[Sodium, potassium and chlorine in the blood serum of healthy calves and calves with diarrhea]

Abstract

Studied were a total of 60 normal and 91 diarrhea-affected calves of the Black-and-White breed, divided into groups of 1 to 6 days and of 7 to 14 days of age. The diseased animals were the offsprings of cows which had had acidosis, ketosis, and osteomalacia during pregnancy. Sodium and potassium were determined with the use of a flame photometer 'Spectromom', and chlorine--after Rusznyak. The data obtained was treated through variational statistic methods. It was found that with newborn normal calves, aged 1 to 14 days there was a tendency toward the drop of sodium and potassium in the blood serum, while chlorine did not change with age. Calves with scours showed a lowering trend with regard to sodium and chlorine with varying intensity and rise of potassium that was associated with the loss of liquids and more strongly manifested hypovolemia.