The well being of animals depends upon the proper functioning of their digestive system. An efficient digestive system is vital to an animal not only for its physical outlook but also to produce milk and meat. In ruminants anorexia, tympany, indigestions are commonly encountered and are characterized by poor appetite, change in pH towards either side, decreased ruminal motility and reduced protozoal counts (Radostitis et al., 1994). Therefore, it becomes essential to correct the ruminal environment by one way or the other for proper production. Ruminal dysfunctions could be due to ingestion of silage, spoiled/ moldy silage, excessive amount of protein, urea, excess ingestion of grain starch, prolonged usage of antibiotics, sulfonamides or indigestible fibers, sand, soil etc, and present study was under taken to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of APPETONIC VET powder in ruminal disorders. APPETONIC VET powder is one such formulation which contains several medicinal flora, in veterinary practice, herbal formulations have been used to treat disorders of rumen in farm animals for decades with excellent results.

A total of 40 sick cows brought to the hospital were selected for the study, which included 25 and 15 cows, suffering from ruminal disorders and anorexia of unknown origin respectively. The animal history, clinical signs, clinical observations such as appetite, ruminal movements were recorded for these clinical cases as presented in Table 1. All the animals were treated with APPETONIC VET powder at a dose of 50 gms orally, twice daily for 3 days. All the animals were closely observed daily for any clinical improvements, such as feed and water intake, ruminations, ruminal movements and dung consistency.

The animals with signs of inappetence, dullness, depression and decreased ruminal motility with respect to frequency and amplitude showed considerable improvement in ruminal movements within 3 days of post treatment with APPETONIC VET powder. The cases with a history of anorexia, bloat/tympany and ruminal impactions recovered within 2 days, whereas the animals with simple indigestions recovered within 3 days. This indicates that APPETONIC VET powder can improve the ruminal movement probably due to presence of combination of potent medicinal floras which exerts rumenotoric, carminative and stomachic activity, ensuring optimal ruminal pH for growth and survival of microflora leading to better digestion and reduces the froth forming microbes in rumen and provides prompt and complete relief from tympany and bloat.

Since APPETONIC VET powder is a mixture of herbs Zingiber officinale, Piper nigrum, Terminalia chebula, Tinospora cordifolia, Allium sativum, Embelia ribes and Cuminum cyminum, all of them have been reported to be very good stomachic, appetizer and carminative (Day, 1980; Kapoor, 1990). Therefore, APPETONIC VET powder can improve the activity of microflora, ruminal tonicity in ruminants and can be used in cases of anorexia, simple indigestion, bloat/tympany, ruminal impactions.

1. DAY, A. C., 1980, Indian medicinal plants used in Ayurvedic preparations. Singh, B. and Singh, M.P. (Eds.), Dehradun, India.



2. KAPOOR, L. D ., 1990, Handbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.



3. RADOSTITIS, O. M., BLOOD, D. C. AND GAY, G. C ., 1994, Veterinary Medicine, 8 th Edition, Bailliere Tindal.