Renal dysfunction in a case of purpura haemorrhagica in a horse.

This study documents a case of a four-year-old thoroughbred horse who developed kidney dysfunction after contracting purpura haemorrhagica. While treatments attempted may have worsened the horse’s condition, an autopsy revealed that the disease also may have been responsible for the horse’s renal diseases.

Case Presentation

• A four-year-old thoroughbred horse was brought for examination with clinical signs of purpura haemorrhagica, a potentially fatal blood disorder that can cause swelling and bleeding in various parts of the horse’s body.
• The horse showed indications of kidney involvement, manifesting in a glomerulopathy and nephrotic syndrome. These are conditions that affect the filtering units of the kidneys (glomeruli) and can lead to significant loss of protein in the urine.
• The horse’s condition was characterized by heavy proteinuria, a state where excessive amounts of protein are found in urine, and azotaemia, where there are high levels of nitrogen-containing compounds in the blood.
• Heavy proteinuria and azotaemia are indicative of severe kidney damage as the kidney fails to appropriately filter waste products and proteins from the blood stream.
• The presence of these conditions may have been exacerbated by the diuretic therapy, treatment aimed at increasing the amount of water and salt expelled from the body as urine.

Autopsy Findings

• Upon death, an autopsy was conducted to further understand the horse’s condition. It revealed membrano- and mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis – a type of kidney inflammation where there’s abnormal growth of tissues in the glomeruli.
• The autopsy also uncovered chronic pleuritis, showing the horse had a long-standing inflammation of the pleura, a condition that can cause fluid buildup and consequent respiratory distress.
• These findings suggested that circulating immune complexes, which are formed when antibodies in the blood bind to foreign substances, may have been responsible for the purpura haemorrhagica and the consequent renal diseases.
• The immune complexes can form deposits in tissues and organs like the kidneys, resulting in inflammation and damage. This could explain the development of the kidney diseases observed in this case.