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Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Equine Quality of Life is an important concern in decision making in veterinary medicine and is especially relevant for chronically ill or aged horses when euthanasia is considered. To our knowledge, there is no assessment tool for chronically ill or aged horses that assesses equine...

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Autores principales: Long, Mariessa, Dürnberger, Christian, Jenner, Florien, Kelemen, Zsófia, Auer, Ulrike, Grimm, Herwig
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9311870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35883370
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12141822
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author Long, Mariessa
Dürnberger, Christian
Jenner, Florien
Kelemen, Zsófia
Auer, Ulrike
Grimm, Herwig
author_facet Long, Mariessa
Dürnberger, Christian
Jenner, Florien
Kelemen, Zsófia
Auer, Ulrike
Grimm, Herwig
author_sort Long, Mariessa
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Equine Quality of Life is an important concern in decision making in veterinary medicine and is especially relevant for chronically ill or aged horses when euthanasia is considered. To our knowledge, there is no assessment tool for chronically ill or aged horses that assesses equine Quality of Life defined as the horse’s evaluation of their life. However, tools exist to assess equine welfare in different contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse how equine welfare, Quality of Life, well-being and happiness assessment tools define and attempt to measure these concepts. We discuss the tools’ suitability to assess equine Quality of Life in the context of end-of-life decisions for chronically ill or aged horses. Fourteen publications were found via a systematic literature search, describing ten equine welfare assessment tools and one approach to assessing equine Quality of Life in veterinary practice. Some of these welfare assessment tools have the potential to inform the development of a Quality-of-Life assessment tool supporting well-considered decision making towards the end of horses’ lives if they are adjusted to focus on the horses’ experiences, to provide an overall grade of Quality of Life and are tailored to chronically ill or geriatric horses. ABSTRACT: Equine Quality of Life (QoL) is an important concern in decision making in veterinary medicine and is especially relevant for chronically ill or geriatric horses towards the end of their lives. To our knowledge, there is no currently available QoL assessment tool for chronically ill or geriatric horses that assesses equine QoL defined as the horse’s evaluation of their life. However, tools exist to assess equine welfare in different contexts. Hence, the aims of this study were to analyse how equine welfare, QoL, well-being and happiness assessment tools label, define and operationalise the concepts and to discuss the tools’ suitability to assess equine QoL in the context of end-of-life decisions for chronically ill or geriatric horses. Fourteen articles were found through a systematic literature search, describing ten equine welfare assessment tools and one approach to integrating equine QoL in veterinary practice that suggests QoL assessment parameters. We discuss that some welfare assessment tools have the potential to support the development of a QoL assessment tool informing decisions towards the end of horses’ lives if they are adjusted to focus on the horses’ experiences, to provide an integration into an overall QoL grade and are tailored to chronically ill or geriatric horses.
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spelling pubmed-93118702022-07-26 Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses Long, Mariessa Dürnberger, Christian Jenner, Florien Kelemen, Zsófia Auer, Ulrike Grimm, Herwig Animals (Basel) Review SIMPLE SUMMARY: Equine Quality of Life is an important concern in decision making in veterinary medicine and is especially relevant for chronically ill or aged horses when euthanasia is considered. To our knowledge, there is no assessment tool for chronically ill or aged horses that assesses equine Quality of Life defined as the horse’s evaluation of their life. However, tools exist to assess equine welfare in different contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse how equine welfare, Quality of Life, well-being and happiness assessment tools define and attempt to measure these concepts. We discuss the tools’ suitability to assess equine Quality of Life in the context of end-of-life decisions for chronically ill or aged horses. Fourteen publications were found via a systematic literature search, describing ten equine welfare assessment tools and one approach to assessing equine Quality of Life in veterinary practice. Some of these welfare assessment tools have the potential to inform the development of a Quality-of-Life assessment tool supporting well-considered decision making towards the end of horses’ lives if they are adjusted to focus on the horses’ experiences, to provide an overall grade of Quality of Life and are tailored to chronically ill or geriatric horses. ABSTRACT: Equine Quality of Life (QoL) is an important concern in decision making in veterinary medicine and is especially relevant for chronically ill or geriatric horses towards the end of their lives. To our knowledge, there is no currently available QoL assessment tool for chronically ill or geriatric horses that assesses equine QoL defined as the horse’s evaluation of their life. However, tools exist to assess equine welfare in different contexts. Hence, the aims of this study were to analyse how equine welfare, QoL, well-being and happiness assessment tools label, define and operationalise the concepts and to discuss the tools’ suitability to assess equine QoL in the context of end-of-life decisions for chronically ill or geriatric horses. Fourteen articles were found through a systematic literature search, describing ten equine welfare assessment tools and one approach to integrating equine QoL in veterinary practice that suggests QoL assessment parameters. We discuss that some welfare assessment tools have the potential to support the development of a QoL assessment tool informing decisions towards the end of horses’ lives if they are adjusted to focus on the horses’ experiences, to provide an integration into an overall QoL grade and are tailored to chronically ill or geriatric horses. MDPI 2022-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9311870/ /pubmed/35883370 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12141822 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Long, Mariessa
Dürnberger, Christian
Jenner, Florien
Kelemen, Zsófia
Auer, Ulrike
Grimm, Herwig
Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title_full Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title_fullStr Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title_full_unstemmed Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title_short Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses
title_sort quality of life within horse welfare assessment tools: informing decisions for chronically ill and geriatric horses
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9311870/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35883370
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12141822
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