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Equine TeleMedicine

Equine TeleMedicine

Mar 23, 2020 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

Equine TeleMedicine

Whoa! What a strange few weeks it’s been around here.  At first I kept hearing everyone talk about Corona this and Corona that, and I thought to myself, that’s odd, my minions aren’t big drinkers, some don’t even drink at all, so why are they making such a big deal about Corona? Then they started breaking out the hand sanitizer, bleach, lysol wipes and locking the front doors. That’s when I realized, they were talking about the Corona Virus or COVID 19.

Safety During Your Appointment

If you’ve been by the clinic lately, you’ve probably come across some changes we’ve made here for your safety and for the safety of our team.  We are keeping the doors to the clinic locked and are asking that for any in-house appointments you unload your horse and wait at your truck and trailer, keeping a safe 6-foot distance from anyone else.  One of the technicians will come out and meet you.  My docs and techs will take it from there. You are more than welcome to stay in the comfort of your truck, in fact, we encourage that.  When my docs come to the farm for appointments, we are asking that you have your horses caught and in a safe location with halters available. As you all know my docs always travel with a technician so you can stay inside on the couch as to not miss any of your current Netflix Binge.  Again, this is something we are encouraging, and rest assured, if my docs need to contact you while looking at your horse, they will pick up the phone and call you.

What is Equine TeleMedicine?

Another change that we have recently launched at the clinic is something I am sure you will all be very excited about, and that is, Equine TeleMedicine.  You have seen it on TV and heard about it on Facebook, where you can use Telemedicine with your doctors to avoid long wait times and gross waiting rooms. Well, now we are also offering Telemedicine for your horses!  It’s really very simple to use. We use an App called Medici. All you have to do is download it on to one of those SmartPhones that you are probably using right now to read this blog.  So, stop here, take a break from this interesting blog and go to your App Store and download Medici. I’ll wait… Got it downloaded? Ok great! So now let me explain how this all works.

First, my docs have to have seen your horse within the last year for a physical examination, and yes, this includes a wellness vaccine exam. If your horse has been seen within the year, you can start Telemedicine now.  If you are a new client or we have only seen your horse for a Coggins or health certificate or it has been over a year since we have seen your horse, call the clinic and tell them you want to set up an exam for Telemedicine and we will get you on the schedule with one of my docs. They will come out, do a brief physical exam on your horse, note any abnormalities and then you will be good to go.

How to Use Equine TeleMedicine

So, now you’ve downloaded the Medici app, your horse has a recent exam with one of my docs, and you think you’re ready for Telemedicine but you’re not sure how, when, or why you would use it. Telemedicine can be used in a variety of different situations. For example, you have a horse that has a cut that you think might need stitches, but you aren’t sure. Perfect! Open up the Medici App, contact my docs and they will get back with you ASAP. They may ask for a few pictures or they may decide to FaceTime with you to see the wound. From here my docs will decide if your horse needs to be seen or if you can manage it at home by following specific guidelines given to you by my doc. Telemedicine is also great for lameness, eye injuries, swelling, emergencies, or any other concerns that require a veterinarian’s expert advice.

Yet another benefit to telemedicine is reducing the need for you to haul your horse to us or us to come to your farm.  It saves time, it saves money, and it saves loading and unloading your horse. You may live outside of our practice range and can’t get a vet to come to you. If you have planned ahead and have had an exam done with one of the vets here at Springhill Equine, you can give them a call via Medici and they can help you determine if hauling into the clinic will be necessary.

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Telemedicine is also useful to prevent the spread of other cooties such as Strangles, Influenza, Salmonella, and other easily spread diseases. These diseases are easily transmitted on people, instruments, and vehicles. By using telemedicine to help you manage these kinds of illnesses, you will be helping prevent the spread of disease.  Similarly, recheck appointments can also be done using telemedicine, once again, allowing you to stay home with your horse and avoiding the hassle of hauling into the clinic or having my docs out to you.

Finally, with COVID 19 floating around out there, what better way than to social distance yourself than with telemedicine? As far as I’ve heard, the virus cannot be transmitted through the phones, so I think your safe on this one.  You get to stay home, in your barn, in your PJs while talking to my docs about what’s going on with your horse, all while playing your part to flatten the curve and keep yourself and everyone else safe.

Not convinced that Telemedicine is for you? Hear this old cat out, give it a try, you’ll be surprised how easy it is and how quickly your concerns will be addressed. You and your horse will be back blazing the trails again before you know it, or as soon as COVID 19 allows.

Until next week,

Tony

P.S. We have an Equine TeleMedicine page on our website now, which includes links to Medici and even a video on how to make a great Telemedicine video for the docs. Check it out here. And if you’re stuck in the house and bored, scroll down a bit and click on the banner with the books on it. It’ll take you to some reading material that will pass the time and make you smile 🙂

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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Horses and CoronaVirus

Horses and CoronaVirus

Feb 24, 2020 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

Some of my more woke readers may have read about a horse with coronavirus this week in Arizona, as reported by Equine Disease Communications Center (EDCC). If you don’t know what EDCC is, I highly recommend checking out equinediseasecc.org for a good trip down a rabbit hole of equine infectious diseases. This site is full of great information, and up-to-date outbreak information, but I digress, as usual. 

Back to horses and coronavirus. The most important thing to know here is: Don’t Panic. Horses have their own version of coronavirus, as most critters do, and this one isn’t the same as the one filling your news feed with apocalyptic dread on a minute-by-minute basis. There are some coronavirus concerns for horses, but for the most part this virus makes a horse feel crummy for a few days, then off they go, back to normal life. 

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Where did it come from?

Like most fun infectious diseases, with the notable exception in horses of the encephalitides, coronavirus comes from other horses, and usually other horses at horse shows. This is why I’m committed to my place on the counter watching the world go by with no strange cats, other than Teenie, to share cooties with me. Coronavirus gets a little interesting in what we don’t know about it. We don’t know how long horses carry this bad boy around once infected. Smart epidemiologists think around three weeks, based on statistical analysis. The smart scientists also aren’t sure how long this virus will survive in the wild. Other versions of the coronavirus, like the ones cows carry, live around 2 weeks in water, and a little longer in manure. 

In the continuing realm of things we don’t know about this virus, no one knows if there are carrier horses. These are horses who don’t display any symptoms, but do shed the virus. The humans are looking less and less smart when it comes to this virus. What do they know? It’s more common in winter, probably because the virus survives in the wild better in colder temperatures, but again, that’s a guess based on other coronaviruses. 

What does an infected horse look like?

This is where coronavirus infections really get interesting. Most viruses cause symptoms in one area of the body, like a runny nose, or diarrhea. Coronavirus causes respiratory and GI symptoms, sometimes all at the same time, sometimes not. It does cause a fever, and typically a pretty darn good one, up on the 104-105F range. From there, it depends on the horse; some get cowpie-type manure, others get blowing diarrhea, some get respiratory signs, some get none. 

A common symptom in horses with GI signs is hyperammonemia. What the heck does that word even mean? Hyperammonemia is too much ammonia in the blood. This can happen with any GI upset in a horse, but my Docs more commonly see it in horses with diarrhea. It occurs when the bacteria in the gut get very, very mad, and start producing ammonia. Ammonia is very quickly and easily absorbed into the bloodstream, where it heads to the brain. In the brain, it causes the connections to go a little wonky. These horses will act neurologic, often stumbling around a stall or paddock, and showing inappropriate interactions with the environment. They will overreact to sounds, but not react to their owner dumping food for them, or talking to them. Luckily, this usually goes away pretty quickly once the GI tract recovers. The respiratory signs are pretty typical cold signs: some nasal discharge, coughing, runny eyes. Nothing too special.

How do you know if you’ve got Coronavirus?

You test the poop.  That’s right. We take a small sample of poop, and that gets tested for coronavirus DNA; well RNA because it’s an RNA virus, but that’s getting super geeky on you. My Docs will definitely recommend testing if your horse recently returned from a horse show, gets a fever, and a bellyache. It’s very unusual for colicky horses to have fevers. This means a fever plus a bellyache equals a high suspicion for coronavirus.

Make it Go Away

Luckily, nearly all horses infected with coronavirus (much like people) will slay this dragon on their own. Being a virus, antibiotics won’t help, and might even mess up the normal GI bugs, leading to bigger problems. The best way to help these horses heal quickly is to give anti-inflammatories, keep the horses on a good diet, and keep them as happy as possible. Horses will start showing signs very quickly after they’ve been exposed, like 2-3 days quick, then take about a week to get better. 

Coronavirus is a buzzword right now for you humans. The best way to handle it, human or horse, is to practice good biosecurity. Try hard to keep your horse from touching noses with other horses when you are out showing or trail riding. You never know where that other horse has been. Isolate new horses that come to your house for at least 21 days. And do this cat a big favor: Don’t share water buckets or drink from community water troughs. That’s just plain nasty!

Until next week,

~Tony

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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Equine Acupuncture

Equine Acupuncture

Feb 17, 2020 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

By now, I’m sure you all know that Dr. Abbott has recently been down in Ocala at the Chi Institute learning all about Equine Acupuncture so that we can better serve you and your horses, and so she can make this old cat feel like a spring chicken again. I never knew so much went into sticking needles into your horse, but WOWZA is it a lot of information! Apparently, every horse has a personality type and every personality type is prone to different illnesses and problems. Based on these personality types, along with multiple other factors, Dr. Abbott has learned how to diagnose your horse from a Chinese Medicine perspective and from there she has learned how to treat a number of different ailments your horse may be dealing with, some that you didn’t even know your horse had.

Personality Types

Wood: Wood personalities are confident, they are competitive, can sometimes be aggressive, and are often dominant. Most of our show horses are wood personalities, they have to be competitive to make it as a show horse.

Fire: Fire personalities want to be the center of attention; they are friendly and playful but often sensitive. These kinds of horses are the ones that are always getting into something, these are the mischievous ones who open stall doors and let all their friends out, too.

Earth: Earth personalities are mellow, easy going, friendly, slow moving, and tolerant. I’d like to consider myself an Earth personality.

Metal: Metal personalities are rather aloof, independent, and like rules and order.

Water: Water personalities are timid and shy. They may be nervous and tend to react based on their fear. One thing Dr. Abbott told me is that horses are not innately water personalities. These types of horses have been weeded out based on natural selection. Horses in the wild that have water personalities are pushed out of the herd and left to become wolf food.  Domestic horses that appear to be water personalities have learned this behavior and have possibly suffered some kind of abuse in their past.

When Dr. Abbott comes out to see your horse, she will ask specific questions to determine which personality your horse leans towards.

The Exam

After Dr. Abbott determines your horse’s personality type, she will assess your horse’s tongue.  Based on the color, texture, and moisture of your horses tongue she can determine whether your horse has a deficiency or stagnation (pain). She will then feel your horse’s pulses which will help her narrow down where the deficiency is coming from or where the stagnation may be coming from. Next comes the scan.  During the scan Dr. Abbott will assess each meridian or channel that the ancient Chinese have determined are present in your horse that allow energy to flow from head to toe and back. She will watch your horse carefully for signs that certain acupuncture points or entire channels are affected. She will score each reaction and only after she has performed a complete scan will all the pieces be put together and a diagnosis made. After a preliminary diagnosis, you will be asked if there is any else you wish to add, or anything missed during the exam.  This sounds exhausting to me; I am all for having an acupuncture exam and treatment performed on me, but there is no way you would ever see this cat spending that much time learning an entire new way of practicing veterinary medicine.

Treatment

Now that we have a diagnosis, treatment can begin. Each horse gets their own individual treatment based on their signs and diagnosis on that day at that particular time. There are no cookie cutter treatments, everything is tailored specifically to your horse. Now, that sounds right up my alley, sign me up! Most of you know that acupuncture involves the placement of needles in specific spots on your horse. You may have even seen someone hook up wires and an electric box to the needles in your horse. However, there are several other ways in which acupuncture can be performed.  Dry needles are often used in fire personality horses, as electro-acupuncture can be too much stimulation for them. In these cases, dry needles do just as much if not more for fire horses. Moxibustion is another type of acupuncture where dried mugwort is burned over specific acupuncture points to encourage the movement of energy and relieve stagnation. Vitamin B12 can also be injected directly into acupuncture points causing a long-term stimulation of the point that will last days after treatment. Based on your horse’s personality and the diagnosis that Dr. Abbott has determined by her examination she will then determine and perform treatment that will best suit your horse on that day at that time.

After needling, it is likely that Dr. Abbott will also recommend starting your horse on a specific herb to help extend the effects of the initial treatment. Feeding herbs is like providing your horse with acupuncture every day! Ok, seriously, where are mine? I need to start experiencing these amazing treatments.

Follow-up

After your horse’s initial examination and treatment, Dr. Abbott will recommend follow up treatments. During these treatments she will perform the same examination done at the initial exam, she will determine where your horse has improved, where there have been changes and what needs to be addressed now. Usually, it takes 3-4 treatments 1-2 weeks apart to fully treat an ailment/problem. In other words, acupuncture requires commitment. I am always committed to bettering myself, and I volunteer as tribute for acupuncture treatments.

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Reasons to Choose Acupuncture

So far, you are probably thinking this all sounds pretty neat, and you would be correct. But you’re probably also wondering what acupuncture can be used to treat. Well, it can be used to treat lameness, tendon and ligament problems, and respiratory issues such as heaves. Acupuncture can also be used to treat anhidrosis (non-sweating) and anxiety problems. It can also be used to stimulate appetite and suppress pain. You name it, there is definitely some part of acupuncture that can be performed to facilitate healing and a better life for your horse.

Who Should Perform Acupuncture

Unfortunately, anyone can learn to put needles into your horse, they do not even have to be a veterinarian. That just scares the bejeebies out of me! Can you imagine someone who doesn’t know anything about horse anatomy sticking needles all willy-nilly in your horse? There are some pretty important structures and blood vessels I would be nervous about them hitting, that’s for sure!

This cat thinks that a veterinarian who has been trained and certified in the art of Chinese Medicine should be the one to perform acupuncture on your horse.  Why, you ask? Well, because, if a proper diagnosis is not made and random needles are placed in your horses, energy can get moving all wonky directions, heat might be added when it needs to be taken away, and the next thing you know, you have a once-calm, easy going horse who has become a fire breathing dragon, and we all know that won’t end up well for anyone.  So, please chose carefully in who you allow to perform acupuncture on your horse.

If you want to schedule an appointment for your horse’s initial acupuncture treatment, call my minions today. Remember acupuncture can be done at any time, even during routine vaccine appointments, so call today so we can get your horse on the schedule and feeling their best.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Scroll down a bit and subscribe to my blog! That way it will show up in your email each week, and you won’t have to rely on Facebook to share in all my catly wisdom. Subscribers get it a day before everyone else!

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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A Worm’s Life

A Worm’s Life

Feb 10, 2020 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

It’s the first half of the year, and around here that means it’s everyone’s favorite time of year: Fecal Egg Count Season! I know, my humans are weird. They celebrate strange things, and they are very, very passionate about their fecal egg counts. Let me tell you all about the strange rituals involved, and the deep meaning behind all of it. Get ready for me to drop some serious knowledge on you, and save you some money. Learning, and saving? Sounds like a great combination!

First, the Bad News

The bad news is the deworming drugs on the market now are all we’ve got. There are no new ones in the works, which means a minimum of 10 years before we could even see a new drug. Even more bad news: there’s resistance reported to every one of those drugs right now. This means you humans better be good users of the drugs you’ve got! Most of you aren’t old enough to remember what it was like before easy, safe dewormers were available, but I hear it involved some seriously scary colics, and some pretty toxic chemicals. None of you want to go back there, I promise, so read the rest of this week’s blog very carefully.

Let’s talk life cycle

We’re going to mostly talk about the two biggies: small strongyles, and ascarids. These are the ones fecal egg count season revolves around. I’m also going to touch on tapeworms, large strongyles, and onchocerca and haemophilus. I’m a very knowledgeable cat. 

Small strongyles begin life as an egg in the pasture. They enjoy cool, but not cold temperatures, reasonable to high humidity, and really don’t like temperatures over 85F. When the weather meets these requirements, they hatch and crawl to the top of some nice tasty grass in a drop of dew. Here, your horse eats them, giving them a free ride to the intestinal tract. Once in the large intestine, the baby worms crawl into the lining to grow up. Here they have choices. If they can’t handle the pressure of growing up to be an adult, they can hibernate in the mucosa for a while as an encysted larvae. If they’re ready to make grown-up choices and have kids, they can mature to adults and head to the intestinal lumen. Once there, the adults do what adults do and make eggs. These eggs exit in the manure so that the circle of life can continue on. The adults carry on until they die of old age at about 8-10 months. 

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Ascarids are the big reason for the fecal egg count season, although they allow us to carry the joy on for the entire year! Yay!! Ascarids start their life as eggs in the pasture, as well. These guys are the Ironman of the parasite world, though. Nothing kills these eggs. They handle heat, cold, dry, wet. You name it, they’ll survive. They also take a much more scenic route to adulthood than the small strongyle. 

After being eaten, ascarid larvae migrate from the intestinal tract through the body to the lungs or liver. If they are lucky enough to make it to the lungs, they cause the horse to cough them up, where they are then swallowed back into the intestines. Now they are ready to grow up to be adults and have kids. And boy do they have kids. They aren’t as reliable as small strongyles at constant egg laying. This means a few fecal egg counts may be necessary to find them. Fun ascarid fact: they kinda look like short, fat spaghetti noodles. You won’t miss these guys when they die and come out in the poop! 

The important thing about the life cycle of ascarids and small strongyles is they’re really fast! They can happen multiple times during a year. For tapeworms and large strongyles, life moves at a more cat-nap-like pace. This will be important later! Onchocerca and heamophilus get their eggs laid by flies in open wounds so fecal egg count season doesn’t apply to them. They get their own season called Summer Sore Season. You can look that one up in the search bar above. Trust me, I’ve blogged on it several times. 

Just deworm all the horses

“Well Tony,” you say, “sounds like I should just throw wormer at everyone!” First, it’s dewormer. We are taking the worms out, not putting them in. Second, under no circumstances should this be your thought process! This is why I have to save you humans from yourselves all the time. Do you remember earlier when I said we only have the drugs we have, and the parasites have learned how to evade all of them? The way you guys keep those drugs lasting as long as possible is to only deworm the horses that need it. Guess how you know which horses need it? Fecal egg counts! Here’s the fecal egg count rules:

  1. Everyone over the age of 12 months gets one between January and July.
  2. Everyone under the age of 12 months gets one at about 6 months, and again around 9 months. 
  3. If anyone has a high fecal egg count, they get dewormed with an appropriate product (stay tuned for more on that), and then recheck in 14 days to be sure there’s none of that dreaded resistance. 

Simple, right? Yep. Super simple. Side note from my humans: when bringing them a sample to test, they want ONE, and only ONE fecal ball taken from a fresh pile, and placed in a plastic baggie in a cool, dry place until it can be delivered to the clinic. As long as it is kept cool in your fridge (the butter spot in the door works great) you can take up to 7 days to get it to them. 

You may now deworm… Maybe

Now that you have results, you may deworm the horses that have more than 350 eggs per gram of poop. Now, most of the time in an adult, you’re going to use plain old ivermectin. It still works great most of the time, it hits all the bugs we want, and it’s pretty safe. The rest of the drugs out there just don’t work very well on small strongyles, so don’t waste your money or your time. 

Notice in the rules I said if you’re under 12 months, you get a fecal twice! That’s because ascarids are generally only found in horses under 18 months old, and usually under 12 months. Once the adult immune system kicks in, it gets to work kicking those ascarids out of town! That same adult immune system is why some horses don’t have high strongyle egg counts. Their immune system kills the little buggers before they can lay eggs. 

Back to ascarids. My docs do start deworming foals for ascarids around 4-5 months old. Drug choice depends on your farm, and your history, so I recommend a chat with them rather than winging it off what Dr. Google said. Dr. Google went to a really crappy vet school. Don’t trust it for anything! 

Why no egg count in the Fall?

Remember earlier when I said small strongyles live for about 8-10 months? We’re about to take advantage of that. One way to make worms more susceptible to dewormers is to hit them when they’re sick, or stressed, or…..old. We’re going to take advantage of the fact that most of them are old around late Fall, and push them into their little worm graves. Horses also need to be dewormed once yearly with an ivermectin to kill large strongyles, and praziquantel to kill tapeworms, so our Fall deworming plan does all the things we need a good deworming plan to do. 

Don’t want to remember any of this? Sign up for a Wellness Program, and my Docs will take care of it all. From fecals to deworming, done. Crossed off the list. No worrying. Seems like a no brainer to me! You can even sign up at 3 a.m. from the website. Seriously, what’s not to love about this thing? Did I mention no emergency fees? If you haven’t already, go to the menu bar, go to the Wellness page, sign up, be happy. 

Until next week,

~ Tony

P.S. If you want to advance to cat-level knowledge on deworming, you should listen to the podcast my docs did on the topic. It will give you all the information you need to convince your hard-headed friends to stop contributing to the drug resistance problem! Find it on our Podcast Page.

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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Joint Injections

Joint Injections

Feb 3, 2020 | Uncategorized

Tuesdays with Tony

Show season is in full swing and my docs have been super busy getting your horses ready to perform their very best. Now that you and your horse have been competing for a few weeks, it might be time to have them looked at again. When your horse is competing, they are under a significant amount of stress; their normal routine is altered, they are being ridden multiple times a day, and they’re pouring their hearts into their work for you. Competitions can take a toll on your horse. Thank goodness there aren’t cat shows, that seems like way too much work for this cat.

Now that you’ve been competing for a few weeks, maybe you’ve started to notice your horse is just a tad late with his lead change, or he isn’t quite jumping the same as he was at the start of season, or that push off the last barrel just isn’t quite as strong. You’ve heard competitors talking about joint injections and how they have improved their horse’s performance and you’re thinking, maybe it’s time for my horse to get his joints injected.  Joint injections are not without their risks, so luckily for you, I am here to talk about the pros, the cons and everything in between on joint injections.

The Exam

You think your horse needs some joints injections, so you schedule an appointment with one of my docs. Before my docs go all willy-nilly injecting joints, they will require a lameness examination. You’re probably thinking, but my horse isn’t lame, he’s just not as good as he usually is.  And you’re probably right, your horse probably isn’t lame, but a full lameness examination will allow for my docs to determine if your horse even needs injections and if they do, which joints should be injected.  They put their expert hands on your horse and feel their muscles, their joints, and their tendons and ligaments to determine where the source of pain might be. They watch your horse move at the walk and trot on different terrains and in different directions.  They may even perform some joint flexions. Based on their examination they can then determine if your horse needs joint injections or if further diagnostics are necessary.

Diagnostics

After a thorough lameness examination is performed, diagnostics such as radiographs and/or ultrasound may be recommended. If my docs recommend radiographs, they may be looking for hoof abnormalities such as toe length, coffin bone angles, or navicular changes. They will also assess the radiographs for evidence of arthritis which can lead to inflammation and decreased performance.  Ultrasound can be used to assess tendons and ligaments for inflammation, small tears, or other areas of concern. My docs can also use ultrasound to assess joints capsules for inflammation, infection, and arthritis.  While radiographs and ultrasound may not be necessary to treat your horse, they are extremely useful to locate precise areas of concern.

The Injections

Now that a lameness examination and diagnostic imaging have been completed, my docs can determine if your horse needs injections and what joints need to be injected.  They will also determine what will be best to inject your horse’s joints with.  There are several different options for joint injections including steroids, hyaluronic acid, and platelet rich plasma (PRP).  Steroids help to decrease inflammation in joints. Hyaluronic acid can be used to help lubricate the joint. Platelet rich plasma brings a large number of growth factors to the joint which helps to stimulate production of repair tissue. Depending on your horse’s lameness exam, my docs will decide which medication or combination of medications to inject into your horse’s joint(s). My docs choose which product, and how much, very, very carefully. Steroids cost less in dollars, but can cost way more in side effects. For instance, steroids injected into joints can cause laminitis, even if the joint is really far from the feet. This side effect is particularly worrisome if your horse’s weight tends towards the pudgy like mine. Steroids also don’t heal the joint at all. They do reduce inflammation, but they also bring calcium to the soft tissues around the joint. Calcium in your very soft, flexible joint capsule is, shall we say, less than ideal, and it hurts. This side effect often happens after repeated steroid injections, and can be a cause for retirement. Platelet rich plasma and hyaluronic acid don’t carry these concerns, but every time a needle is placed in a joint there is a very small amount of damage done. That damage needs to be less than that being caused by the inflammation present.

 Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Joint injections are considered an invasive procedure.  My docs take special care when performing joint injections which includes sedating your horse as well as sterile preparation of the injection site.  Prior to injecting, my docs will have their technician place a twitch on your horse’s upper lip. They tell me that the placement of the twitch actually helps to release endorphins and helps relax your horse. Maybe so, but I sure don’t want to find out if that is true. I’ll keep my lips to myself thank you very much. While your horse’s joints are being prepared for injection, my docs will pull up the medication for the joint in a sterile fashion. They also may add in a small amount of antibiotic to help reduce the risk of joint infections.  Often times they will administer a dose of bute to help decrease the inflammation that is a result of the injection.  Finally, they will leave you with specific instructions for your horse going forward, including stall rest the day of injection, usually turn out the day following injection, and then light work for a few days. They will also instruct you to monitor your horse for any pain, swelling, redness, or lameness in that limb that was injected.  They will tell you to call us immediately if you notice any of those signs.

The goal after joint injections is to decrease the inflammation in the joints to help your horse return to peak performance.  However, joint injections cannot and should not be performed any time your horse has a decrease in performance.  Instead, joint injections should be accompanied by physical therapy and a strict exercise program to boost your horse’s fitness level and keep your horse sound longer.

Physical Therapy

My clinic is a one-stop-shop for all your horse’s needs.  If my docs recommend physical therapy, I can offer that as well. We have the functional electrical stimulation (FES) which we use to help retrain your horse’s muscles to work in the correct way. It helps to relieve muscle spasms, treats muscle atrophy, and overall strength of your horse’s muscles.  We also have two very new offerings coming your way in Spring 2020: Springhill Equine is excited to offer acupuncture and spinal manipulation (chiropractic) treatments for your horse! Get excited, I know I am! I think I could use some acupuncture. You know, sleeping all day results in some very sore muscles for this old cat.

If you think your horse might have some performance issues, give me a call at the clinic and I will get you scheduled for a lameness workup. My docs can answer your questions and help you make the best choices for your horse, both for today and down the road.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. If you want to learn more about joint injections, my docs did a podcast on this topic a while back. They go very in-depth, which I don’t really have the energy for, but if you want to advance a few knowledge levels on joints, that’s the podcast for you. Click here, and scroll down the list until you get to the one called Joint Injections. You can listen to it right from your phone or computer.

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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