ANIMAL HUSBANDRY II - ANIMAL HEALTH BAG201

Study Disease Recognition and Animal Health

Learn to identify and describe common diseases and conditions found in livestock, and how to appropriately treat or respond to these. This course provides an excellent foundation for animal health workers to better identify, understand and respond to signs of ill health in animals.

Specific topics include signs and symptoms of diseases, disease classification and causes, fever and immunity, tissue repair, and wounds and cell changes.

 

Become familiar with the normal, vital signs of animals

Improve your ability to recognise health and ill health, through vital signs such as:

  • Pulse rate
  • Respiration rate
  • Body temperature

These signs should be measured at rest.

In addition to vital signs, the farmer should continually observe the natural habits and behaviour of stock. Any changes in behaviour should be investigated immediately as it could be due to illness.

The sooner a farmer can treat sick animals, the better. Illness causes individual cells in the animal to break down and die. If treatment is started quickly, the cells can be stopped from degenerating. If treatment is delayed, the damage done by illness can be considerable; especially if the affected cells make up an organ.
 

 

COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS

There are ten lessons as follows:

 1. Introduction to Animal Health -
Learn to describe common diseases affecting farm animals and the circumstances under which animals contract these diseases - the healthy animal, causes of ill health, preventing ill health

2. Signs & Symptoms of Diseases -
The physical symptoms of diseases in farm animals - common methods of handling animals during health assessments, recognising ill health, restraining a horse, sheep handling facilities

3. Disease Classification -
Methods used in classifying animal diseases –
viral diseases, bacterial diseases, parasitic diseases, protozoal diseases, disease types in beef cattle, diseases in sheep

4. Causes and Diagnosis of Disease -
The causes of disease and the relevant methods of diagnosis - examining cattle, examining a horse, ticks, tick-borne diseases, diagnosis of diseases

5. Treatment of Disease -
Methods used in the treatment of diseases in farm animals - vaccination, the animal first aid kit, tetanus antiserum, animal nursing, quarantine, slaughter, post mortem, disease prevention in cattle, disease prevention in sheep, treatment of parasites in sheep

6. Inflammation -
Outline the nature and causes of inflammation in farm animals - the inflammatory response, causes of inflammation, types of inflammation, symptoms of inflammation, inflammatory exudate, treatment of inflammation

7. Fever and Immunity -
The biological mechanisms underlying fever and the immune system in farm animals - the fever mechanism, other temperature related disorders, effect of temperature on enzymes, immunity

8. Tissue Repair -
The biological mechanisms underlying tissue repair in farm animals - healing of a clean incised wound, healing of an open wound, common horse ailments to recognise

9. Wounds -
The biological mechanisms of wounds in farm animals and address different treatment methods for repair of common ailments - types of wounds, first aid treatments, bandaging horses, emergencies

10. Cell changes -
The causes and biological mechanisms of cell change in farm animals - neoplasms, tumours and cancers, the course of an infectious disease, death, cancers etc.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

 

Duration: 100 hours

 

Aims

  • Explain common health problems affecting animals, including the circumstances under which animals contract health problems, and methods used to prevent the development of ill health
  • Analyse physical indicator symptoms of ill health in animals.
  • Determine the taxonomic class of animal pests and diseases.
  • Explain the diagnostic characteristics of the main types of animal pathogenic microorganisms.
  • Explain the methods used in the treatment of pests and diseases in farm animals.
  • Explain the role of inflammation, including it's symptoms and causes, in animals.
  • Explain the biological processes which affect and control the immune system in animals.
  • Explain the biological processes which affect and control tissue repair in animals.
  • Determine procedures for the management of wounds to animals, on a farm.
  • Explain the processes involved in cellular change in animals.
  • Diagnose simple health problems in farm animals.

 

WHAT THE COURSE COVERS

Here are just some of the things you will be doing:

  • List criteria used to assess the health status, including ill-health, of animals.
  • Describe the different causes of ill-health in animals.
  • Explain the methods used to prevent ill-health in animals.
  • Write a standard procedure for a routine health examination of a chosen farm animal.
  • Describe the symptoms of ill-health in animals.
  • Compare the causes of two symptomatically similar health problems for a specified farm animal.
  • Diagnose a health problem from a given set of symptoms.
  • Distinguish, using labelled illustrations, between different taxonomic classes of animal pest and disease organisms.
  • Describe identifying characteristics of four different disease carrying agents of specified farm animals.
  • Classify commonly occuring pests and diseases of three different animals, into their taxonomic classes.
  • Describe the characteristics of viruses, using illustrations and a report.
  • Describe the characteristics of bacteria, using illustrations and a report.
  • Describe the characteristics of protozoa, using illustrations and a report.
  • Describe the characteristics of parasites, using illustrations and a report.
  • Describe the characteristics of nutritional disorders, using illustrations and a report.
  • Analyse the relevance of ten specified factors, to determining the health of a chosen species of farm animal.
  • Describe the veterinary treatments available over the counter for on-farm use.
  • Explain the vaccination programs used to treat two different specifies of farm animal.
  • Describe the applications and techniques used for dips, to control external parasites in a specified farm animal.
  • List the essential items for a First Aid Kit for a specified farm animal.
  • Write guidelines for general procedures to follow when nursing sick farm animals.
  • List the procedures employed in quarantine, using a chosen animal as an example.
  • Describe the procedures for slaughtering a diseased ruminant in order to conduct a post-mortem examination.
  • Prepare an illustrated, one page report on the post-mortem procedures of a ruminant.
  • Compare two different methods used to control a specified disease in farm animals.
  • Identify a suitable method of control for ten different, specified pests and diseases of farm animals.
  • Differentiate between at least five factors which cause inflammation in animals.
  • Develop a checklist for analysing inflammation in a chosen farm animal species.
  • Explain the inflammatory response in a specific case study.
  • Compare the different methods used to control inflammation in animals.
  • Describe the function of the immune system in animals.
  • List the agents which can cause fevers in animals.
  • Explain the biology of fevers in a specified case study of a farm animal species.
  • Explain the methods used in treating fevers in animals.
  • Explain at least five factors which influence immune response in animals.
  • Explain the characteristics of the immune system in a chosen farm animal species.
  • Describe the composition of tissues at three different body sites, in terms of susceptibility to different types of internal and external damage.
  • Compare the characteristics of different types of tissue damage.
  • List factors, in terms of both rate of, and quality of repair; which influence tissue repair.
  • Explain the biological processes, which occur as damaged tissue heals in animals.
  • Compare the different effects of wounding, including psychological, physiological and anatomical, to three different parts of a specified animals body.
  • Explain the different biological processes which occur following wounding, including: tissue repair and infection.
  • Develop a checklist for the treatment of wounds in farm animals.
  • List an appropriate treatment for each of five different types of wounds to 4 different species of farm animals.
  • Describe post care treatment of the wounds as discussed above.
  • Determine the potential causes of wounding of farm animals.
  • Develop guidelines for prevention of wounds to farm animals, based on the potential causes identified above.
  • Describe the different causes of cellular change in animals.
  • Explain the general processes associated with cancer at a cellular level, in animals.
  • Explain the cellular processes associated with death of animal tissue.
  • List the factors which influence the rate and extent of cellular change in diseased animals.
  • Monitor the health condition of a farm animal over a four month period.
  • Observe, and prepare a report, on the veterinarians diagnostic process/ health assessment methodology, when inspecting three different farm animals.
  • Diagnose the cause of three different health problems, detected in three different genera of farm animals.
  • Develop a checklist of the diagnostic indicators of common health problems, which occur in three different farm animal species.

 

Get the most out of your study of Animal Husbandry 

There are no prerequisites for this course and it can be taken as a stand-alone course; however, it is advisable to complete Animal Husbandry I (Animal Anatomy & Physiology) before attempting this course.

This course complements both Animal Health Care and Natural Therapies for Animal Health Care. To obtain the most extensive knowledge of Animal Health; consider undertaking all three modules as part of a Certificate in Animal Husbandry.

 

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