Treatment Options For Horses With Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia found in horses, but it's also the one that most impacts a horse's athletic performance. The University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Urbana offers a unique way to treat the condition: transvenous electrical cardioversion (TVEC).

Atrial fibrillation, commonly known as “AFib,” is an electrical disorder that affects the heart's rhythm; the top two chambers of the heart (the atria) don't contract properly, preventing blood from moving to the rest of the body efficiently. This affects how hard a horse can work before he tires. It isn't known why horses get AFib, but their large hearts and slow heart rate could predispose them to loss of electrical coordination.

The most common sign of AFib is a sudden, dramatic decrease in performance. Occasionally a nosebleed can also be seen. A veterinarian should be contacted when this occurs. As part of the exam, the vet will listen to the horse's heart, which is how most AFib in horses is detected. The vet can confirm that the horse is experiencing AFib by performing an electrocardiogram (ECG).

Horses with AFib can be given oral quinidine to restore proper heart rhythm, but this medication does have side effects, including laminitis, swelling of the nose and even death. Horses given this medication that don't have heart disease typically return to the correct heart rhythm.

The TVEC procedure can also return a horse's heart to a normal rhythm. This treatment only takes place at specialty equine hospitals, including the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Once the horse has had a full work-up and been deemed clear for surgery, a catheter is placed in the horse's jugular vein, though which two small electrodes are fed. The electrodes then administer a shock to the heart to convert it back to its normal rhythm.

This is the same shock given to humans with AFib via paddles—horses have too much muscle to let the paddles work from the outside. Delivering the shock directly to a horse's heart muscle is effective; TVEC has a 95 percent success rate in converting the heart back to its normal rhythm.

Read more at University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

The post Treatment Options For Horses With Atrial Fibrillation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Study: Mare Size Affects Birth Process

Drs. Christina Nagel, Maria Melchert, Christine Aurich and Jörg Aurich created a study to determine if the size of the mare affected the birthing process. The team used 23 pregnant mares and studied hormone and heart-related changes that occur in the mare and the fetus around birth. The groups consisted of six Shetland Pony (small); eight Haflinger (medium) and nine warmblood (large) mares.

They discovered that foal weight was approximately 10 percent of mare weight, no matter the size of the mare. Placenta weight was highest in Warmbloods; it did not differ between the small- and medium-sized mares. Progestins and cortisol were also highest in the larger mares. Progestin concentrations decreased as foaling got closer and cortisol increased as parturition was imminent in all sizes of horse studied.

Heart rates in all mares increased before foaling, but the most pronounced increase was in the small mares. Overall, the small mares foaled earlier than the larger mares.

Missed heartbeats during foaling occurred regularly in the larger mares, but only occasionally in the small- and medium-sized mares. The scientists report that this is most likely because of differences in heart efficiency. Small- and medium-sized mares occasionally had missed beats during the expulsive phase of foaling and the first two hours after delivery. The researchers suggest that this is an effect of breed, not size.

The team concludes that fit, athletic horses have highly efficient respiratory and cardiovascular systems; while at rest, these horses have reduced heart rates. Fetal heart rate also went down toward birth, with the most prominent reduction in full-sized horses.

The authors determined that mare of different sizes show both similarities and differences in cardiac and endocrine changes as the time for them to give birth nears. They note that late pregnancy puts substantial strain on the mare's cardiovascular system, but that mares are well adapted to these demands, no matter their size.

Read the full article here.

Read more at HorseTalk.

The post Study: Mare Size Affects Birth Process appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights