Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

PERCUSSION FIELD OF THE OMASUM

Spleen

• In left side of chest, it extends from the upper end of the last two ribs to the junction between rib and costal cartilage at the 7^th and 8^th ribs.
• The normal spleen is too thin to produce a detectable dullness on the percussion and dorsally there is only an indistinct transition from the full lung sound to the subtympanic visceral sound.
• Spleenic dullness in cattle is caused by an enlarged spleen atleast three times its normal size.
• Such spleenomegaly is usually due to leucotic neoplasia or an accumulation of pus from a foreign body within the spleen (or) anthrax. In such cases percussion for sensitivity should be undertaken gently, owing to the risk of rupture in the splenic capsule.