Ultrasonography was used to evaluate the duodenum of 6 clinically normal horses. Examinations were performed in horses which each, alternatively, received diets of; 1) concentrates and hay, 2) hay only, or 3) after 36 hours of starvation. The duodenum was constantly visualized just ventral to the right kidney at the 16th and 17th intercostal spaces on a line joining the olecranon and tuber sacrale. Cranial to the 16th intercostal space visibility depended on thickness of interposing liver and lung field interference. Duodenal distensions, contractions and content are described. Starved horses had fewer contractions and distensions than horses on hay, or hay and concentrate diets but the difference was not significant. Duodenal wall thickness ranged from 3–4 mm. Ultrasonographically five layers, corresponding to the mucosal surface, mucosa, submucosa, muscularis propria and serosa, could be identified. A necropsy specimen of the duodenum was evaluated histologically and Ultrasonographically in a water bath for comparison.

Glycopyrrolate could be administered with imidocarb in horses with piroplasmosis to reduce the adverse effects of imidocarb.

No abstract

A clinical trial was designed to evaluate the effects of diminazene aceturate and its stabiliser antipyrine on serum pseudocholinesterase (PChE) and red blood cell acetylcholinesterase (RBC AChE) in dogs with babesiosis. The trial was conducted on naturally occurring, uncomplicated cases of babesiosis (n = 20) that were randomly allocated to groups receiving a standard therapeutic dose of diminazene aceturate with antipyrine stabiliser (n = 10) or antipyrine alone (n = 10). Blood was drawn immediately before and every 15 minutes for 1 hour after treatment. Plasma PChE showed a 4% decrease between 0 and 60 min within the treatment group (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at any of the time intervals for PChE. There was an increase in RBC AChE activity at 15 min in the treatment group (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at any time interval for RBC AChE. In view of the difference in PChE, samples from additional, new cases (n = 10) of canine babesiosis were collected to identify the affect of the drug over 12 hours. No significant depression was identified over this time interval. The results suggests that the underlying mechanism in producing side-effects, when they do occur, is unlikely to be through cholinesterase depression