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Topic:Veterinary Medicine
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.
Prevention of crib-biting: a review. Crib-biting is a common oral stereotype. Because of perceived deleterious effects on the health and appearance of subjects the prevention of crib-biting is regularly attempted. The resourcefulness of horses in satisfying their motivation to perform this behaviour often frustrates owners' efforts at prevention. This paper reviews the efficacy and observable consequences of attempting to prevent crib-biting by a variety of methods. These include attempts to prevent the grasping of objects, to interfere with air-engulfing and to introduce punishment for grasping and neck-flexion. Other approaches...
The identification of abnormal behaviour and behavioural problems in stabled horses and their relationship to horse welfare: a comparative review. Many behaviours in domestic animals, such as the 'stable vices' of horses, are treated because they are considered undesirable for economic or cultural reasons, and not because the activity affects the horse's quality of life. The impact of a behaviour on the human reporter is not a function of its impact on the animal performer, and an understanding of the causes and effects of the particular activity is necessary to assess the costs and benefits of treatment. Where the behaviour is a sign of poor welfare, such as an inadequate environment, treatment can best be achieved by removing these und...
Characterisation of headshaking syndrome–31 cases. Headshaking is a maturity onset condition with the most commonly reported clinical signs being 'flipping' of the nose, nose rubbing, snorting or sneezing, and acting like a bee is flying up the nostril. A questionnaire was completed by owners of 31 horses with headshaking syndrome. The history, time of onset, clinical presentation and treatment of this condition were reported. Headshaking appeared to be light-stimulated in approximately 60% of the horses. The condition is seasonal and recurring in the majority of horses. Treatment with cyproheptadine produced improvement of symptoms in 76% of ...
Considerations for the control of equine cyathostomes in arid areas. Internal parasites of horses are ubiquitous but that does not suppose that the level of infection does not vary with climatic conditions. Climate determines the limits of where a parasite species can survive the external environment and weather determines the transmission pattern within the climatic bounds [Levine, N.D., 1963. Adv. Vet. Sci. 8, 215-261]. Arid areas have a more limited exposure potential to important parasites but the level of exposure can nonetheless lead to disease. It must be remembered that, even in arid areas, it does rain and irrigation, overflow from water troughs, dew d...
Pathogenicity of cyathostome infection. Cyathostomes are now the principle parasitic pathogen of the horse: a remarkable transformation during the last 25 years from virtual obscurity to focus of attention in equine parasitology. This rise to prominence coincides with the marked decrease in prevalence of large strongyle infections as a result of widespread use of modern anthelmintic compounds. On the basis that strongyle-associated diseases continue to commonly occur in the absence of these large strongyle species, clinical attention has turned to the pathogenicity of cyathostomes. Although many horses harbour burdens of tens of tho...
The effect of administration of a beta blocker in periparturient mares. This study investigated the effect of a beta blocker on parturition, fetal membrane retention and subsequent fertility in mares. The animals were divided into an experimental group (150 mares treated during second stage labour with propranolol [50 mg i.v.]) and a control group (180 mares with no treatment). Administration of propranolol was associated with a significant decrease in time of expulsion of fetal membranes, and an increase in both exhibition of foal heat and pregnancy rates at this heat.
The effect of short-term prevention on the subsequent rate of crib-biting in thoroughbred horses. The results of an experimental study of the motivational consequences of short-term prevention of crib-biting are reported here. Eight test horses wore a cribbing collar for 24 h. This was effective in preventing crib-biting in 6 subjects. Using analysis of co-variance that accounted for baseline differences in crib-biting rate, test horses showed significantly more crib-biting than control horses on the first day after prevention (P < 0.05). There was also a highly significant increase in the crib-biting rate of test horses on the first day after prevention in comparison with their baselin...
Physiological correlates associated with cribbing behaviour in horses: changes in thermal threshold, heart rate, plasma beta-endorphin and serotonin. The aim of the present study was to obtain information on the possible mechanisms underlying cribbing behaviour in horses. To investigate the horse's responsiveness to an external stimulus, a device for telemetric measurement of thermal threshold, using the forelimb withdrawal reflex, was developed and validated. Measurements of thermal threshold took place in cribbing horses (n = 11) before and during cribbing periods. Heart rate was monitored continuously in the same horses. Blood samples were collected before and during cribbing periods as well and in age- and sex-matched control horses (n ...
Influence of intermittent pressure, fluid flow, and mixing on the regenerative properties of articular chondrocytes. Equine articular chondrocytes, embedded within a polyglycolic acid nonwoven mesh, were cultured with various combinations of intermittent pressure, fluid flow, and mixing to examine the effects of different physical stimuli on neochondrogenesis from young cells. The cell/polymer constructs were cultured first in 125 ml spinner flasks for 1, 2, or 4 weeks and then in a perfusion system with intermittent pressure for a total of up to 6 weeks. Additional constructs were either cultured for all 6 weeks in the spinner flasks or for 1 week in spinners followed by 5 weeks in the perfusion system with...
Current concerns about control programs in temperate climates. Efforts to control cyathostome nematodes in temperate climates have not been uniformly successful, as evidenced by contemporary reports of clinical disease and widespread anthelmintic failure. Indeed, effective control is confounded by numerous factors, including ignorance of local transmission patterns, confusing or conflicting control recommendations, and use of ineffective anthelmintics or regimens. Most of these problems are universal rather than being climatically unique, and it is important to recognize that they are mere symptoms of larger and more comprehensive problems. The most basic...
Immunity in equine cyathostome infections. Defining the characteristics of immunity and immune responses to equine cyathostome infections is clearly important to advancing our understanding of the development of these nematodes within the host, the clinical conditions attributed to them, and in developing more rational and novel strategies for their control. Nonetheless, little is currently known on this topic. Current data based on field observations, worm burdens and fecal egg counts suggest that horses acquire a resistance to cyathostome infection with age. This response is slow to develop and incomplete in that most horses regardle...
Historical perspective of cyathostomes: prevalence, treatment and control programs. Small strongyles are highly prevalent in horses and can be found worldwide. Even though over 50 species of these parasites have been described, about 10 species comprise the bulk of the total number present in horses. Efforts to control small strongyles and other equine internal parasites have been undertaken for many years. Some of the early medications and control measures provided questionable activity against endoparasites; whether effective or not, they could be detrimental to the horse. Beginning in the early 1900s, scientific effort was used to evaluate activity of antiparasitic compoun...
Seasonal transmission of equine cyathostomes in warm climates. Few studies investigating the seasonal transmission of equine cyathostomes have been done in warm climates. Two Australian studies used experimentally-infected plots to determine hatching, development and survival of free living stages of equine cyathostomes. Four studies in the southern United States used pasture larval counts, and in some instances tracer animals, to determine seasonal availability of infective cyathostome larvae on naturally-infected pastures. With the exception of the dry Australian tropics, a general pattern of peak transmission of cyathostomes during the cooler seasons o...
Pancreatic alpha cell function in the fetal foal during late gestation. Plasma glucagon concentrations were measured in chronically catheterized fetal ponies and their mothers between 260 days of gestation and term (approximately 335 days). Fetal alpha cell responses to arginine and variations in fetal glycaemia were also examined during late gestation. Immunoreactive glucagon was present in fetal plasma at 260 days of gestation and its concentration in utero increased after 320 days and then again at birth. Maternal plasma glucagon concentrations were higher after 300 days than earlier in gestation but were lower than the corresponding fetal value throughout the ...
Laryngeal movements during the respiratory cycle measured with an endoscopic imaging technique in the conscious horse at rest. A video-laryngoscopic method, implemented with an algorithm for the correction of the deformation inherent in the endoscope optical system, has been used to measure the dorsoventral diameter (Drg) and the cross-sectional area (CSArg) of the rima glottidis in five healthy workhorses during conscious breathing at rest. Simultaneous recording of the respiratory airflow was also obtained in two horses. Drg measured 82.7 +/- 4.5 mm (mean +/- S.D.) independently of the respiratory phase, and did not differ from the measurement in post-mortem anatomical specimens of the same horses. CSArg ranged from...
Results of physical inspection before races and race-related characteristics and their association with musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbreds during races. To estimate the relative risk of injury among horses deemed to be at increased risk of injury on the basis of prerace physical inspection findings and to examine the association of injury during races with race-related characteristics. Methods: Cohort study. Methods: 2,187 Thoroughbred horses that started 3,227 races in Kentucky. Methods: All race starts for which a horse was deemed to be at increased risk of injury on the basis of prerace physical inspection findings and a random sample of race starts for which horses were not deemed at increased risk of injury were included in the study. Fin...
Effect of furosemide on performance of Thoroughbreds racing in the United States and Canada. To determine the effect of furosemide on performance of Thoroughbreds racing on dirt surfaces at tracks in the United States and Canada. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: All Thoroughbreds (n = 22,589) that finished a race on dirt surfaces at tracks in the United States and Canada between June 28 and July 13, 1997 in jurisdictions that allowed the use of furosemide. Methods: Race records were analyzed by use of multivariable ANOVA procedures and logistic regression analyses to determine the effect of furosemide on estimated 6-furlong race time, estimated racing speed, race earnings, and...
[“This helps; this is good”. Horse books of Tibetan Himalayas]. The present paper summarizes our recent investigations of the so-called horse books from the High Himalayas in Nepal. These books are written in tibetan language and are essentially dealing with hippology and hippiatry and to a lesser extent with topics such as pharmacology, anatomy, methods of diagnosis, divination and magical practices for horse races. The therapeutic methods of treatment in tibetan veterinary medicine are guided by the concepts of human medicine which, on the one hand, are related to the Ayurvedic System, on other hand, to the Traditional Chinese Medicine. Concerning the st...
Bovine papillomaviral gene expression in equine sarcoid tumours. The sarcoid is a benign locally invasive dermal fibroblastic lesion, commonly affecting horses and donkeys. The aetiology of the equine sarcoid is equivocal. Bovine papillomaviral (BPV) DNA (type 1/2) is frequently demonstrable in equine sarcoid tumour biopsies. However, the exact role of the virus in the disease process and its contribution to the phenotypic differences in sarcoids is not known. It was sought to assess the transcriptional activity of BPV-1 found in sarcoid tissues. Of 20 tumours examined, 18 were positive for E2 expression and ten positive for L1 expression. Viral oncogenes E...
Clinical presentation, diagnosis, and prognosis of chronic laminitis. This article focuses on the initial assessment of the horse affected with chronic laminitis. Variations in the clinical presentation and primary considerations in making a differential diagnosis are included. The elements of a clinical history essential to sound, therapeutic management, and prognosis are summarized. The physical and radiographic assessment of the digital lesions and diagnostic approaches to the common systemic aspects of the disease are presented and discussed.
Clinical presentation, diagnosis, and prognosis of acute laminitis. The purpose of this article is to describe the clinical features present in the patient affected with acute laminitis. The variations in the stance and characteristic lameness of the acute disease are described in relation to the disease severity and limb involvement. The elements of establishing a diagnosis including clinical history, physical and radiologic evaluation, and differential diagnosis are discussed. Difficulties and criteria used in establishing a prognosis of the acute phase patient are defined.
Pharmacologic and alternative therapies for the horse with chronic laminitis. This article deals with treatment of the chronically foundered horse. The first section of this article is focused on aspects of the traditional pharmacologic approaches to management of digital pain and sepsis, dietary management, and thyroid supplementation. A second section introduces the concepts, principles, and agents that are used in homeopathic treatments for laminitis. Lastly, a third section of this article reviews the use of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine approaches to treatment of chronic laminitis.
Historical perspectives on laminitis. This article attempts to provide a historical perspective regarding equine laminitis. It is designed to cover, as completely as possible, the historical record of, and the research advances made, in regards to acute and chronic laminitis. With respect to the historical record, the names given to this disease, the postulated etiologies, and the various treatment protocols are discussed. This article demonstrates the historical longevity of this disease and establishes a background for the current understanding of the disease's pathologic mechanisms and treatments.
The mechanisms and consequences of structural failure of the foot. Many of the difficulties in managing the horse with chronic laminitis are associated with the foot's mechanical failure. The occurrence of digital collapse cannot be viewed in isolation as the primary therapeutic focus. The circulatory, metabolic, and growth pattern changes induced by the foot's mechanical collapse often serve as major limiting factors to successful rehabilitation. From the discussion above, it is obvious that a significant amount of research is needed to better understand the biomechanical pathologies of the failed foot.
The pharmacologic basis for the treatment of developmental and acute laminitis. Each horse with laminitis is presented to the veterinarian at a different stage in progression of the condition and with varying severity. The pathogenic timing is often unknown and is difficult to determine. Because timing and severity are related to both the lesion's severity and responsiveness to treatment, these factors are critical to treatment selection and success. It is erroneous to assume that each horse with laminitis should receive each treatment. It is therefore important to ascertain as logically and objectively as possible the pathophysiological stage of development of each horse...
The digital pathologies of chronic laminitis. This review indicates that the patient-to-patient uniqueness commonly seen in chronic laminitis represents the variable presence of the digital pathologies. Although some degree of mechanical failure is always present, the secondary metabolic and growth dysplasias, vascular pathologies, and sepsis may or may not be evident. The presence and severity of these pathologies appear to have a more significant impact on the prognosis of individual cases than does the displacement of the distal phalanx. It should be reiterated that it is often the combined presence of these individual pathologies that...
