Clotting profiles in newborn Maltese kids during the first week of life

Abstract

The neonatal period is probably the only time when a higher incidence of spontaneous thromboembolic complications may occur in the otherwise normal, healthy individual. This study was designed to determine the postnatal development of the kid coagulation system. Ten clinically healthy and full-term-born Maltese kid goats (5 males and 5 females) were used. In each kid, during the first week after birth, the prothrombin time (PT), the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), the thrombin time (TT), and fibrinogen were assessed. Analysis of variance showed a highly significant effect of age on PT, TT, and fibrinogen. Our results of this study indicate that the clotting mechanism in kids is influenced by growth. This investigation contributes to the knowledge of clotting adaptations in kids during the first 7 days of life and provides useful information for the diagnosis and treatment of some neonatal diseases.