Animal Health, Common Diseases and First Aid
Disease recognition and prevention
This domain tests common infectious and metabolic diseases, vaccination timing, zoonoses and first aid. You must distinguish signs that need urgent veterinary help from routine management.
Core rules and concepts
- FMD: vesicles on mouth and feet, salivation, lameness; viral, so antibiotics do not cure it.
- Haemorrhagic septicaemia: sudden fever, swelling of throat and neck; bacterial, treated with antibiotics and prevented by vaccination.
- Black quarter: muscle swelling with crackling (crepitus); anthrax: sudden death, tarry blood; never open an anthrax carcass.
- Mastitis: hot, swollen udder and abnormal milk; bloat: left-flank distension; milk fever: recumbency after calving, treated with calcium by a vet.
- First aid: control bleeding, clean wounds, immobilise fractures, keep the animal warm and call a veterinarian.
- Vaccinate against FMD twice yearly and HS/BQ annually in endemic areas.
Worked example
A buffalo is bloated, breathing fast, with a drum-like left flank. First aid is to keep her standing, pass a stomach tube if trained, and call a vet; trocarisation is a veterinary procedure, not a lay action. The reasoning separates immediate supportive first aid from invasive treatment.
Traps that cost marks
Do not give antibiotics for viral FMD. Do not open an anthrax carcass. Do not treat milk fever with antibiotics. Do not confuse bloat with simple indigestion. Do not delay reporting sudden deaths.