What is the maximum amount of sodium bicarbonate that can be administered to a cow (e.g 450Kg weight) suffering from acute rumen lactic acidosis?
I will let J. Russel to answer your question:
Another Theory for the Action of Ruminal Buffer Salts: Decreased Starch Fermentation and Propionate Production. 1993 J Dairy Sci 76:826-830.
There is not much effect of adding bicarbonate in the case of lactic acidosis. What you have to do is to reduce the effect of CO2 holdup. This can be achieved by providing products that will help to release the the trapped dissolved carbon dioxide from the rumen liquor such as ionophores or surfactants.
But of course, this is my opinion.
@José Alberto Laporte Uribe how rapidly this will correct ruminal pH ?
@Jose Alberto Laporte thank you for your opinion. However my question is actually about amount of intravenous sodium bicarbonate not the oral. It is well established that sodium bicarbonate is not a good rumen alkalizer, rather magnesium oxide/hydroxide and even Aluminium hydroxide are better rumen alkalizer.
Hi Syed, sorry, you did not specified. Why do you think that the intravenous sodium bicarbonate will be any different? Blood lactic acidosis is a consequence of CO2 poisoning. The origin of the blood lactic acid is endogenous and not ruminal (see Huber below). As CO2 increases in the blood, the tissue will use lactate to sink the H3O+ and HCO3 associated to the rise in dCO2 concentrations (Gianesella, 2010). Adding more bicarbonate could exacerbate the lactic acidosis.
Remove the source of the CO2 poisoning, CO2 holdup and the balance will be restore. How quickly this can be? it will really depend on the acuteness of the illness... but I will recommend it together with intravenous electrolytes.
Huber, T. L. "Lactic Acidosis and Renal Function in Sheep." J Anim Sci 29, no. 4 (Oct 1969): 612-15.
Huber, T. L. "Physiological Effects of Acidosis on Feedlot Cattle." Journal of Animal Science 43, no. 4 (1976): 902-09.
Gianesella, M., M. Morgante, C. Cannizzo, A. Stefani, P. Dalvit, V. Messina, and E. Giudice. "Subacute Ruminal Acidosis and Evaluation of Blood Gas Analysis in Dairy Cow." [In eng]. Veterinary Medicine International 2010 (2010): 1-4.
Hi, Maurizio Dioli , thanks
Ruminal pH is the balance between acids and bases. The HH equation
pH = pKa + log HCO3/dCO2
These 2 solutions have exactly the same pH
100 mM HCO3 / 100 mM dCO2 and 10 mM HCO3 / 10 mM dCO2
By releasing the dCO2 you might never change the pH, only another equilibrium will be reach between acids and bases.
In other words pH cannot detect CO2 holdup and ruminal acidosis
I justed wanted to confirm the maximum dose of sodium bicarbonate because the guidelines for treatment of acute lactic acidosis in standard text books are some how confusing to me...
The amount of bicarbonate to given actually depends upon base deficit /bicarbonate deficit.
Let's assume that a 450kg with severe lactic acidosis has a base deficit of 15 mEqL. The required bicarbonate will be 2025mEq corresponding to 168.75g of sodium bicarbonate.
But the text book guidelines are much higher than this value...
The amount of sodium bicarbonate is usually depending upon the degree of base deficit according to the following equation by Constable et al. (2017)*:
Total Base Deficit (mmol/L) TBD = BW (kg) + 0.6 + BD (mmol/L), where 0.6 is a factor reflecting the amount of bicarbonate in the extracellular space, BE is the number of mmol of bicarbonate to correct the acidosis and usually obtained by blood gas analysis of blood samples using blood gas analyzer.
Let's assume that the reading of blood gas analyzer gives BD as 15mmol/L
Then TBD = 450 + 0.6 + 15 = 4050 mmol/L. however, one gram of sodium bicarbonate gives 12 mmol bicarb., so the total amount of soidum bicarb for a 450kg cow with severe lactic acidosis and has a base deficit of 15 mmol/L would be: 4050/12 = 337.5g.
* Constable P, Hinchcliff K, Done S, Gruenberg W. Veterinary medicine: a
textbook of the diseases of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and goats. 11th ed.
Missouri: Elsevier; 2017.
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