Comprehensive Report of the Caseload of Donkeys and Mules Presented to a Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital over a Ten-Year Period

A retinoscopic survey of donkeys and goats

PURPOSE

Assess the refractive states of donkeys and goats.

METHODS

Forty-two donkeys and 28 goats were enrolled. The mean ± SD ages were 7.68 ± 7.33 years for donkeys and 4.26 ± 2.33 years for goats. Seven donkeys and one goat were <6 months old. Retinoscopy was performed in alert animals, following cycloplegia in goats but not in donkeys. Normality was determined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The two primary meridians and two eyes were compared using Pearson's correlation and paired Student's t-tests. The association between refractive states and age was examined using one-way ANOVA in donkeys and a paired Student's t-test in goats. One-sample t-tests were conducted to assess if the refractive error distributions were significantly different from "0".

RESULTS

The mean ± SD spherical equivalent (SE) refractive errors of the right and left donkey eyes were -0.80 ± 1.03 D and -0.35 ± 0.95 D, respectively. The majority (86%) of the donkeys had an astigmatic refraction and eight (19%) had anisometropia. The mean SE refractive errors of the right and left goat eyes were -0.15 ± 1.1 D and -0.18 ± 1.2 D, respectively. The majority (54%) of the goat eyes had an astigmatic refraction and five (18%) had anisometropia. The right and left eye SE refractive errors were positively correlated in both species (both p = .9). Age was not correlated with refractive error in both donkeys (p = .09) and goats (p = .6).

CONCLUSIONS

Both goats and donkeys are emmetropic.

Blood Storage Conditions Affect Hematological Analysis in Samples From Healthy Donkeys and Donkeys With Experimentally-Induced Endotoxemia

Preanalytical factors such as storage time and temperature are proved to induce marked artifactual changes in hematological parameters in horses, small animals and humans. These errors can mirror findings typical of endotoxemia, leading to dangerous misdiagnosis. Since donkeys are common in warm climates and remote regions, blood samples from this species can be subjected to long lasting travels from the farm to the nearest laboratory, frequently under suboptimal conditions. Moreover, as other equids, donkeys are prone to suffer endotoxemia. Nonetheless, stability has not been evaluated in samples for hematology in this species. The aim of this study was to characterize the effect of temperature and storage time in hematological parameters from healthy donkeys and donkeys with induced endotoxemia. Blood samples were collected from six healthy female Andalusian donkeys and stored for 6, 12, 24, and 48 h at several temperatures (4, 24, and 35°C). Endotoxemia was induced in the same animals by an intravenous LPS infusion and samples obtained 30 min post-infusion were handled similarly. Hematological analysis was performed using a laser-based analyzer and blood smear examination. Storage at 24°C caused significant neutropenia after 48 h as well as morphological changes typical of endotoxemia in blood from healthy donkeys as soon as 24 h post-storage. Samples kept at 35°C displayed more profound and earlier artifactual variations. Conservation at 4°C did not cause any significant change in blood parameters. Prolonged (48 h) storage of samples from animals with induced endotoxemia at 24 and 35°C accentuated pre-existing leukopenia and neutropenia. These findings highlight that donkey samples should be stored at 4°C, instead of 24°C as recommended for horses. Moreover, blood smear interpretation should be cautious in samples stored for longer than 24 h and could be misleading when blood is kept at 35°C.