Diagnostic approaches for fatal equine ailments

In a dvm360® interview, Sandy Taylor, DVM, PhD, DACVIM-LAIM, associate professor of large animal internal medicine at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, explained how to diagnose a host of conditions that may cause sudden deaths in horses including toxicosis, aortic rupture, plus more.

View the video below for the entire discussion. The following is a partial transcript.

Sandy Taylor, DVM, PhD, DACVIM-LAIM: If we have a toxin that's suspected, if we think [the horse] got into something, then what we'll try to do is collect stomach contents by passing a stomach tube. If they've eaten something recently, then we can take that gastric content and submit it for toxin testing. If maybe we don't know when it happened, or we're thinking maybe it's too late, it's already through the stomach, then we'll take blood or urine samples and send them to a lab for the toxin testing.