Veterinary medicine for horses encompasses the study and application of medical practices to diagnose, treat, and prevent diseases in equine species. This field involves a comprehensive understanding of equine anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Veterinary practitioners employ a range of diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions to address health issues in horses, including lameness, gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory conditions, and infectious diseases. Preventative care, such as vaccination and deworming programs, is also a significant aspect of equine veterinary medicine. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore various aspects of veterinary medicine as it pertains to horses, including advancements in diagnostic techniques, treatment protocols, and preventive health strategies.
Düe M.A survey is given about the situation of "doping" of horses. A definition of the term "doping" is delivered which is up to date and considers the matters of animal welfare. Existing regulations will be discussed in view of recent results of research. Different regulations for horses as well as humans in sports will be compared. Also different attempts of solutions for the regulatory body will be presented, which may change the regulatory significance. Finally a preview about actual questions related to doping is given.
Wollanke B, Gerhards H, Brem S, Kopp H, Meyer P.Between February 1993 and July 1997, 150 horses suffering from recurrent uveitis were subjected to parsplana vitrectomy. In these horses, antibody titers to Leptospira serovars were determined in serum samples and in samples from diluted vitreous collected during vitrectomy. Although the vitreous samples were diluted with 250 ml of balanced salt solution, in 86 of the 150 vitreous samples (= 57%) the antibody titers were higher than in the serum samples. Additionally, serum samples from 77 horses suffering from ERU, but which were not subjected to vitrectomy, and serum samples from 97 horses w...
Barrandeguy M, Parreño V, Lagos Mármol M, Pont Lezica F, Rivas C, Valle C, Fernandez F.Many countries have reported rotavirus diarrhoea in foals. In Argentina it causes important economic losses to the horse industry. In this work we present the results obtained using an experimental vaccine in a farm with enzootic infection of rotavirus. A hundred mares were vaccinated 60 and 30 days before foaling with inactivated rotavirus SA11 (G3P2), H2 (G3P12), Lincoln (G6P1), with aluminum hydroxide as adjuvant; 65 mares were included in the unvaccinated, control group. To evaluate the vaccine, morbidity, duration of the diarrhoea and rotavirus shedding were recorded. Antibody levels were...
Guimarães AM, Lima JD, Ribeiro MF.The development of Babesia equi in salivary glands of adult female Boophilus microplus was observed under a light microscope using semithin sections stained with toluidine blue. Engorged nymphs were obtained from splenectomized foals experimentally infected with B. equi. As adults, they were then fed on rabbits for 5 days and the salivary glands of manually collected individuals were removed at intervals of 24 h. Sporozoites were found in type III granular acini cells between the 2nd and 5th days following feeding on the rabbits. Sporoblasts and sporozoites were observed in the same or adjacen...
Neufang R.Comments are given on the present recommendations for the keeping of horses in stables. Proposals for an animal friendly accommodation are made including practical considerations.
Voigt G.The author informs on up to date identification methods of horses. The implantation of passive transponders is a practicable method for marking of horses. Because it gives less pain to horses, this method is to prefer. Stress inflicted on horse is minimal, it compares to a intramuscular injection. The reliability of the system in use has so far been very high. Members of ISO have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a standard for electronic identification of animals. From now on, countries and user organizations can make use of this technique to identify animals and if used can rely on the fact t...
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...
Mills PC, Auer DE, Kramer H, Barry D, Ng JC.To determine the effect of an acute soft tissue inflammatory response on biochemical and haematological indices of hepatic and renal function in the Thoroughbred horse. Methods: Soft tissue inflammation was induced in four Thoroughbred horses by intramuscular injections of Freund's complete adjuvant. The horses were clinically examined and blood and urine samples were collected before and after the adjuvant injections. Biochemical and haematological indices were measured in samples collected and used to determine the onset of the acute-phase response and to assess hepatic and renal function at...
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...
Oikawa M, Narama I.Two cases of enthesopathy of the radial tuberosity in Thoroughbred racehorses are described. Soft X-ray pictures revealed separated bony fragments at the anterior aspect of the radial tuberosity, resembling the lesions of Osgood-Schlatter disease in children. Osgood-Schlatter lesions result from detachment of a portion of the apophysis of the tibial tuberosity. However, in the affected horses, the detached bony fragments consisted of cortical bone tissue composed of trabeculae with osteons similar to lamellar bone, the main component of the radial tuberosity. Tendon fibrils were inserted into ...
Liang FT, Granstrom DE, Zhao XM, Timoney JF.Sarcocystis neurona is the etiologic agent of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). Based on an analysis of 25,000 equine serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, including samples from horses with neurologic signs typical of EPM or with histologically or parasitologically confirmed EPM, four major immunoblot band patterns have been identified. Twenty-three serum and CSF samples representing each of the four immunoblot patterns were selected from 220 samples from horses with neurologic signs resembling EPM and examined for inhibitory effects on the infectivity of S. neurona by an in vi...
Knox KM, Reid SW, Love S, Murray M, Gettinby G.Methods for the interpretation of veterinary clinical biochemistry have not developed as rapidly as biochemical technology. However, the results of clinical biochemistry tests are only of value when they are interpreted appropriately. A retrospective study was undertaken to investigate the equine biochemistry data which had been stored in a veterinary hospital database. By applying percentile analysis and Bayesian probability methods to the clinical biochemistry and corresponding diagnosis data, a novel method for the interpretation of clinical biochemistry data has been developed. The method ...
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...
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.
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...
Baptiste KE.The equine guttural pouch is a large, air-filled diverticulum of the auditory tube whose function is not clear. Since the horse does not possess a known, well-developed brain-cooling mechanism that could satisfy cerebral thermoregulatory demands, an hypothesis is proposed that respiratory air enters the guttural pouches, when needed, to ventilate and cool the internal carotid arteries (ICA). Experiments were initially carried out on nine cadavers, where blood flow was mimicked with warmed saline propelled by peristaltic pumps. Subsequent experiments were conducted on an anaesthetized horse whe...
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...
Vandenput S, Votion D, Duvivier DH, Van Erck E, Anciaux N, Art T, Lekeux P.The aim of this study was to evaluate the respiratory function of horses affected with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) when maintained in a barn on wood shavings and fed grass silage for a period of 6 weeks. The mechanics of breathing, blood gas analysis and bronchial reactivity were examined on five horses with COPD at the end of the environment-controlled period (Period B) and the results compared with values obtained after 2 months at pasture (Period A) and after the onset of clinical signs of acute crisis (Period C). The results showed that clinical and functional parameters w...
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...
Bertone AL, Hardy J, Simmons EJ, Muir WW.To provide quantitative assessment of forces affecting filtration of synovial fluid in response to incremental changes in arterial and venous hemodynamics. Methods: 7 clinically normal adult horses. Methods: Using a stationary, isolated metacarpophalangeal joint preparation, blood flow (Qa[cir]), tissue perfusion, arterial pressure (Pa[cir]), venous pressure (Pv[cir]), transsynovial fluid flow, total vascular resistance, vascular compliance, and tissue compliance were evaluated before and after arterial and venous pressure manipulations. At isogravimetric conditions, pre- and postcapillary res...
Kent JE.The concentrations of haptoglobin, immunoglobin (Ig)G(T) and IgG were measured in the serum of four previously parasite-free pony yearlings following a single dose of 700 (Group H) or 200 (Group L) stage three Strongylus vulgaris larvae (L3) and following a reinfection with the same doses 34 weeks later. The results are compared with an uninfected control pony. The haptoglobin concentration increased during Weeks 1 to 6 and 14 to 17 after infection in the serum of the ponies receiving 200 L3, but in only one pony dosed with 700 L3 (during Weeks 1 to 16). The serum haptoglobin also increased du...
Sindak N, Kandemir L, Yertürk M, Biricik HS.To determine physiologic levels of tear production in Arabian (AH) and throughbred horses (TH) by using phenol red thread test (PRT). Methods: The study was performed on 16 AH and 14 TH, ranging from 2.5 to 24 years of age, housed in a stable situated in the Sanliurfa of Turkey. Methods: For the measurement of PRT, the strip was placed under the lower eyelid approximately one-third the distance from the temporal to nasal canthus and left for 15 s. The length of the wet area was measured in mm and compared among breed, sex, and age groups and between eyes of both sides. Results: The mean length...
Hinrichs K.In vitro embryo production is not yet successful in the horse, largely due to low rates of fertilization in vitro. However, methods to produce embryos from isolated oocytes have been developed. Oocytes may be recovered from living mares by aspiration of the dominant preovulatory follicle by trans-abdominal puncture, and from both preovulatory and immature follicles by trans-vaginal ultrasound-guided puncture. Transfer of in vivo-matured oocytes to the oviducts of bred recipient mares has resulted in good pregnancy rates (75-85%). Little work has been done on transfer of horse oocytes matured i...
Bampidis V, Azimonti G, Bastos ML, Christensen H, Dusemund B, Kouba M, Kos Durjava M, López-Alonso M, López Puente S, Marcon F, Mayo B, Pechová A....Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on hexamethylene tetramine (HMTA) for pigs, poultry, bovines, sheep, goats, rabbits and horses. In 2015, the FEEDAP Panel delivered an opinion on the safety and efficacy of HMTA. In that opinion, the Panel noted that the residues of HMTA in the silage amounted to about 5% of the inclusion level of 600 mg HMTA/kg fresh ensiling material. Since the HMTA residues in silage were analysed as formaldehyde, it was not possible to...
Casey PJ, Robertson KR, Liu IK, Espinoza SB, Drobnis EZ.Subfertility in stallions is common, and methodologies are needed to increase the fertility in these animals. In other species, removal of the dead sperm from semen increases the quality and fertility of semen. With horse semen we evaluated 48 combinations of column separation techniques using micro-spin chromatography columns. The greatest improvement in motility was observed with glass wool, whereas glass beads exhibited the greatest recovery of motile sperm. Although centrifugation time did not influence recovery rate or percent motility, a column length of 2 cm was superior for recovery of...
Robinson NE, Scott JB.The effects of a 60-minute IV infusion of histamine (0.5 mg of histamine base/minute) on the systemic, pulmonary, and digital vasculature were investigated in mature ponies. Immediately after the start of histamine infusion, there were a transient decrease in systemic pressure lasting less than 1 minute and then a brief period of systemic hypertension. Systemic pressure then returned to preinfusion levels for the remainder of the infusion period. Pulmonary arterial pressure increased transiently coincident with systemic hypotension. Histamine increased cardiac output and decreased both total p...
van Galen G, Saegerman C, Rijckaert J, Amory H, Armengou L, Bezdekova B, Durie I, Findshøj Delany R, Fouché N, Haley L, Hewetson M, van den Hoven R....To describe clinical data of hospitalized adult equids and foals with tetanus. Methods: Multicenter retrospective study (2000-2014). Methods: Twenty Western, Northern, and Central European university teaching hospitals and private referral centers. Methods: One hundred fifty-five adult equids (>6 months) and 21 foals (<6 months) with tetanus. Methods: None. Results: Information on geographic, annual and seasonal data, demographic- and management-related data, clinical history, clinical examination and blood analysis on admission, complications, treatments, and outcomes were described and stati...
Redding WR, Booth LC.Equine fibroblasts and Staphylococcus aureus were exposed for 30 minutes to six dilutions of chlorhexidine gluconate, a chlorous acid-chlorine dioxide irrigation solution, a chlorous acid-chlorine dioxide disinfectant, and phosphate buffered saline controls. Cell viability was determined by trypsinizing the cells, staining them with trypan blue, and counting cells that did not take the stain. All fibroblasts were killed when exposed to 1.0% and 0.5% chlorhexidine. The survival rate of fibroblasts increased linearly with decreasing concentrations of chlorhexidine gluconate, with a peak survival...
Bertone AL.With large colon resection and anastomosis, up to 95 per cent of the length of the large colon has been successfully removed. A hand-sewn end-to-end anastomosis is effective for lesions in the left dorsal colon and pelvic flexure. Transection and a side-to-side anastomosis with stapling equipment is most effective for extensive resections (greater than 50 per cent). Horses with extensive colon resection (95 per cent) have permanent deficiencies of water absorption and digestion of cellulose and protein. Fermentative capacity is reduced, owing to decreased particulate matter retention time in t...
Ibrahim A, Mahmoud UT, Ali MM, Ragab SMM.This study described the subcapsular technique for primary closure castration in donkeys with special regard to its efficiency and welfare impacts. The study was conducted on twelve adult male donkeys, allocated randomly into two groups; subcapsular castration (SC) and open castration (OC) groups, whether the donkeys were subjected to surgical castration either by subcapsular or open castration techniques, respectively. Testosterone, cortisol, lactate, glucose, total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (TG), and nitric oxide (NO) were measured before an...
Chavatte P, Brown G, Ousey JC, Silver M, Cottrill C, Fowden AL, McGladdery AJ, Rossdale PD.Clinical and pathological records of 124 foals were studied. The foals were assigned to six groups; normal, premature, dysmature, bacterially infected, neonatal maladjustment syndrome and Equid herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) infected. Also, 6 pony fetuses were sampled via catheters in the umbilical vein and artery between 280 and 310 days gestation. Bone marrow aspiration was performed on a further 14 foals. Premature foals had significantly lower neutrophil counts than normal foals up to 5 h. Foals with bacterial infections had significantly lower neutrophil counts up to age 12 h. EHV-1 infected ...
Noble P, Lumay G, Coninx M, Collin B, Magnée A, Lecomte-Beckers J, Denoix JM, Serteyn D.An equine fetlock joint pendulum test was studied and the influence of post mortem time and intra-articular lipid solvent on the viscous frictional response examined. Fresh equine digits (group 1, n=6 controls; group 2, n=6 lipid solvent) were mounted on a pendulum tribometer. Assuming that pendular joint damping could be modelled by a harmonic oscillator fluid damping (HOFD), damping time (τ), viscous damping coefficient (c) and friction coefficient (μ) were monitored for 5h under experimental conditions (400N; 20°C). In all experiments, pendular joint damping was found to follow an expone...
Gehlen H, Bradaric Z.The evaluation of plasma ACTH and the dexamethasone suppression test are considered the methods of choice to evaluate the course of therapy of pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID). Sampling protocols as well as vacutainers for analysis differ between the laboratories. To evaluate the reproducability of plasma ACTH measurement between four different laboratories (A, B, C, D) in Germany as well as within the laboratories themselves, ten horses with previously diagnosed PPID and four healthy horses were sampled and analyzed. Each laboratory received two differently labeled samples of each...
Wouters CP, Toquet MP, Renaud B, François AC, Fortier-Guillaume J, Marcillaud-Pitel C, Boemer F, De Tullio P, Richard EA, Votion DM.Atypical myopathy (AM) is a severe rhabdomyolysis syndrome that occurs in grazing horses. Despite the presence of toxins in their blood, all horses from the same pasture are not prone to display clinical signs of AM. The objective of this study was to compare the blood metabolomic profiles of horses with AM clinical signs with those of healthy co-grazing (Co-G) horses. To do so, plasma samples from 5 AM horses and 11 Co-G horses were investigated using untargeted metabolomics. Metabolomic data were evaluated using unsupervised, supervised, and pathway analyses. Unsupervised principal component...
Hall LW, Trim CM.Horses breathing spontaneously under halothane anaesthesia were subjected to expiratory resistance by the introduction of a water-trap into the expiratory limb of a circle absorber. Resistances of 10 and 20 cm H2O produced no significant increase in PaO2 (P greater than 0.05) during halothane/air and halothane/oxygen anaesthesia. The imposition of resistance was associated with an increase in PaCO2 and a significant increase in mixed venous PCO2. In three animals subjected to 20 cm H2O resistance under halothane/air anaesthesia, the cardiac output was reduced (P less than 0.01). It was conclud...
Lu G, Huang J, Li S.Theiler's disease-associated virus (TDAV) could be the aetiological agent of Theiler's disease. Horses experimentally inoculated with equine plasma containing TDAV develop acute and chronic infections with viraemia. Since its first identification in 2013, TDAV has not been detected in equines in the epidemiological studies that have been conducted. Until now, only one genome sequence of TDAV (HorseA1_serum) had been obtained. In this study, we sequenced the genome of four TDAV strains (A/China, F/China, H/USA and I/USA) in commercial equine sera used for cell culture propagation in China using...
Scandella M, Lazzaretti SS, De Zani D, Cassano M, Zani DD, Ravasio G, Gualtieri M.Tenoscopy of the navicular bursa has been recently introduced as a diagnostic and therapeutic treatment in cases of palmar foot pain syndrome. A deep digital flexor tendon transthecal approach was suggested in 1999, and the endoscopic technique has been reviewed. Smith and coworkers have recently reported good and promising results. An anatomic cadaver limb study was performed, and the endoscopic technique was evaluated. Subsequently, a 14-year-old Argentine mare, affected by palmar foot pain syndrome, was treated. Clinical data, MRI and endoscopic findings, and a 6-month follow-up evaluation ...
Junco M, Iglesias LE, Sagüés F, Zegbi S, Guerrero I, Saumell CA.In horses, the nematodes of the Strongylidae family are the most important due to their prevalence and pathogenicity. Sanitary plans include parasite control based on chemical anthelmintics. Among these, the benzimidazole compounds have been used since the 1960s to control the nematode Strongylus vulgaris. Its inappropriate use resulted in the development of resistance in parasites with a shorter biological cycle, such as the small strongyles. Currently, the genera that make up this group show widespread resistance to all chemical treatments available in veterinary medicine, except for macrocy...