Short-term survival and mortality rates in a retrospective study of colic in 1588 Danish horses

Background

Outcomes of colic treatment are of great interest to clinicians, horse owners and insurers. One commonly used criterion of success is the overall short-term survival rate. This is used as to compare treatments and to measure quality of veterinary care, but may be biased by demographic or social factors such as attitudes towards animal suffering and euthanasia. The aims of this study were to 1) describe and analyse characteristics in horses with signs of colic referred to the University Hospital for Large Animals (UHLA), University of Copenhagen, Denmark over a 10-year period and 2) to compare these rates with those published in other comparable studies.

Results

The overall survival rate for colic horses over the 10-year study period was 68% (confidence intervals (CI): 66–71%; 1087/1588). In the medical group, 1093 horses, short-term survival was 87% (CI: 85–89%). Thirty one % of referred horses were given diagnoses requiring surgical intervention (CI: 29–33%). In this group 32% of the horses were euthanized before surgery (CI: 28–36%; 159/495). Of the surgical cases 27% (CI: 23-31%) were euthanized or died during surgery. Of the horses that recovered from surgery 25% died or were euthanized (CI: 19–32%; 48/189), while 75% survived to discharge (CI: 68–81%).

Conclusions

The short term survival rates of Danish horses with colic were similar or lower to those reported from other countries. Apart from variability of veterinary care, attitudes towards euthanasia vary among the countries, which may bias the outcomes. This study indicates that qualitative interview studies on owners’ attitudes towards animal suffering and euthanasia need to be conducted. Our opinion is that survival rates are not valid as sole indicators of quality of care in colic treatment due to selection bias. If the survival rates are to be compared between hospitals, techniques or surgeons, prospective studies including mutually agreed-on disease severity scores and a predefined set of reasons for euthanasia are needed.     

Dendroclimatic signals of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in Estonia

This study investigates the climate impact on the radial increment of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in Estonia at the species’ northern distribution limit. Tree-ring width series of 162 living oaks were compiled into three regional chronologies—western (1646–2008), northeastern (1736–2011), and southeastern Estonia (1912–2011). Although these regional growth patterns are similar to each other and even to the growth patterns in adjacent regions, spatial differences in growth responses to climate were established. Thus, oaks growing on shallow soil in western Estonia are positively influenced by summer (June–August) precipitation, and oaks on the deeper soil in northeastern Estonia are favoured by June temperature, while oaks in the southeastern part of the country depend on both July precipitation and temperature. These relationships are pronounced especially in pointer years. However, due to the impact of regional weather fluctuations on tree growth, there is a lack of correspondence between the local and the pan-European pointer years. In addition, our research presents the first tree-ring-based palaeoclimatic reconstruction for the country. Although the created model has relatively low predictive skill describing less than a quarter of the variance in actual summer precipitation in western Estonia, it has passable capacity of detecting past rainfall extremes.     

Estradiol-17β-induced calcium uptake and resorption in juvenile rainbow trout,Oncorhynchus mykiss

Juvenile rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were injected with estradiol-17β (E₂) in order to study the source of extra calcium needed during vitellogenesis. E₂-treatment increased the calcium uptake from the external medium as well as calcium mobilization from muscle and scale. Judged by the increase in plasma protein-bound calcium levels, the E₂-induced increase in calcium uptake is an apparent over-mobilization of calcium, i.e., the calcium uptake of the fish is in excess of what is found bound to plasma proteins. As the calcium excretion and calcium space (calculated from free plasma calcium levels) were unaffected, the excess calcium is suggested to be incorporated into internal calcium stores. This implies that the systems regulating vitellogenesis and calcium balance are integrated on the mechanistic or endocrine level, and that E₂ causes calcium mobilization of a magnitude geared to the needs of the sexually maturing female.     

Persistence of native fishes in small streams of the urbanized San Francisco Estuary,California: acknowledging the role of urban streams in native fish conservation

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