Flotac and Mini-Flotac for uro-microscopic diagnosis of Capillaria plica (syn. Pearsonema plica) in dogs

Background: Capillaria plica (syn. Pearsonema plica) is a nematode that resides in the urinary bladder and rarely in ureters or in the kidney pelvis of various carnivores, especially foxes and dogs. Urine sedimentation technique is actually the only diagnostic tool that permits the identification of C. plica eggs, but its sensitivity is low and when an infection is suspected (or when it is necessary to confirm treatment efficacy) more than one examination of urine sediment should be performed. The present paper reports a clinical case of natural C. plica infection in a dog from southern Italy. In addition, two new techniques, FLOTAC and Mini-FLOTAC, were used for the diagnosis of C. plica in dog urine and compared with the technique of sedimentation. Results: Using FLOTAC with fresh urine and sodium chloride as flotation solution, were obtained the best results for the diagnosis of C. plica in dog urine in term of eggs counted (mean eggs per 10 ml of urine = 70.3 FLOTAC vs 40.3 Mini FLOTAC vs 32.8 sedimentation) and coefficient of variation (CV%) (6.2 FLOTAC vs 13.4 Mini-FLOTAC vs 32.9 sedimentation). Conclusions: The FLOTAC was the more sensitive method, but also the Mini-FLOTAC could be a valid alternative diagnostic method because gave better results than the classical sedimentation and can be used in place of the FLOTAC in laboratories where the centrifugation step cannot be performed. © 2014 Maurelli et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Hypophosphatemia induced by aluminium hydroxide supplementation in a standardbred trotter - Ipofosfatemia in un cavallo da corsa da uso improprio di idrossido di alluminio

This work describes a case of hypophosphatemia in a standardbred trotter induced by inappropriate use of aluminium hydroxide before a race, After the race, the horse showed acute muscle wasting and weakness, and did not respond to therapy with NSAIDS. Blood tests revealed that the animal was hypophosphatemic. This condition may have been induced by aluminium hydroxide. The horse received a 7 day therapy with: Joulie Preparation p.os (136 g of anhydrous dibasic sodium phosphate and 58.5 ml of phosphoric acid 85% in 1 l of water: 1 ml provides 40 mg of phosphorus), plus tiocolchicoside (Muscoril (R), 6 mg/100 kg ev daily), Ringer lattato (500 ml/100 kg e. v. daily) and vitamins (Bicomplex (R), 5 ml/100 kg e. v. daily). The therapy led to complete remission of symptoms and the horse could return to its sport activities

Observation on the hematology of Standarbred horse in training and racing in Italy

It is generally acknowledged that hematology may provide information about disease states, performance problems, but also about equine welfare and fitness in race horses. Hematologic data are available for horses in general, but most of them are referred to thourghbred horses reared in their native English countries. Based on the assumption that age, sex, management, as well as and the geographical location of the breeding sites may affect the results of hematologic values, this study focused the attention on standarbred trotters reared in Italy; then a trial protocol was established to check the amount of variation in the hematologic parameters and to calculate their reference intervals. Blood samples were collected from 100 healthy trotters, reared in different horse stables in Southern Italy. Hematologic parameters were screened and microscopic search for the parasites in the red cells was performed. Descriptive statistics were estimated for the hematologic data. In addition, variance analysis was performed by the GLM procedure including adjustment for gender and age. The results indicate that standarbred trotters reared in Italy, when compared with normal blood values for horse in the literature, appear to be characterized by erythrocytes which are more in number, but smaller in size and lower in Hb content. Particularly, our average MCV and MCH are of 42 ± 2.62 fl and 15.50 ± 0.91 pg, while normal range reported in references are MCV=46.1 ± 4.0 fl and MCH=16.3 ± 1.4 pg. Moreover in the present study, MCV was bigger in males than in females (42.42 vs 40, 79 fl; P=0.02) while MCHC was lower (36.87 vs 37.18 g/dl; P=0.04) and the effect of age was significant for RBC (P=0.0005), MCV (<0.0001) and MCH (<0.0001). Three years old trotters, in particular, reported higher number of RBC, but with lower MCV and MCH respect to adult horses (aged from 5 to 10 years). Conclusively this study provides new reference values useful for veterinarians and equine technicians practicing in Italy, to assess the welfare status of healthy trotter

Training Versus Overtraining: Evaluation of Two Protocols

Forty Standardbred trotters were divided into two groups, A and B, and subjected to two training methods with a much more intense protocol in thte second group. Compared with group A, group B showed an increase in red blood cells, leukocytes, and red cell distribution width (RDW); a decrease in mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH); and elevations of aspartate amino transferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (AP), total bilirubin (BUN), and alpha(1)- and alpha(2)-globulins. The authors believe that the concomitance of such findings may suggest a condition of overtraining