Fecal Hormone Assay and Urinalysis of Pregnant Cattle

Variation in concentrations of Thyroxin (T4 ),Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) shed in feces may help to identify physiological states of animals, but the efficacy of the technique needs to be validated for each species. Therefore, a short term cross sectional study was performed in 120 pregnant cattle for fecal hormonal analysis and urine analysis. For this, Enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) technique was used for TSH, T4 , and FSH assay and dip strip with microscopic test for urinalysis. Variation of T4 , TSH and FSH concentrations in three trimesters of pregnancy was estimated in feces of cattle. Highest T4 concentration was found in third trimester of pregnancy 165.2 ± 53.4ng/ml with TSH (µIU/ml) fluctuation of decreasing trends. TSH was highest in second trimester as 0.5 ±0.4 µIU/ml. There was no significant variation (p>0.05) for fecal T4 and TSH concentration. FSH level (mIU/ml) was sharply decreased (p< 0.01) with the advancement of pregnancy. Urinary pH turns acidic to alkaline in advance stage of pregnancy and specific gravity fluctuated among three trimesters of pregnancy. No significant variation (p>0.05) was found between variables for urine pH and specific gravity. The important identified deposits of urine were crystals, leucocytes, blood, casts, uric acid and calcium phosphate crystal in pregnant cattle. Crystalluria were a frequent finding of routine urine examination of cattle suggesting possible prone to urolithiasis, acute uric acid nephropathy induced by drugs such as sulphadiazine.