diagnosis | Horse Racing Free Tips

Equine Cancer: Difficult To Detect, Expensive To Treat

Diagnosing systemic cancer in horses can be difficult. Clinical signs are often vague and include things like weight loss, fever, disinterest and exercise intolerance – all issues that could be indicative of another issue.

If common causes like disease, parasites, digestive disorders, and other common ailments have been ruled out, Dr. Liya Wang and other researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences suggest that systemic cancers should be considered. The research team also notes that cancer should be suspected if a horse doesn't respond well to traditional therapies, or if he begins to lose organ function.

Bloodwork run on horses that have cancer often comes back as nonspecific, but it may show that the horse is anemic and has elevated globulin concentrations and increased neutrophils. Though additional diagnostic work in search of conclusive results is available, it's often quite invasive and extensive.
The inability to find a reliable cancer biomarker often delays diagnosis, and results in ineffective treatments and poor chances of survival.

Wang and her team crafted a study to see if thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) could be used as a cancer biomarker in horses with lymphoma.

Serum TK1 is used as a cancer biomarker in humans. TK1 is important for DNA replication and cell proliferation. In healthy cells, TK1 degrades rapidly after cell division. In cancer cells, TK1 production is increased and leaks into the blood.

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The researchers measured serum TK1 in seven horses with lymphoma, five horses suspected to have lymphoma, 107 horses with diseases that weren't tumor related, and 42 horses with no sign of disease. Serum TK1 was significantly higher in horses with lymphoma and suspected lymphoma. Serum TK1 was also elevated in the diseased horses without lymphoma.

The team concludes that these findings indicate that serum TK1 could be used as a cancer biomarker in horses.

Read the study here.

Maryland Horsemen, Veterinarians Urged To Use Online Injury Reporting Form

Horsemen and private veterinarians are reminded that the Maryland Racing Commission has an online Injury Reporting Form that should be used to report injuries during track at all Thoroughbred tracks in the state.

“This is important in our effort to track training injuries,” MRC Executive Director Mike Hopkins said. “It's also important to see if there is a pattern of a type of injury and where it occurred on the racetrack.”

The form asks for basic information as well the location on the track where the injury occurred, the type of injury, whether radiographs were taken, and the veterinary diagnosis for the injury.

The reporting of injuries during training was part of a Nov. 10 discussion among horsemen and Maryland Jockey Club officials in relation to keeping the track maintenance abreast of any issues.

The form is available online at this link: https://forms.gle/uZo7bp1Xa23zJYqW6

The post Maryland Horsemen, Veterinarians Urged To Use Online Injury Reporting Form appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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High-Tech Tool To Diagnose Rainrot

Rainrot is a common, painful skin condition affecting horses that are exposed to rainfall for an extended period of time. Caused by an opportunistic bacterium, a horse exposed to wet, humid conditions can rapidly develop a crusting infection that causes tight scabs in a drip pattern down his back, rump and flanks. Rainrot can also show up on areas of the horse that are in contact with wet grass, like on the lower legs and muzzle.

Though many horses can be treated for rainrot with over-the-counter products, older horses and those with comprised immune systems tend to get more-severe infections that may require veterinary intervention. When dealing with a severe case, a vet will generally sample the crusts and examine it under a microscope, looking for the specific bacteria that causes rainrot.

A New option available to veterinarians is the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. This DNA-amplification technique is commonly used in gene sequencing and forensic analysis, as well as for diagnosing infectious diseases. Extremely sensitive, PCR is a routine diagnostic test for most labs and it's affordable: The test isn't as expensive as most cytology tests.

Once run, it can differentiate between rainrot and other skin conditions, which will assist in determining a course of treatment, shortening the trial-and-error efforts sometimes needed to assist with healing.

When Digging For A Diagnosis Becomes Harmful

Equine and pediatric medicine has many parallels, notes Dr. David Ramey in an article for Horse Network, including a propensity for overdiagnosis.

Ramey draws multiple similarities between the two, including that both horses and children are reliant upon adults to make medical decisions for them. Additionally, neither small children nor horses can talk, so diagnoses must be made on observation and testing.

Ramey says that a horse may have an issue where a diagnosis is warranted, but determining an exact diagnosis can be difficult—and in some cases harmful–to the horse. An ultrasound can be a helpful tool to use if a horse is colicking and a diagnosis on whether surgery is needed is imperative. However, sometimes a precise diagnosis isn't needed. If a horse is older and sore, using every diagnostic tool to determine where it is unsound may not change the treatment or the outcome—it simply adds to the owner's expense. In Ramey's words, “'Overdiagnosis' describes a situation when an abnormality is found, but detection of that abnormality doesn't actually benefit the patient.”

Though vets have multiple diagnostic tools at their disposal, their use doesn't always behoove the horse or the owner. Using every tool available to find a diagnosis might physically harm the horse: It's imperative that the owner and vet agree that the benefit outweighs the possible risk of the test or procedure.

Psychologically, naming the issue may change the perception of what a horse can do. Some owners then become focuses on “fixing” the problem, adding in supplements and other treatments that the horse may not need. Finally, the financial strain on owners who choose to offer treatments to horses that may not garner long-term improvement can be immense.

Ramey offers some thoughts on why veterinarians may seek to over diagnose the equines in their care:

Industry influence
Defensiveness
Incentives

Owners may attempt to seek out concrete diagnoses for their own peace of mind; uncertainty is not well tolerated by most people.

The benefit—to both horse and owner–of performing a test or procedure should be discussed before an owner agrees to pay for it. Many equine conditions improve on their own, so immediately throwing every test and procedure at the horse may result in the same diagnosis as waiting and not doing additional tests.