Species & Conditions
Four animals. Nine conditions. One thing in common.
Every condition here is common, painful, and still managed rather than solved. Some of them nobody has ever properly counted.
Where a number exists we give you its source and its limits. Where one does not, we say so instead of estimating.
Cattle
A dairy cow is milked two or three times a day. When something in her is inflamed, that routine is what hurts her.
Mastitis
Milk cannot get out, pressure builds — and then she is milked. Most cases show nothing at all and are found only by testing the milk.
42%global pooled incidencePostpartum uterine disease
After calving almost every womb carries bacteria. Disease is what happens when she cannot clear them, and it usually costs her the next pregnancy.
Retained placenta5–10% of calvingsClinical endometritis15–20% of cowsSubclinical endometritisan additional 30–35%clinical endometritis at 4–6 weeks · a further third carry it subclinicallyHow these are treated today — to be written by our veterinary team
Horses
Two conditions, and almost nobody has counted either. That is not a gap in this page. It is the state of the field.
Hoof canker
Weight-bearing turns painful, then lameness, then in the worst cases the horse will not stand. It comes back after treatment.
5 of 28cases correctly diagnosed at first sight · a 30-horse series, six put downOcular irritation
Sand, dust and wind against a surface one cell thick. He clamps the eye shut, and the rubbing is its own injury.
22.3% / 3.3%had eye discharge / had owners who noticed · 974 older horsesHow these are treated today — to be written by our veterinary team
Dogs
Five conditions, one pattern: something visible on the outside, driven by something else underneath.
Otitis externa
The ear is a closed tube. Inflammation narrows it, and nothing you put in reaches the bottom.
7.3%of dogs in one year · UK primary care, 2016Atopic dermatitis
Itches for its whole life. Managed, never cured — and it brings the ears with it.
59.1%Proportion of pruritic cases diagnosed as CAD; 743 itchy dogs, Swiss practices, 2 cold + 2 warm monthsAural haematoma
The flap fills with blood and, untreated, sets that way for good.
17 of 48returned within a month after injection · against 1 of 24 drainedTear staining
Sometimes only a stain. Sometimes the one sign of an eye in trouble.
Seborrhoeic disorders
A greasy, scaling coat. Not a disease — a sign something else is wrong.
14 dogsin the classic study of the inherited form · collected over 17 yearsHow these are treated today — to be written by our veterinary team
Cats
A cat is not a small dog. The same names describe different diseases, and the evidence behind them is thinner in every case.
Otitis externa
The same closed tube and the same pain, but usually ear mites rather than allergy. Never measured in a general cat population.
17.2%of owned cats, systematically examined · 35 of 204, one Italian hospitalFeline atopic skin syndrome
Not the canine disease under another name. Cats show patterns — over-grooming to baldness, itchy head and neck, scabby skin.
60.1%self-induced alopecia · 263 diagnosed cats, a third had two patternsHow these are treated today — to be written by our veterinary team
What we have not counted yet
Four of the nine conditions here have never been measured in a way that would let anyone say how common they are. Not by us, and not by anyone else. Where that is true we have said so rather than filled the space.
The pipeline has room in it that nothing occupies yet. We would rather show the gap than pretend it is full.
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