Measuring pain in horses

Hello Summarians,

I would love to hear how VetSummary is working. I’ve included a new monthly feature recognizing foundational studies. If you have any suggestions give me a shout.

Please give me feedback on ways I can make it more useful to you.

If it is valuable to you please consider sending it on to a friend 😄 

Heated breathing circuit helps with hypothermia

This study evaluated the use of a new heated and humidified breathing circuit (HHBC) in preventing hypothermia in healthy dogs under general anesthesia for elective ovariohysterectomies. The study found that dogs provided with both an HHBC and a circulating warm water blanket (WWB) were warmer at extubation and had a lower incidence of hypothermia compared to dogs provided with a WWB alone. HHBCs have several advantages over other active warming devices commonly used in veterinary medicine, including their ability to be used during transportation and surgical prepping regardless of patient positioning, and their potential to protect the tracheobronchial ciliated epithelium from damage caused by dry gases and maintain mucociliary clearance during general anesthesia. Future studies are needed to determine the efficacy of HHBCs in smaller animals and to investigate their use as the sole source of active warming in anesthetized dogs. Overall, HHBC use should be considered in veterinary patients to decrease the incidence of postanesthetic hypothermia. 

Jones, S. M., Burns, C. C., Reed, R. A., Quandt, J. E., Barletta, M., & Sakai, D. M. (2023). The effect of adding a heated humidified breathing circuit on body temperature in healthy anesthetized dogs, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (published online ahead of print 2023). https://doi.org/10.2460/javma.23.01.0040 

Bottom line — A new tool to help with this frustrating issue.

Blast from the past …. A new occasional feature to show landmark studies.

Pilot study on the benefits of probiotics

Feline herpesvirus 1 (FHV-1) infection is a common and contagious disease in cats, which can result in severe clinical signs and recurrent ocular and respiratory symptoms. Currently, there are no effective treatments to eliminate FHV-1 from the body, and lysine supplementation has limited efficacy. This pilot study investigated the potential benefits of feeding the probiotic Enterococcus faecium SF68 to cats with chronic FHV-1 infection. The study found that SF68 supplementation maintained fecal microbial diversity and may lessen the morbidity associated with chronic FHV-1 infection in some cats. However, further studies are needed to determine the efficacy in a clinical setting. The mechanism by which SF68 exerts the apparent beneficial effect is not clear, and the study results should be interpreted with caution. Future studies should evaluate FHV-1 specific humoral and cell-mediated immune responses and fecal microbiome stability, and use samples from the conjunctiva to determine effects on viral shedding. 

Lappin MR, Veir JK, Satyaraj E, Czarnecki-Maulden G. Pilot Study to Evaluate the Effect of Oral Supplementation of Enterococcus Faecium SF68 on Cats with Latent Feline Herpesvirus 1. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 2009;11(8):650-654. doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2008.12.006 

Bottom line — One of the first studies to help understand the link between the gut and immune health.

A Novel Way to Measure Pain in Horses

The ability to recognize pain in horses is difficult and can lead to painful conditions going unnoticed. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin associated with pain and inflammation. In humans, NGF concentration is increased in serum of patients with osteoarthritis. This study aimed to evaluate serum NGF concentrations in horses with lameness associated with advanced osteoarthritis and compare these to serum concentrations in horses with milder disease and young healthy horses. The results showed that serum NGF concentration is increased in horses with lameness associated with advanced osteoarthritis compared with sound horses and horses with milder disease. These findings indicate that NGF plays an active role in osteoarthritis-associated pain. Serum NGF concentration should be investigated as a marker for osteoarthritis-associated pain in horses. Longitudinal studies of horses from the detection of early osteoarthritis until more chronic, structural lesions develop would be helpful for determining changes in serum NGF concentration with disease progression. Future trials could investigate monoclonal NGF-antibody treatment as an alternative for treating osteoarthritis-associated pain. 

Kendall, A, Lützelschwab, C, Lundblad, J, Skiöldebrand, E. Serum nerve growth factor in horses with osteoarthritis-associated lameness. J Vet Intern Med. 2023; 1- 8. doi:10.1111/jvim.16718 

Bottom line — Potentially useful for screening horses… eventually a new treatment …

Just putting things in perspective …