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When It’s Not Just A Hoof Abscess

When It’s Not Just A Hoof Abscess

May 23, 2022 | Abscesses

Tuesdays with Tony

If you have horses, chances are you will deal with a hoof abscess at some point. Have you noticed that horses can be pretty dramatic creatures, and don’t often keep their feelings to themselves? Horses generally have the opposite of a poker face, unlike cats. If that little pocket of infection is causing pressure in his hoof, he will definitely let you know about it! A horse with a hoof abscess can look almost as lame as if he had broken a leg.

It’s usually pretty good news if my doc comes out to see your 3-legged lame horse and tells you she found a sub-solar abscess. Of course you don’t actually want your horse to have an abscess, but compared to some of the alternatives, it’s generally a pretty easy thing for my docs to take care of. They would much rather be able to tell you it’s just a hoof abscess rather than an injured tendon or even a fracture. My doc will try to locate the abscess and open it up to drain it and relieve the pressure. Occasionally, she’ll need to soak or poultice the hoof for a few days to draw the abscess out. Usually, as soon as the abscess is drained, your horse will start feeling better and will be on the road to recovery.

But what if it’s not so simple? Most hoof abscesses are infrequent, uncomplicated, and resolve quickly. But there are situations where abscesses don’t behave how you want them to (very cat-like behavior, I admit). Some abscesses linger and don’t heal, and some keep coming back. Some aren’t just a hoof abscess at all, but a much more serious problem. You’ll want to know when your horse needs more than just the basic treatment, so you can avoid a potentially life-threatening situation. Here’s what you need to keep in mind.

The Repeat Offender

Once drainage is established, a “normal” hoof abscess should begin to dry out and fill in with healthy tissue, and your horse’s lameness should resolve within a few days. Some horses seem prone to abscesses though – you finish treating one and a couple months later, he gets another. If your horse seems to have abscesses pop up frequently, in the same foot or in different feet, there is usually a reason. Here are a few common culprits.

The first thing to do if your horse seems prone to abscesses is to check the hygiene of his environment and the condition of his feet. It’s important to provide a clean environment for your horse. Standing in manure, urine, or mud will degrade hoof tissue, and allow bacteria to enter the hoof and form an abscess. Horses with feet that aren’t in good shape can develop hoof cracks or white line disease, both of which allow an entry point for infection. Regular trimming (every 4-6 weeks) will help to maintain a good barrier. Make sure your farrier has the hooves well balanced and the toes don’t get too long. Those are common problems my docs see in horses with repeat abscesses.

Horses with chronic laminitis often have compromised blood flow to the feet, which makes it harder for them to fight off infections. Their white line is often abnormally stretched out, making it easier for bacteria to enter the foot. A horse with untreated Cushing’s disease may have a reduced immune system, making him susceptible to infections. He’s also prone to laminitis, making it a double whammy. My docs can check your horse out for laminitis or Cushing’s and recommend a treatment plan.

Another possible cause of recurrent abscesses in the same foot is a keratoma. A keratomas is a slow-growing benign tumor inside the hoof wall that can cause pressure necrosis of the bone, leading to chronic abscesses. You won’t see much from the outside, so my docs will recommend x-rays if they want to check for one. A keratoma can be removed surgically, and the hoof wall will grow back normally over time.

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The Abscess That Won’t Resolve

This is a different situation from the repeat offender, and potentially a dangerous one. You think you find and drain the abscess, and your horse should be feeling better, but a couple days go by and he’s still quite lame. You may still see swelling and drainage as well. This abscess just won’t quit! You’ll want to take this situation seriously.

A ”normal” abscess is when the pocket of infection occurs in the area underneath the sole. Drain it through the bottom of the hoof, and it usually resolves without needing antibiotics. That’s how we want it to go. A deep abscess can travel up and burst out of the coronary band instead of through the bottom of the foot, which can take longer to resolve, and may recur if it doesn’t fully drain. Even an abscess that drained through the sole may recur if the hole seals over too soon or gets plugged up with dirt. The least severe possibility is that the abscess needs to be opened again.

Much more worrisome is an infection that has involved one of the important structures of the hoof, like the coffin bone, or a joint or tendon sheath. This can look like a regular hoof abscess in the beginning, but it doesn’t resolve when it’s drained. An infection of these structures is life-threatening, so you’ll want to have my docs out promptly if signs linger. A regular hoof abscess can develop into an infection of the coffin bone, called septic pedal osteitis, if it’s deep in the foot and isn’t able to find a way out. Septic pedal osteitis can also occur due to a puncture wound, for example if your horse steps on a nail. Don’t discount this possibility if you don’t see an obvious nail hole – they’re often very small and hard to find.

Another source of infection may be a coffin bone sequestrum, which occurs when a small piece of the bone dies and festers until it is removed. It’s also possible to have a foreign body like a small piece of wood or metal stuck in the foot. None of these scenarios will heal until the infected material is located and removed.

Anytime you suspect your horse has a hoof abscess, it’s best to call my doc out. Hopefully it’s just a simple treatment, but like with most horse problems, prevention and early intervention can help to keep things from getting worse and usually ends up less expensive than waiting to fix big problems.

Until next week,

~ Tony

P.S. If you want to learn more about your horse’s feet, check out some of the videos over on my YouTube Channel. My docs have a whole library for you over there. Don’t forget to Like and Subscribe, and tell them Tony sent you!

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Foal Abnormalities

Foal Abnormalities

May 16, 2022 | Foals

Tuesdays with Tony

Boy oh boy, or maybe I should say girl oh girl… Nope that’s not it either. Foal oh foal, that’s it! I swear it’s been raining foals at the clinic. We’ve had at least one foal a week in and out of the clinic, and that doesn’t count the ones that are just here with their dam while the dam is getting re-bred. It also doesn’t include the ones we have seen on the farm. It’s been foal madness. And we love foals! They remind me of my kitten days when I was full of life, bouncing around all the time, causing trouble for everyone. Gosh, those were the good old days. Foals, as you all know, are usually feisty little boogers with the energy we all wish we had. However, as always with horses, foals have their own set of problems that can end up in life-long issues and may even be life threatening if not addressed quickly.

Angular Limb Deformity

Angular Limb Deformity (ALD) in foals is a relatively common problem that occurs within the first few months after birth. ALD causes a foal’s leg or legs to deviate from midline. They may angle in or out, or in some cases, both in and out. Most frequently affected joints are the carpus (knee), fetlock, and hock joints.

ALD is most commonly caused by incomplete ossification of the cuboidal bones of these joints. This means the small bones that make up the joints have not developed completely prior to birth. Incomplete ossification can be caused by placentitis, colic, metabolic disease, and/or premature birth. Similarly, after birth, if a foal has tendon and/or ligament laxity, they are prone to developing ALD.

I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of fancy performance horses with crooked legs, and trust me, so have I. However, it’s important to address ALD in a foal while the opportunity exists. There’s a small window of time that ALD can be addressed and potentially fixed, resulting in “normal” limb conformation. This is extremely important because any deviation from “normal” conformation can result in a lifetime of joint pain and arthritis, starting at a very young age.

Mild ALD can be managed early on with bandaging, corrective shoeing, exercise, or in some cases, restricted exercise. Each case is different, and your veterinarian will definitely want to assess the foal and take radiographs to determine the best course of action. If conservative treatment is not effective, it’s possible that surgical intervention may be necessary. Surgery is not without risk, and it’s essential that you, your veterinarian, and your farrier are all working together on your foal. Really, that 3-way team should exist for every horse all the time, but that’s a different blog.

Once ALD has been diagnosed and treatment started, frequent check-ups from your veterinarian will be imperative. It can be a long, tiring, expensive road, but it’s worth it to end up with an as close to “normal” foal as possible.

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Wry Nose

Wry nose, what a funny term! What the heck is a wry nose? Basically, wry nose is the most extreme deviated septum you’ve ever seen, and multiply that times about a million, and then put it on a horse’s face. Horses are born with wry nose; it’s not something that develops over time, or shows up later in life. It’s a rare condition, and the cause of wry nose is unknown.

Cases of wry nose can be mild to severe. Mild cases in foals typically do okay, but may struggle to nurse, and occasionally these can grow out of it. Severe cases risk the inability to nurse at all, difficulty breathing (these can both be fatal), and failure to thrive. It’s recommended that foals be examined within the first 24 hours after birth. During this examination the veterinarian will be able to establish if a foal has a wry nose and what the best course of action will be to fix it. They will also be able to ensure the foal is nursing well and received appropriate colostrum after birth.

If you want to read more about wry nose, and see some crazy cool pictures and radiographs of the malformed bone structures, check out this paper. 

Mouth

When your veterinarian comes out to examine your new foal, they’ll stick their fingers in the foal’s mouth. This is important, as it allows your veterinarian to recognize any abnormalities with the foal’s mouth. Occasionally a foal will develop a cleft lip or cleft palate during embryonic development. It’s necessary for your veterinarian to find this as it can cause difficulty nursing.

A cleft palate is dangerous in foals, as it allows for an open passage from the mouth to the nostrils which puts the foal at risk of inhaling milk as it nurses. Inhaled milk will result in aspiration pneumonia which is life threatening to the foal. Mild cases of cleft palate and lip can be managed with surgical correction, but severe cases do not do well with or without surgery and humane euthanasia should be considered.

Cases of parrot mouth and sow mouth are seen more frequently in ponies and miniature horses than in regular horses. That being said, both parrot mouth and sow mouth can and do occur in horses of all breeds and sizes. A horse with a parrot mouth has a lower jaw that is shorter than the upper jaw and is known as brachygnathia. Correction can be attempted when the foal is young. Whether the abnormality is corrected or not, a horse with parrot mouth will absolutely require regular dental care by your veterinarian.

Similarly, a horse with sow mouth will need frequent dental assessments and treatments by your veterinarian throughout its entire life. Sow mouth, or prognathia, is an undershot jaw. This is commonly seen in dwarf miniature horses and Arabians. It can lead to severe dental problems if left unaddressed. Foals can have difficulty nursing, and as horses get older they can have difficulty grazing. However, with appropriate supportive care, foals with either parrot mouth or sow mouth can go on to live very normal healthy lives.

If I’ve learned nothing else, I’ve learned that foals are delicate little flowers and require immediate attention if anything appears to be abnormal. Skeletal abnormalities such as we have discussed just barely scrapes the surface of problems that foals can have or develop. Here is my friendly reminder to always have a good relationship with your veterinarian, and rely on them for directions on what is best for your mare and foal.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Now that you’ve absorbed my cat wisdoms for this week, take a minute to poke around the rest of my website. Aside from my amazing blog, there’s a lot of other really useful stuff on here. Videos, the podcast, books, our Wellness Plans, all kinds of good stuff. This is my gift to you.

 

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Fitness for Horses

Fitness for Horses

May 9, 2022 | Fitness

Tuesdays with Tony

Fitness. By far, not my favorite topic to discuss. My idea of fitness is moving from inside the clinic to outside, and maybe jumping up on the bench to sleep. This is acceptable for me since I’m a cat, rather than a horse who has a human imposing work expectations upon them. I would never bow to external pressures to do something like work. Those external pressures are important to understand if you’re asking your horse to do a job. The number one place injuries happen is at the point of fatigue. This week, let’s talk about how you know you’ve got your horse fit enough.

Start Slow!

This is a statement I can really get behind. If the fitness journey is just beginning, or if you are trying to assess where your horse is on the fitness scale, going slow is never the wrong answer. Slow can mean two things. 

First: literally slow. Add walking to your horse’s schedule. Thirty minutes of walking builds fitness without pounding on tendons, ligaments, and joints. Now, when I say walking, I mean walking like me heading to the food bowl, not me heading to my spot under the bush in front of the clinic to take a siesta. There’s a difference between ambling and walking with a purpose.

Second: add things slowly. There’s two ways to add stuff. You can add time, and you can add skills. Always add one at a time. For example, add a 3-minute trot set for two weeks before saying, “Ya know, starting piaffe this week sounds great.” 

How Do I Know It’s Going Okay?

As the saying goes with you humans, that’s the $64,000 question. Though with adjustment to current pricing from 1955 levels, it’s a $686,576.72 question. That is an appropriate use of Google, by the way. Way better than asking Google what you should do with your colicky horse. 

The answer is, there are several ways to know your fitness program is progressing. First, how does your horse feel when doing their job, and at the end of doing their job? For example, you had noticed Spot was really tired at the end of a weekend showing Dressage. That last day took all you had to get impulsion, relaxation, and all those other things Dressage judges go on about. With your new fitness program, how is that last day feeling? This is the ultimate test of a fitness program. Does your horse feel good doing what you wanted? If not, back to the drawing board to increase the work. 

A great way to determine fitness level is heart rate. This can be done with all sorts of fancy gadgets these days. However, it can also be done with a cheap stethoscope! Ask your horse to do the job you’re asking. If you’re a show jumper, ask them to jump an entire course, maybe even add in a fake jump-off. Don’t skimp. Do the level you are looking for! Immediately upon finishing, take a heart rate. Now wait 2 minutes and take the heart rate again. The heart rate should have dropped below 100 beats per minute (bpm), and should be below 60 bpm after 10 minutes. 

Temperature. This isn’t a straight-up indicator of fitness, but it can be important. There are lots of factors that go into a horse’s temperature. Fitness and the ability of the cardiovascular system to get rid of heat are a component. However, the temperature outside is also a really important factor. The important thing about temperature is to monitor it. It should go down, but it may take a while. For most horses, it should be back down to the 101F range by an hour after intense work. Racehorses may take longer, and I thought this was an interesting horse thing, their temperature may go up after they are done racing. Weird.

If you want to get super scientific, measuring blood lactate is a really, really great way to measure fitness. Lactate meters are very easy to use, and only a small amount of blood is needed to test. It’s kind of like my glucose measuring device for my diabetes. If you want to get super into fitness, talk with my Docs about lactate monitoring. 

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Sport-Specific Tasks

Every discipline with horses asks different fitness questions. It’s incredibly important to modify your horse’s fitness routine to answer those questions. If your reiner needs to collect, and extend, and hold their shape in a stop, then you’ve got to work on that. Dressage horses, especially at the upper levels, need so much core strength. You better work on that! Not to mention all that collection puts stresses on tendons and ligaments. They need to be ready for that stress, and not just thrown into it. This is where great trainers, riders, and veterinarians can help you. Having them help you identify sport-specific tasks and exercises to build strength and endurance is vital!

Don’t Forget the Human

Remember, you have to be fit to do the job, too! An unbalanced rider asking a horse to stop, turn, collect, jump, or any of the other things you ask puts that horse at a huge injury risk. Horses try hard to be good to you humans. Trying to lay down a slide while you’re hanging off the side puts extra stress on all the parts involved. Do your part. Work on your fitness, too! 

Fitness is hard. It’s designed that way. Need help evaluating your horse’s fitness? Want help designing a fitness plan? Call my Docs. From heart rate monitoring to lactate levels to soundness and competition readiness, they’re here to help you and your horse.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. My docs have some great fitness exercises over on our YouTube Channel. If you aren’t subscribed to that, you are missing out on some excellent video content! New videos come out all the time, so make sure you’re plugged in.

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Bugs and Horses

Bugs and Horses

May 2, 2022 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

Before I get started, I have to share a distressing interaction I had last weekend. A client was at the clinic with an emergency, and while the doc was working on her horse, the client asked me if I was still writing my blog, because she hasn’t seen it on Facebook lately. I’ll tell you the same thing I told her: Stop right now, scroll down to the purple box at the bottom of the page, and put your email address in there so you’ll get my blog every Monday. Facebook doesn’t employ a single cat, so they can’t be trusted to deliver important things like this blog. Or anything else, really. Over 3,000 people read my cat wisdoms every week, but only about 650 of you are subscribed. That’s reckless living, if you ask me. I’ll stop writing for a minute so you can go subscribe without missing anything.

…

…

…

Okay, on to other business. 

Dr. Lacher recently became a published academic author with the book, Pests and parasites of horses. She’s pretty much famous now. Well, she already was, what with the podcast and the YouTube videos, but now it’s a trifecta. I asked if she would autograph my copy and she said yes, so that made for a good day. I’m not sure how, as a cat, I’m going to read the book, but it will make a nice place to nap. Since it’s getting warm out, and the bugs are moving from low-level annoying to full-on Florida crazy, I thought I’d take this opportunity to chat with you humans about bug facts, fiction, myths, and legends.

What Bug Do You Have?

This seems like an easy question. For example, flies. We have flies, the black kind, you know the ones that are around horses, and every picnic basket. Not so fast! Even with your average-looking fly, there are a bunch of options! To start with, there are stable flies, house flies, and lesser house flies. Then add latrine flies, horn flies, canyon flies, and face flies. 

They all basically look the same, but if you want to get rid of them, you’re going to need different things to attract and catch them. If you have a pest bugging you, catch it. Don’t eat it like I do. Save it. No matter the type of bug, this will allow you, or your friendly neighborhood bug expert, to identify the critter so you’re targeting the right thing.

Where Does It Live and Breed?

Now that you know what kind of bug you have, you can target where more of that bug is made. Maybe. We’ll get to that. Targeting where bugs breed is the best way to manage numbers since adult bugs don’t live very long, no matter what they are. If there aren’t any babies, there aren’t any replacements, and adult numbers will go down fast! This works well for things like stable and house flies. These guys live near manure, or wet areas with lots of organic debris (think end of the wash rack). 

Identifying these locations and targeting them for treatment will make your fly problem go down in a hurry. However, this isn’t always possible. Sometimes it’s the neighbor sending bugs your way, or for some bugs, it’s simply impossible to control where they breed. For example, horn flies (see picture) need cow manure to breed, but they can then fly 5 miles to get to your horse and annoy them. You won’t be able to manage their breeding grounds unless you can control where the cows poop in a 5-mile radius around your farm. 

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Gnats, those tiny bugs that everyone HATES, are also the worst when it comes to breeding ground management. Gnats like “sandy soil with an organic component.” In other words, any horse farm where horses poop, or eat hay, or generally add organic things to the soil. I will refer back to the previous section again. Start with, what bug do you have? so you know where to start.

Straight-Up Killing Them

Okay, you’ve got something like gnats where you can’t manage breeding grounds, so death to the bugs is the route to take. Once again, let’s start with what bug do you have? Let’s go horse flies and other big ol’ biting flies like deer flies. Knowing that the bug you’re combatting is horse flies or deer flies helps you know how to attract them to their death. These kinds of bugs like dark things that move a bit if possible. This means those dark beach ball-looking things with a net around them (see picture of one you can buy from Horse-Fly-Trap.com) will sway in the breeze, attracting the bugs who will then fly into a catch container and die. This doesn’t work for mosquitos, gnats, or bot flies. This is why you always have to start with, What bug do I have?

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Don’t Touch Me!

So, we can kill the breeding grounds, and we can kill the adults, but what if neither of those works well? For example, with mosquitos and gnats, there’s just too many of the things, and they can breed just about anywhere! You simply can’t kill them all. This is where you have to go with repelling and avoiding. 

Again, know what insect you have, so that you have the right repellant and avoidance tactic. For example, mosquitos have preferred times of the day. If these are your problem, keeping your horse inside or in a different area for certain times of the day can massively reduce their exposure. If you think that repellant didn’t last long to keep mosquitos away, you’re right. There isn’t a repellant available that keeps mosquitos away for more than a few hours. There are, however, a wide variety of fly sheets on the market, and these work well to keep all manner of pests away from your horse just by having one on. 

They have an added benefit: you can spray these with long-acting fabric permethrins and repel bugs for even longer. Fly sheets and masks have an additional added benefit of coming in a wide variety of fun colors and patterns so that your horse can be bug free and a fashionista. Win-win!

A Word on Repellants

Okay, more than a word. If you’ve often thought that fly spray doesn’t work, you’re right. It really doesn’t work for long. Fly sprays (some) work great to temporarily repel bugs while you ride, or while your veterinarian works on your horse, or the farrier does their feet. None of them work well for hours and hours. Also, some bugs, like horseflies, don’t even acknowledge the existence of a repellent because they don’t find their prey that way. 

Know what doesn’t work? Barn fly spray systems. They only cause the flies to fly away while the spray is going, and it allows them to learn how to resist the chemicals in the sprays by showing it to them multiple times per day. Oh, and also, do you want to spray chemicals in your horse’s face all day, everyday? I’m putting a link here to a fun article by the other Dr. Erika, Dr. Erika Macthinger, about fly sprays and which ones worked the best. 

If you want the too long, didn’t read answer for the study: EcoVet fly spray did way better than anything else! Pro Tip: use a tanning mitt to apply it, rather than spraying it.

And Another Word on Feed-throughs

I hear my Docs get asked about this on a regular basis. In the United States, there are a few feed-through fly control options. These can be a great way to manage flies if you simply can’t fully control the breeding grounds. Resistance can form to these products as well, so they work best in a full-on fly killing program. 

Bugs are super annoying. I like to chase the odd house fly here and there. Any more than that and I’m checking in with my minions about pest management. Speaking of my minions, my Docs, and particularly Dr. Lacher, can help you manage your Pests and Parasites of Horses problems. Give the Clinic a buzz and they’ll set you up an appointment. Then you, your horses, and, most importantly, your cats, can be happier!

Want to purchase an amazing resource for pest management? Here’s the link to buy the book.

Sources I’m close to say it’s fantastic.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. There’s a pretty good video over on my YouTube Channel about managing flies. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of good videos there. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube Channel, now that you’re subscribed to my blog. All of this amazing horse knowledge will make you a better horse owner, and that makes my life as a Clinic Cat easier. Everybody wins!

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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Twins: Double Trouble

Twins: Double Trouble

Apr 25, 2022 | Breeding

Tuesdays with Tony

This past week has been a busy one at the clinic for me. All my paddocks have been full, and all my stalls occupied. I’m exhausted, but it’s been very rewarding to see all the foals frolicking in the paddocks. We are well into breeding season and have been performing pregnancy check after pregnancy check. These appointments are stressful yet rewarding. As the doctors are scanning the uterus looking for one little black dot, the suspense could be cut with a knife. As a cat, I can feel it as the mare’s owner, the doctors, and the technicians wait, then I hear it: the cheers that mean that a little black dot has been found! It’s heartbreaking when the dot isn’t found. And maybe even worse than not finding the black dot is seeing two black dots.

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Twins

Double the dots does not mean double the fun. Two black dots on a pregnancy check means that there are two embryos developing, and two embryos means twins. Unlike many other animals, twins in horses is not a good thing. Fortunately, the development of two embryos is not super common, but when it happens, it’s important to know early on. That’s why my doctors always highly recommend a pregnancy check 14 days after known ovulation. There’s a very narrow window to deal with twins. Between days 14 and 20 of pregnancy is the only time that twins can be managed without major risks. We’ll talk about management of twins while in-utero and what can be done to ensure the birth of a single healthy foal, but first let’s discuss what happens when twins are not managed in-utero.

At your mare’s 14-day pregnancy check, your veterinarian will thoroughly examine your horse’s uterus and ovaries via transrectal ultrasound to find a pregnancy and ensure that only one embryo is found. If two embryos are found, the suggestion will be to “crush” or “pinch” one of the embryos. A mare’s uterus is not capable of carrying two healthy foals to term. The likelihood of a mare having twins that survive to foaling is extremely rare. If a mare does foal out twins, it’s unlikely that one or both of the twins will survive for more than a day or two.

If twins are not detected between 14 and 20 days of pregnancy, aborting the pregnancy becomes one of the options early on. To do this, a medication is administered to the mare which gets rid of the Corpus Luteum. The Corpus Luteum produces progesterone which helps maintain a pregnancy. Once the Corpus Luteum is gone, the embryos won’t be able to survive. After 150 days of pregnancy, the Corpus Luteum no longer holds the pregnancy and endometrial cups take over to provide progesterone and maintain pregnancy. If twins are not detected until after 150 days of pregnancy, aborting one or both of the fetuses becomes extremely difficult and dangerous. Transabdominal procedures are performed to abort a fetus, which puts the other fetus as risk for abortion as well.

Incomplete Ossification of Cuboidal Bones

If a mare carries twins to term and both survive, it’s likely that they won’t be developed completely. Despite being born full-term, when twins are born, they come out as premature foals. One problem that premature foals have is lack of bone development. More specifically, the small bones of the carpus (knee) and hock do not develop before birth in premature foals and in this case, twins. During the development process in-utero, the cuboidal bones in the carpus and hock start off as cartilage and turn into bone in the later stages of development.

When twins are born, their bones usually aren’t developed, and they have a significant amount of cartilage present in these joints. If foals were like human babies and laid around all day, having knees and hocks made of cartilage wouldn’t be an issue because they wouldn’t be holding up 200 pounds on cartilage alone. When the weight of a foal is placed on cartilage, it crushes the cartilage so that when bones develop, they’re misshapen and will develop arthritis before the foal is even a few months old. As you can imagine, this leads to a very painful, difficult life for the foal from day one.

Lung Development

To go along with the prematurity of twins is the lack of lung development at birth. The last thing to develop before a foal is born is their lungs. That’s why we never induce foaling unless we absolutely have to. When twins are born and have premature traits, one of the largest concerns is their lung develop (or lack thereof). When their lungs are not developed appropriately, they can’t get enough oxygen to survive. Without supplemental oxygen they will not thrive, not grow, and will be prone to illness.

Other Developmental Issues

Because twins have to share a placenta that can’t fully support them completely, they are born small and are more prone to developing illnesses. Being small in stature makes nursing difficult and increases the risk of developing aspiration pneumonia. They may require an indwelling feeding tube and being fed every few hours via the tube. The mare may not develop enough colostrum to supply both foals with enough antibodies to supply them with a strong immune system. When a twin does not get enough colostrum, they require treatment with intravenous plasma to ensure they have appropriate antibodies to fight off diseases and illnesses. Twins will require intensive treatment, they often require hospitalization, and they are not easy. Moreover, they are not cheap.

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

The moral of the story is, have your brood mares monitored early, monitored frequently, and appropriately cared for should twins be found on 14-day pregnancy ultrasound. While it might seem like you are getting more bang for your buck if twins are found, listen to your veterinarians and their recommendations if twins are found. It is, in fact, a life or death scenario for the foals and the mare.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. If you’ve ever read any of my post scripts, then you know about the Podcast and the YouTube Channel, and you’ve subscribed to both. You’ve also probably already scrolled down and subscribed to my blog. So, really, you’re plugged into all the things, and absorbing horse knowledge in every way that I have to share it. Pat yourself on the head, and give yourself a treat, becaue you are a good human.

Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

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