A four year old Thoroughbred stallion is examined because in his last race he performed poorly...?

Question

The jockey relates that the horse "ran out of gas" in the stretch. The horse is febrile, painful on palpation of the thorax and has a very limited respiratory effort. A complete blood count is performed and the white count is in the high normal range. Howeer, the fibrinogen is elevated. Which of the following would be the most likely cause of this horse's problems

a.excercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage

b.septic pleuritis

c.displace soft palate

I'm trying to help my girlfriend do a review, any help you could give me would be great.

Answer 1

you need to ask a vet

Answer 2

sorry, but you'll have better luck with this question on some kind of a medical category.  We know a lot about racing and handicapping and trainers and things like that... but I don't think any of us know a lot about horse's medical problems.  I'm sorry.  I hope your girlfriend does well on her exam.

Answer 3

My first guess when a horse "runs out of gas" would be the horse "bled". But it's possible the horse "Tied up". This may be the cause of the painful thorax. I would suggest either to your vet.

Answer 4

Exercise induced pulmonary hypertension

(EIPH) is what you think of first with race horses especially when they slow down or stop late in the race. Fibrinogen is a clotting agent so you'd expect to see this elevated with bleeding in the lungs. However, I have never heard of the horse reacting with pain from palpating the thorax and would not expect an elevated white count or fever with EIPH. I am not a vet but my thought is that it is B) pleuritis.