Thermography application of the pododermatitis in the diagnostics and prevention of guinea pigs

The aim of the research was to analyze the effect of infrared thermography applied in the diagnostics of guinea pigs’ soles and prevention. The infrared thermogrpahy method is used worldwide, though it is less popular in Lithuania. Scientists apply this technique on domestic animals more frequently than on the small ones. In this research guinea pigs that live in vivarium were selected as the experimental animals. During the process, while using the infrared thermography method, guinea pigs’ hind legs temperature was measured and related with visual change in the soles. Acoording to the results, guinea pigs were divided into groups: control group – healthy guinea pigs, first group- guinea pigs that have pododermatitis without visual sole changes, second group- guinea pigs that have pododermatitis with visual sole changes. Investigations showed that there was no differences between left and right soles, that is why the results of other research were analyzed generally. While comparing the results of every group, we got differencies between isotermic average and hot spots. These results proved that the method of infrared thermography was an appropriate method in the diagnostics of guinea pigs pododermatitis. Guinea pigs that had pododormetitis with visual sole changes (second group) reached the peak of highest isotermic average 30.72°C, which is 3.13°C higher than the first group, where guinea pigs had pododoermatitis without any visual sole changes (27.69 °C) and 6.02°C higher than the control group (24.70°C). Guinea pigs weight had 67.4 %, weight group – 6.0 %., sex – 6.4 %, an impact for the results of the surface temperature. Additionaly, number of guinea pigs in the den hutch results were statistically unreliable