Veterinary care in horses encompasses the medical and preventive measures taken to maintain and improve the health and well-being of equine patients. It includes a wide range of practices such as routine health examinations, vaccinations, dental care, parasite control, and management of injuries and diseases. Veterinary care also involves diagnostic procedures, surgical interventions, and therapeutic treatments tailored to the specific needs of horses. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore various aspects of equine veterinary care, including advancements in diagnostic techniques, treatment protocols, and health management strategies to support the well-being and performance of horses.
Taylor TS, Watkins JP, Schumacher J.A temporary indwelling liner was surgically installed in 17 horses with grade III or grade IV rectal tears. The rectal tears of 9 of the horses healed. The remaining 8 horses developed peritonitis as a result of peritoneal contamination before surgery, a change in grade of the tear, or material failure.
Abid HN, Walter PA, Litchfield H.A 6-year-old Quarter Horse gelding was examined because it had a sharply circumscribed, firm, brown-black, roughly spherical dermal nodule at the right tuber ischii. After it was excised, the lesion did not recur. Microscopically, the dermis of the excised specimen had multiple pyogranulomas, many of which contained thick-walled, dark brown fungal elements, some with internal septation compatible with chromomycotic fungi. Chromomycosis is a rare skin disease in the horse. It may be included in the differential diagnoses of nodular and/or pigmented skin lesions that include melanoma, pyogranulo...
Arighi M, Miller CR, Pennock PW.Scapulohumeral arthrodesis was performed successfully as treatment for severe degenerative arthritis in a 62-kg miniature horse. Using an approach similar to that used for a dog, this horse's scapulohumeral joint was opened, the cartilage was removed, and the site was stabilized, using an 11-hole narrow dynamic compression plate. Fusion was uncomplicated. The stallion became a successful pasture-breeding animal.
Enders AC, Liu IK, Bowers J, Lantz KC, Schlafke S, Suarez S.Fertilization and early development in the horse were studied by recovering oviductal ova at various times after postovulatory mating. Ova collected between 7 and 22 h post coitum (pc) were examined for evidence of fertilizing sperm, cellular changes accompanying fertilization, and pronuclear development. Five ova collected between 7 and 9 h pc contained a marginal metaphase plate, but had no indication of sperm components; three of these, however, showed reduced numbers of cortical granules. Two activated ova (10 and 14 h pc) were in telophase of the second meiotic division, following incorpo...
Short CR, Beadle RE, Aranas T, Pawlusiow J, Clarke CR.The pharmacokinetics of cephapirin sodium and its distribution into a tissue chamber implanted subcutaneously in the neck of mature horses are described. Cephapirin was administered as an intravenous bolus dose of 20 mg/kg. The serum concentration vs time curve was best described by a two-compartment open model. Cephapirin disappeared from serum rapidly (t1/2 beta = 18.8 min), and had only a modest volume of distribution (Vd(area) approximately equal to 346 mg/kg, Vd(ss) approximately equal to 204 ml/kg). Total clearance was also rapid (approximately equal to 13 ml/min.kg). Concentrations of t...
Doran RE, White NA, Allen D.Four adult horses and 3 foals with middle phalangeal fractures were treated by arthrodesis of the proximal interphalangeal joint, using a bone plate. Six of the 7 horses survived greater than 2 years; 2 of the 6 horses had intermittent lameness after hard work, and 4 horses didn't have evidence of lameness. The use of a bone plate for arthrodesis of the proximal interphalangeal joint was a successful treatment alternative for middle phalangeal fractures in horses.
Memon MA, McClure JJ, Usenik EA.An 8-year-old Quarter Horse stallion was admitted with a swelling involving the prepuce, dorsal part of the scrotum, and root of the penis. The swelling was first noticed 10 days after breeding, with no evidence that it had resulted from a kick by the mare. The penis was retracted into the prepuce, except for a 10- to 15-cm protrusion of the glans penis. Treatment included warm hydrotherapy, massage, stockinette compression, antidiuretics, antibiotics, penile support, and exercise, without success. At necropsy, a massive preputial hematoma was found extending forward from the root of the penis...
Dyer DC, Hsu WH, Lloyd WE.Twenty healthy ponies were given i.v. 1.1 mg/kg of xylazine from 2 manufacturers and the pharmacokinetic parameters calculated from the disposition curves. The disposition curves for the 2 commercial preparations were not different. Yohimbine, an antagonist of the pharmacologic effects produced by xylazine, did not alter the disposition of xylazine in the plasma. A single i.v. bolus of xylazine was completely described in 17 of 20 animals by the biexponential equation: Cp = 1.30e(-0.3955t) + 0.58e(-0.033t) where Cp represents the concentration of xylazine in the plasma at time t (min). The t1/...
Moustafa MA, Boero MJ, Baker GJ.A technique for satisfactory arthroscopic examination of the lateral and medial femorotibial joints of the horse is described. The entry portal is made between the middle and medial patellar ligaments with the horse on its back and the stifle flexed. This position allows easy access to view the intercondylar eminence of the tibia. From this reference point, examination of all but the most caudal and medial structures of the joints are possible by manipulating the sleeve and telescope and maintaining joint distention. In a series of 20 examinations, iatrogenic trauma was recognized only once.
Greet TR.This paper describes the outcome of treatment of 30 cases of guttural pouch mycosis by ligation of the internal carotid artery on the cardiac side of the lesion and lavage of the affected pouch with natamycin. Twenty-three horses recovered fully following this treatment while laryngeal hemiplegia persisted in one case and slight dysphagia caused by pharyngeal hemiplegia in another. The remaining five horses died or were destroyed. Five horses with guttural pouch mycosis, which had shown no epistaxis but had pharyngeal hemiplegia, were treated by topical natamycin alone. Only two of these survi...
Schumacher J, Honnas C, Smith B.Primary paranasal sinusitis complicated by inspissated exudate within the ventral conchal sinus was diagnosed in five horses. Clinical signs included a unilateral, foul-smelling, mucopurulent nasal exudate of 2 to 7 months' duration. Two of the horses had partial nasal obstruction from distortion of the ventral concha. Radiographs of the skull showed a mass of soft tissue density dorsal to the roots of the superior third and fourth or fourth and fifth cheek teeth. Treatment included bone flap maxillary sinusotomy with exposure of the ventral nasal concha and removal of inspissated exudate. Res...
Rigg DL, Reinertson EL, Buttrick ML.Splenectomy was performed electively on 80 ponies, horses, and donkeys for preparation in collecting Babesia antigens. Access to the abdomen was by resection of the sixteenth left rib and incision of the diaphragm. The technique afforded good exposure of the splenic vessels and attachments. Closure was facilitated by preservation of the periosteum of the resected rib. Difficulty was encountered both in surgical technique and postoperative complications in obese animals. The transthoracic approach was found to be a useful technique for equine splenectomy.
Bertone JJ, Traub-Dargatz JL, Fettman MJ, Wilke L, Wrigley RH, Jaenke R, Paulsen ME.Sequential reciprocals of serum creatinine concentration and sodium sulfanilate clearance half-times were used to monitor a horse with chronic renal failure. The horse was diagnosed as having polycystic kidney disease; at least one cyst was of distal tubular origin. Using the plots of the sequential data, a reasonably accurate prediction was made for complete renal decompensation to develop.
Webster AJ, Clarke AF, Madelin TM, Wathes CM.The concentration of fungal spores, the main constituents of respirable dust in stables, is determined by rates of release from fodder and bedding and rate of clearance, principally by ventilation. This paper outlines the principles that govern the application of natural ventilation to the control of air hygiene in barns and individual boxes for horses. When release rates are low, ventilation rates over four air changes per hour are satisfactory. Ventilation was satisfactory in individual boxes but usually unsatisfactory in barns and specific recommendations are made for improvement. Prelimina...
Bixby-Hammett DM.In a five-year study, 160 accidents occurred among 46,351 six-through 21-year-olds engaged in horse activities. Of these, 130 were riding accidents, 20 were horse-related and 10 did not involve horses. Bruises and abrasions were the most frequent injuries, and the area of the body most commonly injured was the head and face. The low accident rate may result from the requirement that riders wear approved protective headgear.
Schumacher J, Chambers M, Hanselka DV, Morton LD.Eighteen stored split thickness meshed skin grafts were applied to surgically created lesions on the metacarpal and metatarsal regions of six horses. Donor skin was harvested from the sternal region, meshed and stored at 4 degrees C in a cell culture medium containing 10% serum. Stored grafts were applied to the wounds at 1, 2, and 3 week intervals. Acceptance of the grafts stored for 1 week was generally poor (1 of 6 grafts), whereas that of the 2 and 3 week old grafts was generally excellent (10 of 12 grafts). Poor acceptance of the 1 week old grafts was attributed to streptococcal infection...
Adams R, Nixon A, Hager D.Real-time ultrasound was used to identify a foreign-body abscess causing an extraluminal esophageal obstruction in the neck of a horse. Surgical exploration to remove the foreign body and drain the abscess was performed after 2 months of medical management that had failed to resolve the problem. The abscess could not be visualized because there was no draining tract or other localizing sign of inflammation. Ultrasound was used aseptically to guide surgical dissection to the walled off abscess with minimal damage to adjacent vital structures in the surgical field. The signs of esophageal obstru...
Turek JJ, Lamar CH, Fessler JF, Bottoms GD.An in vitro system of cultured equine endothelial cells was evaluated as a model for endotoxin (ET) exposure in the horse. Primary cell lines from pulmonary vessels and aortas were cultured from tissues of 6 horses. Effects of ET alone with and without serum and in combination with the cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor flunixin meglumine and isolated equine neutrophils were evaluated by transmission electron microscopy. Cells plus serum were incubated with 10, 25, 50, or 100 micrograms of ET/ml of incubation medium for 1, 3, 8, or 24 hours. Cells without serum were cultured for 1 and 3 hours. Flunixin...
Van Camp SD, Mahler J, Roberts MC, Tate LP, Whitacre MD.An ovarian adenocarcinoma with teratomatous elements was removed from a 9-year-old mare. Although no other lesions were detected at ovariectomy, multifocal metastatic masses led to cachexia and euthanasia 2 months later. This case reaffirms the need to exercise caution when removing ovarian masses to prevent seeding of the abdomen. This report includes discussion of the WHO system of classification of ovarian tumors.
Malalana F, Ireland JL, Pinchbeck GL, McGowan CM.Risk factors for a first episode of primary uveitis in horses have not been determined. In addition, disease progression and the proportion of horses that develop recurrence following the original episode are not known. Objective: To determine the risk factors for the development of a first episode of primary uveitis in horses in the UK and to document the proportion of cases that experience recurrence following this first episode. Methods: Prospective case-control longitudinal study. Methods: Horses with a first episode of primary uveitis between July 2014 and August 2018 were recruited to th...
Attenburrow DP, James ED.URINARY incontinence has been reported in mares suffering
from equid herpesvirus infection (Greenwood and Simson 1980)
and in a foal (Ordidge 1976). Observations on a pony mare (122
cm high) which showed gross urinary incontinence after the
onset of a severe respiratory disorder are described here.
Ulrich P, Nowshari MA.Embryos were flushed on day 7 after ovulation from two mares, and frozen using a conventional slow freezing procedure in phosphate buffered (PBS) saline supplemented with 10% FCS, 1.5 mol/L ethylene glycol and 0.25 mol/L sucrose. One of the two embryos was thawed after 10 months of storage in liquid nitrogen and transferred directly (without dilution of the cryoprotectant and quality examination) to a synchronized recipient. This transfer resulted in the birth of a live female foal. To our knowledge, this is the first live foal born after direct transfer of a frozen-thawed equine embryo.
Diaz OS, Zarucco L, Dolente B, Reef VB.A 14-year-old thoroughbred gelding was presented for the evaluation of acute abdominal pain. Rectally, there was a soft fluctuant painful swelling dorsal to the bladder and to the right of the midline. The creatinine concentration of the peritoneal fluid was 15 mg/dl. Transrectal ultrasonographic examination of the urinary tract revealed a large collection of fluid dissecting from the pelvic portion of the right ureter ventrally through the right side of the bladder wall and into the retroperitoneal space, and a thickened right ureter and bladder wall at the level of the trigone. Cystoscopical...
Weidenhöfer V, Martin H, Peters J.Since the late 9th century, scientific literature in Arabian language, based on the translation and compilation of works of the Classical, Persian and Indian culture considerably increased. This also applies to the field of veterinary medicine, as is illustrated by a number of hippological and hippiatric treatises. Affinities between texts on horse medicine in Antiquity and in Arabian literature have been mentioned by philologists, but the degree of dependence on classical texts could not be verified due to the lack of translations of the Arabian texts. In this respect, the oldest available te...
Amaniti EM, Diakakis N, Patsikas M, Savvas I.Epiphyseal fracture, also known as epiphysiolysis, is the loosening or separation, either partial or complete, of an epiphysis from the shaft of a long bone. Distal epiphyseal fractures in foals pose a substantial challenge due to their guarded prognosis. This report describes the clinical signs, diagnosis, successful conservative treatment of an 1-month-old, male Skyros pony with an epiphyseal fracture of the right third metacarpal bone (type II Salter-Harris). The owner declined surgical treatment because of financial considerations along with the unfavorable prognosis. Conservative fracture...
Milne DW, Turner AS, Gabel AA.In the horse, surgical approaches for plating fractures of the ulna, radius, metacarpus, tibia, and metatarsus involved a single curvilinear skin incision and incision of the superficial fascia in a manner to prevent postoperative dehiscence. The tension side of the bones, as well as location of nerves, arteries, veins, and muscles, were the major determinants in developing these approaches for atraumatic surgery and short operative time.