Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Atrial fibrillation associated with central nervous symptoms and colic in a horse: a case of equine cardiomyopathy.
- Journal:
- The veterinary quarterly
- Year:
- 1998
- Authors:
- Wijnberg, I D et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Large Animal Medicine and Nutrition · Netherlands
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
An 18-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare was brought in because she was having colic, which is a type of belly pain. When she arrived, she was very tired, blind, pressing her head against things, unsteady on her feet, and circling around. A vet found a hard mass in her abdomen and noticed swelling around a major blood vessel. Blood tests showed high liver enzymes and ammonia levels, and the mare had an irregular heartbeat with a slow pulse. Sadly, a postmortem exam showed serious heart issues, indicating that her heart was not pumping well, which led to her symptoms. The treatment did not work, as her condition was due to heart failure from cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle).
Abstract
A 18-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare was referred for colic. Upon arrival, lethargy, blindness, head pressing, ataxia, and circling were the main clinical signs. On rectal examination a hard mass and oedema around the cranial mesenteric artery were palpated. Plasma liver enzyme activities and the ammonia level were elevated. Atrial fibrillation with a pulse frequency of 36-52 beats per minute was noticed. On both sides a holosystolic murmer with the maximum intensity on the right side could be auscultated. Postmortem examination revealed eccentric hypertrophy of the right atrium and a pale spotted myocardium, most prominently of the right ventricle, with secondary venous congestion of the azygos and mesenteric veins. The liver changes were indicative of chronic congestion. Despite the normal pulse rate, it appeared that congestive heart failure due to cardiomyopathy, was responsible for the presenting symptoms of this patient.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9563165/