Common salt supplemented with mineral mixture provides rapid symptomatic relief in pica-affected camels

Abstract

The proposed study was carried out at an organized camel herd at NRCC, Bikaner. Initially, the incidence study was carried out among 44 camels. Based on clinical observation 21 camels were shown signs of pica. Among them 11.36% were shown osteophagia; 4.55% geophagia and 4.55% lithophagia; 9.09% coprophagia; 4.55% lignophagia and whereas 13.64% eat more than one objectionable object. After that 18 severely pica-affected camels were selected and divided into 3 groups to evaluate the responsiveness of treatment, mineral mixture (group A) and mineral mixture common salt (group B) with untreated control group (group C) camels. The silica content of fecal material and Mean bite per hour decreased significantly post-treatment in both treated groups (Group-A and B) compare to pre-treatment. Body weight was found to increase post-treatment in both treated groups (Group-A and Group-B) compare to pre-treatment. The results indicated that the mineral supplementation alone or in combination with common salt is beneficial for the treatment of pica. However additional salt supplementation was observed over mineral supplementation and found better results.