The weather is changing, the days are shorter, there is snow up north, and the snowbirds are flocking to the south. This means it’s time for horse show season, my favorite time of year! I get to see all my old buddies from up north and hear about their summer adventures.  With the start of show season also starts cold/flu season for people and for your horse. I have a very healthy immune system so I don’t worry about getting the flu, but I have been around long enough to know that horses are giant babies and get sick at the drop of a hat.

Maybe you’re not the horse-showing type, but do you take your horse on outings? Trail rides, camping, rodeos or anywhere else where your horse might be exposed to other horses you don’t know? Even if you don’t take your horse anywhere, do you board your horse? Have you recently bought a new horse and are integrating him to your herd? Or are there horses on your property that come and go that may be exposed to horses you don’t know? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your horse is at risk. 

So, what do you do to protect your horse from getting sick while also getting to enjoy taking him places? As you all know, the first line of defense is vaccination. If you don’t remember which vaccines your horse needs, be sure to check out my past blogs on that topic. This week I’m going to talk to you about the preventative measures you can take while traveling with your horse to ward off the cooties. 

Stalls

More often than not, when taking your horse on outings, you may rent a stall. Stalls are super convenient, they give you a place to stash your horse so you can go off with your riding buddies, they are a safe place for your horse to stay overnight during a camping trip, and they provide a comfortable spot for your horse to rest during your trip. However, they are also cesspools where bacteria, viruses and all kinds of cooties like to live, leaving your horse susceptible to coming down with the ick. 

When you get to your final destination, prior to unloading your horse, may I suggest you inspect the stall. Make sure it is clean and has been completely mucked out before you place your horse in the stall. This is also an ideal time to check the stall for random nails, broken boards and other hazards your horse will be sure to find and injure himself on.  If you are a major germaphobe, I recommend bringing dilute bleach in a spray bottle with you that you can spray on the walls of the stalls prior to placing bedding and your horse in his stall. Of course this does not prevent your horse from contracting an illness but it can certainly lessen the chances. 

Buckets

Most facilities, whether horse shows, campgrounds, or rodeo facilities do not provide individual buckets for feeding and watering your horse. This is very good news. Community water and feed buckets are the ideal vehicles for transmitting bacteria, viruses, and other cooties that can make your horse sick. However, if the facility you are traveling to does have community buckets, I suggest that you do not allow your horse to share.  Heck, I don’t even share my food bowl with Teenie Cat, and she’s my friend. I certainly would not share with a stranger. Why would you allow your horse to? 

I recommend bringing all of your own buckets with you when you travel. This eliminates the transmission of illness via community buckets. If you forget a bucket and must share, be sure to scrub any community buckets with soap and water, and it won’t hurt to throw in a little bleach while you’re scrubbing, either. Be sure to rinse the buckets thoroughly prior to use.  

Water Troughs

Community water troughs: just don’t. Talk about a cesspool! These are the most disgusting, dirty, horrible places to allow your horse to drink. Besides the fact that they never get properly cleaned, water troughs breed bacteria and proliferate viruses. Sun + heat + water = the perfect breeding grounds for bacteria and viruses. Add in a horse with a cold or the flu drinking from the already nasty water trough and you can basically watch the ick spread like wildfire. So do me and my docs a favor and don’t ever let your horses drink from community troughs.

What you can do instead is bring your own buckets. Offer your horses clean water at all times and avoid water troughs. If there isn’t a water spigot where you’re going except for the community trough, bring your own water. If you’re filling your buckets with a community hose, never let the hose touch the water in the bucket.

Water troughs in pastures at boarding facilities are common and often unavoidable. How can you help prevent your horse from contracting illness from the water trough where you board? Well for one, you can call my docs and get your horse properly vaccinated. I recommend the 2020 Wellness Plans as they provide your horse with all the appropriate vaccines, coggins, dental, and deworming they need for the year. It’s a no brainer, really. 

You can also question the farm director/manager/owner on the vaccination requirements to be allowed to board your horse there. They should be very strict. This not only protects your horse, but also protects other boarder’s horses. If you have ever brought in your horse to my clinic you know I perform “catscans” on any trailer that comes in. I suggest you do the same when checking out boarding facilities.  Do any of the horses there appear to be ill? Are the feed and water buckets and stalls cleaned? Are the pasture water troughs clean?  

Bits/Equipment

Sharing bits and other equipment between horses is another big no-no. This is a very common practice at lesson/boarding barns. However, it is also very avoidable. Have your own bridle and equipment designated to your horses, and do not allow others to use it without your permission. After every ride, wash your bit with soap and water to prevent bacteria from spreading. Wash your saddle pads often, as they can be a nidus for skin infections to spread from horse to horse. And don’t use equipment if you do not know which horse it has been on or whose it is. 

Biosecurity is essential in maintaining your horses’ health. If you notice any signs of illness, first and foremost, call my docs so they can help guide you through ways to prevent spreading illness to other horses and take extra care not to share.  Always, always, always have my docs vaccinate your horse on a proper schedule! They can guide you to what is best for your horse and their lifestyle. Remember when traveling with your horse, sharing is not always caring and it is best to be extra cautious and you will avoid having to end your travels early because your horse got someone else’s cooties. 

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Tony’s Pro Tip: If you haven’t been listening to Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth, the podcast my humans do, you’re missing out! The latest episode is on genetic testing, and they interviewed Dr. Samantha Brooks, an equine geneticist at UF. It’s well worth an hour of your time!

Last week I wrote about poisonous plants. It was brought to my attention that I forgot a plant. I informed my people they were wrong. I’m a cat, I didn’t forget. I wanted to give Creeping Indigo its own special blog. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! So, without further ado, Creeping Indigo.

It’s a Creeper For Sure

This tiny, unassuming little spawn of Satan grows very close to the ground in areas of short grass. It gets a cute pink, sort of peachy-colored flower. Watch for this, since it’s the easiest way to spot it. When it doesn’t have flowers, you’re going to have to look very close to identify it. The super-scientific description is prostrate with alternate compound leaves, with alternate leaflets. What that means, is it grows really close to the ground, and its leaves are really a bunch of tiny leaves that come off opposite sides of the stalk, but not in the same place. I put a picture of it below so you can see the pretty flowers, and the leaves. 

There’s more fun in store from this demon. While most of the roots are close to the surface, the taproot can be two feet long, and it puts out an ungodly amount of seed pods. Both of these are capable of spawning more spawns of Satan. I promise I’m going to talk about the poisonous part, but that taproot and those seed pods are what will really have you swearing at this plant. They combine to make it nearly impossible to get rid of without a lot of effort. More on that later.

What Makes it Poisonous?

To be honest, that’s a great question. I have found that to be human code for “I have no idea.” However, I’m a cat. I know the answer. Creeping Indigo has two toxins: 3-nitropropionate (3-NPA) and indospicine. 3-NPA is a toxin aimed, ironically, at defending the plant against destruction by plant eaters. Seems to me if horses still eat the plant, it’s not a very good defense mechanism, but cats are carnivores so I’m probably not the best judge on that topic. For even more fun, 3-NPA is metabolized very quickly, making it nearly impossible to find. Indospicine is easier to find in blood tests, making it the choice for an attempt at a diagnosis if ingestion is suspected. 

What Do The Toxins Do?

3-NPA is a very, very not nice toxin. Like, Teannie-Cat-in-a-really-bad-mood bad toxin. Like me when it’s raining and cold out, and my humans won’t make it stop. Seriously, it’s bad. This toxin works by stopping mitochondria, the power plant of cells, from making energy. Nerve cells are often the hardest hit in this scenario, which works as a nice lead in for most common symptoms. 

Symptoms for Creeping Indigo can be tough! Early signs are often really subtle, and only noticeable to people who know their horses well. It starts with quieter than normal behavior, maybe some low head carriage. Nothing very specific or obvious. Over the next few days, these horses will lay down more and more, and may even lose the ability to stand. Sometimes they head-press into the corner of a stall, or fall asleep while standing. They may do the opposite, and develop what appear to be neurotic walking behaviors. It all depends on which nerve cells are most affected by the havoc 3-NPA is wreaking. 

Indospicine is the nicer of the two toxins, but nicer like cod liver oil is better than castor oil. Indospicine acts by inhibiting a potent natural anti-oxidant called nitric oxide synthase. It causes the mucous membranes to ulcerate, the eyes to run, and the cornea to lose its ability to remain clear. This toxin makes horses feel bad, but these symptoms can all be recovered from. 

But Can You Fix It, Doc?

The answer is No, and this is why: Creeping Indigo is such a bad, bad dude. In fact, it can be nearly impossible to identify it as the cause of all the symptoms we just talked about, because nothing it does can be identified on bloodwork or even necropsy (the fancy name for an animal autopsy). Tell me that isn’t crazy! Horses found with mild symptoms and Creeping Indigo available for them to graze on should be removed immediately. However, what they have for symptoms almost always remain. This stuff is for real scary.

How Much Is Too Much?

There isn’t a hard and fast answer for that. We do know that one bite isn’t going to make them sick. They probably need to eat upwards of ten pounds to start showing symptoms, which is similar to a flake of hay, but like all things, it’s going to be different for everyone. Abstinence is the only truly safe way to go. 

I Am Appropriately Scared. Now What?

Oh how I wish I had an easy answer for you, my humans, but I don’t. Start with a soil test to make sure you have happy grass soil. Creeping Indigo doesn’t like to grow in areas of tall-ish grass. Making your pastures happy and lush will let Mother Nature help you wage this war. Next, check areas of high traffic, edges of driveways, anywhere grass is naturally short to evaluate your level of Creeping Indigo problem. These plants can be sprayed with GrazonNext HL to kill the plants. BUT, and it’s a huge but, dead plants are still poisonous so you still need to remove them, and the seed pods are resistant to all manner of death as near as I can tell. This means you should plan on evaluating your Creeping Indigo status on a regular basis. For this plant, you never get to call it quits. 

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Wondering if you have Creeping Indigo? Still not sure after looking at my pictures, and using the heck out of The Google? Call your nearest County Extension Office. They are a wealth of information of all kinds of things, weeds and pasture care being two of them.

With the cooler temperatures comes a decrease in the available forage in the pastures for your horses.  As we all know, horses will eat and eat and eat until there is nothing else to eat. But then again, so will I.  When their regular forage is gone, horses tend to find anything else that might be good (or bad, for that matter) to eat which includes trees and plants that can be toxic and harmful to them. This week, I’m going to talk to you all about common trees and plants that we have in Florida and possibly in your pasture that could be toxic to your horses.

Toxic plants can cause a myriad of signs and symptoms, including, but not limited to, gastrointestinal upset, neurological changes, heart, lung, kidney and liver changes, skin problems, and even death. Luckily for you, I am well-versed in Florida plants and what problems they can cause your horse, and what we can do about it if you find these plants in your pastures.

Trees

There are so many beautiful trees in Florida that produce lovely flowers and fruits. Waste of space, if you ask me, who needs flowers or fruit? Now, fish, fish is something I can get behind, and fish isn’t toxic to your horse.  They may not want to eat fish, but they definitely won’t die from not eating fish. The problem with these fruity and flowery trees is they are often toxic to your horse.  Cherry trees of all kinds, Loquat trees, Sago Palm trees and Red Maple trees all produce toxins that may have negative effects on your horse’s health.

Cherry trees and Loquat trees produce cyanide, which, when ingested in large quantities, can affect horses within just hours after eating them. This includes the fruit, leaves, and bark of the trees.  Cyanide prevents oxygen from being transported to the cells of the body, which leads to respiratory failure, seizures, and very rapidly, death. Sago Palm trees affect the digestive system and nervous systems of horses. As few as one or two seeds from the Sago Palm can cause bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract and liver failure and can lead to death within a few hours of ingestion. When wilted leaves of Red Maple trees are ingested, red blood cells are destroyed, and when red blood cells are destroyed, they can’t get oxygen to your horse’s vital organs. If left untreated it can result in death.

I hear horses love to sleep in the shade of trees. I prefer to sleep in the warm sun, but when choosing shade trees for your pasture, make sure to avoid trees that may produce toxins if ingested. They may be pretty, but pretty may be deadly, so do your homework before planting or letting your horse out in a new pasture. 

Landscaping

I have yet to understand why you people love horses. They are always trying to hurt themselves, they are always sick, not to mention they are huge! I mean, they can’t even sit on your lap! What baffles me even more is that you love having horses in your backyard, but you also love having perfectly manicured and landscaped yards for your horses to live in.

Often times plants such as milkweed, lantana, oleander, rhododendron and azaleas are used in landscapes. Milkweed, lantana and oleander are known to attract butterflies. Don’t get me wrong, butterflies are great fun to chase, and I’ve gotten pretty good at catching them too, but they can be toxic to your horse if ingested (the plants, not the butterflies). These plants can cause photosensitivity, leading to skin and mouth sores, particularly if your horse is in direct sunlight for a long portion of the day. They can also cause more severe symptoms including gastrointestinal upset which can lead to diarrhea, anorexia, and death.

Horses do not typically find rhododendron to be overly palatable unless there is nothing else to consume in their pasture. If they do choose to ingest the plant, they are at risk of developing irregular heart rhythms or arrhythmias. Without treatment, death will occur. Of all landscaping plants you people like to use, azaleas are the least harmful.  This doesn’t mean go out and plant an entire pasture of azaleas, it just means you don’t have to go out in your pasture tonight and pull out all your azaleas.  If your horse ingests some of your azaleas, they may become nauseous or weak and may go off feed. The good news is, if you remove the azaleas, your horse will likely go right back to eating and do just fine. Of course, if he doesn’t, you know it’s time to call my docs to get your horse looked at as soon as possible.

Undergrowth/Shrubs

It seems like weeds, shrubs and undergrowth just seem to pop up and take over at any time, leaving your horse susceptible to accidentally or purposefully ingesting possibly harmful plants. Nightshade, yellow jessamine, crotalaria, stinging nettle, and bracken fern are all common Florida shrubs and undergrowth that can take over your pasture.

Nightshade and yellow jessamine can affect the nervous system and cause depression, ataxia, weakness, and respiratory distress. Nightshade also can have negative effects on the gastrointestinal tracts including nausea, anorexia, diarrhea and colic symptoms.

Crotalaria produces a very lovely yellow flower, but when your horse ingests this flower, they suffer from liver poisoning and damage to the cells in the lungs. Unfortunately, clinical signs of crotalaria toxicity typically do not show up until late stages of the disease, which makes treatment difficult and often unsuccessful, leading to death.

Ugh!!! There is nothing that I hate more than stinging nettle! If you’ve ever touched stinging nettle, you know what I’m talking about. That stupid little plant not only stings, but the sting lasts forever. I know this from experience, and no, I don’t want to talk about it. If your horse gets into stinging nettle, they may start to act erratic including rolling, stomping, and biting, which could easily be mistaken for colic. Your efforts to relieve your horse’s pain will be for not, and the only thing that will help your horse is time. The biggest danger to your horse after getting into stinging nettle is your horse. The best you can do is keep him safe until the sting subsides.

I find bracken fern makes great little hiding spots for me during the day. That being said, if your horse ingests bracken fern, it can cause them to become deficient in Thiamine, a vital B vitamin for your horse. Thiamine deficiency causes weight loss, lethargy, and ataxia, eventually leading to death after several weeks of clinical signs.

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of all the possible toxic plants that may be present in your horse’s pasture. However, as you can tell, toxic plants are very dangerous and possibly deadly to your horse. So, listen to this wise old cat and check you pastures for toxic plants prior to turning your horse out. If you are unsure of a plant, give my docs a call and they will help you figure out if your horse is at risk. You may also consult with the local UF/IFAS Extension agent who will come out to your property and walk your pastures with you to determine how safe they are for your horse.

That’s all for now. It’s nap time.

Until next week,

~Tony

My humans have this very weird holiday this week. It’s called Thanksgiving. I hate it. It means fewer minions around for four whole days to open and close the door at my command. I understand it is a time when the humans eat a lot of food (I can get behind that), watch a lot of TV (I’m good with that, but only if I can sit on a lap), attempt to get along with family (I feel you there, Teannie and I struggle with this one), and give thanks for who, and what they’ve got (I should probably thank my humans, but I won’t). Thanksgiving did get me thinking about that last part, giving thanks. I’d like to give a shout out to a few folks (human and animal) that I think don’t get enough thanks during the year. I’m a cool cat like that.

The Horse Show Parent

From my supervisory position here at the Clinic, I’ve determined that being a parent is one tough job. Being a horse show parent has to be the hardest version of this job that exists. Shout out to the awesome horse show parents! You help your kids learn about taking care of this incredibly large, fragile beast. You send them out into the world to compete, knowing it’s tough, and knowing that you can’t always fix the problems, and knowing there will be some really, really important life lessons along the way. So thank you for getting up before the sun, thank you for working hard to help pay for it all, and thank you for being so darn supportive! It’s hard to watch kids grow up and become independent, but it also has to be great to watch them achieve hard fought goals. 

The Lesson Horse

Thank you doesn’t even begin to cover this one. These horses should be candidates for Sainthood. Their kind and forgiving souls take many of you humans down a one-way path to a lifelong love of horses. From teaching you what a trot feels like, and not dumping you in the dirt as you try to figure out how to ride this new, bouncy gait, to putting up with pulling and pushing at all the wrong times, lesson horses carry around an invisible halo. Without these guys, I doubt many of you would have stayed in this horse gig for long. 

Barn Staff

This is for all you humans with horses at boarding and training barns. These are the people who make sure your horse’s near constant needs are met. Rain, sleet, snow, cold, hot. They make sure poop is picked, food is served, and hay is delivered in a timely fashion. Sure, for lots of you, this person is you, but for those who rely on others to help with the horsekeeping, these are the people who make your horse’s life pretty great. For many in the horse show world, these are the people up hours before you arrive lunging, riding, bathing, and generally making sure everything is ready to go. Tell them thank you. Even better, bring them something to eat, and/or drink since they probably haven’t done either on anything resembling an appropriate schedule. If this person is you, get yourself some chocolate. You deserve it. 

The Barn Cat

Two words: rats and mice. You’re welcome. That’s all for this one. 

Horses take a lot of work. Take a moment to think about who deserves thanks for your horse life this Thanksgiving. 

Until next week,

~Tony