Surgical Treatment of Displaced Abomasum in Cattle Using Ljubljana Method

Displacement of the abomasum (DA) is an increasingly common disease in dairy cattle in intensive production. This study presents surgical treatment of DA using Ljubljana method in years 2005 and 2006. Slovenian Black and White dairy cows (n = 30) with left DA in 19 cows, right DA in four cows, anterior DA in two cows and abomasal volvulus in five cows were used. The surgical treatment was successful in 28 cows, 2 had to be euthanized due to complications associated with left DA and abomasal volvulus. One month after the surgery all 28 cows were productive. Omentopexy using Ljubljana method can be used as a clinical procedure as well as procedure performed in ambulatory practice. Displacement, surgery, percutaneous, abdomen, omentopexy In the last decade, displacement of the abomasum (DA) has been one of the most common surgical interventions in dairy cattle. It occurs due to gas accumulation in the abomasum, which pulls the organ from its physiological position on the abdominal floor either between the left abdominal wall and rumen or between the right abdominal wall and intestines. Distended abomasum can also change its normal position in the cranial direction. In such case, displaced abomasum is trapped between the reticulum and diaphragm. This type of displacement is called anterior DA (Zadnik et al. 2001; Zadnik 2003a). The incidence of left abomasal displacement on lactation varies between 0.5 and 2.2%; in certain circumstances it may be even 5% or more (Steiner 2006). Left DA is much more common (85–96% of DA) than right DA, accounting for 4–15% of cases (Constable et al. 1992). In a study conducted in Slovenia, anterior abomasal displacement accounted for 12.4% of cases (Zadnik 2003a). Majority of cases develop within the first month after calving and other cases develop during last months of pregnancy or in other physiological periods. Beside known predisposing factors such as negative energy balance, hypocalcaemia, retained foetal membranes, uterine infections, dystocia, cow breed, and others, physiologically more transverse and cranial position of the abomasum during the last 3 months of gestation (Wittek et al. 2005) and increasing depth of abdomen (Wittek et al. 2007) increase the risk of displacement in dairy cattle. In rare cases, abomasum spontaneously returns to its physiological position on the abdominal floor. In majority of cases, treatment of the affected animal is necessary. Decision upon the type of treatment is dependent on various factors including availability of equipment, clinical status of the animal, costs of procedure, clinician’s skills and preferences, value of the animal, owner’s wishes, etc. Abomasal displacements can be corrected by surgical or nonsurgical techniques. Nonsurgical techniques include rolling the cow to flip the abomasum back in place, or securing the abomasum to the body wall with a percutaneous blind tack or a toggle pin fixation. Rolling is not an effective long-term treatment because most cows will have a recurrence. Left DA can be corrected surgically using right flank omentopexy, right paramedian abomasopexy, left flank abomasopexy,