Clinico-morphological substantiation of classification of horses' ulcerative keratitis

Ulcerative keratitis is common animal disease, which is reported from all over the world and has quite a wide spread in some regions. A number of typical symptoms of ulcerative keratitis of sick horses were investigated in current research. It was found that pathology of the eyes can be observed in animals of different age groups belonging to both genders. A group of 40 horses owned by private stables of Moscow and Moscow region was selected to conduct the study. Current research was a clinical and morphological investigation, which included both ophthalmic method and a set of cytological and bacteriological examinations. Ulcerative keratitis of horses can be either a result of a minor injury of the cornea caused by awn grasses, seed hulls, leaves, sawdust and further bacterial infection development, prolonged use of antibiotics/corticosteroids or when dystrophic cornea is infected due to the microcirculatory processes disorder.