AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com *Corresponding author’s e-mail: farooquiase@gmail.com 1 Department of Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences CSKHPKV, Palampur-176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India. 2 Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat, India. 3 Division of Animal Genetics, ICAR Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar, Bareilly, India. Indian J. Anim. Res., 53 (3) 2019: 341-345 Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555 Ultrasonographic examination of kidneys and urinary bladder of normal adult Spiti horses and Himalayan hill mules of India Uiase Bin Farooq* 1 , Adarsh Kumar 1 , Shabir Ahmad 2 and Rajni Chaudhary 3 Department of Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur-176 061, Himachal Pradesh, India. Received: 23-09-2017 Accepted: 22-12-2017 DOI: 10.18805/ijar.B-3498 ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to develop baseline topographical data of landmarks for locating kidneys and urinary bladder and to generate sonographic calliper measurements along with dynamic parameters of these organs. Ultrasonography was performed on 50 native adult (Spiti horses and Himalayan hill mules) healthy unsedated equines of either sex. The thickness, character and echo-architecture of these organs were recorded. The right kidney was found from 15 th (±1) intercostal space (ICS) extending upto first lumbar vertebra, both in horses as well as in mules. The height of right kidney varied from 112.7 to 118.3 mm (Mean± SE= 115.6±1.01 mm) and its thickness varied from 58.4 to 71.2 mm (Mean± SE= 64.3±2.37 mm). While in mules height of right kidney varied from 90.7 to 109.2 mm (Mean± SE= of 101.1±3.14 mm) and its thickness varied from 47.3 to 56.8 mm (Mean± SE= 52.3±1.57 mm). The left kidney in horses was found between 16 th ICS to 2 nd lumbar vertebra, while in mules it was found from 16 th ICS to 3 rd lumbar vertebra. The height of left kidney varied from 87 to 107.8 mm (Mean± SE= 99.0±3.67 mm) and its thickness varied from 49.5 to 53.8 mm (Mean± SE= 51.8±0.72 mm). In mules the height of left kidney varied from 85.5 to 111.4 mm (Mean± SE= 95.3±2.36 mm) and its thickness varied from 43.4 to 55.7 mm (Mean± SE= 50.6±2.53 mm). During transrectal ultrasonography urinary bladder was observed as an oval to round structure in the caudal ventral abdomen, the wall thickness of urinary bladder varied from 2.7 to 2.8 mm (Mean± SE= 2.74±0.02 mm), 2.4 to 2.7 mm (Mean± SE= 2.62±0.05 mm) in horses and mules respectively. Hence detailed ultrasonographic examination of these organs helped us to compile baseline data, which will be helpful in future in management of the affections of these organs. Key words: Horses, Kidneys, Mules, Ultrasonography, Urinary bladder. INTRODUCTION Soft tissue organs like kidneys, liver and spleen are not easily accessible for clinical examination by palpation or percussion because of their topographic location under costal part of the abdominal wall. Usually exploratory laparotomy confirms the diagnosis of disease conditions of Kidneys, liver spleen and urinary bladder, although its invasiveness may not be suitable in already compromised patients. Clinical diagnosis of the urinary tract diseases is difficult in equines, since even severe diseases may not always be accompanied by specific signs and one can easily misinterpret it with gastrointestinal tract colic. In these circumstances ultrasonography, a non invasive procedure can be used to diagnose the affections. Sonographic assessment of abdominal organs in different equine breeds has already been described (Reef, 1998; Freeman, 2002; Hendrickson et. al., 2007; Epstein et. al., 2008 and Barton, 2011), but no such study has been conducted on native breeds of India. Hence, it is envisaged to perform the detailed ultrasonographic examination of kidneys and urinary bladder and to compile baseline data of Spiti horses and Himalayan hill mules. This will be useful in future to delineate normal and abnormal conditions and to distinguish between true and false colic which will provide an important diagnostic lead in management of affections of these organs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Standardization was carried out on 50 clinically healthy adult native animals of either sex (25 Spiti horses and 25 Himalayan hill mules). The horses were between 8- 17 years of age and weighed between 120-165 kg, whereas mules were between 8-15 years of age and weighed between 90-110 kg. The normal equine abdomen was subjected to ultrasonographic examination for standardizing the technique and machine settings. Ultrasonography was performed to scan and document images of kidneys and urinary bladder to delineate their topographical anatomy in different planes, to define their echotexture and to determine the thickness