Rabbit Body Systems Flashcards
(33 cards)
What structure occupies a large portion of the cranial thorax?
What is the clinical importance of the absence of septa between the lung lobes in the rabbit?
What type of breathers are rabbits? – what is therefore a concern to see a rabbit do? – what is this a sign of?
The thymus gland.
A pneumonia infection would not be localised to one lobe.
Obligate nasal breathers.
Open-mouth breathing.
A sign of severe respiratory distress.
What does crepuscular mean?
Where does most digestion occur in the alimentary tract of the rabbit?
How do rabbits convert food to energy and use protein efficiently
Awake and eat at dusk and dawn.
Mostly occurs in the caecum and colon.
They make caecotrophs and eat them and perform browsing.
What does high fibre stimulate?
Gut motility.
What can occur when gut motility is low?
Over digestion of food –> Increase in lactic acid –> Lowered gut pH –> Affect gut microbes that digest fibre –> Change in microbial content of gut –> Damage to gut wall, gas build-up –> Toxin absorption into body –> Potential shock.
Fibre excreted quickly or slowly?
What is the primary bacteria in the rabbit gut?
Quickly.
Bacteroides.
How many lobes are there in the liver?
Gall bladder present in rabbits?
What is the clinical significance of the caudate lobe in the rabbit?
4-6 lobes.
Yes gall bladder present.
Caudate lobe in pedunculated (on a stalk) so there is risk of torsion of this lobe, affecting its blood supply.
How much of the abdomen does the ileocaecocolic complex occupy?
What does the ileocaecocolic complex consist of?
What structures are attached to one another by a mesentery?
More than half of the abdomen.
Caecum and colon.
Descending duodenum, ileum, caecum, appendix, proximal colon, distal colon.
What can cause gut stasis?
Stress (reduced PS NS activity), change to diet or inappropriate diet – low fibre, sugar/carbohydrate rich.
What anatomical feature stops vomiting and eructating in rabbits?
A strong and well developed cardiac sphincter.
What part of the stomach is glandular and which part is non-glandular?
What foreign material is commonly found in the stomach and why?
What structures of small intestine are present in the rabbit?
Cardia is non-glandular and the fundus is glandular.
Hair commonly found in stomach because of grooming behaviour.
Duodenum, jejunum and ileum.
What is the name of the structure that the ileum expands into?
What is this structure composed of?
What other name is sometimes given to this structure?
Sacculus rotundus.
Composed of lymphoid tissue.
Caecal tonsil.
What does the sacculus rotundus empty into?
What is this structure the junction of?
What structure does the caecum end in?
What does the weak ileocaecal valve do?
Ampulla caecalis coli.
Ileum, caecum and colon.
Caecum ends in the appendix.
Ileocaecal valve prevents backflow of ingesta into the ileum when the caecum contracts.
What part of the abdomen does the rabbit large intestine occupy?
What process occurs in the caecum?
What is the primary microbe in the caecum?
Describe the caecal walls in rabbits – prone to what?
Most of the ventral floor.
Microbial fermentation.
Bacteroides.
Caecal walls are thin and friable – prone to dilation and potential rupture.
What are the pockets in the caecum formed by?
How many parts can the caecum be divided into?
What type of appendix do rabbits have? – describe.
What tissue is the appendix made of?
Spiral constriction.
3 – divided into flexures.
Vermiform appendix – Worm-like.
Appendix composed of lymphoid tissue.
What is the colon divided into?
What structure divides the 2 parts of the colon?
Proximal and distal colon.
Fusus coli.
How can the proximal and distal colon be distinguished?
Proximal colon has taeniae and haustra whereas the distal colon does not.
How many taenial bands are at the first section of the proximal colon and what other structures can be found here?
What do these other structures do?
How many taenial bands found at the second section of the proximal colon?
3 taenial bands are the first section of the proximal colon and wartzen present here too.
Wartzen increase surface area.
1 taenial band at the distal colon.
What is the fusus coli equivalent to?
What does the fusus coli consist of?
What is the function of the fusus coli?
What process is the fusus coli important in?
Equivalent to third part of ascending colon.
Consists of thicken and highly innervated circular muscle.
Regulates passage of ingesta into distal colon, acting like a “pacemaker”.
Important in caecotrophy.
What are the 3 types of colonic motility and describe their functions?
What stimulates the fusus coli?
Segmental contraction (like chopping up ingesta), haustral contraction (causes churning in the sacculations), Peristaltic/reverse peristaltic motility (moves ingesta along gut towards rectum/moves ingesta proximally).
Fiber stimulates it.
What happens to the nutrient-rich liquid component in the rabbit GI tract?
It is sent back to the caecum to become caecotrophs.
What is coprophagia?
Bacterial fermentation occurs in fore, mid or hind gut in rabbits?
Why is caecotrophy necessary?
When animals eat faeces.
Occurs in midgut.
Because the location of bacterial fermentation in the midgut means that nutrients (vits B and K) released from fermentation could be lost in the faeces so consumption of the faecal matter means it gets to pass through the alimentary tract again and be absorbed in the small intestine.
At what age does caecotrophy begin to occur in the rabbit?
What do the rabbits do prior to this age?
What structure regulates colonic contraction?
What contraction types separate ingesta mechanically into solid and liquid in caecotrophy?
At 2-3 weeks of age.
Eat the caecotrophs of the adult to seed the gut bacteria.
Fusus coli regulates colonic contraction.
Segmental and haustral contractions.
What are hard rabbit faeces made up of?
What happens to the liquid fraction of the ingesta?
Indigestible fibre.
Passes to periphery of haustra then returned by antiperistalsis to the caecum for further fermentation.
What happens to the liquid fraction once in the caecum?
When does caecotrophy occur in the wild rabbit?
When does caecotrophy occur in pet rabbits, and why?
It undergoes further fermentation where it becomes more concentrated with nutrient overtime.
Occurs during the day while animal in burrow.
Occurs at night in pets as stimulated and eating during the day.
