%0 Journal Article
%T Construction and validation of a decision tree for treating metabolic acidosis in calves with neonatal diarrhea
%A Florian M Trefz
%A Annette Lorch
%A Melanie Feist
%A Carola Sauter-Louis
%A Ingrid Lorenz
%J BMC Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1746-6148-8-238
%X After being lifted, many calves were able to stand despite base excess levels below £¿20£¿mmol/l. Especially in those calves, metabolic acidosis was undercorrected with the provided amount of 500£¿mmol sodium bicarbonate, which was intended for calves standing insecurely. In 13 calves metabolic acidosis was not treated successfully as defined by an expected treatment failure or a measured base excess value below £¿5£¿mmol/l. By contrast, 24£¿hours after the initiation of therapy, a metabolic alkalosis was present in 55 calves (base excess levels above +5£¿mmol/l). However, the clinical status was not affected significantly by the metabolic alkalosis.Assuming re-evaluation of the calf after 24£¿hours, the tested decision tree can be recommended for the use in field practice with minor modifications. Calves that stand insecurely and are not able to correct their position if pushed require higher doses of sodium bicarbonate, if there is clinical evidence of a marked D-lactic acidosis. In those calves, determining the degree of loss of the palpebral reflex was identified as a useful decision criterion to provide an additional amount of 250£¿mmol sodium bicarbonate. This work demonstrates the clinical relevance of the discovery that D-lactate is responsible for most of the clinical signs expressed in neonatal diarrheic calves suffering from metabolic acidosis.Metabolic acidosis is a frequently observed complication of neonatal diarrhea in calves. Intestinal losses of bicarbonate ions, decrease of glomerular filtration of hydrogen ions as a result of a reduction of renal perfusion and accumulation of L-lactate and other unidentified organic anions were considered to be the cause of this condition in the past [1-3]. In the past decade, scientific work has shown that D-lactate is a major component of high anion gap acidosis in neonatal calf diarrhea [4-6]. More importantly, recent research has demonstrated that most clinical signs of metabolic acidosis are attributable to an increas
%K D-lactate
%K Clinical signs
%K Calves
%K Neonatal diarrhea
%K Treatment protocol
%K Sodium bicarbonate
%K Intravenous fluid therapy
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/238