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Equine Health.

The historical vertical: equine health, movement and welfare.

On a dark background, vertical light stems grow taller towards the right, shifting from turquoise to red, crossed by a thin rising band of light.

Equine Health

Autumn ACTH in the horse: what a seasonal reference range really tells you

In autumn ACTH rises in healthy horses too: where the 29 and 47 pg/ml limits come from, and what breed, age and laboratory shift.

HOHorseArobust Open access

Macro shot of two young maple seedlings beside several winged samaras on a pale grey surface, rendered in turquoise and coral tones.

Equine Health

Sycamore and atypical myopathy: why not every horse on the same pasture falls ill

On affected pastures, clinically healthy horses also carried hypoglycin A in their blood: what the sycamore studies show, and what they do not show.

MUMultiple speciesBmoderateT1hypothesis only Open access

Equine Health

Strangles in horses: what is known about silent carriers and the duration of shedding

After a strangles outbreak, 3 to 37 per cent of horses stayed carriers depending on herd and method: what is documented on silent carriers.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Dark stable aisle crossed by a shaft of window light with dust drifting in it, a hay bale at right in front of teal stall doors.

Equine Health

Equine asthma and air quality: what links dust, hay and the lung

What counts is not visible dust but the respirable fraction in the horse's breathing zone: figures from trials on hay, steaming and haylage.

MUMultiple speciesBmoderateT1hypothesis only Open access

Stylised sagittal section through a horse's foot: white bones, a teal hoof wall and a thin coral band between them, on a plain ivory background.

Equine Health

Early signs of laminitis: what the digital pulse and a warm hoof are really worth

Bilateral forelimb lameness separates laminitis from other lameness most sharply, the digital pulse follows: what the studies actually show.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Stylised 3D model of a spinal segment in section: six slender spinous processes, the right-hand two almost touching, over teal muscle layers.

Equine Health

Kissing spines on radiographs: what a finding says about pain and what it does not predict

Among 100 jumping horses in active competition, not one had a normal back on radiographs: what a kissing spines finding says, and what it cannot predi

MUMultiple speciesBmoderateT1hypothesis only Open access

Dark bay horse in a stall, head lowered towards the straw, turquoise painted partition, hazy light on rough plaster, loose stalks on the floor.

Equine Health

Colic in horses: warning signs, emergencies and evidence-based prevention

Around a quarter of colic cases seen by vets turned critical: which findings set them apart, which risk factors recur, and what the evidence shows.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Close-up of the rounded, smoothly worn top edge of a pale wooden stall door, with a blurred stable aisle and horse's head behind.

Equine Health

Crib-biting and weaving: what the evidence says about stereotypies in horses

Only about one per cent of crib-biters began after contact with a crib-biting horse, although nearly half of owners believe it is copied.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Close macro view of a glass counting chamber on a microscope stage, a single droplet resting on the finely engraved grid lines.

Equine Health

A faecal egg count with nothing found: what a negative result does not rule out

Against known egg counts, the commonest counting technique recovered only about a fifth: what a negative faecal result in the horse really tells you.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Cutaway 3D model of a stomach: a pale, finely textured lining above, teal longitudinal folds below, split by a wavy orange line.

Equine Health

Gastric ulcers in the horse: how well behavioural signs predict the gastroscopy result

In 80 dressage horses referred for investigation, reported signs did not differ between horses with and without a lesion. What symptoms are really wor

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Equine Health

Pastern dermatitis in horses: which causes are established and which are not

Pastern dermatitis is not a diagnosis but a skin reaction pattern: mites and an altered skin flora are found consistently, skin fungi are not.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Watercolour anatomical plate on an ivory ground: a longitudinal section through an eyeball, iris and vitreous in teal, middle tunic in coral.

Equine Health

Moon blindness in horses: leptospires, genes or the immune system?

82 per cent of clinically healthy horses reacted to leptospires: what serology, genetics and the autoimmune trail really establish, and what they do n

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Row of blood collection tubes with turquoise caps and one red cap in a clear rack, with the edge of a 96-well plate on a pale laboratory bench.

Equine Health

PSSM2 gene testing in the horse: what the assessment of the P2, P3 and P4 variants found

In 392 Quarter Horses, 57 per cent of the healthy horses carried a P variant: what the two assessments of P2, P3 and P4 actually found.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Five horizontal bars of increasingly dense teal dissolve towards the left into a blurred cloud of dots, against a pale grey background.

Equine Health

Radiographic classes at the pre-purchase examination: where the percentages come from

The percentage ranges attached to radiographic classes come from a veterinary consensus, not a follow-up study: what the data actually show.

HOHorseBmoderate Open access

Pale-maned Icelandic horse wearing a fine-mesh insect rug, standing backlit in a damp meadow at dusk with midges in the air.

Equine Health

Vaccination against sweet itch: what the studies actually measured

In the placebo-controlled trial 47 per cent of vaccinated horses halved their lesion score, 13 per cent on placebo. Where the 88 per cent figure comes

MUMultiple speciesCweakT1hypothesis only Open access

Equine Health.

The evidence letter