Disease treatment in horses encompasses a range of medical interventions and management strategies aimed at addressing various health conditions affecting equine species. These treatments can include pharmacological approaches, such as the administration of antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, and antiparasitic medications, as well as non-pharmacological methods like physical therapy, dietary adjustments, and surgical procedures. The selection of appropriate treatments depends on the specific disease, its severity, and the individual needs of the horse. This topic brings together peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the efficacy, safety, and advancements in therapeutic options for equine diseases, providing insights into best practices and emerging trends in equine veterinary medicine.
Pedrick TP, Moon PF, Ludders JW, Erb HN, Gleed RD.To describe the effects of tromethamine, a putative treatment for metabolic acidosis, and to compare its biochemical effects with those of sodium bicarbonate. Methods: Randomized intervention study with repeated measures. Methods: 16 healthy horses, 3 to 17 years old, weighing 391 to 684 kg. Methods: Ten horses received 3 mEq/kg tromethamine and six received 3 mEq/kg sodium bicarbonate. Samples of venous blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were collected at intervals before and after drug administration. Heart rate and breathing rate were also recorded at intervals. Results: Median standard ba...
Valentine BA, Hintz HF, Freels KM, Reynolds AJ, Thompson KN.To determine whether feeding a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet would decrease severity of exercise-induced muscle injury in horses with exertional rhabdomyolysis. Methods: 19 horses with a history of exertional rhabdomyolysis. Methods: Case series. Methods: Specimens of the semitendinosus or semimembranosus muscle were obtained for histologic examination, and serum creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate transaminase (AST) activities 4 hours after exercise were determined. Horses were then fed a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, and serum CK and AST activities 4 hours after exercise were reevaluated...
Moore LA, Johnson PJ, Bailey KL.A six-day-old Missouri foxtrotter colt was examined because it had had diarrhoea since it was 24 hours old. A diagnosis of colitis, septicaemia, and disruption of the arterial blood flow to the pelvic limbs was made on the basis of clinical and laboratory findings. Despite intensive medical therapy, the foal died 13 hours after being examined. Postmortem examination revealed diffuse fibrinous enteritis with lymphoid necrosis, multifocal fibrinonecrotic typhlocolitis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and a large occluding thrombus at the aortic termination. The results of bacteriological...
Metallinos DL, Bowling AT, Rine J.Lethal White Foal Syndrome is a disease associated with horse breeds that register white coat spotting patterns. Breedings between particular spotted horses, generally described as frame overo, produce some foals that, in contrast to their parents, are all white or nearly all white and die shortly after birth of severe intestinal blockage. These foals have aganglionosis characterized by a lack of submucosal and myenteric ganglia from the distal small intestine to the large intestine, similar to human Hirschsprung Disease. Some sporadic and familial cases of Hirschsprung Disease are due to muta...
Short CR, Sams RA, Soma LR, Tobin T.The primary reason for developing the ARCI Uniform Classification of Foreign Substances was to give stewards and other racing regulators guidelines to assist them in understanding the relative performance effects and general offensiveness to the Rules of Racing of various drugs and medications. As such, these guidelines have been very useful in the world of racing regulation--officially or unofficially--because this classification system, for the first time, places a relative number on the inappropriateness of any one of more than 750 agents appearing in forensic samples taken from racing hors...
Roneus B, Arnason T, Collinder E, Rasmussen M.A clinical material of 133 Standardbred horses with palmar/plantar osteochondral fragments (POF) in the metacarpo- and metatarsophalangeal joints were studied. All horses had their fragments removed with arthroscopic surgery. 102 of the horses were 3 years old or younger when surgery was performed. Anatomical localisations of the fragments were in agreement with earlier reports. There was no statistical significant difference in month of birth in the POF--group compared to the total population. Eighty % of the horses that had raced before surgery came back to racing. The racing performance rel...
Sanchez LC, Lester GD, Merritt AM.To determine intragastric pH in newborn foals and to examine the effect of i.v. or oral administration of an H2-receptor antagonist on intragastric pH. Methods: Prospective controlled study. Methods: 6 healthy mixed-breed neonatal foals. Methods: Intragastric pH was measured, using an antimony electrode. Foals were monitored on days 2, 4, and 6 after birth, and each received 3 treatments. The pH was recorded for 4 hours before treatment and for 10 hours after ranitidine administration (2 mg/kg [0.91 mg/lb] of body weight, i.v.; 6.6 mg/kg [3 mg/lb], PO) or 20 hours after corn syrup administrati...
Henson KL, Alleman AR, Cutler TJ, Ginn PE, Kelley LC.A 9-year-old Arabian mare was admitted for evaluation of multiple subcutaneous nodules and infertility. Fine-needle aspiration of one of the subcutaneous nodules resulted in a cytologic diagnosis of histiolymphocytic lymphoma. Palpation per rectum and transrectal ultrasonography revealed a mass associated with the left ovary. Excision of the ovarian tumor was performed, and a histopathologic diagnosis of granulosa-theca cell tumor was made. After removal of the granulosa-theca cell tumor, subcutaneous nodules regressed. The referring veterinarian reported that the nodules had also disappeared ...
Hofmeister S, Becker M, Böckenhoff G.Objective to this field study was to find an alternative to rolling a colic patient with left dorsal displacement under general anesthesia. For that purpose a total of 49 horses with a complete nephrosplenic entrapment out of 542 colic patients presented at the Tierklinik Kerken in 1996 were retrospectively evaluated. Having performed a preliminary colic examination and initial treatment if needed, horses which did not undergo surgery immediately where left loose in a small sized arena to move and roll themselves under observation. According to the results of further exams, horses were left in...
Merritt AM, Burrow JA, Hartless CS.To evaluate the effect on equine duodenal motility of some analgesic agents commonly used to treat colic. Methods: 4 healthy adult healthy horses--2 mares and 2 geldings--which were carrying an indwelling gastric cannula made of silastic rubber. One horse also carried 2 long-term indwelling bipolar electrodes that had been sutured onto the duodenum and jejunum. Methods: To ensure an empty stomach, solid food was withheld from horses for around 20 hours prior to an experiment. Using videoendoscopic guidance, an 8-F catheter with 3 small, discrete pressure sensors was passed through the gastric ...
Dart AJ, Hodgson DR.All horses undergoing coeliotomy for an acute abdominal crisis are at risk of developing ileus and should receive therapy aimed at promoting gastrointestinal function by restoring fluid and electrolyte balance. Adequate analgesia and prevention against peritonitis, bacteraemia and endotoxaemia should be provided. Horses that at the time of surgery have a strangulating or non-strangulating small intestinal obstruction should be considered to be at greater risk of developing a persistent ileus that is refractory to treatment than those horses with lesions involving the large intestine. In horses...
Meehan M, Nowlan P, Owen P.Cell-wall-associated proteins from Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, the causative agent of strangles, were analysed with a view to identifying a potential protective antigen. Preparations of these proteins, isolated from mutanolysin extracts of cell walls, were shown to contain one major high-M(r) protein species (apparent M(r) 220,000 and 550,000 when analysed by SDS-PAGE and gel-filtration chromatography, respectively). The high-M(r) protein bound horse fibrinogen and was purified under non-denaturing conditions using fibrinogen affinity chromatography. The fibrinogen-binding protein (FgBP) r...
Mee AM, Cripps PJ, Jones RS.A retrospective study evaluated 995 emergency equine general anaesthetics. The total mortality for emergency procedures was 31.4 per cent. This figure was examined in more detail to determine if all emergency procedures carried a similar risk. Horses anaesthetised for surgical colic had an increased risk of death or euthanasia, with a total mortality of 35.5 per cent when compared to horses anaesthetised for non-colic related problems which had a total mortality of 15.3 per cent. The findings of this study illustrate the greatly increased risk of mortality in horses undergoing general anaesthe...
Van Loon G, Jordaens L, Muylle E, Nollet H, Sustronck B.A five-year-old warmblood mare with atrial fibrillation was treated with quinidine sulphate. The atrial rhythm changed to atrial flutter and, because there were toxic effects, the treatment was discontinued. Seven months after the occurrence of the atrial flutter, treatment with a rapid atrial pacing technique restored a normal sinus rhythm. One year after the pacing therapy the horse was still in sinus rhythm and had been brought back into training.
Mee AM, Cripps PJ, Jones RS.A retrospective analysis examined mortality associated with all procedures requiring general anaesthetic, performed at the Philip Leverhulme Large Animal Teaching Hospital, during the five-year period from February 1991 to December 1995. The study involved details relating to 2276 equine general anaesthetics and a variety of patient variables were examined. Within a group of 1279 animals undergoing anaesthesia for elective procedures, 46 (3.6 per cent) died or were euthanased owing to a poor prognosis or financial implications. Mortality relating directly to the surgery or anaesthesia occurred...
Duncan JL, Bairden K, Abbott EM.The efficacy of five daily treatments with 7.5 mg fenbendazole/kg bodyweight against mucosal cyathostome larvae was evaluated in 20 12- and 24-month-old ponies with naturally acquired cyathostome infections. After three weeks communal grazing on infected pasture and six weeks indoors, one group of 10 ponies were treated. Six weeks later, both groups of ponies were humanely destroyed and their burdens of large intestinal cyathostome worms, including luminal parasites and mucosal larvae, were assessed. In the control animals approximately 7 per cent of the total worm burden was present in the gu...
Smith TA, Davis E, Carpenter S.Lentiviruses replicate in cells of the immune system, and activation of immune cells has been shown to modulate virus replication. To determine the effects of macrophage activation on replication of equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV), primary horse macrophage cultures (HMCs) were established from 20 different horses, infected with an avirulent strain of EIAV, and stimulated with 5 microg/ml of bacterial endotoxin. Supernatants collected from HMCs were assayed for the presence of tumour necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) and for production of infectious virus. Results indicated that EIAV replicati...
Höglund J, Nilsson O, Ljungström BL, Hellander J, Lind EO, Uggla A.The egg output and humoral antibody response to scolex antigens of the equine tapeworm Anoplocephala perfoliata were monitored in naturally infected foals by an egg flotation/centrifugation method and an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The study was performed on a stud farm in south-western Sweden between May 1994 and April 1995. Sequential blood and faecal samples were taken from 21 foals during their first summer on pasture and until tapeworm eggs were detected. Results were expressed separately for 10 and 11 foals born before and after the end of April 1994, respectively...
Ecke P, Hodgson DR, Rose RJ.Hydration status, electrolyte balance and acid-base balance were studied in four adult standardbred geldings with castor oil-induced diarrhoea. The horses received an oral rehydration solution (ORS) at a point when signs consistent with mild decreases in effective circulating fluid volume were first detected. Within 1.5 h of ORS administration, all horses exhibited a significant metabolic acidosis. At this time, mean values for venous blood pH, [HCO3], and standard base excess were 7.264 +/- 0.011, 17.7 +/- 0.3 mmol L-1, and -8.2 +/- 0.4 mmol L-1, respectively. Throughout the duration of the s...
Guglick MA, MacAllister CG, Clarke CR, Pollet R, Hague C, Clarke JM.To determine pharmacokinetics of i.v., i.m., and oral administration of cefepime in horses and to compare pharmacokinetics of i.m. administration of cefepime with those of ceftiofur sodium. Methods: 6 clinically normal adult horses. Methods: Horses received 3 doses of cefepime (11 mg/kg of body weight, PO; 2.2 mg/kg, i.v.; and 2.2 mg/kg, i.m.) and 1 dose of ceftiofur (2.2 mg/kg, i.m.). Two horses also received L-arginine, p.o. and i.v., at doses identical to those contained in the cefepime dihydrochloride-L-arginine preparations previously administered. Blood samples were collected for 24 hour...
Holcombe SJ, Derksen FJ, Stick JA, Robinson NE.To determine the effect of bilateral blockade of the pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve on soft palate function in horses. Methods: 5 Standardbreds. Methods: Peak tracheal inspiratory and expiratory pressures and airflow were measured while horses exercised at the speeds corresponding to 75 and 100% of the speed that resulted in maximal heart rate, with and without pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve blockade. Respiratory frequency-to-stride frequency coupling ratio was measured by correlating foot fall measurements with respiratory frequency. The pharyngeal branch of the vagus nerve was bl...
Monahan CM, Chapman MR, Taylor HW, French DD, Klei TR.Eighteen mixed-breed, naturally infected ponies ranging in age from 1 to 16 yr and four cyathostome-naïve ponies reared and maintained under parasite-free conditions ranging in age from 1 to 4 yr were used in this study. Naturally-infected ponies were treated with 1 dose of ivermectin (IVM) at 200 micrograms kg-1, followed by a 5-day regimen of oxibendazole (OBZ) at 20 mg kg-1 to remove existing cyathostome burdens; cyathostome-naïve control ponies were treated with IVM alone. The naturally infected ponies were matched on age and gender, then randomly assigned to one of three treatment group...
Easley KJ, Osborne J, Thorpe PE.Many factors should be considered before one makes a decision to perform surgery, and it is the practitioner's responsibility to make certain the client makes an informed decision. This article considers the various factors of importance in the decision-making process.
Dixon PM.The structure and possible functions of respiratory secretions are reviewed. In the equine, goblet (mucus producing) cells are the main source but little information is available on the volume or composition of equine respiratory secretions. Airway mucus has complex and incompletely understood physical characteristics which can be partially assessed by a wide range of in vitro and biological techniques. The complex relationship between mucus structure and its propulsion by the airway cilia are discussed, both in health and with pulmonary disease. Mucokinesis in the horse has been assessed visu...
Arnbjerg J.With reference to previous reports on hypocalcemia in horses special attention is given to the principal symptoms such as anxiety, increased muscular tension, esp. of the musculature of the extremities, in severe cases leading to ataxia, and to a pulse-synchronized respiration (Synchronous Diaphragmatic Flutter). The time of appearance of the symptoms are much more variable than it is the case for hypocalcemic agalactia in cows. Furthermore the condition has been reported in foals as well as in geldings. Thus the triggering factor seems to be somewhat different from that of agalactia. Hypocalc...
Rijkenhuizen AB, Németh F.The clinical signs, the radiographic appearance, and the treatment of two cases of fracture of the accessory carpal bone are described. The fractures were in the vertical plane. Surgical intervention consisted out of fixation of the fracture with two lag screws. Follow-up information revealed that one horse became sound and returned to complete athletic activity whereas the other horse remained lame. A brief literature review is given and the surgical treatment and the complications are discussed.
Schnoke AT, Brooks DE, Wilkie DA, Dwyer AE, Matthews AG, Gilger BC, Hendrix DV, Pickett P, Grauwels M, Monroe C, Plummer CE.To describe the clinical findings and prognosis for extraocular lymphoma in the horse. Methods: Retrospective medical records study of horses diagnosed with third eyelid, corneoscleral, conjunctival, and/or eyelid lymphoma from multiple academic and private veterinary institutions. Data collected from the medical records included signalment, clinical descriptions of the extraocular lesions, treatment, and treatment outcomes. Nonparametric statistical analysis was performed with Fischer's exact tests. Results: Extraocular lymphoma involving the eyelid, third eyelid, cornea, sclera, and/...
Firth EC.A case of vesical calculus in which haematuria was not a presenting sign is described. Methods of removal of vesical calculi are discussed. In this case, urethral sphincterotomy facilitated delivery.
Cauvin ER, Tapprest J, Munroe GA, May SA, Schramme MC.This study was designed to develop a reliable technique for endoscopic examination of the tarsal sheath of the lateral digital flexor tendon of horses. The anatomy of the tendon sheath and associated structures was studied in detail in cadavers before determining portals for the insertion of an arthroscope into the sheath. Approaches into the sheath through the proximal pouch and through the flexor retinaculum, at the level of the sustentaculum tali, were performed and compared in cadavers. The proximal pouch portal permitted visualisation only of the proximal half of the sheath, while the app...
Gandini M, Iotti BN, Giusto G.To compare 4 techniques for pelvic flexure enterotomy closure in horses. Methods: Ex-vivo study. Methods: Cadaveric ascending colon specimens (n = 48 horses). Methods: Pelvic flexure enterotomies of different lengths (5 cm, 10 cm) were performed and closed with 1 of 4 techniques: handsewn 2 layer (HS2); handsewn 1 layer (HS1); skin staples (SKS); or TA90 stapling device (TA90). Time to close each enterotomy, bursting pressure, luminal reduction, and cost were calculated and compared. Results: HS2 was significantly more time consuming to perform in the 5 cm group whereas in the 10 cm group, onl...
Munroe GA, Cauvin E.The clinical, radiographic and ultrasonographic findings in a case of a comminuted articular fracture of the accessory carpal bone of a thoroughbred chaser are described, and its surgical treatment and aftercare are detailed. The horse made an uneventful recovery and successfully returned to racing.
Spadari A, Spinella G, Grandis A, Romagnoli N, Pietra M.No endoscopic examination of the nasolacrimal duct has been described before. In contrast with other imaging techniques, endoscopy provides a direct inspection of the intralumen and ductal mucosa in standing sedation. Objective: To provide a reference against which the endoscopic and clinical features of obstructive nasolacrimal disease in the horse may be compared. Methods: Endoscopic examination of the nasolacrimal duct was performed in 10 French Thoroughbred bay mares with a 3 mm shaft diameter flexible fibrescope. The duct was divided into 3 zones (1, 2 and 3) from the nostril to the lacri...
Render JA, Harrington DD, Wells RE, Dunstan RW, Turek JJ, Boosinger TR.Giant cell tumor of soft parts was diagnosed in 6 horses 3 to 12 years old (mean, 6.8 +/- 3.5 years): 3 Quarter Horse geldings, 2 Standardbred mares, and 1 Standardbred stallion. The neoplasms developed as raised, solitary masses, approximately 1 to 4 cm in diameter, which were firmly attached to subcutaneous tissue of the neck (1 horse), shoulder (1 horse), thigh (2 horses), or stifle (2 horses). Excision was followed by local recurrence in 3 horses within 1 to 1 1/2 months. The neoplasms were firm and cut with resistance. On cut surface, they were white, with mottled red hemorrhagic areas.
Sergeant ES, Wilson G.To quantify the probability of freedom from equine influenza (EI) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, based on analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Methods: Testing in the infected areas of NSW during the period 1 January to 30 April 2008. Results: Data from the random survey were collated and analysed to provide estimates of the probability of detecting EI if it was present at a prevalence ranging from 0.01% to 0.5%. The sensitivity estimates were then combined with a prior estimate of the probability of freedom in a simulation model, to estimate the posterior probability of ...