Clinical and Hematological Observations on Experimental Immunohemolytic Anemia in Horses

Abstract

Two groups of 3 healthy horses each were injected intravenously with 1.0 ml of normal ovine serum (control group) and 1.0 ml of anti-horse red cell ovine serum (experimental group) per kg of body weight, respectively. Clinical and hematological observations were carried out on them for 6 and 21 days after injection, respectively. In the control group, no clinical signs were noted at all. Prominent leukopenia appearing 3 hours after injection was the only significant blood change throughout the experimental period. In the experi mental group, the main clinical signs observed were accelerated breathing immediately after injection, pyrexia, depression, anorexia, irregular heart sounds, accelerated peristalsis, anemia, icterus, marked hemoglobinuria and albuminuria in the initial stage, slight depres sion and anemia and/or icterus in the middle stage, and slight depression and anemia in the terminal stage of the experimental period. In the hematological observation, the main findings after injection were slight diphasic anemia, leukocyte count decreasing 3 hours after injection and increasing thereafter, reduction in the minimum and maximum resistance of red cells, slight increase in the rate of appearance of red cells with Jolly's body and marked anisocytosis on blood films, appearance of sideroleukocytes and erythrophages, large value of indirect bilirubin, and positive Coombs' test.