Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS

• Clinical diagnosis is the science of clinical methods of examination of animals in order to identify the affected organ or system that is the cause of disease.
• Externally visible or appreciable changes in the body of an animal or one of its organs is an indicator of disease. The recognition of such changes using inspection, palpation, percussion or auscultation is called clinical or physical examination.
• Physical examination is an integral part of clinical diagnosis, which is crucial for the management of disease conditions.
• The determination of the causes of disease may be termed aetiological diagnosis whereas symptomatic diagnosis is used when the cause of the disease cannot be determined.

Some definitions

• Symptoms are any visible functional disturbances of various body systems (e.g. increased body temperature).
• Syndrome , a group of clinical signs that constitute a group of diseases that cannot be traced to a single aetiological factor (e.g. feline urologic syndrome).
• Prognosis , anticipating the outcome of the disease or condition (e.g. recovery or death).
• Three main categories should be taken into account when clinically examining the animal, these are:
  • Case history.
  • Examination of the environment.
  • Examination of the animal.