Search

Despite established exposure limits and safety standards, and the availability of carbon monoxide (CO) alarms, each year an estimated 50,000 people in the United States visit emergency departments for CO poisoning. Carbon monoxide poisoning can occur from brief exposures to high levels of CO or from longer exposures to lower levels. If the CO exposure is sufficiently high, unconsciousness and death occur quickly, and without symptoms. With non-lethal exposures to CO, common symptoms include headaches, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, general malaise, and altered mental status. Some patients may have chest pain, shortness of breath, and myocardial ischemia, and may require mechanical ventilation and treatment of shock. Individuals poisoned by CO often develop brain injury. As with brain injury from non-CO causes such as traumatic brain injury, the clinical expression of brain injury caused by CO poisoning includes the domains of cognition, affect, neurological, and somatic. Common problems are neurological: imbalance, motor weakness, neuropathies, hearing loss, tinnitus, Parkinson's-like syndrome, vestibular, gaze, auditory processing, cognitive, anxiety and depression, posttraumatic stress, personality change, persistent headaches, dizziness, sleep problems, and others. In addition, some will have cardiac or other problems. While breathing oxygen hastens the removal of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb), hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) hastens COHb elimination and favorably modulates inflammatory processes instigated by CO poisoning, an effect not observed with breathing normobaric oxygen. Hyperbaric oxygen improves mitochondrial function, inhibits lipid peroxidation transiently, impairs leukocyte adhesion to injured microvasculature, and reduces brain inflammation caused by CO-induced adduct formation of myelin basic protein. Based upon supportive randomized clinical trials in humans and considerable evidence from animal studies, HBO² should be considered for all cases of acute symptomatic CO poisoning. Hyperbaric oxygen is indicated for CO poisoning complicated by cyanide poisoning, often concomitantly with smoke inhalation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granuloprival degeneration is an uncommon form of cerebellar cortical degeneration (CCD). A 3‐month‐old Yorkshire Terrier and a 7‐month‐old Lagotto Romagnolo dog were presented with a history of progressive cerebellar dysfunction including wide‐based stance, cerebellar ataxia, intention tremors, and loss of menace response despite normal vision. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain identified marked diffuse decrease of the cerebellum size. Euthanasia was performed in both cases because of progression of clinical signs. Histopathological examination identified marked diffuse thinning of the granular cell layer with almost complete loss of the granular cell neurons, providing a definitive diagnosis of granuloprival CCD. Granuloprival CCD should be considered as a differential diagnosis in Yorkshire Terrier and Lagotto Romagnolo dogs with post‐natal progressive clinical signs of cerebellar dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This report describes a case of a non‐lethal tetanus in a donkey that re‐presented 9 months after discharge with a second episode of tetanus. This is the first time "recurrent" tetanus has been reported in equids, although it is a recognised, albeit rare occurrence in humans. This case illustrates the fact that natural infection did not confer immunity in this particular donkey. This highlights the importance of tetanus toxoid vaccination even for animals that recover from the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]