A 41-month-old Holstein cow with the chief complaint of anorexia exhibited edema of the lower jaw and dewlap, jugular venous engorgement and diarrhea, therefore traumatic pericarditis was suspected. Echocardiography revealed an increased amount of pericardial fluid without fibrin deposition and compression of the heart. Pericardial fluid was blood-like, and cytology findings ruled out neoplastic disease. Blood and blood-chemical examination did not suggest strong inflammation. After removing 5 l of pericardial fluid using pericardiocentesis, the general condition of the patient rapidly improved with a decrease of edema, ascites, pleural effusion and pericardial fluid. As a ventricular septal defect was found by auscultation and echocardiography, the cow was euthanized on Day 29. No lesions related to blood-like pericardial effusion were found by necropsy, thus the diagnosis was idiopathic hemorrhagic pericardial effusion. Pericardiocentesis is thought to be a treatment option for idiopathic hemorrhagic pericardial effusion in cattle.

Accurate platelet count measurement with point-of-care testing (POCT) using an automated impedance-based hematology analyzer is difficult, particularly in cats. Microsemi LC‐662 (LC) is a new POCT automated impedance-based hematology analyzer for use in veterinary clinics. In this study, we compared the performance of POCT analyzers LC and Celltac α (Cα) with Sysmex XT‐2000iV (XT) in measuring hematological variables in dogs and cats. To cope with the delayed measurement of complete blood count (CBC), which can occur in clinics, we also determined the storage effects on hematological data collected using LC. Blood samples from healthy dogs and cats (nine dogs and five cats), as well as from dogs and cats that were brought to our hospital (90 dogs and 62 cats), were included in the study. To study the storage effects on hematological data, we used nine healthy dogs and five healthy cats. In dogs, platelet counts measured using LC and Cα were highly correlated with those measured using XT. In cats, platelet counts measured using LC were highly correlated with those measured using XT; however, platelet counts measured using only Cα were moderately correlated with those measured using XT. Both time and temperature effects on CBC data were assessed for stored blood. Prolonged storage and low temperature resulted in significantly decreased platelet counts and increased white blood cell counts in both dogs and cats.

We investigated factors involved in the etiology of mesenteric fat necrosis in Japanese black cattle using 32,586 cases in the carcass inspection database. The incidence was significantly higher in females than in castrated males and increased with age. It differed significantly among farms (P＜0.01). In addition, this disease was found to have a correlation to perirenal fat necrosis, gastritis, hemorrhagic inflammation, pneumonia and hepatitis in farms with a higher incidence rate. These findings suggest that sex, age and feeding management methods are related to the onset of mesenteric fat necrosis in Japanese black cattle.