Elephants are the only animal to have four forward-facing knees. All other four-legged animals have at least one pair of legs with knees that face backwards. Do horses have four knees? They don’t. They have one knee on each front leg. They have the equivalent of an elbow, close to Read more…
The answer is yes, horse can indeed swim. In fact, they are actually very competent swimmers, due to their huge lungs, which enables them to naturally float. Horses have a natural instinct to swim when they hit deep water and readily perform a paddle like action, not too dis-similar from Read more…
At present, in veterinary anatomy, the horse lung is divided into the cranial and caudal lobes by the cardiac notch on either side. In addition to these lobes, in the right lung, the accessory lobe is present. How are the lungs divided? The lungs are the major organs of the Read more…
1. They Can’t Breathe Through the Mouth! Horses, unlike many animals, only breathe through the nose and cannot breathe through the mouth. Why can’t horses breathe through mouth? The horse only breathes through its nostrils. The nasal passages in the horse are separated from the oral (mouth) cavity. Horses only Read more…
Horses are obligate nasal breathers, which means a horse’s breathing during exercise only occurs through his nose. During exercise, it becomes twice as difficult for horses to move air into the lungs, with 50% of the total resistance in the upper airway originating in the nasal passages. One Breath = Read more…
An estimated 14% to 75% of racehorses examined by endoscopy have EIPH. On the basis of a bronchoalveolar lavage analysis, a study suggested that 100% of horses performing strenuous exercise have EIPH. EIPH has been reported in various breeds. How do you prevent EIPH in horses? Some alternatives to furosemide Read more…
Given that horses are obligate nose breathers, oxygen making its way to the lungs must flow through their nasal passages, down the upper respiratory tract, and into the lungs through a network of tubes: trachea, bronchi, the bronchioles and into the alveoli (or air sacs). Why is the horse an Read more…
Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing are examples. Up to a given point, these horses will be performing aerobically, changing to anaerobic metabolism as time and distance increase. Horses may use fats and glucose as the primary fuels for this type of muscle activity. Is horse riding aerobic or anaerobic? In addition Read more…
Furosemide reduces the incidence and severity of EIPH in Thoroughbred racehorses. What drug is used to treat exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage in the horse? Furosemide reduces the incidence and severity of EIPH in Thoroughbred racehorses. Horses with and without EIPH demonstrate equal improvements in race performance after administration of furosemide, Read more…
Lung bleeding in horses, also known as Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH), is a silent injury that can go undetected by trainers and riders because it occurs deep within the lungs. EIPH in horses occurs when fragile pulmonary blood vessels in the lungs rupture during exercise. What does bleeding in Read more…