Table 1.

Clinical and postmortem findings in four cows with rib fractures

Cow No.	Rectal temperature (°C), heart and respiratory rates (per minute)	Main clinical signs	Clinical diagnosis	Main postmortem findings
1	39.4/80/30	Rumen atony, positive foreign body tests, abdominal guarding, loss of negative abdominal pressure, abdominocentesis yielded an exudate	Peritonitis	Fracture of left 13th rib, perforation of rumen, generalised peritonitis
2	39.7/72/52	Tachypnoea, increased breath sounds, positive foreign body tests, percussion of right thoracic wall painful, epistaxis, terminal recumbency	Bronchopneumonia	Fracture of 13th thoracic vertebra and right 13th rib, purulent osteomyelitis with extension to lung, lung abscess
3	38.3/68/28	Downer cow postpartum initially because of hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia and then because of pain caused by rib fracture	Downer cow syndrome	Fracture of right 11th rib with acute haemorrhage
4	39.3/96/52	Tachypnoea, increased breath sounds, pleuritic friction rubs, cough, epistaxis, pleural effusion, terminal recumbency	Bronchopneumonia	Acute splintered fracture of right 13th rib with soft tissue laceration, severe acute bronchopneumonia caused by Mannheimia haemolytica, coxarthrosis and rupture of the iliofemoral ligament on the left side