Sodium and chloride

SODIUM AND CHLORIDE

  •  Sodium is present in extracellular fluid (ECF) & blood plasma
  • Chloride is present both in intracellular fluid & ECF

Functions

  • Maintenance of osmotic pressure of blood
  • Interstitial tissue and cells
  • Salt in plasma - ↓ viscosity of blood
  • Cl – Hcl acid in gastric juice
  • Maintenance of acid – base balance in ECF

Deficiency of salt

  • Causes
    • ↑ vomition & diarrhoea
    • ↑ sweating
    • Sows - ↑ Loss of salt in milk
    • ↑ excretion in urine – Addison’s disease
  • Heat exhaustion
    • Hot weather in working horses
    • Increased sweating
    • Increased loss of salt
    • Osmotic imbalance
    • Derangement of exchange of O2, metabolites, nutrients between cells & ECF
    • Nervous symptoms
  • Dehydration
    • Deficiency of salt
    • ↓Osmotic pressure of ECF
    • Reabsorption of water from blood by kidneys
    • ↓Blood volume and haemoconcentration
    • ↑Plasma protein concentration
    • ↑Colloidal osmotic pressure
    • ↓ Water from interstitial fluid in drawn into capillary
    • ↓Osmotic pressure of ECF
    • Water from interstitial fluid in drawn into capillaries
    • Dehydration

Poultry 0.1 – 0.2% salt included into diet

  • ↓ in egg production
  • Retarded growth
  • Neuromuscular dysfunction
  • Death

SALT POISONING

  • Fowls and pigs are highly susceptible

Poultry

  • ↑Access to brine vats used for pickling meat or fish
  • In self feeding hoppers - salt settle at bottom
  • ↓ Intake of water
  • Clinical signs
    • Diarrhoea, ↑ thirst
    • Loss of appetite
    • Progressive muscular weakness
    • Inability to stand, convulsions, death
    • Ascites
    • Visceral gout
    • Nephritis

Swine

  • Causes
    • Drinking brine
    • ↑ salted fish meal in ration
    • Gastroenteritis , Eosinophilic meningoencephalitis
    • Dealth in peracute cases
  • Clinical signs
    • Anorexia
    • Rapid pulse \ respiration
    • Convulsions
    • Paralysis
    • In chronic cases
      • Somnolence
      • Drooping of ears
      • In coordination of movements
      • Blindness, deafness, inability to grunt
    • Hyperaemia
    • Oedema of leptomeninges \ brain
    • Hyperaemia of gastrointestinal tract, liver , lungs,
    • Myocardial degeneration
  • Microscopical lesions
    • Eosinophilic meningoencephalitis
    • Hyperaemia of leptomeninges
    • Oedema , perivascular cuffing with eosinophils and lymphocytes
    • Neuronal degeneration
Last modified: Thursday, 22 March 2012, 11:52 AM