SammanfattningDetta arbete tar upp de viktigaste fysiologiska förändringarna hos den åldrande hästen, hur dessa påverkar hästens beteende och behov, och hur det i sin tur påverkar den omvårdnad hästen har behov av. Sjukdomar som i större utsträckning drabbar äldre hästar än yngre tas upp, och fokus ligger främst på att så långt det är möjligt förebygga dessa. I de fall detta inte är möjligt ligger fokus på att göra livet för den sjuka hästen så symtomfritt som möjligt. Den åldrande hästens näringsbehov tas upp, samt hur detta kan påverkas av olika sjukdomar. Med åldrande hästar menas i detta arbete hästar i åldern 20 år och uppåt.SummaryTreating older Horses for illness and injury becomes more and more common.

Sarcoid is the most common tumor in Horses all over the world. The sarcoid is a benign, locally invasive, usually fibroblastic proliferative skin neoplasm. Even if the etiology is not completley verified, the epidemiology and clinical behavior suggest a infectious intervention, probably BPV type 1 or type 2. However, it is known that the cause is multifactorial. A genetic prepdispositon has been identified associated to genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), but also to breed, age and perhaps gender.

Sarcoid is the most common tumor in Horses all over the world. The sarcoid is a benign, locally invasive, usually fibroblastic proliferative skin neoplasm. Even if the etiology is not completley verified, the epidemiology and clinical behavior suggest a infectious intervention, probably BPV type 1 or type 2. However, it is known that the cause is multifactorial. A genetic prepdispositon has been identified associated to genes within the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), but also to breed, age and perhaps gender.

A tight economy and a keen competition force the Swedish agricultur to do a structural rationalization. The quantity of farmers is less but the units are growing. How to make money I think some kind of niche is necessary. In my examwork I have locked how to farm herbaceous plant and the marking of herb to feedstuff for Horses. Today health food and alternative medicine are accepted to use and there is an increase in demand. The Swedish market for herbaceous plants to Horses is small and the products are mostly imported. But there is a group of consumers who is willing to pay a higer price for Swedish cultivated herbs. The only way to find out which herbaceous plants I could cultivate is to make a test cultivate. I think that the market for herbaceous plants is growing.

Horses respond individually to challenges, and the possibility to use these reactions to evaluate equine temperament with an objective instrument would have several advantages. Horse welfare could be improved by making it possible to find individuals best suited for a specific use, and understanding of the development of abnormal behaviours, such as stereotypies, could be increased. Management routines and training could be adjusted tosuit each individual horse and it could facilitate the selection of individuals appropriate for breeding. There are also economic implications, as horse buyers consider temperament important and after evaluating temperament, money can be spent solely on specific Horses with all the right qualities. During the last decade, many attempts have been made to measure different aspects of temperament in Horses, and the first aim of this project was to look at these studies and see which methods were used and which temperamental characteristics they measured.

Swedish farmers have the possibility to be subsidized by EU rural development programme for grazing animals on pastures to promote the biodiversity of flora and fauna. The environmental remedy sometimes does not allow supplementary feed and at the same time the Swedish Animal Welfare Act and the Swedish Agricultural Board?s regulations for animal welfare and protection states that animals, in this case Horses, shall be fed with food of good quality and adapted for the species. The regulations also state that they should have an individual feeding regime that enables them to maintain a normal body condition. The aim with this master thesis has been to investigate if it is possible to keep Gotland ponies on extensive pastures, during late spring and summer and still maintain animal welfare. The Horses were assessed every fourth week using a welfare assessment protocol developed in line with the Welfare Quality® project (submitted, Viksten et al) where physical, behavioural and resourcebased parameters were observed. Twelve one-year old stallions of the breed Gotland ponies purchased from different breeders were used in the study.

To ensure that animals are treated well and kept in environments fitted for them, Sweden has animal welfare legislation. One of the requirements in the legislation is that Horses are kept in spaces that has a ceiling height that measures at least 1,5 * the height at the withers of the horse, but always a minimum of 2,2 m. But a minor derivation can be accepted from these measurements if certain criteria are fulfilled. If the ceiling height is to low the ventilation in the stable can be negatively affected. It can also affect the posture of the horse and may increase the risk of the horse being injured.

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.

Inflammatory airway disease (IAD) is a respiratory disorder that most commonly affects young Horses performing at a high level. The clinical signs are often mild but the disorder can cause a marked decrease in performance to a point where the horse has to be taken of training and competing. The aetiology underlying IAD is not yet fully understood. One current theory is that a type I-hypersensitivity reaction due to allergens in the environment is the cause in some Horses. The most reliable diagnostic method is a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) since it reflects the inflammatory status in the most distal parts of the lungs, which are affected in IAD.

The market offers more and more products that are claimed to have medicallypositive effects (like increased blood perfusion etc.) due to their magneticproperties. The objective of this study was to investigate if blankets containingpermanent (static) magnets have a greater impact on cutaneous blood circulationthan ordinary blankets without magnets. Eight standard bred Horses were used in across-over study. The cutaneous temperature was presumed to reflect blood flowin the skin and therefore thermography and local thermistors were used to indicatechanges in circulation. Baseline values were registered before the blanket wasapplied.

Mechanization of Swedish agriculture started in the beginning of the twentieth century, to be able to have more animals without raising the number of employers. The horse business has not by far kept up with these cost savings solutions. Cleaning out stables and feeding Horses are the most time-consuming tasks in horse stables today. The most common way to clean out the stable is still by shovel and wheelbarrow. The clean out process can easily be mechanized through semi- permanently beds with movable walls between the boxes so that the litter can be removed by a tractor or a loader.

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Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in China. Written documents concerning veterinary acupuncture has been found dated around 650 B.C. Acupuncture has gained greater acceptance in the western world the last decades and many countries have established their own veterinary acupuncture organizations. Many studies report good results after acupuncture treatment and back pain in Horses is considered a good indication for acupuncture treatment. In studies published, the results are subjectively evaluated. To get a qualitative, scientific evaluation of acupuncture treatment, objective measurements, control groups and statistical analysis are needed. This pilot study presents a case where acupuncture has been used for treatment in a horse that was diagnosed with back pain.

SUMMARYThis work consists of a review of the medical records of 142 Horses that visited the Equine dermatology clinic, at the University Animal Hospital, UDS, at Ultuna, Uppsala, Sweden, between January 2007 and June 2010. The study answers certain main questions like clinical signs responsible for the visit, the most common diagnoses, their diagnostic procedures, treatment modalities and finally, the outcome of treatment.Among 50 diagnoses, four were predominant followed by additional 46 diagnoses, each presenting by few or, in many cases, only one horse. The most common dermatological problem diagnosed was Equine Sarcoid representing 18,3 % of the cases (26/142), which probably reflects the initiation of a Sarcoid treatment-trial in 2007, that resulted in an accumulation of sarcoid Horses in the clinic .The second most common diagnosis was Atopy 12 % (17/142) followed by Allergy with skin affection 9,2 % (13/142) and Acute superficial pyodermia 4,9 % (7/142). If the Horses were divided into diagnostic groups, the majority (34,5 %) belonged to HA5 group, (Immunological skin diseases), followed by group HA4, (Infectious and inflammatory conditions of the skin) (22,5 %) and HA6, (Neoplasia) (21,8 %). Traumatic skin injuries represented only 2,1 % of the cases, compared to 80 % of Horses in the Agria insurance statistics for veterinary care.The most common clinical sign and reasons for veterinary consultation was pruritus (35,9 %), suspected sarcoids (17,6 %), alopecia (12,7 %), nodules (12 %), seborrea, scaling and crusts (9,2 %) and excoriations (5,6 %), respectively, followed by a scattered number of more uncommon symtoms.The diagnostic methods most frequently applied were cytology and biopsy, used in 41,5 % and 36,6 % of the cases, respectively.

In 1886 Hans Hildebrand received a Bronze Age hoard found in a field that belonged to Eskelhem´s rectory. A record was made where Hildebrand presented and documented the artifacts. The following year Oscar Montelius reviewed the artifacts, which he described as horse gears. He compared the horse gears with similar artifacts found in Europe that roughly had the same dating in order to trace the origin of the hoard.  Montelius conclusion was that the hoard was created on Gotland around 500 BC.