Unit 1 - Equine Respiratory Diagnostics Flashcards
What kind of big ticket items should you ask a horse owner about in respiratory illness cases?
Living environment, feeding, vaccine history, travel or stress inducing events, the horse’s job, performance
Where should all respiratory evaluations start?
Observe from a distance, followed by a complete physical exam.
What is the term for normal breathing? Increased rate with reduced tidal volume? Difficulty breathing?
Eupnea, tachypnea, dyspnea
What is the term for increased respiratory rate with increase tidal volume?
Hyperpnea
What is included in the upper respiratory tract?
Anything cranial to the thoracic inlet. Anything caudal is lower respiratory tract
What might you look at in the nares? Mouth?
Nares: air flow may be unequal and the nares may be flared In the oral cavity, smell for foul breath. Abnormal breath should elicit a complete oral exam and consideration of sinus involvement.
How can you make a horse breathe deeply?
Rebreathing exam
What abnormal results are associated with rebreathing exams?
Abnormal results include coughing, increased effort, and increase respiratory sound.
When shouldn’t you do a rebreathing exam?
Don’t do in a dyspneic patient or one with a history of aspiration pneumonia.
How should you characterize nasal discharge?
Unilateral or bilateral, persistent or intermittent, smell, consistency, color, presence of feed material
Why do we use endoscopy?
To evaluate the status of the upper and lower respiratory system, including some degree of function, anatomy, and lesions.
You should evaluate before and after anesthesia.
You can see turbinates, drainage, nasopharynx, guttural pouches, larynx, and more.
1
palatopharyngeal arch
2
arytenoids
3
epiglottis
What nerves can be found in or very near to the guttural pouches?
Nerves: 9-12 and the cranial cervical ganglion. Cranial nerve 7 is outside but directly adjacent to the lateral compartment.
What divides the guttural pouch in half?
Stylohyoid bone
What are the three important equine radiology locations?
Sinuses/dental, Pharynx/larynx/guttural pouches, and thorax
What sinuses typically are most commonly diseased in horses?
maxillary, frontal, and ventral conchal
True or false: for most screening ultrasounds, you don’t need to clip the hair.
True: for most screening ultrasounds, you don’t need to clip the hair.
Where do we most commonly sample for Arterial Blood Gas analysis?
metatarsal artery, temporal artery, facial artery, brachial artery
What drug must used during arterial blood gas sampling? Why?
Must use heparin - All gas bubbles must be removed and the syringe capped. Use a short, 25 G needle and 1-3 ml syringe.
________ means decreased oxygen tension of the arterial blood (decreased PO2).
hypoxemia
______ means decreased oxygen concentration at the level of the tissue, with or without hypoxemia.
hypoxia
An increase in PaCO2 is known as what?
Hypercapnia
How do we collect samples in the sinuses?
Sinus trephination
How do we sample airway secretions?
Tracheobronchial aspirate: Cytology and culture
Bronchoalveolar lavage - cytology
Where do you pass a trochar for tracheobronchial aspirate?
Through the annular ligament between two tracheal rings.
What frequently occludes the equine fenestrated mediastinum?
Inflammatory debris when sick. Requires thoracocentesis from each side.
What are some tests that can be done for respiratory illness?
cytologic evaluation of fluid samples, microbial culture techniques, immunologic techniques, molecular techniques: PCR
