To date, few consistent relationships between survival in rehabilitation programs and diagnostic measures recorded upon admission have been identified for harbor seal pups. Veterinary records for 718 unweaned Pacific harbor seal pups (Phoca vitulina richardii) admitted to a rehabilitation center were examined to identify clinical factors associated with preweaning survival and develop a triage tool to stratify pups according to their risk of mortality. Physical, serum chemical, and hematological variables were examined and their relationship with survival to weaning was assessed by logistic regression and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Survival to weaning was 85.1% and many clinical variables reflecting the pups’ age, size, growth, injuries, and blood parameters were associated with the likelihood of survival. A decision tree model, consisting of serum concentrations of phosphorus, sodium, and calcium, successfully stratified harbor seal pups into clinical subgroups according to their preweaning mortality risk. For both the derivation and validation cohorts, pups classified as “high risk” had significantly lower odds of survival, while those classified as “low risk” had significantly greater odds of survival. This simple decision tree could serve as a practical triage tool to help identify and direct care towards pups at higher risk of preweaning mortality.

中文翻译：

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下沉或游泳：接受康复治疗的斑海豹幼崽（Phoca vitulina richardii）断奶前死亡率的风险分层

迄今为止，对于斑海豹幼崽，康复计划的存活率与入院时记录的诊断措施之间几乎没有一致的关系。718 只未断奶的太平洋海豹幼崽（Phoca vitulina richardii）的兽医记录) 进入康复中心接受检查，以确定与断奶前存活率相关的临床因素，并开发一种分类工具，根据它们的死亡风险对幼崽进行分层。检查了物理、血清化学和血液学变量，并通过逻辑回归和分类回归树 (CART) 分析评估了它们与断奶存活率的关系。断奶存活率为 85.1%，许多反映幼崽年龄、体型、生长、损伤和血液参数的临床变量与存活的可能性有关。由血清磷、钠和钙浓度组成的决策树模型成功地根据断奶前死亡风险将斑海豹幼崽分为临床亚组。对于推导和验证队列，被归类为“高风险”的幼崽的生存几率显着较低，而被归类为“低风险”的幼崽的生存几率要高得多。这个简单的决策树可以作为一种实用的分类工具，帮助识别和指导对断奶前死亡率较高的幼犬的护理。