Background: The most common reason for veterinary care in horses is lameness. Lameness in riding horses is often difficult to evaluate and in many cases may require riding to come to a diagnosis. Evaluation of lameness has proven to be very subjective and depends on the examiner. There is a need to evaluate ridden horses in an objective way.

For centuries inbreeding has been used to refine traits in dogs, making desired traits more hereditary and thereby, different breeds have been invented. Breed standards have been written for each of these breeds, describing in detail the different characteristics of each breed. When humans start to choose which animal to breed from, so called artificial selection, taste is put before function and the laws of nature, the natural selection, cease to apply. During this development, pedigree dogs have gone towards more and more extreme exterior characteristics and the dogs may have inherited various, more or less, severe problems for example compromised vision, impaired ability to move and difficulties to breathe. However they can still survive and reproduce because humans provide them with the conditions to do so.

Knowledge about feed racks for feeding forages to horses is lacking. Racks for sheep and cows are sometimes used for horses. Feeding roughage on the ground, or feeding silage bales with the plastic and net still on, can bring on a lot of different problems. The opportunity to control the hygienic quality is small and feed losses can be high. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate how the eating behaviour and consumption of horses were influenced by feeding racks of different constructions. Feed losses and changes in chemical composition of the forage were also studied.

Medicinering vid sjukdomstillstånd i det främre segmentet av ögat hos häst är ofta tidskrävande och komplicerat för djurägaren. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om ett nytt tekniskt hjälpmedel, en spiral som kallas OphthaCoil, fungerar för långtidsmedicinering hos häst. Två olika designer på spiraler utvärderades. Efter en ögonundersökning placerades en spiral i nedre konjunktivalsäcken och hästen observerades till dess spiralen trillade ur. Resultaten visar att ingen av de använda designerna låg kvar tillräckligt länge för att kunna användas för en längre tids behandling.

The chow-chow breed is considered to have a low fertility and this report is an in depth study of the reproductive functions of this breed in Sweden. Only 53 % of the Chow-chow matings results in litters. Previous studies of other breeds in commercial kennels shows mating results around 85-90 %, but this has not been investigated in hobby kennels and most Chow-chows which are bred from in Sweden, are kept as family pets. Contrary to most other breeds, Chow-chows show a seasonal reproductive pattern and most litters are born in the autumn. The influence of the month of mating on pregnancy rate and litter size was found to be not significant, but can be considered a trend. Thirty-nine females with previous known fertility problems where studied. Some of them had reached puberty extremely early, at an age between 4-5 months, and many of the bitches showed great fluctuations in intervals between oestrus cycles. Some of the females showed abnormalities such as very short oestrus intervals of only 2-3 months, probably without ovulating.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency is a hereditary disease that in Sweden is especially common in German shepherds. The Swedish German shepherd club has currently no plan of action for decreasing disease prevalence in the breed. The purpose of this study was to review existing literature about the disease and also to perform an inventory of the disease in the Swedish dog population. Special focus was laid on the German shepherd breed. The inventory was later compared to an unpublished inventory of the disease with data from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences from 1997. During the period 2002-06-01 to 2007-09-26 (ca 64 months) 2961 blood samples were analyzed for cTLI. 274 samples were positive (cTLI .

Wound care of the horse?s distal part of the leg is challenging. Due to that distal limb wounds are easily enlarged, infected and generally heal slower than wounds on the body of the horse, the need for improved wound nursing arise. One way of improving wound nursing is to evaluate new ways of healing treatment. In this study, evaluation was made of a new product consisting of lactic acid bacteria and honey.

The aim with this paper was to find out how the brachycephalic look affects the health of dogs that have these features. Due to limitations in size, it was decided to concentrate on five common brachycephalic breeds in Sweden. Research methods included literature studies, questionnaires, a written interview and online sources. From the results it can be concluded that the way these dogs are built has a large influence on their health, particularly when it comes to respiration and giving birth. .

The canine population has during it?s time with humans gone through at least 2 major genetic bottlenecks, the first when it was separated from the wolf, and the second when it was divided into different breeds. Among other things, this has lead to the accumulation of unwanted genes, such as genes causing disease in dogs. One such inherited disease is syringomyelia, which has proven to be more common than expected, especially in certain smaller breeds such as the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Syringomyelia in dogs is often a secondary condition caused by the malformation called occipital hypoplasia.

60 million years ago the horse was the size of a small dog, and walked on four toes. Today it can weigh up to 500-1000 kg and has evolved to walking on only one phalanx. The anatomy of the horses? legs and hooves allow them to run at high speeds, and at the same time enables them to bear the extremely high concussions applied to the foot at high speeds or jumps. Every horse owner has his or her own opinion on how to manage their horses? hooves, and whether the horse should be shod or unshod. The knowledge, commitment and attention of the owner determine the quality of the hoof care, but also the time between the arising of symptoms of abnormalities of the hoof until care is sought with a farrier or veterinarian. New laws will be applied at the beginning of 2015 which bring on changes in authorization for farriers.

This master thesis is discussing ten pony books from 2006 in relation to the heterosexual matrix. It contains a rather extensive research overview regarding horse riding from a gender perspective, pony books, traditional feminist studies of girls? books and queer readings of girls? and children?s literature. The aim of the empirical study is two folded; firstly to show how the girl protagonists? horse riding is presented in terms of masculinity and femininity (as defined by Natalie Koivula), secondly to analyze the relations between the girls appearing in the books from a queer perspective attempting to find some queer leakage in the depictions.

Several bulls in Sweden are culled because of lameness. Studies of beef bulls have shown that osteochondrosis is an important underlying cause of hind limb problems (Persson, 2003; Dutra, 1998). Osteochondrosis in horses, dogs, swine, poultry and man are well documentated in the literature, but there are few studies in cattle. The prevalence of osteochondrosis in dairy bulls in Sweden is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and localisation of osteochondrosis in the hindlimbs of dairy bulls. This study consists of 48 one-year-old bulls divided into four groups related to which farm they came from.

Fokus i studien ligger på terapeuters val av metod och synen på hästen som terapeutiskt resurs. Detta görs genom kvalitativ deskriptiv ansats. Terapeuterna intervjuas genom semistrukturerad intervjuguide med öppna frågor. Arthurs teori om vilka typer av terapeuter som, utifrån personlighet och epistemologiska uppfattningar, är disponerade till en viss typ av terapeutisk inriktning, användes för att försöka förklara varför de terapeuter som arbetar med HUT, väljer den metoden. Resultatet visar att terapeuternas val av HUT metod inte kunde förklaras genom Arthur's teori.

Septic tenosynovitis involving the digital sheath is a relatively common problem in the horse and the prognosis has been considered as poor. However, there are only few studies confirming this. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about the prognosis for septic tenosynovitis in the digital sheath. The literature indicates that half or a bit more than half of the treated horses will return to previous use. The recommended treatment is debridement of the wound, lavage and sometimes application of drains and broadspectrum antibiotics. The prognosis is considered as worse when the infection is established.

By examine cremated remains from graves dated to late Iron Age I wanted to find out what sorts of animals were placed in the graves. But also to see if the animal sacrifices had any connection to the Old Norse religion. The osteological material that were analysed were from both cremated humans and animals and had been dated to Viking Age. The material is from burial ground 59 at Laxare, Boge parish on Gotland. In addition to the human remains, the material contains bones from horse, cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dog, cat, bear, birds and fish.