Clinical and diagnostic manifestations of false gestation in goats

The purpose of research is to study the clinical and diagnostic manifestations of false pregnancy in goats. The object of the study is replacement goats of breeding age (n = 6) and lactating goats (n = 37) of the Saanen breed, which were diagnosed with pseudopregnancy during a screening ultrasound examination for pregnancy and infertility. It has been established that anaphrodisia and hydrometra are obligatory symptoms of false gestation. Due to the accumulation of a significant amount of serous transudate in the uterine cavity, a pronounced bilateral symmetrical increase in abdominal volume was recorded in almost every third patient. Hydrometra was effectively recognized using ultrasound. During transabdominal scanning of pseudouterine goats, an accumulation of echo-negative fluid was visualized in the uterine cavity in the absence of the fetus (fetuses) and placentas. In the majority of sick goats (35 heads, or 81.4 %), the diagnosis was made on the hydrometer during the first ultrasound. Only 8, or 16.6 %, of the experimental goats required additional ultrasound to diagnose the hydrometer and differentiate it from a physiologically developing pregnancy. When analyzing the results of a study of the concentration of serum progesterone in pseudofetal goats, another characteristic feature of the pathology was revealed - moderate progesteronemia. It is interesting to note that the average progesterone values in pseudofetal goats were 3.5 times lower (P ≤ 0.01) than in clinically healthy goats with a gestation period of 50-90 days (4.50 ± 1.52 vs. 15.81 ± 1.32 ng/ml). Hematological and biochemical blood parameters in pseudopregnant goats did not have significant deviations from the norm and were comparable to those in clinically healthy goats with a physiologically developing pregnancy. Transabdominal visual echography is an informative method for diagnosing and differentially diagnosing false gestation from a physiologically developing pregnancy, which allows one-time (in 81.40 % of cases) or two-time examination of goats using the characterristic echo symptoms of hydrometers to make an accurate diagnosis of pseudo-pregnancy.