Equine Medicine

Corneal disease and damage resulting in cloudy, blue eyes has many causes.

Bacterial pneumonia is a common cause of disease in young foals.

Several previous presentations at the ACVIM and at other veterinary meetings have discussed PCR, and a recent paper indicates that a basic understanding of the different PCR test formats is needed for continuing education of practitioners and diplomates. While it is not necessary for the practitioner to be a molecular biologist, this table provides a short review of the definitions of molecular testing.

Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis in humans and horses. Risk factors in man include systemic antimicrobial use, gastrointestinal surgery, proton pump inhibitors (like omeprazole), chemotherapy, increasing age, and lack of immune competence.

Correcting the defects in uterine defense, neutralizing virulent bacteria, and controlling post-breeding inflammation are the goals of successful therapy. This is accomplished by surgically correcting anatomical defects, improving physical drainage after insemination, reducing the length or modulating the inflammatory response to insemination and inhibiting bacterial growth.

In general, sufficient fluids have been given when the horse/foal begins to pass urine.

By definition, the complete reproductive cycle includes a period of estrus, concluding with ovulation and a period of diestrus when progesterone levels are elevated. Observing periodic estrous behavior does not prove cyclicity. Evidence that ovulation is occurring can be from sequential data from ovarian palpation, presence of a corpus luteum as shown by ultrasonography or elevation of serum progesterone levels.

This paper will focus on the normal anatomy of the upper airway and manipulations of the endoscope to allow a thorough examination of the region in question. Adequate restraint of the horse allows for a controlled and complete endoscopic examination. This is not always achievable. When dynamic functional collapse of the upper airway is suspected from the horse's presenting history ideally the resting endoscopic examination is performed without use of sedation. Sedatives may alter nasopharyngeal and laryngeal movements and consequently affect the assessment of the airway.

Goal of all techniques is to create a mucosal tunnel extending from the urethral orifice to near the mucocutaneous junction.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was first described in the human health care setting in the 1960's. Infections were first described in otherwise healthy people in the 1980's. Disease severity in humans ranges from asymptomatic colonization of the upper respiratory tract and skin, to clinical disease with varying severity.

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen and is a significant cause of hospital acquired (nosocomial) infection of surgical wounds and infections associated with indwelling medical devices. Staphylococcus aureus can colonize the skin and nares of humans which facilitate its transmission, particularly in the healthcare setting.

The clinical signs of VEE are similar to both EEE and VEE with a large variation in mortality ranging from 40-90% depending on the outbreak. In addition to subclinical and overt CNS clinical signs, diarrhea has been observed in VEE horses. Florida, Texas, and Louisiana are the three states ecologically at risk but recent activity in Panama could result in a transported case by air travel.

Horses with evidence of epistaxis can be challenging to diagnose and manage. The volume of visible blood can range from a trace of serosanguinous discharge that is suggestive of a past episode of bleeding, to high volume fresh blood flow from both nares.

The principles of extracting teeth are very similar, regardless of the tooth one is attempting to remove. Private practitioners are familiar with the routine extraction of wolf teeth (modified Triadan #05). With an investment in instruments, an understanding of techniques, the use of regional head anesthesia, and systemic sedatives, more extractions can be performed with time and patience.

Advanced reproductive technologies such as cooled semen, frozen semen, embryo transfer and gamete inter fallopian tube transfer (GIFT) have given horse owners choices and freedom. Mares can be bred at home with semen collected from stallions that live anywhere in North America, Europe or Australasia. Stallions can compete during the breeding season while mares are bred with their previously frozen semen.

Maintenance of excellent health and biosecurity standards at the level of the farm is the MOST effective way of maintaining an outbreak-free industry. All disease outbreaks have an index case and all index cases have a point of origin. Because horses are usually maintained at a 'home" farm, then the origin of any outbreak should be traced back to the farm level.

A basic reproductive examination includes obtaining a history, conducting a physical examination, evaluating the perineal conformation, and performing a rectal/ultrasonographic exam of the reproductive tract, vaginal speculum examination and digital examination of the cervix.

The soft tissues of the oral cavity are susceptible to traumatic injuries by bits or other oral tack, sharp external objects, blows to the head, injury during recovery from general anesthesia, and iatrogenic damage during intraoral procedures-for example, administration of oral medications, dental extraction, or transoral epiglottic entrapment release.

If the side of cryptorchidism is unknown, surgery can be prolonged and laparoscopic exploration of the abdomen may be a better approach.

The horse is prone to traumatic injury of its head. Environmental conditions, a heightened flight response, and equipment and tack used for the horse all contribute to injury occurrence.

For diseases, there is a 'disease allele' (or gene mutation) and a 'normal allele' present in the population.

The equine paranasal sinuses (PNS) are an intricate area of the head. There are 6 paired sinuses (frontal, maxillary, dorsal conchal, ventral conchal, middle conchal, and sphenopalatine) and all of these spaces communicate with each other and the nasal passage either directly or indirectly.

Neurological disease represents 0.3% (affecting between 0.2 and 0.5% of horses depending on age) of all health problems identified by owners in the latest 2005 Equine National Animal Health and Monitoring Study (NAHMS).14 Likely this is much higher given losses in young horses due to non-infectious neurological causes, in all ages of horses from underreporting of encephalitis, and misdiagnoses of these diseases as lameness and trauma.

In evaluating a foal with established pneumonia, how can you differentiate between R. equi pneumonia from those caused by other bacteria, while waiting culture results?

This is the most common allergic skin disease of the horse, caused by a hypersensitivity to the bites of common insects. There are a variety of common names for this condition including "sweet itch" and "summer eczema".