Occurrence, Diagnosis, Management and Outcomes of Surgical and Dental Conditions Affecting Horses in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The horse industry in Kenya is economically important as it generates taxable revenue and creates employment mostly through horse racing and polo activities. In spite of the benefits associated with this industry, there is paucity of knowledge on surgical and dental conditions that affect horses in Kenya. Equally lacking is proper documentation on management of these conditions and putative factors that might affect the prognosis. This understanding is important to horse practitioners as it leads to improved outcomes. The aim of this study therefore was to determine the occurrence of surgical and dental conditions that afflict horses in Kenya, evaluate their diagnosis and management in addition to factors that affect their outcomes. This was a retrospective study in which veterinary clinics treating horses in Nairobi County were purposively selected. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic during the study period curtailed the number of practices that could be recruited and thus only one clinic was sampled. Horse clinical records over a 10-year period were retrieved from this clinic and examined. Data that included diagnosis, diagnostic approach, anaesthesia, management technique, post-operative treatment and outcome of each case were captured. Descriptive statistics for the dental and surgical conditions were computed while logistic regression model was used to identify risk factors for unsatisfactory case outcomes. A total of 921 case records were retrieved and evaluated. Of these, 45.3% (417/921) were dental while 54.7% (504/921) were surgical cases. Overall, there was a decline in the number of dental and surgical cases from 2010 to 2019. The dental [45.3% (417/921)], reproductive [22.6% (208/921)] and integumentary [16.4% (151/921)] systems were mostly affected. Specifically, teeth overgrowth (41.4%) and entire males for castrations (20.8%) were the most prevalent conditions evaluated and subsequently, teeth rasping and castration were the most frequent techniques performed. Diagnosis in 94.5% (870/921) of these cases was based on clinical signs only, while radiography and endoscopy were used sparingly. Anaesthesia and analgesia for xi dental and surgical conditions mostly employed use of Xylazine and Xylazine-Ketamine combination. Penicillin-Streptomycin, Phenylbutazone and Tetanus toxoid were routinely given in the post-operative period. Only 2.2% (20/921) of the cases evaluated had an unsatisfactory outcome with the major post-operative complications being swelling, bleeding and suture dehiscence. In the logistic regression model the outcome of the surgical cases was significantly more likely to be unsatisfactory if it was localized to the respiratory (OR: 34.58; 95% CI: 3.89-309.05; p < 0.001), reproductive (OR: 9.43; 95% CI: 2.40-62.24; p = 0.004) and integumentary (OR: 7.41; 95% CI: 1.58-52.15; p = 0.017) systems as compared to the dental system...