Function Gutteral Pouch

Fungal plaques form within the guttural pouches most commonly along the walls of the major blood vessels internal carotid external carotid and maxillary arteries figure 3.

Function gutteral pouch. Fortunately guttural pouch diseases do not occur frequently but because of the potentially devastating effects every horse owner should be knowledgeable about this part of the horse s body and its multiple functions. The guttural pouches are auditory tube diverticula that contain about 300 500 ml of air. Guttural pouch mycosis is a fungal infection of one or both guttural pouches. This often causes the invasion of major arteries and nerves at the base of the skull hence the life threatening hemorrhage and severe nerve damage occurring.

The temperature of air from the guttural pouch and of blood in the ica was measured in 4 horses by using fine thermocouples surgically implanted on the ica at 3 sites corresponding to sites before midway and beyond the. This disease causes a plaque to form over the roof of the pouch. Due to the general inaccessibility of the pouches in horses they can be an area of infection by fungi and. 6 in a study on the distribution of various immunoglobulin isotypes and sub isotypes.

Here we show that horses use their guttural pouches to cool these important arteries during exercise keeping the brain from overheating. They are found in odd toed hoofed animals hyraxes 1 some bats and a south american forest mouse 2 and. It is caused by a fungus that infects the lining of the guttural pouch usually on the roof of the guttural pouch. Guttural pouch mycosis is a rare but very serious disease in horses.

A function for guttural pouches in the horse. Guttural pouches act to cool the horses brain a the arrangement of guttural pouches and internal carotid arteries ica in the skull and the position of the temperature probes used to measure. It is shown that the function of the guttural pouch in the horse is to cool the internal carotid arteries ica during exercise thus keeping the brain from overheating. 6 the guttural pouch mucosa has the ability to clear foreign substances but this ability varies among different regions of the epithelium.

Since the guttural pouches contain important nerves arteries and blood vessels infection and tumors become serious problems. They are present in odd toed mammals some bats hyraxes and the american forest mouse they are paired bilaterally just below the ears behind the skull and connect to the nasopharynx. Guttural pouch mycosis causes the pouch to become infected resulting in necrotizing inflamed and thickened tissue.