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.
Rossdale PD, Pattle RE, Mahaffey LW.A SYNDROME in newborn thoroughbred foals, characterized by irregular respiration, convulsions, and lung pathology, has been described already1, and its resemblance to the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn human noted. This latter condition is associated with the absence of the surface active lung lining complex, or lung surfactant2; this absence can be investigated by observation of bubbles obtained from the lung3. From normal lungs bubbles of very low surface tension which show great stability in air-saturated water can be obtained4,5. The present case demonstrates the common facto...
Holmes JR, Alps BJ.The paper describes the changes in P, QRS and T vector orientations in the H plane in the aberrant beats in cases of partial atrioventricular block and premature atrial and ventricular systoles. The sites of possible atrial ectopic foci are discussed in relation to the anatomy of the atrial chambers and the orientation of the P vectors associated with atrial ectopic beats.
Breckenridge WC, Kuksis A.The triglyceride compositions of the milk fats of man, dog, guinea pig, cow, sheep, goat, and horse were compared by gas-liquid chromatography of the intact triglycerides and of the butyl esters of the component fatty acids. The milk fats of man, dog, and guinea pig, which were largely made up of long-chain fatty acids, showed a common pattern with major contributions made by the glycerides with 48-54 acyl carbon atoms. The milk fats of cow, sheep, and goat, which were rich in short-chain acids, showed significant proportions of triglycerides with 28-54 acyl carbon atoms. Horse milk, which con...
Abrahams M.The mechanical behaviour of horse and human tendon, as characterised by the stress-strain curve, has been examined with respect to load-strain cycling and strain rate. It was found that the tendon stress-strain curve for successive cycles was reporducible provided that strain on the specimen did not exceed 2·0–4·0%. If this strain level was exceeded, a permanent deformation occurred. This phenomenon was verified by histological studies on strained tendon which showed that some of the collagen fibres did not return to their original orientation. Variation in the rate of strain was found to ...
Holmes JR, Alps BJ.The paper describes observations on the distributions of the P, QRS and T cardiac vectors in the horizontal plane, comparing healthy horses with those with arrhythmia and cardiac murmurs. Deviation of the T vector from the normal range appeared to occur most commonly in association with cardiac murmurs, particularly those involving the semilunar valves and aorta.
Barnard BJ.The most obvious symptoms of rabies in farm animals and pets in South Africa and South-West Africa are discussed in the light of information obtained during routine examination of specimens for the 10-year-period 1967--1976. More than 55% of the cases encountered were cattle in which the most obvious symptoms were salivation (92%), bellowing (69%), aggressiveness (47%), paresis or paralysis (30%) and straining (12%). Unlike cattle, the most obvious symptom in goats was aggressiveness (83%). Salivation was observed in ony 29% of goats but, like bellowing in cattle, bleating was very obvious in ...
Laidler P, Cowan DA, Houghton E, Kicman AT, Marshall DE.Recognition by the legal authorities that growth hormones (GHs) may be abused to improve sporting performance and/or physique has led to the implementation of controls that make it an offence to produce, supply, possess or import and export GHs, with intent to supply, without the authority to do so. A method is described for the discriminatory analysis of human, equine, porcine and bovine GHs for forensic purposes. Peptide-mass mapping by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry following tryptic digestion gave sequence coverages of 97.4%, 93.7...
McD￮ LA, Dart AJ, Schiffman P, Parrot JJ.Enterolithiasis, as a cause of colic, was diagnosed and treated during surgical intervention in 2 Grant's zebras (Equus burchelli bohmi). The zebras were part of a wild herd in a zoo in the western United States. The clinical signs of enterolithiasis in both zebras were similar to those reported for horses. Analysis of the enterolith from 1 zebra revealed a composition identical to enteroliths that have been analyzed from horses. Three other zebras from this herd had enteroliths at necropsy. Enterolithiasis should be considered as a differential diagnosis for zebras with low-grade obstructive ...
Singleton MD, Breheny PJ.In this paper, we propose a nonlinear hierarchical model (NLHM) for analyzing longitudinal experimental infection (EI) data. The NLHM offers several improvements over commonly used alternatives such as repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and the linear mixed model (LMM). It enables comparison of relevant biological properties of the course of infection including peak intensity, duration and time to peak, rather than simply comparing mean responses at each observation time. We illustrate the practical benefits of this model and the insights it yields using data from experimental i...
McDonald J, Gall R, Wiedenbach P, Bass VD, DeLeon B, Brockus C, Stobert D, Wie S, Prange CA, Ozog FJ.A one step enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test for morphine was evaluated as part of a panel of pre- and post-race tests for narcotic analgesics in racing horses. This ELISA test is very sensitive to morphine with an I-50 for morphine of about 400 pg/ml. The test is also rapid, and ten samples, a normal pre-race complement, can be analyzed in about thirty minutes. The test can be read with an inexpensive spectrophotometer, or even by eye. The test readily detects the presence of morphine or its metabolites in equine blood for up to six hours after administration of sub-therapeutic d...
Hüthwohl H, Weiss R, Schmeer N, Schliesser T.Classification based on biochemical characteristics of 389 strains of plasma-coagulase-negative (plc-) staphylococci isolated from the genital tract of mares and stallions resulted in the following distribution of species: St. sciuri 130 (33.4%), St. equorum 42 (10.8%), St. xylosus 16 (4.1%), St. epidermidis 35 (9.0%), St. simulans 24 (6.2%), St. haemolyticus 33 (8.5%), St. warneri 18 (4.6%), St. lentus 12 (3.1%), St. hyicus 11 (2.8%). Strains of St. cohnii, St. capitis, St. gallinarum, St. saprophyticus and St. hominis have only been found sporadically (a. 1%). 48 (12.3%) strains could not be...
Kowalczyk DF, Beech J.The pharmacokinetics of the anti-convulsant phenytoin were investigated in clinically healthy horses after oral (p.o.) and intravenous (i.v.) administration. A single dose of phenytoin (8.8 mg/kg body weight) was given i.v. as a bolus to nine horses and one horse received 13.2 mg/kg. A two-compartment open model was used to describe the disposition of phenytoin. Four of the horses that received an i.v. dose (three at 8.8 mg/kg and one at 13.2 mg/kg) were then given the same dose 3 days later by the oral route. Phenytoin achieved a peak concentration in serum within 1-4 h after p.o. administrat...
Ribbeck R, Ilchmann G, Hiepe T.Research into the immunological diagnosis of gasterophilosis. So far there have been no reliable methods of diagnosing equine gasterophilosis intra vitam. Horses from the G.D.R. and the M.P.R. spontaneously infected with Gasterophilus spp. were tested for antibodies by the immunotechniques of counterimmunoelectrophoresis after Pesendorfer, passive haemagglutination and the intradermal test using antigen made from larvae of all 6 Gasterophilus spp. present in the palaearctis. All 3 techniques produced positive results. The intradermal injection produced an immediate reaction. A correlation betw...
Knych HK, Stanley SD.To describe the effects of alpha2 -adrenergic receptor antagonists on the pharmacodynamics of sublingual (SL) detomidine in the horse. Methods: Randomized crossover design. Methods: Nine healthy adult horses with an average age of 7.6 ± 6.5 years. Methods: Four treatment groups were studied: 1) 0.04 mg kg(-1) detomidine SL; 2) 0.04 mg kg(-1) detomidine SL followed 1 hour later by 0.075 mg kg(-1) yohimbine intravenously (IV); 3) 0.04 mg kg(-1) detomidine SL followed 1 hour later by 4 mg kg(-1) tolazoline IV; and 4) 0.04 mg kg(-1) detomidine SL followed 1 hour later by 0.12 m...
Giusto G, Tramuta C, Caramello V, Comino F, Nebbia P, Robino P, Singer E, Grego E, Gandini M.The objective of this study was to investigate whether cleaning surgical materials used to close pelvic flexure enterotomies with a wet sterile gauze will reduce contamination and whether the use of a full thickness appositional suture pattern (F) or a partial thickness inverting (or Cushing) suture pattern (C) would make a difference in the level of contamination. Large colon specimens were assigned to group F or C and divided into subgroups N and G. In group G, a wet sterile gauze was passed over the suture material, another over the instruments, and another over the gloves. In group N, no t...
Ball AN, Hoaglund EL, Pool R, Barrett MF, Bass LD.Lameness remains a common cause of retirement in the equine athlete and among hobby enthusiasts. The distal limb is one of the most frequently imaged areas, and recent advances in diagnostic imaging capabilities help practicing veterinarians differentiate normal variants from informative pathology. Although acute, non-weight-bearing lameness is commonly associated with etiologies, such as fractures, abscesses, and laminitis, other uncommon differentials such as cystic lesions and neoplasia might also be considered. This report describes the characterization of a large, cystic lesion in the thi...
