Changes in the cellular composition of blood in horses in acute laminitis

Abstract

Relevance. Equine laminitis is a multi-organ disease that can affect important systems of the horse’s body in the most neglected cases, but most often the hooves are affected, which in turn affects the economic component of the owner of the sick animal.

Methods. The work was performed on two groups of horses. The first group included clinically healthy horses, the second group had clinical signs of laminitis. Blood for tests was taken in compliance with a starvation diet and the rules of asepsis and antiseptics from the jugular. The calculation of the leukocyte formula was carried out manually. The results were systematically evaluated and compared with each other to calculate the percentage ratio.

Results. It was found that with laminitis there is a significant change in the cellular composition of the blood, in horses of the experimental group there is an increase in leukocytes (by about 302.5%), which may be associated with an inflammatory process in the body that triggers the active production of lymphocytes into the bloodstream. There is also an increase in segmented neutrophils when calculating the leukocyte formula (by 41.52%). This change is most likely caused by traumatic damage to the sole of the hoof. In this case, the increase in segmented neutrophils will be influenced by granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), a hormone that stimulates the production and release of neutrophils from the bone marrow.