• Equine Infectious Anemia in Horses

    Equine infectious anemia (EIA) is a retroviral disease caused by a lentivirus in the family Retroviridae, closely related to HIV in its mechanism of persistence. The virus infects macrophages and monocytes, integrates permanently into the host genome, and is never cleared, an infected horse carries EIA for life. The disease is sometimes called swamp fever…

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  • Equine Herpes Virus in Horses

    Equine herpesvirus (EHV) is a family of DNA viruses belonging to the Herpesviridae, with five characterized subtypes in horses. EHV-4 causes primarily respiratory illness, rhinopneumonitis, most severe in young horses and resembling moderate influenza. EHV-1 causes respiratory disease but is distinguished by its capacity to produce two additional and more serious syndromes: abortion in pregnant…

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  • Voiding

    Voiding is the physiological process by which the body expels accumulated waste material , urine from the urinary bladder or feces from the large intestine. In horses, normal urinary voiding occurs several times per day, producing large volumes of pale yellow to cloudy urine. The cloudiness is characteristic and normal in healthy horses, caused by…

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  • Variant

    A variant is any form of an animal, trait, or characteristic that differs from the accepted norm or standard for its type. In equine usage the term is applied broadly: a coat color that does not fit the major recognized categories is a color variant; a horse whose measurements fall outside breed average is a…

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  • Stool

    Stool, also called manure or feces, is the solid or semi-solid waste material remaining after the digestive tract has extracted water and nutrients from ingested feed. In healthy adult horses, stool appears as distinct, formed balls of roughly uniform size, olive to dark brown in color, and with a mild odor of fermented fiber. Consistency…

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  • Trocar

    A trocar is a surgical instrument consisting of a sharply pointed stylet enclosed within a hollow cannula. When the trocar is thrust through the body wall into a fluid- or gas-filled cavity, the stylet is withdrawn, leaving the cannula in place as a port through which the contents can drain or through which instruments can…

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  • Toxicity

    Toxicity is the capacity of a substance to cause injury, illness, or death in a living organism. In equine medicine the term is used both as a property of a substance (e.g., “the toxicity of red maple leaves”) and as a clinical description of a horse’s condition when a toxic dose has been absorbed. Dose…

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  • Vat

    A vat, in the context of livestock and equine management, is a large container , typically built of concrete, steel, or heavy-gauge plastic , filled with a liquid solution into which animals are driven or guided for immersion. The practice of dipping animals in a vat is primarily used to control external parasites such as…

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  • Tailed

    Tailed describes an animal whose tail has been docked , partially or completely amputated , whether for working purposes, breed tradition, or cosmetic convention. The term is applied most frequently in draft horse and driving contexts, where a short or absent tail reduces the risk of the tail becoming entangled in harness traces or carriage…

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  • Hinis Horse: A Hardy Turkish Breed from Eastern Anatolia

    The Hinis is a native horse breed originating in the Hinis district of Erzurum province in eastern Anatolia, Turkey, where it has been selectively bred for approximately one century. The breed takes its name directly from its home district and reflects the phenotypic demands of the high-altitude Anatolian plateau: compact conformation, dense bone, thick skin,…

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