Abdominal cavity ultrasonography in a Mangalarga Marchador herd

Abstract

Ultrasonography is an exam very used in equine clinical health care routine. The objective of the present proposal was to evaluate healthy Mangalarga Marchador animals ultrasonographically, from birth to 5 years of age, to determine structures measures, characteristics and topographic limits of abdominal organs. In each experimental group, 20 Mangalarga Marchador horses, of both sexes, aged 1 day, 7 days, 15 days, 1 month, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 months, 1 year, 3 years and 5 years were used. The ultrasound evaluation of abdominal organs was performed using the Mindray Z5 device with a convex multifrequency transducer. Heart rate, respiratory rate, capillary reperfusion time and rectal temperature were measured. Descriptive statistics were performed for each measurement and the percentile was analyzed in the Microsoft Excel® program. The ultrasound location, characteristics and measurements of stomach, small intestine, colon, spleen, kidneys and bladder were defined. The continuous growth of the spleen and kidneys was observed, being more accentuated in the first months of life. Stomach, small intestine and colon wall thickness values did not vary much in animals from 3 months of age. Only 5-year-old animals showed a minimum of 4 movements per minute of duodenum. Abdominal ultrasound is able to provide structural and functional information about the organs. The ultrasound monitoring of healthy animals at different ages allowed the establishment of normal values to be used as a reference in future services.