Introduction:
Dehydration can be a serious problem for both young animals and adults. Many times it is a life threatening problem that must be corrected quickly. Realize that dehydration decreases the animal’s ability to distribute medications and nutrients throughout the body.Clinical Signs: Sunken eyes, skin remains tented, dry nose, weakness, pale, dry gums, and a capillary refill time longer than 2 seconds are some of the more common signs of dehydration. See page C100 and C115 for additional information on dehydration and skin tent. Not every animal will experience all of these symptoms.
Additional Diagnostics: One of the best ways of evaluating the extent of dehydration in an animal and determining if hydration efforts have been successful is by drawing blood and running a complete blood count (CBC). See page D125 for additional details on this procedure.
Assessing Hydration Status:
Use the following guidelines to determine the hydration status of an animal:% Dehydrated | Eyeball Position | *Skin Remains Tented (seconds) | Mucous Membranes |
Normal | Normal | <1 | Moist |
1-5 | Normal | 1-4 | Moist |
6-8 | Slightly sunken | 5-10 | Tacky |
9-10 | Gap between eyeball and surrounding tissue | 11-15 | Tacky to dry |
11-12 | Large gap and very sunken | 16-45 | Dry |
* See page C115 for additional information on skin tent.
Once the level of dehydration in the sheep/goat has been determined, a calculation can be done to identify how much fluid is required.: 1 gallon = 3.7 liters and 1 kg = 2.2 lbs.Hints
This fluid can be given orally (PO), subcutaneously (SQ), or intravenously (IV).
Only sterile fluid (0.9% saline solution or sodium chloride) should be
administered SQ or IV. It is essential that any dehydrated animal,
particularly newborns with diarrhea, have oral, SQ, or IV fluid supplementation.
Oral Fluid Administration:
Oral fluids should only be used in animals that are 1-5% dehydrated. If the animal is more dehydrated than this, oral fluids alone do not meet the animal’s needs. The most common problems with oral fluid administration are that the method and frequency of administration is not ideal and the quantity administered is often insufficient. To overcome these problems, the following suggestions are a must:Subcutaneous (SQ) Fluid Administration:
This method of fluid administration should be used in those animals that are 6-8% dehydrated. If SQ fluids are given, remember the following:Intravenous (IV) Fluid Administration:
IV fluid administration requires that a sterile catheter be placed in the animal. This requires professional help and additional training. Once the catheter is in place, the following should be considered:Prevention:
Dehydration can be prevented when careful attention is given to an animal that is sick, injured, or under severe stress (drought, cold and hot extremes, etc.). Any animal that has diarrhea or another disease that causes fluid to be lost, should receive additional fluids immediately. It is always best to provide additional fluids at the onset of a problem, instead of trying to compensate for dehydration after the fact.