BIOM 3200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Capillary Refill, Tachycardia, Hyperthyroidism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Biomedical Sciences
• Course: BIOM 3200
• Professor: Malcolm Campbell

Document Summary

Intact, indoor cat: 12 year old cat, female, adopted as a kitten, visits the clinic once a year, vaccination status is current. Problem list (arranged in order from most likely to least likely: thea ride is experiencing many symptoms of hyperthyroidism (a common disorder in older cats causing an increased production in thyroid hormones from the thyroid gland): However, thea is not experiencing these symptoms: oral infections, skin infections, neurologic disease. Pyrogens cross the blood brain barrier and bind to neurons in the thermoregulatory centre. Higher temperature is meant to buy the immune system time to subdue the infection/inflammation. Thyroid hormones stimulate a faster heart rate and a stronger contraction of the heart muscle. Increased levels of circulating thyroid hormones, can result in heart changes known as thyrotoxic heart disease. High neutrophils levels usually indicate the body is fighting a bacterial infection, though sometimes levels are high because of stress or inflammation.