Influenceability of spontaneous urination in horses by environmental stimuli

Abstract

Urination sampling gets more and more important during the last years in equine medicine. Not only for the detection of drugs during the doping controls, but also for the examination of urinary diseases, urine sampling is a very important method. Spontaneous urination is the only appropriate tool in drug detection, but also the best way to collect urine in every other case. There are certain environmental effects, which could lead to urine dropping. These effects could higher the percentage of a successful urine sampling. This survey deals with the most common environmental stimuli, which might stimulate a horse to micturate. In the study 67 western horses were examined in connection with the routine doping sampling during competitions. These tests are standardized, because the procedure of the sampling has to be comparable. They always use separated boxes, where no or the least amount of horses and people are passing. The litter is made of sawdust and no feeding or watering equipment should be present. The blood and urine samples are caught in sterile test kits.