The Townsend Equine Health Research Fund (TEHRF) has allocated more than $68,000 to support five equine health research projects at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). WCVM scientists and their collaborators will conduct the research studies over the next 24 months.
Horse in stall
The WCVM team will measure the histamine concentration in horses about to undergo surgery in three different scenarios.
© 2017 by Smerikal
Drs. Tanya Duke and Shannon Beazley, WCVM are leading one of the research studies which will examine the topic: What’s the histamine concentration in unmedicated horses after penicillin and guaifenesin doses?
Morphine is a useful analgesic (painkilling drug) for use in horses, but it’s also known to cause histamine release — a biological reaction triggered by allergens — in dogs and other species.
To learn whether morphine has a similar effect on horses, WCVM researchers recently completed a study comparing histamine release levels between morphine and butorphanol (another type of opioid analgesic) during anesthesia. While morphine is known to cause histamine releases in other species, butorphanol does not.
However, the researchers’ results indicated that histamine concentrations were similar between the two drugs, which means there may be other factors contributing to histamine release.
As a continuation of the previous study, the WCVM team will measure the histamine concentration in horses about to undergo surgery in three different scenarios: after no medication (the study’s baseline), following routine doses of penicillin, and after doses of guaifenesin — another potential histamine-releasing drug used in anesthesia.
Findings from this study will help researchers better understand the results of their previous work. Depending on the results, this study may also potentially alert anesthesia teams of other sources of histamine release that could affect equine patients.
Press release by The Townsend Equine Health Research Fund