Seventy-one paraplegic dogs with confirmed intervertebral thoracolumbar disc disease and intact deep pain sensation were treated by hemilaminectomy and fenestration of at least two adjacent discs. The success rate of treatment in the overall population was 86 per cent (61/71 cases), with a mean length of time to regaining the ability to walk of 10.8 days and a mean follow-up time of 29 months. The rate of onset of clinical signs significantly influenced the clinical outcome (P=0.01) but not the length of recovery time (P=0.45). Conversely, the duration of clinical signs did not seem to significantly affect the outcome (P=0.27), but did affect the length of recovery time (P=0.001). Animals which had shown clinical signs for more than six days took significantly longer to regain the ability to walk (ie, an additional 6.9 days, P=0.04 and 4.5 days, P=0.01), when compared with those which had shown clinical signs for less than two days, or more than two but less than six days, respectively.

No abstract

The main factors that affect early survival, physical damage and stress reactions of sardine Sardina pilchardus after live capture and introduction to captivity were examined. A total of 2800 sardines were captured alive from commercial purse seiners in five trials off southern Portugal and monitored for 4 weeks in aquaculture tanks. Survival rates varied considerably between trials (from <20 to >80% after a month), with most deaths occurring in the first 5 days. Sardine early survival was affected by factors related to conditions at sea (catch composition, sea temperature and transportation density), during introduction to captivity (magnitude of thermal shock, land transportation duration and use of antibacterial treatment) and, possibly, their interaction. Physical damage was related to the probability of dying, with fish that died during the first week showing significantly higher scale loss and larger caudal fin erosion that those that were alive in the same period. For all stress variables measured (blood haematocrit, cortisol, glucose and ions in the plasma), the most extreme values were attained during introduction to captivity or in the first hours after. After 2 weeks in captivity, most variables had returned to levels close to those observed at the onset of purse-seine fishing, suggesting that maintenance conditions were adequate to permit a rapid recovery from fishing and transport stress.

The results obtained in our study are consistent with the documented worldwide prevalence of feline haemoplasma infections, suggesting that the three main feline haemoplasma species are common in Portugal.