CLINICAL AND ULTRASONOGRAPHIC FINDING ON THYROID-GLAND OF RAMS DURINGADMINISTRATION OF KALIUM IODATUM

The dynamics of triad values, general health condition, palpation and ultrasonographic findings on thyroid glands of rams with various form of clinical manifestation of goitre during therapy with kalium iodatum . An experiment included 9 breeding Merino rams at the age of 2.5 year with clinically developed goitre form. Experimental group (6 rams) wa s administered kalium iodatum in the feed mixture at a dose of 0.5 g/a nimal/day during 42 days. The control group without treatment consiste d of three rams. Dynamics of body temperature had a similar trend in b oth the groups and differences at this parameter found between treated and untreated animals ranged within physiological boundaries. Breath and heart rates reached during the whole experiment statistically insi gnificantly higher values in experimental rams than in control rams. I ncrease in the weight of experimental group started to be manifested c ompared with initial values from 15th day and the highest weight was i n these animals at the end of experiment (88.5 +/- 3.85 kg). The diffe rence in weight between experimental and control rams was on day 42 of the experiment on the level of significance p < 0.05. A slight degree of apathy and inappetence was observed in all animals at the beginnin g of experiment. Improved intake of the feed in treated animals starte d to be manifested from day 8 but the improvement of the general healt h condition and reactions to external stimuli were found on day 21 day from the beginning of therapy. The changed palpation finding of thyro id gland (hypertrophy, solid-elastic consistency) during application o f kalium iodatum was gradually modified and the size of thyroid gland was 2-4 x 1.5-2 cm on day 42 in different experimental animals. An ori ginal solid-elastic consistency of thyroid gland changed in treated ra ms to softer and soft. Symmetry, temperature, sensitivity and mobility of thyroid gland was not affected by therapeutic procedure. Heteroech ogenic character of ultrasonographic examination of thyroid gland in e xperimental and control rams was characteristic at the beginning of ex periment. Sonogramme showing almost homogenous echogeneity was typical for thyroid gland in treated rams on day 42 of the trial. This findin g corresponded to modified thyroid gland with relatively high represen tation of colloid and lower representation of cells.