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Topic:Clinical Findings
Clinical findings in horses encompass a range of observable signs and symptoms identified during veterinary examinations that contribute to diagnosing and managing equine health conditions. These findings can include physical observations, such as changes in behavior, posture, or gait, as well as physiological measurements like heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature. Diagnostics may also involve laboratory tests, imaging, and other diagnostic procedures to assess organ function and detect abnormalities. Recognizing and interpreting clinical findings are essential components of veterinary practice, aiding in the identification of diseases, monitoring treatment progress, and guiding therapeutic interventions. This page brings together peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the methodologies, interpretations, and implications of clinical findings in the context of equine health care.
Risk factors associated with development of diarrhea in horses after celiotomy for colic: 190 cases (1990-1994). To determine the incidence of the risk factors for developing diarrhea in horses after celiotomy for colic. Methods: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: 357 adult horses that had celiotomy for colic at the teaching hospital between Jan 1, 1990 and Sep 1, 1994. Methods: Medical records of horses that had celiotomy for colic were reviewed to abstract information regarding development of diarrhea, signalment, history, and treatment. Results: In horses that had celiotomy for colic, the incidence of diarrhea was 53.2% (190/357). Using multiple logistic regression, horses with a disorder of the lar...
Advances in equine arthroscopy. Surgical procedures completed under arthroscopic guidance have become commonplace in many equine practices and have largely replaced surgery using arthrotomy incisions. With a limited amount of equipment, numerous diagnostic and surgical procedures can be completed. Surgeons need to become familiar with regional and intraarticular (intrasynovial) anatomy to ensure that proper surgical approaches are used, access to the lesion will be realized, and potential complications will be minimized. Specialized motorized instruments and surgical lasers are now available and may be useful in the treatmen...
Instrumentation and techniques for carbon dioxide lasers in equine general surgery. The carbon dioxide laser has become an important surgical instrument in human and veterinary medicine. The unique properties of this laser make it the instrument of choice for precise incision, coagulation, and vaporization of tissue at the body surface with minimal morbidity to the patient. This article describes the instrumentation and techniques used to perform a variety of equine general surgical procedures with the carbon dioxide laser. The benefits of surgery using the carbon dioxide laser include precise dissection with minimal trauma to adjacent tissues, good hemostasis, and the abilit...
Instrumentation and techniques for treating orthopedic infections in horses. Orthopedic infections-those involving bones, joints, tendon sheaths, or bursae-are some of the most difficult problems for equine surgeons to treat successfully. Sources of the infection are usually hematogenous, traumatic, or iatrogenic and knowledge of the most likely causative bacteria is very useful in selecting the most appropriate antimicrobial(s) to either prevent or treat these infections in horses. This article discusses the clinical findings, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of orthopedic infections in horses. More recent treatment methods such as synovial drainage techniques (ar...
Instrumentation and techniques in equine gastrointestinal surgery. Recent advances in abdominal surgical techniques in the horse have resulted in improved survival rates and reduced postoperative morbidity. The development of abdominal surgical procedures in horses has paralleled the development of safe anesthetic protocols and innovative technological advancements in humans. Irrespective of the species, the application of sound surgical principles is still the foundation of surgical intervention. This article describes recent advances in equine gastrointestinal surgical techniques. The availability and application of innovative intestinal surgical devices an...
Instrumentation and techniques in respiratory surgery. In this article, videoendoscopy in conjunction with high-speed treadmill exercise and other specialized diagnostic techniques used to measure upper airway function are reviewed as they pertain to the four most commonly diagnosed functional upper airway obstructions: (1) laryngeal hemiplegia, (2) arytenoid chondritis, (3) epiglottic entrapment, and (4) intermittent dorsal displacement of the soft palate. Using experimental and clinical findings obtained with these new instruments and diagnostic techniques, current recommendations for surgery of these obstructions are presented.
An attempt to reproduce ‘mal seco’ in horses by feeding them Festuca argentina. 'Mal seco' is an almost invariably fatal disease of horses in Argentina and Chile, which resembles grass sickness, a dysautonomia of horses in Europe. The aetiology of mal seco remains unknown. An attempt to reproduce the disease was made by feeding horses with Festuca argentina, a plant considered to be toxic to animals and which was consistently found in the diet of nine horses suffering from mal seco. Three horses were fed with F argentina ad libitum for 28 days. The plant was infected with an endophytic fungus, whose morphological characteristics were in agreement with descriptions of Acre...
Effects of transporting horses facing either forwards or backwards on their behaviour and heart rate. The effects of transporting horses facing either forwards or backwards were compared by transporting six thoroughbred horses in pairs in a lorry on one journey facing in the direction of travel, and on another journey facing away from the direction of travel, over a standard one-hour route. Heart rate monitors were used to record their heart rate before, during and after the journey and the horses' behaviour was recorded by scan sampling each horse every other minute. The average heart rate was significantly lower (P < 0.05) when the horses were transported facing backwards, and they also t...
The diagnostic utility of cerebrospinal fluid creatine kinase activity in the horse. We evaluated creatine kinase (CK) activity in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 128 horses with various neurological disorders. No association was found between CSF CK activity and CSF red blood cell count, CSF nucleated cell count, CSF total protein concentration, or serum CK activity. The sensitivity and specificity of CSF CK activity as a diagnostic test for protozoal myelitis in horses (61% and 56%, respectively) was higher than for cervical stenotic myelopathy, degenerative myelopathy, or motor neuron disease, but was considered to be inadequate to be of use diagnostically. Contamination o...
Hypertrophic osteopathy (Marie’s disease) in Equidae: a review of twenty-four cases. The case records of 23 horses and one donkey affected by hypertrophic osteopathy (HO) (Marie's disease) were reviewed. All affected animals presented with limb swellings, which were bilaterally symmetrical and usually involved both fore- and hindlimbs. Associated signs included stiffness/lameness and weight loss. Radiological features included periosteal new bone formation over the diaphyses and metaphyses of affected bones. The metacarpal and metatarsal bones were most frequently affected. Articular surfaces remained free of disease. Seventeen animals were destroyed on humane grounds, 3 horse...
Clinical presentation of experimentally induced rabies in horses. Twelve naive and nine test-vaccinated horses which developed clinical signs of rabies as a result of the required protocol of a vaccine trial were prospectively observed. Nineteen of the 21 cases were confirmed positive for rabies infection of the brain by fluorescent antibody test. The two horses with negative results had ganglioneuritis of the trigeminal ganglion or lymphocytic perivascular cuffing in the brain stem in addition to clinical signs. Average incubation period was 12.3 days and average morbidity was 5.5 days. Naive animals had significantly shorter incubation and morbidity period...
Effect of high-molecular weight dextran macromolecules on low-flow ischemia and reperfusion of the large colon in horses. To evaluate the effect of high-molecular weight (MW) dextran macromolecules on low-flow ischemia and reperfusion of the large colon in horses. Methods: Horses subjected to low-flow ischemia and reperfusion of the large colon were treated with either 0.9 NaCl (group 1, n = 6) or high-MW dextran (group 2, n = 6) solutions. Methods: 12 adults horses. Methods: Horses were subjected to 3 hours' low-flow ischemia followed by 3 hours' reperfusion. A dose of either 0.9% NaCl or a 6% solution of high-MW (250,000) dextran (10 ml/kg of body weight) was administered i.v., 30 minutes prior to reperfusion. ...
Necrotizing enterocolitis in horses: a retrospective study. The clinical and clinicopathologic characteristics of fatal necrotizing enterocolitis were examined in 16 horses (age 4 months to 12 years). At initial presentation, 8 of 16 horses were pyrexic (median temperature, 38.4 degrees C; range, 33.8 to 40.6 degrees C); all 16 were tachycardic (median heart rate, 93 bpm, range, 66 to 138 bpm); 13 of 16 were tachypneic (median heart rate, 36 bpm, range, 16 to 80 bpm), dehydrated, and had discolored mucous membranes. All horses that were pyrexic were also tachycardic and tachypneic. PCV was high (> 45%) in 14 horses. Six horses were leukopenic (< ...
[Ascites as a result of peritoneal mesotheliomas in a horse]. An abdominal tumor was suspected after clinical evaluation in an eight-year-old, bay-coloured hannoveranian gelding. The diagnosis was based on the symptoms of ascites, on the results of the transcutaneous abdominal ultrasound examination and on the characteristic changes in the serum-electrophoresis. Postmortem a peritoneal mesothelioma was diagnosed. This primary tumor of the peritoneum is rarely described in horses.
Estimation of the heritability of lameness in standardbred trotters. The degree of lameness of 265 randomly selected three-year-old standardbred trotters was assessed on a fixed point scale with 0 indicating soundness and 5 indicating that the animals were not weightbearing. Two variables were used to describe the signs of lameness; one was the continuous variable: the sum of the initial lameness score and the lameness scores after separate flexion tests of the carpal, stifle/tarsal and phalangeal joints and the second was the bivariate variable; the ratio of lame/sound horses. The mean (sd) heritability of the continuous variable was estimated to be 0.25 (0.21...
Laparoscopic anatomy of the abdomen in dorsally recumbent horses. To provide an accurate and detailed description of the laparoscopic anatomy of the abdomen of horses positioned in dorsal recumbency and to compare those observations with laparoscopic anatomy of standing horses. The effects of laparoscopy and positional changes on arterial blood pressure and blood gas values also were investigated. Methods: Descriptive anatomic study. Methods: Laparoscopy was performed on 6 horses (2 mares, 2 geldings, and 2 stallions) to record the normal laparoscopic anatomy of the abdomen in dorsal recumbency. Methods: Feed was withheld from all horses for 36 hours. Horses...
Rattlesnake venom poisoning in horses: 32 cases (1973-1993). To determine the clinical manifestations, morbidity, mortality, and treatment methods for rattlesnake venom poisoning in horses. Methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records. Methods: 27 horses with acute venom poisoning attributable to prairie rattlesnakes, and 5 with chronic problems subsequent to a rattlesnake bite. Results: Most horses were bitten on or near the muzzle while on pasture, resulting in head swelling, dyspnea, and epistaxis. Additional manifestations of acute poisoning included fever, tachycardia, tachypnea, cardiac arrhythmia, hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, hemorrh...
Penetrating keratoplasty for treatment of recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the cornea in a horse. Squamous cell carcinoma involving the cornea and conjunctiva of the left eye in a 14-year-old horse was treated by superficial keratectomy in combination with beta-radiation and radiofrequency hyperthermia. The tumor recurred 4 months later in the central cornea at the edge of the previous keratectomy site. Penetrating keratoplasty was performed in an effort to remove the tumor and retain a visual eye. The eye was visual 13 months after surgery. Mild fibrosis and vascularization were observed in the area of the penetrating keratoplasty.
Mummified fetus in a mare. A 12-year-old Arabian mare with a history of repeated early embryonic losses gave birth to a mummified fetus. The fetus was not the result of a pregnancy with twins. The mare had been given a progestogen throughout gestation and expelled the mummified fetus at about 325 days of gestation, 2 weeks after progestogen treatment was discontinued. We estimate that the size of the fetus was consistent with a fetal age of 5 months. The mare and mummified fetus illustrated that progestogen administration after 100 days of gestation can promote retention of a nonviable fetus. When the fetoplacental unit...
Effects of a combination of detomidine and butorphanol on respiratory function in horses with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. To evaluate the effects of detomidine and butorphanol in combination on respiratory function in horses and to determine whether these effects are more severe in horses with pre-existing respiratory dysfunction, Methods: Pulmonary function testing and arterial blood gas analyses were performed before and after administration of a combination of detomidine (10 micrograms/kg of body weight, i.v.) and butorphanol (20 micrograms/kg, i.v.). Methods: 5 horses with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 5 horses free of respiratory disease (controls). Methods: Flow rates were obtained from a pneumo...
Equine adenocarcinomas of the large intestine with osseous metaplasia. Large intestinal adenocarcinoma with osseous metaplasia was diagnosed in two horses, a 15-year-old standard bred gelding and a 9-year-old Haflinger mare. Clinically, both animals had displayed weight loss and anaemia. A presumptive diagnosis of abdominal neoplasia was made and the horses were humanely killed. At necropsy, the gelding and the mare were found to have ulcerated tumours growing into the lumen of the caecum and colon, respectively. In the mare, the mass extended through the mesocolon and was evident in the left dorsal and ventral colon. Histopathologically, the tumours consisted of...
Comparison of herniorrhaphy versus clamping of umbilical hernias in horses: a retrospective study of 93 cases (1982-1994). Many uncomplicated umbilical hernias have been managed successfully in foals by the application of a hernia clamp. Isolated reports of complications following clamp application have led some authors to suggest that it is an unsuitable method of treatment. Little information has been published comparing the complication rates associated with the use of hernia clamps and herniorrhaphy in the treatment of umbilical hernias. The purpose of this retrospective study was to report the characteristics of clinical cases of umbilical hernia and to compare the complication rates following these 2 treatme...
