Pharyngeal Lacerations and Retropharyngeal Abscesses in Cattle

Abstract

Injuries of the oro-pharynx are most often associated with trauma due to balling guns, Frick speculums, drench syringes or the boluses themselves.¹ Often the operator has no idea that an injury has occurred until several days later when the cow's inappetance/throat swelling has become apparent. Although many lacerations are small and heal spontaneously with minimal clinical signs, identifiable pharyngeal lacerations cause much distress to affected cattle resulting in significant weight loss and/or death. The following is a summary of 17 cases of pharyngeal laceration/retropharyngeal abscess seen at the Ohio State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (table 1). Clinical signs seen in cattle found to have pharyngeal lacerations included dyspnea (11), excessive salivation (7), high cervical swelling (7), anorexia (7), bloat (1) and malodorous breath (1). The respiratory signs in these animals were primarily upper respiratory in nature although pneumonia was also detected in several animals. The degree of respiratory embarrassment in 2 cattle was severe enough to warrant tracheostomy.