excess amounts of easily fermentable substrate (e.g., starch and protein) that might be incompletely digested prior to entering the caecum. Once there, hyperfermentation may result in changes in caecal pH and inhibition of the normal microflora. The second pathway centers around a chymus jam resulting from a compromised passage rate. Here, reduced hindgut motility (e.g., resulting from stress or limited fiber supply) leads to reduced flow of digesta and increased caecal retention times, which might lead to the production of abnormal caecal fermentation products and subsequent inhibition of the normal microflora. A central role in the presumed mechanism is attributed to the fusus coli. We discuss the suggested mechanisms behind both pathways, as well as the empirical substantiation and alignment between theoretical concepts and observations in practice. The proposed hypotheses may explain the effect of time-based restriction to prevent ERE, which is widely applied in practice but to date not really understood, and suggest that the particle size of fiber may be a key point in the normal functioning of the colon and fusus coli. Further insight into the circumstances leading to the derailment of physiological processes in the rabbit hindgut could provide a meaningful starting point to help improve their gastrointestinal resilience.

Contrafreeloading Indicating the Behavioural Need to Forage in Healthy and Feather Damaging Grey Parrots.

Contrafreeloading (CFL) is a concept that describes the preference of an animal to work for food even when identical food is freely available, and reflects an intrinsic motivation to engage in foraging-related activities. However, altered brain neurochemistry, which can be induced by chronic exposure to a suboptimal living environment, may affect this intrinsic motivation in animals with abnormal repetitive behaviours (ARBs), including parrots with feather damaging behaviour. To determine whether this was the case, we evaluated CFL activity in healthy (n = 11) and feather damaging (n = 10) Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) by offering them a free choice to obtain identical food from a food bowl or from a foraging device. Differences in CFL activity were observed, with feather damaging Grey parrots displaying less CFL (as indicated by shorter foraging times and lower amounts of food consumed from the foraging devices) compared to healthy conspecifics, indicating altered 'motivation' and time allocation, for which the underlying mechanism needs to be clarified further. Nevertheless, despite the variable level, all birds displayed CFL, which, together with a seemingly positive correlation between CFL activity and the plumage condition of the birds, suggests that parrots are intrinsically motivated to forage and highlights the importance of providing foraging opportunities to captive parrots.

Ferret Dermatology.

Skin diseases commonly affect pet ferrets, with neoplastic, endocrine, and parasitic diseases being the most common. This review includes clinical presentation, diagnostic workup, and treatment of diseases with a dermatologic presentation in ferrets.

Ferret Cardiology.

Cardiac disease is relatively common in middle-aged to older ferrets and may comprise acquired or congenital disorders leading to problems with conduction, contractility, or outflow. Clinical signs are often seen in advanced stages of the disease, with lethargy, hind limb weakness, ascites, hepatosplenomegaly, and respiratory distress owing to pleural effusion or lung edema being prominent features. Diagnostic workup and therapeutic intervention largely follow guidelines such as those established for dogs and cats, with feline doses often serving as a starting point for therapy.

Nature calls: intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots.

Understanding why some species thrive in captivity, while others struggle to adjust, can suggest new ways to improve animal care. Approximately half of all Psittaciformes, a highly threatened order, live in zoos, breeding centres and private homes. Here, some species are prone to behavioural and reproductive problems that raise conservation and ethical concerns. To identify risk factors, we analysed data on hatching rates in breeding centres (115 species, 10 255 pairs) and stereotypic behaviour (SB) in private homes (50 species, 1378 individuals), using phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). Small captive population sizes predicted low hatch rates, potentially due to genetic bottlenecks, inbreeding and low availability of compatible mates. Species naturally reliant on diets requiring substantial handling were most prone to feather-damaging behaviours (e.g. self-plucking), indicating inadequacies in the composition or presentation of feed (often highly processed). Parrot species with relatively large brains were most prone to oral and whole-body SB: the first empirical evidence that intelligence can confer poor captive welfare. Together, results suggest that more naturalistic diets would improve welfare, and that intelligent psittacines need increased cognitive stimulation. These findings should help improve captive parrot care and inspire further PCM research to understand species differences in responses to captivity.

Low-Stress Medication Techniques in Birds and Small Mammals.

Low-stress medication principles and techniques are key aspects of optimal health care delivery for birds and small mammals. When paired with the medical details of patient management, by balancing medication techniques, the probability of clinical success on the highest ethical and welfare criteria can be greatly enhanced. This review addresses both the effects and the disadvantages of using forceful, coercive, and fear-evoking methods as well as the benefits, principles, and possible applications of low-stress medication in the veterinary setting.

The composition and initial evaluation of a grimace scale in ferrets after surgical implantation of a telemetry probe.

Reliable recognition of pain is difficult in ferrets as many currently available parameters are non-specific, inconsistent and/or impractical. Grimace scales have successfully been applied to assess pain in different animal species and might also be applicable to ferrets. To compose a Ferret Grimace Scale (FGS), we studied the facial musculature of ferrets and compared lateral photographs of 19 ferret faces at six time points before and after intraperitoneal telemetry probe implantation. We identified the Action Units (AUs) orbital tightening, nose bulging, cheek bulging, ear changes and whisker retraction as potential indicators of pain in ferrets. To evaluate whether these AUs could reliably be used to identify photographs taken before and after surgery, the photographs were scored 0, 1 or 2 (not, moderately or obviously present) by 11 observers that were blinded to the treatment and timing of the photographs. All AU-scores assigned to the photographs taken five hours after surgery were significantly higher compared to their time-matched baseline scores. Further analysis using the weights that were obtained using a Linear Discriminant Analysis revealed that scoring orbital tightening alone was sufficient to make this distinction with high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Including weighted scores for nose bulging, cheek bulging and ear change did not change this. As these AUs had more missing values than orbital tightening, their descriptions should be re-evaluated. Including whisker retraction, which had a negative weight, resulted in lower accuracy and should therefore in its current form be left out of the FGS. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the FGS and the AU orbital tightening in particular could be useful in a multifactorial pain assessment protocol for ferrets. However, before applying the FGS in practice, it should be further validated by incorporating more time points before and after applying (different) painful stimuli, and different levels of analgesia.

Incisional colopexy for treatment of chronic, recurrent colocloacal prolapse in a sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita).

OBJECTIVE: To report a surgical technique for treatment of chronic, recurrent cloacal prolapse in a sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita). STUDY DESIGN: Clinical report ANIMALS: Sulphur-crested cockatoo (n = 1) METHODS: The bird was admitted with a 2-year history of periodic lethargy, decreased appetite, dyschezia, tenesmus, and colocloacal prolapse. An incisional colopexy was performed under general anesthesia to permanently reduce the colocloacal prolapse. To gain access to the coelomic cavity, a ventral U-shaped incision was made, after which the colon and cloaca were restored in their normal anatomic position. Subsequently, the distal colon was sutured to the left abdominal wall. RESULTS: Colocloacal prolapse was successfully reduced. One month later, cloacoplasty was performed to reduce cloacal width. Long-term follow-up, including a barium contrast study, revealed normal function and an intact colopexy, without recurrence of the prolapse. CONCLUSIONS: Incisional colopexy is feasible despite a bird's relative small body size.

Evaluation of a novel feather scoring system for monitoring feather damaging behaviour in parrots.

Feather damaging behaviour is common in captive psittacine birds and there is a need for reliable methods to evaluate the efficacy of therapeutic and preventive interventions. This study compared the inter- and intra-observer reliabilities of a novel feather scoring system with an existing system to assess the plumage of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Regions of the body were photographed separately at 1 week intervals and shown at random to 35 examiners (avian veterinarians and veterinary students), who used the two scoring systems to assess plumage. Since the quality of the photographs was insufficient to allow accurate assessment of the individual flight and tail feathers, the novel scoring system was only evaluated for its reliability regarding covert and down feathers. Inter- and intra-observer reliabilities were determined using the intra-class correlation coefficient. Bland-Altman analysis was performed to determine absolute reliabilities for both systems. Correlation coefficients were 0.90 and 0.95 for intra-observer reliability and 0.83 and 0.89 for inter-observer reliability for the existing and novel feather scoring systems, respectively. When using the novel system, a change in plumage condition of ≥10% was needed to ensure that the change reflected a real difference in 95% of cases, while a change of ≥15% was needed for the existing system. Since it may take from 4 weeks (covert or down feathers) to over 1 year (flight or tail feathers) for feathers to regrow, sufficient time should be allowed to elapse between two scoring sessions to reliably evaluate the efficacy of preventive or therapeutic interventions for feather damaging behaviour.