News Notes

Prognosis Good for Most Horses With Dysphagia

Although uncommon, dysphagia can occur in hospitalized patients. Luckily, the prognosis is good for most of the animals, unless they have neurogenic disease.

In this retrospective case series, researchers wanted to describe the variety of problems with the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus among horses with dysphagia.

They found 182 cases that were seen over 12 years among horses more than 6 months old that met the inclusion criteria. They classified cases as oral, pharyngeal, esophageal and neurogenic based on what was recorded in the health record, and they looked at treatment, survival and resolution of dysphagia. Dysphagia was recorded in 1.1% of all cases.

Patients with esophageal dysphagia (41/64; 64%) were more likely to have a nasal discharge, those with oral dysphagia (18/30; 60%) were more likely to experience slow mastication or dropping their feed, and those with pharyngeal dysphagia patients (15/18; 83%) were more likely to cough while eating, according to the researchers.

The horses studied were more likely to have esophageal dysphagia (77/182; 42%), and oral, pharyngeal and neurogenic dysphagia were diagnosed in 19%, 20% and 20% of cases, respectively.

For all but the neurogenic dysphagia, clinical signs resolved in more than 80% of horses; only 46% with neurogenic disease recovered. They said that aspiration pneumonia was common, and occurred in 27% of cases, particularly among

those with esophageal dysphagia. They found 49% of these cases had aspiration pneumonia secondary to dysphagia.
Of the 19 cases that did not survive to discharge, 8 (42%) died or were euthanized due to complications arising from aspiration pneumonia, according to the researchers. MeV

For more information:
Connolly KM, Estell K. Dysphagia in an equine referral hospital, 182 cases. Equine Vet J. 2025 May 15. https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.14512
https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.14512