33rd Annual Scientific Meeting proceedings

Soft tissues surgeries in Dromedary camel are categorized into; dulaa, esophageal, intestinal, anal and rectal, abdominal wall, udder, eye and tumor surgeries.

Dulaa surgery
Dulaa is an expandable diverticulum that occurs on the ventral aspect of the soft palate. It inflates with air and hangs from one side of the camel’s mouth especially during the breeding season.

Dulaa gets affected when male camels chase female for mating and during fighting with other males. Also when it hangs in the canine tooth or with fracture lower jaw. The most recorded dulaa affections are impaction with food materials, ulceration, gangrene, abscessation, hematoma and punctured and lacerated wounds. Affected camel reveals dysphagia, dyspnea, stretching of head and neck, distension of the pharynx and difficulty to eat or drink. The affected dulaa may be protruded outside the mouth or entrapped in the pharynx.

Management of affected dulaa is by amputation. The protruded dulaa is excised under intravenous general anesthesia and local anesthesia at the base of dulaa. In case of entrapped dulaa, it is approached through incision of ventral part of pharynx after performing temporary tracheostomy.

Esophageal surgery
Camel esophagus has cervical and thoracic portions only, with no abdominal portion as in other animals. The total length of esophagus is 110-150 cm and the diameter is 8-10 cm.

Esophageal obstruction (choke) is the most frequent diagnosed in dromedary camels due to intra luminal masses (primary obstruction). Choked camel shows discomfort, dysphagia, and regurgitation of food or milk, salivation, extension of head and neck and tympany. Diagnosis is accomplished by passing a stomach tube, radiography and endoscopy.

Management of esophageal obstruction is non-surgical and surgical. The non-surgical management is achieved by removal of the obstructive mass with crocodile forceps guided endoscope. While the surgical management is by cervical esophagotomy.

Intestinal surgery
Total length of camel small intestine is 40 m and large intestine is 19.5 m. Duodenum of camel  is formed from a thick part called ampulla of duodenum and thin part which is duodenal coils. Ascending colon of camel is spiral in shape and formed from five and a half centripetal and centrifugal coils.

Intestinal obstruction is the most encountered affection. It arises from wool balls and enteroliths. The most relevant signs are bilateral abdominal distension with no defection for more than 5 days. Rectal palpation, radiography and ultrasonography are the useful tools for diagnosis.   

Management of intestinal obstruction is by Enterotomy.

Anal and rectal surgeries
Rectal prolapse is one of the most frequent problems in dromedary camels in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Type II rectal prophase is the most occurring one. Males are more affected than females and mating constitutes 90% from the etiology of prolapse, while diarrhea and constipation forming only 5% each. Few cases of rectal prolapse are recent with healthy rectal wall while most of cases are old with different degrees of pathological changes; necrosis, ulceration and gangrene.

Rectal prolapse is managed either by reduction and retention in recent cases or amputation of rectal wall in old cases.

Abdominal wall surgeries
Hernia is frequently recorded in dromedary camels. Ventral and lateral abdominal hernias are the only diagnosed types. It is reducible in the majority of cases and irreducible in other cases due to adhesion and strangulation.

Herniorrhaphy is performed in cases that have hernial ring at the size of hand fist or less, while hernioplasty is done in cases with hernial ring larger than the hand fist.

Udder surgeries
The udder of camel consists of four glandular quarters, each with its own teat. The left and right halves are separated from each other by a double sheet of fibroblastic tissue. The cranial and caudal quarters cannot be separated macroscopically. Each teat has two to three teat orifices.

The recorded udder affections in camels are chronic mastitis, pendulous udder, severe laceration and udder abscess. The management of these affections is by mastectomy either total or half according to the affected part.

Eye surgery
Camel’s eye is large, sphere-shaped, laterally located and has a wide and sharp field of vision. Camels have 3 eyelids that close from one side to the other and have long thick lashes reaching up to 10 cm.

Camel’s eye gets affected by a bite from another animal or sharp object that penetrates the eye. The recorded eye affections are suppurative panophthalmitis, prolapse of eye ball with tear in ocular muscles and lacerated wounds in upper and lower eyelids. Extirpation of eye ball is performed in all cases with good results.

Tumor surgery
Camel cutaneous tumors have a high incidence rate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and many cases are being encountered in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The most common locations are the head, neck upper and lower thirds, chest pad, fore and hind limbs and abdomen. The frequent types of tumors are, fibromas, squamous cell carcinomas, papilloma and lipomas. The weight of tumors varies between 100 gm up to 10 Kg or more. The small tumor is easily excised surgically but the larger ones need firstly to be ligated at their bases for about four weeks then removed surgically.