Mature Geldings Research Articles

Pyelonephritis in a mature gelding with an unusual urinary bladder foreign body: A Case Report

Chronic septic pyelonephritis is an uncommon disease entity in the mature horse. It may be seen as a consequence of urolithiasis, trauma, or neurological disease of the urinary tract predisposing to secondary, ascending bacterial in fect ions. 1,2,a Pyelonephritis is primarily reported in mares. TM Mares, and females of other species, have a higher incidence of ascending urinary tract infections due to the anatomically shorter distance between the external environment and the urinary bladder. This ease represents a rare finding of pyelonephritis and hydronephrosis in a mature gelding where the predisposing cause was a urinary bladder foreign body.

Feeding value of diets containing almond hulls

Summary Four mature geldings were used in a 4 X 4 Latin Square digestion experiment to determine the digestibility of pelleted diets containing 0. 15, 30 and 45% Nonpareil almond hulls. The four isonitrogenous treatments consisting of almond hulls, oat hay, and alfalfa hay provided approximately 94% dry matter (DM), 11% crude protein (CP), 23-32% acid detergent fiber (ADF) and 4100 kcal/kg gross energy (GE). Each horse consumed a different diet during each of four 14-day trial periods. Horses were fed 10 kg of their assigned diet per day. The horses gained an average of 15 kg over the course of the 8-week study. No feed was refused in any of the trials and there were no signs of adverse reactions to any of the diets. The digestibilities of the four dietary components (DM, CP, ADF and GE) were not affected by horse or trial period. Dry matter and GE digestibilities increased (P

Plasma glucose concentrations and digestibility of dry matter, energy and crude protein in mature geldings fed wheat and oat-based diets

Eight mature stock horse geldings were used in two simultaneous 4×4 Latin square experiments to determine the effect of feeding graded levels of wheat and oats on post prandial glucose concentrations and digestibility of dry matter (DM), energy and crude protein (CP). Experimental concentrate diets consisted of 100 (W), 66 (WO), 33 (OW) and 0 (O) percent wheat with the balance as oats. Concentrate diets were fed in a 60:40 ratio with prairie grass hay at equal DM intakes across treatments. The digestibility of DM and energy was greatest for W (p<.05) as compared to OW and O. No significant differences were detected in total tract apparent protein digestibility. Plasma glucose concentrations were highest in geldings fed W (p<.05) beginning 90 min post feeding and remained elevated out to 4 h indicative of the higher starch content of wheat. No palatability or health problems associated with feeding of wheat were noted. These data indicate that wheat can successfully be included in rations for horses.

Observational learning in horses

This experiment was designed to determine if a horse could learn the location of grain by watching another horse find grain in one of two feed buckets. Both experimental and control groups contained 9 quarter horses consisting of five 2-year-old mares, two 2-year-old geldings, and two 3-year-old geldings. Two mature geldings were used as “demonstrators”. An “experimental” was a horse that could watch three times daily another horse, the “demonstrator”, choose between and eat grain from a black or white bucket, only one of which contained grain. A “control” was a horse that could watch a demonstrator in the same arena for 3 min daily when both feed buckets were removed. When the demonstrator was removed on each of 15 successive days, the experimental or control horse was given five trials to determine if it could find the feed bucket with grain. No significant difference between experimentals and controls occurred for both first and total correct choices and for time to reach the feed bucket with grain. We conclude that no observational learning occurred. This experiment was also used to determine if the identity of horses that learned rapidly by trial and error could be predicted by the time it took to reach the feed bucket with grain. Data from the last three trials of experimentals and controls were combined. Significantly less time to find feed was needed by horses with more than the median number of correct choices. Both number of correct choices and time needed to contact a feed bucket summed over the first 5 days accurately predicted the same data summed over the last 10 days. We conclude that horses that learn rapidly by trial and error make correct choices rapidly, and that these horses can by identified after 5 days of testing.

The influence of dietary selenium levels on blood levels of selenium and glutathione peroxidase activity in the horse.

Twenty mature geldings, averaging 535 kg, were used to determine the influence of dietary selenium (Se) on the blood levels of Se and Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase (SeGSH-Px) activity in the horse. Horses were randomly assigned within breed to four treatments consisting of five horses each and fed a basal diet containing .06 ppm of naturally occurring Se. Diets were supplemented with .05, .10 and .20 ppm Se, as sodium selenite. Blood was drawn for 2 wk before, and for 12 wk following, the inclusion of supplement Se in the diets. Whole blood and plasma Se concentrations and plasma SeGSH-Px activities were determined from all blood samples. Selenium concentrations in plasma and whole blood increased linearly from wk 1 to wk 5 and 6, respectively, in Se-supplemented horses. After these times, no significant changes in Se concentration were observed in Se-supplemented or in unsupplemented horses throughout the remainder of the 12-wk trial. Plasma Se reached plateaus of .10 to .11, .12 to .14, and .13 to .14 micrograms/ml in horses supplemented with .05, .10 and .20 ppm Se, respectively. Whole blood Se reached plateaus of .16 to .18, .19 to .21, and .17 to .18 micrograms/ml in horses supplemented with .05, .10 and .20 ppm Se, respectively. Plasma SeGSH-Px activity was not significantly affected by dietary treatment. Therefore, this enzyme was not a good indicator of dietary Se in these mature horses.

The influence of dietary fiber digestibility on the nitrogen requirements of mature horses.

Mature geldings at maintenance were fed different diets in a 4 x 4 Latin square design balanced to account for residual effects in an attempt to determine whether differences in the digestibility of the fibrous portions of feedstuffs would influence dietary nitrogen (N) requirements. Diet 1 contained corn and soybean meal (SBM); diet 2, corn, corn oil and urea; diet 3, corn, SBM, straw and urea; diet 4, corn, alfalfa and urea. Urea supplied 50% of the total N in diets 2 and 3 and 39% of the total N in diet 4. The diets were fed in amounts that met National Research Council (NRC) recommendations for daily digestible energy intakes by mature horses at maintenance and met or exceeded total daily N requirements. True absorbed N was calculated by subtracting the fecal N associated with neutral detergent fiber (NDF-N) from total N intakes; true digestibilities of N ranged from 92.4 to 95.9%. Endogenous and metabolic fecal N excretions ranged from .37 to .56 g N/100 g dry matter intake. Although none of the diets as fed were deficient in N, apparent N digestibility was only 64% of N intake when the horses were fed the diet containing straw (diet 3), compared with 72.5 to 79.6% of total N intake among diets 1, 2 and 4 (P less than .01). Fecal excretions of water soluble, bacterial cell-associated and intestinal cell-associated N fractions were greatest when diet 3 was fed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

STUDIES WITH HORSES COMPARING 4N-HCl INSOLUBLE ASH AS AN INDEX MATERIAL WITH TOTAL FECAL COLLECTION IN THE DETERMINATION OF APPARENT DIGESTIBILITIES

Three series of digestibility experiments with mature geldings indicated no significant differences between the 4N-HCl insoluble ash indicator and the total collection methods for determination of apparent digestible nitrogen and digestible energy. There were significant differences (P &lt; 0.05) between animals for the insoluble ash method in two of the three trials. No significant differences were found when the number of sampling days involved was reduced from 7 to 4 days and random grab samples of feces were used for insoluble ash determinations. Random grab samples taken for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days did not give significantly different digestion coefficients using the insoluble ash indicator method. Period differences in the insoluble ash method were observed when 3-day collections during five successive periods were taken from four individual geldings by the grab method. A study with four geldings during two test periods using cotton strips as indicators showed mean rate of passage of digesta to be 70.2 h. The overall results suggest that random grab fecal samples using the 4N-HCl insoluble ash method has potential for use in the determination of digestibility coefficients for horses.