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How Horses Hurt Humans

How Horses Hurt Humans

Aug 20, 2018 | Injuries, Safety

Tuesdays with Tony

While doing a little late night reading on the computer, I came across a research paper titled, The demographics of equestrian-related injuries in the United States: injury patterns, orthopedic specific injuries, and avenues for injury prevention. It proved to be fascinating reading. It also led me down what you humans commonly refer to as a rabbit hole. I spent most of the night reading up on how horses hurt you humans, and had to spend the rest of the following day sound asleep on the bench in front of the Clinic. To save you from a sleepless night, I will share with you some of what I learned.

 

Keep your arms and legs inside the ride

 

About 15% of injuries happened while humans were on the ground. Of the non-riding injuries, the majority were to the feet. This made sense to me. If you stand in the Clinic long enough (and by that I mean about 15 minutes) you’ll see a horse stand on a human foot. Many of these foot injuries led to long-term pain. When it came to riding injuries, arms and legs were involved a whopping 46% of the time. This also makes sense if you think about what humans do when they fall off a horse. Arms go flailing, and legs usually get stuck in a stirrup.

 

Mind your melon

 

I’m going to get to the traumatic brain injury part of things, but first it seems if horses don’t stomp your foot, they whack you in the head. In one study around 25% of non-riding injuries were to the head (they also had a mid-facial area but that seems like another word for head if you ask this cat).

For riding injuries, the head came in first for reasons a rider showed up at a hospital. In this study it was 17.5% of the cases. However, head trauma was responsible for the majority of hospital stays, and increased the length of hospital stay. I will say nothing more than wear a helmet when you ride. I know it’s not cool in all disciplines, but horses and head injuries go together.

 

Your age and gender as a factor

 

This should come as no surprise to anyone involved in horses: women and girls were massively over-represented at 89.5% of injuries! Turns out you also don’t get smarter with age. One study found the peak incidence of injuries at 14 years old. However, another found early 20s, followed by late 40s and early 50s to be additional bumps in the injury incidence.

 

Wild Horses

 

There were multiple studies that looked at the human’s level of horse experience, and personality matching of horse to human. Now this is a tough thing to do. However, they found some interesting stuff. The more you actually know about horses, as defined by hours spent with horses in formal training environments, the less likely you are to have serious injury. When humans described themselves as “self-taught” they were more likely to have horse related injuries. Even more fascinating to this cat was this entire paragraph:

Similarly, humans tend to devalue the importance of equine safety at point of sale, possibly where sellers can be seduced by financial return. For example, human desire for financial benefit might result in knowledge of undesirable horse traits and/or dangerous behaviours being withheld from a buyer. Alternatively, it may result from a buyer’s desire to own a horse regardless of such concerns (perhaps due to high self-efficacy in addressing them). More naively, selling unsuitable horses to riders may be facilitated by a lack of buyer expectation and devaluation of safety.1

 

How do you avoid injury?

 

Be aware of the fact that horses are big, and have a major flight or fight response. Look at situations from a horse’s point of view, and try to anticipate your horse’s response. This will give you some advanced warning. Speaking of your horse’s point of view….working with your horse to acclimate them to this weird human world will help reduce those fight or flight moments.

Work your brain, too. “The more you learn about horses, the less you know.” – George Morris. This George guy is somewhat famous in some horse circles, but he speaks the truth. Seek out great horse people to teach you more about horses. Then protect that knowledge by wearing a helmet.

 

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  1.  Preventing and Investigating Horse-Related Human Injury and Fatality in Work and Non-Work Equestrian Environments: A Consideration of the Workplace Health and Safety Framework

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Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. 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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EPM, and Why Your Horse Probably Doesn’t Have It

EPM, and Why Your Horse Probably Doesn’t Have It

Aug 13, 2018 | EPM

Tuesdays with Tony

EPM.

Three letters that get humans in such a tizzy. It seems these letters carry some special meaning. Since curiosity is in my nature, I launched an investigation. Moral of the story: your horse probably doesn’t have EPM, but it might. Read on to find out more from this intrepid cat.

 

It’s Everywhere

 

For large parts of the United States, the organisms that cause Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (now you know why they abbreviate it EPM) are pretty common. There are two main bugs responsible: Sarcocystis neurona, and Neospora hughesi. To be honest, there are probably a couple more organisms, but they are super rare. S. neurona, and N. hughesi live a complicated lifestyle involving poop, possums, birds, and possibly some other animals. The short version is that if your horse eats hay, grain, or grass, they’re likely exposed to the organism on a regular basis.

 

But it’s OK!

 

I mildly apologize if that last paragraph sent you into a panic. Just because your horse has been exposed to EPM doesn’t mean they’re going to get it. First off, the overwhelming vast majority of horses, which is 99% or higher, can fend off EPM all by themselves. To say it another way, less than 1% of horses exposed to EPM actually contract it. Their immune system does a really great job with it. If you want to learn more about this part of equine immune systems and EPM, check out the EPM podcast that’s coming out this week on Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth. It’s a lot easier to digest when you listen to Dr. Lacher explain it.

The second big reason your horse isn’t likely to get it, even when exposed all the time, is that the organism has to not only get into your horse, it has to get into the central nervous system before it can cause a problem. The central nervous system is rather like Fort Knox. There’s security, and then there’s Central Nervous System security. It’s a whole different level of tough to get past! The >1% of horses who actually get EPM have an immune system (the security system of the body) that doesn’t do a great job recognizing EPM as a bad guy. These immune systems have a blind spot for the organism. Fortunately the immune system is unbelievably complicated, so it’s an uncommon blind spot.

 

But the EPM test was positive

 

Testing for EPM is an excellent illustration of things that are even more complicated than human behavior, and I find that pretty complicated. There are a few different ways to run tests for EPM. My Docs commonly start with a screening type test. Blood is pulled, and then sent to a lab in Kentucky. There they check for some markers of the EPM organisms. If that test is negative, it’s a pretty good bet your horse doesn’t have EPM. There’s a tiny chance your horse could have EPM, but if so, it’s really, really early in the process and the immune system hasn’t gotten around to making the markers that are being checked.

Now that we know what negative means, let’s talk positive. A low positive likely means your horse has been exposed to the organism, but has fended off that attack and everything is going to be alright (this is the 99% of horses we talked about). A mid-range positive means the organism is in attack mode, and without further investigation we really don’t know how the battle is going. A high positive means we really need to move on to the next phase of testing to get a handle on the battle!

 

Yay! More tests!

 

…said no human ever. But it’s really important to follow up screening blood tests to find out if your horse actually has EPM. This is done by getting a sample of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF taps are a relatively simple procedure, but can have some serious complications. We find they are best done in stocks, or with the horse fully anesthetized. This fluid is then submitted to the same lab as the blood. They do the same testing as is done on the blood. These results usually give my Docs a clear answer about the presence or absence of EPM. Since there’s a horse involved, sometimes (but rarely) the answer isn’t so clear.

 

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Important Things to Know

 

Every single horse suspected of having EPM should have a very thorough neurologic exam. During this exam, my Docs circle the horse tightly, pull on the tail, and do a wide variety of other weird things trying to determine if this horse knows where all its body parts are. The muscles are also VERY closely inspected. Muscle asymmetry is a common sign of EPM. Muscle asymmetry can also be a sign of a lameness, arthritis, and about fifty other things too, so don’t jump to conclusions!

Lots of people say, “But my horse got better on medication.” Yep. He sure did. That’s because every one of the medications used to treat EPM are also anti-inflammatory drugs, just like bute and Banamine. This means horses with some arthritis or low-level pain will get better on these medications from this “side-effect.” And they’ll get worse again when they go off these medications. That doesn’t mean they are having a relapse.

Speaking of relapse: They are pretty darn rare with EPM. Again, not saying they don’t happen, but it isn’t very common. Remember how I said the immune system is complicated? It’s also a very good learner. An infection with EPM is often enough to trigger it to fix that blind spot.

Whew. You can now cross off one thing to worry about!

Until next week ~

Tony

Want even more wisdom? Check out Straight From the Horse Doctor’s Mouth. It’s a podcast with Dr. Lacher about everything horse and veterinary. Sure, it’s missing my sarcasm, but it’s quality programming nonetheless.

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Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. 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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How to Help Your Horse Beat the Heat

How to Help Your Horse Beat the Heat

Aug 7, 2018 | Heat

Tuesdays with Tony

Heat

Welcome to August in Florida, friends, where stepping outside of the air conditioning is not unlike standing directly on the surface of the sun. Needless to say, I’ve been spending 99.9% of my time indoors recently. Do you ever stop and wonder how your horse is handling the heat? If you notice your horse breathing rapidly, flaring his nostrils, or acting lethargic in this ridiculous, scorching weather, give one of our docs a call. There could be an underlying medical condition that explains why he just can’t take the heat this year. Below are the 3 most common reasons our docs see for heat intolerance in horses here in sunny Florida.

 

Heaves

One of the ways horses cool down, like many other animals, is through breathing. They breath hotter air out, and cooler air in, all day long. In addition to brutal, unrelenting rays of sun, heaves is another unwelcome visitor who rears his ugly head in the summertime. Heaves, a.k.a. Equine Asthma, a.k.a. Recurrent Airway Obstruction, is characterized by wheezing and an increased respiratory rate. Environmental allergens, many of which peak during the summer months, contribute greatly to the severity of heaves.

It follows that when you are having trouble breathing in the first place, it’s not easy to regulate your body temperature. Ask anybody you know who has asthma. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be to wheeze away from May until October! These horses also tend to lose a lot of weight in the summer months, because they are using up all of their calories simply trying to breathe.

If you suspect your horse may have heaves, it’s definitely important to have him examined. With the right medications, your horse should be back to breathing freely in no time. If your horse has been diagnosed with heaves in seasons past, it may be time to restart his treatment. Don’t worry, you should be able to wean him off all medications when (and if) the weather starts to cool down.

 

Hair

Is your horse a fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar? Excess hair in the summertime can also lead to overheating, because the heat generated by the horse’s body can’t escape. While a thick haircoat is a bit of a nuisance in the winter, it can be life-threatening in the heat of summer months. If your horse falls into this category, there are 2 things you should do.

First, call your vet to schedule an ACTH test to determine if that long haircoat is a sign of Cushing’s disease, or PPID. Remember, we can now test horses at any time throughout the year, so August is as good a month as any to get this testing done! If your horse has been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease in the past but he still grows a long haircoat despite medication, it may be worth it to re-test him to see if his dosage needs to be adjusted.

Once you have ruled out (or ruled in) Cushing’s disease, it is time for some body clipping! A good pair of clippers is an investment, but it’s well worth it. If you don’t feel comfortable clipping your own horse, or you are worried she will come out looking like she had an unfortunate run-in with the lawnmower, call the clinic for some recommendations of locals who would be more than happy to clip your horse for a couple bucks. I’m not giving you the name of my personal groomer though- that’s proprietary information.

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Sweat

Most of us have heard of non-sweaters, or anhidrosis. Read my kitty lips: it is a Pain. In. The. Tail! Sweating is the primary mechanism horses use to cool off. Horses have sweat glands all over their body, even in their frogs! When a horse doesn’t sweat, all of the heat that would be lost via evaporative cooling remains trapped beneath the skin. Horses with anhidrosis are absolutely miserable in the summer. Unfortunately, there are no great treatments for anhidrosis yet. Some horses seem to respond to beer (yup, one beer AM & PM), or a supplement called OneAC. However, there are a couple of things you can do to help cool your horse down even if your attempts to get him to sweat have all failed.

You can keep your horse under fans during the heat of the day. “Big Ass” brand fans work great for barns. You can invest in some misters to spray either in the pasture or in front of your horse’s stall. Note: I cannot guarantee that your horse will stand under the misters or fans. I have seen thousands of dollars invested in cooling mechanisms in Florida, only for the horse to choose to stand out in the middle of the open pasture during the heat of the day. But, at least you would be giving your hot horse the option! At the very least, your horse should be provided with an opportunity to get under some shade at all times of day. This may be in the form of a tree, a barn, or a run-in shed. There is a HUGE temperature difference between the sun and the shade in summer in Florida.

 

Hopefully I have given you a couple of ideas to help your hot horse beat the heat this summer. Please be aware of how your horse is faring in this unrelenting weather, especially if you have old timers or young foals, who tend to not handle temperature extremes as well. As always, I am available at the clinic if you need more advice, or if you just want to glimpse a very handsome cat enjoying the air conditioning.

 

Be cool.

 

-Tony

P.S. Did you know my docs have a podcast? That’s right. It’s called Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth and you can find it wherever  you get your podcasts. You can also listen right here on the website, right from your phone or computer. If you like learning about horses, you don’t want to miss it. Trust me, I’m a cat.

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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!

Hay, Hay, Hay!

Hay, Hay, Hay!

Jul 30, 2018 | Feed, Hay

Tuesdays with Tony

I will never understand how horses find dry grass appealing. And yet, according to my Docs, this is what their diet should be based on. Yuck! Nevertheless, here we are, about to talk about dry grass. I will say I have learned so much about hay over my many years. Allow me to drop some of that knowledge on you in this week’s edition of Tuesdays with Me.

 

Hay as an Art Form

 

To start this week’s edition, you should go thank a hay farmer. Boy, is that a tough job. First you need rain, but not too much, and at the right time. You need sunshine for a few days in a row when you cut the hay so it can dry. Then you need a dry place to store it because hay gets made in the summertime, and horses need more hay in the wintertime. You get the idea: hug a hay farmer. It’s not an easy life!

 

What version of dry grass is best?

 

Well, this gets complicated. Evaluating your horse’s lifestyle choices is step one. I myself am more of a Pasture Puff sort of guy. I prefer to call it intense supervision from a fixed position, but whatever. If I were a horse, I would need a roughage that was low in calories. Un-buttered popcorn, if you will. I found this cool chart of calories per pound of hay in an article written by Dr. Lori Warren from the University of Florida:

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Now, if I was a high performance horse, I might need something different from my hay. Some of that need might be calories. This would make alfalfa a good choice. Being horses, it’s more complicated than straight up calories.

 

 The Needs of the Athlete

 

The athletic horse has things it needs from hay that go beyond calories. Protein is a big deal for these guys. When hard work happens, muscles get tiny tears. It’s a normal part of muscle building. Tendons and ligaments get these same little tears. Even bone gets micro-fractures. It’s all part of building a better athlete. To repair and strengthen all these tissues, the equine athlete needs lots of protein, and a decent amount of minerals like calcium and phosphorus. Since hay should be the biggest part of the diet, it’s important to know where your hay stands on these important ingredients. For example, if you’re feeding alfalfa to your horse you may be able to get fewer calories, protein, and calcium from grain. If you’re feeding the same horse timothy, you may look for a grain with more calories and protein.  There’s a definite balance that needs to happen. That’s why there are equine nutritionists.

 

The Needs of the Fickle Equine Gut

 

Non-horse people look at a horse in a field and think things like “How majestic,” and “He’s beautiful.”  Horse people think, “I hope he’s used to all that grass or he’s gonna colic.” This is why roughage is important. Sure, you want bulk, but you also want what makes your particular equine happy. Here in Florida where I live, we have a type of hay called Coastal. It’s a great middle of the road hay. A little higher in calories, a little lower in protein. Locally grown, so the price is right. Unfortunately, the equine GI tract is less happy with straight Coastal. A horse eating nothing but Coastal is very prone to a very specific type of colic called an ileal impaction. Luckily, most of these are readily fixed with a visit from one of my Docs. Even better, they can be prevented by adding a bit of peanut or alfalfa to the diet along with the Coastal. We also see horses who are allergic to different types of hay, with alfalfa being the most common one. These allergies normally make themselves known by causing diarrhea. However, hay allergies can also cause itchiness. Very rarely we have a horse manifest their hay allergy with extreme behavior changes. This is where the Legend that alfalfa makes a horse crazy comes from.

 

I can hear it now: But Tony, alfalfa really does make my horse crazy. I’m not saying it doesn’t. I’m saying it has more to do with your horse being allergic to the hay than the protein or calorie content of the hay.

 

What’s the best answer then?

 

The best answer is going with the highest quality hay you can get away with based on your horse’s lifestyle and calorie needs. Sounds simple, but I know sometimes it’s not easy! Speaking with an equine nutritionist, or one of my Docs, can help you make the best, right decision for your horse, your life, and your area!

 

Want even more Springhill Equine wisdom? Subscribe to my blog by scrolling down a tiny bit further.

Until next week,

Tony

P.S. Have you checked out the completely fabulous Springhill Equine podcast, Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth yet? You can listen to it right on my website by clicking here, or you can download it wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t have a podcast app? You can download one free right from the PlayStore. Stitcher and Spotify are both popular, but there are lots of others as well. It’s also on iTunes, for all you Apple people. Episode 8 comes out this week, and it’s all about Lameness. Don’t miss out!

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Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!

Saddle Fit

Saddle Fit

Jul 23, 2018 | Saddles

Tuesdays with Tony

Saddle Fit

We had a special visitor at the clinic last week. Faye Flynn of Flynn’s Equine Massage Therapy & Saddle Fit was kind enough to give a presentation and live demonstration about saddle fitting to our clients! In case you missed it, here’s what I learned while being passed around from one audience member’s arms to another.

How you know if your saddle doesn’t fit

In short: check it! Yes, sometimes you will know you have a saddle fit issue by how your horse is behaving (bucking, resistance to moving forward, unwilling to lift through his back). But other times you may not even realize your horse is uncomfortable or that your saddle is not allowing him to utilize his full range of motion. Your horse may be stoic, or you may say “that’s the way he has always moved,” or perhaps he is just a very good boy and wouldn’t complain even if your saddle was rubbing raw spots on his withers.  So, for this reason, you need to check it.

Run your fingers down your horse’s back and see if there are any sensitive spots under the saddle area. Set your saddle on your horse without any pad and see how it feels. You should check your saddle at least once every 3 months, because horses grow, lose weight, gain weight, develop different muscles, undergo muscle atrophy following rest or injury, etc. Our horse’s bodies change over time, so we need to adjust our saddle over time to compensate. Lord knows I haven’t always been the stunning slender specimen that types before you today. Yes, there was a time when I looked more like Tony Soprano than Tony Montana. I definitely could not have fit in the same saddle then as I would now. Don’t get any ideas.

How to check your saddle

Faye Flynn has been all over the world to learn from several diverse saddle makers how a saddle should sit on a horse. She taught us last Thursday that it’s not enough just to stick 3 fingers under the pommel and call it good. You need to stick your whole arm under there along the tree from the front and the back until your hands touch. You should also run your hand under the panels on each side to make sure there is even contact along the entire length of the saddle. Make sure there is no rocking (less contact in the front and back, more contact in the middle) which can cause the saddle to move while you’re riding. You also want to avoid bridging (more contact in the front and back but a spot in the middle with less contact).

You need to consider the shape of your horse’s withers and shoulder and how it compares to the shape of your saddle. If you have a Quarter Horse with broad shoulders and low withers, you probably need a wider saddle. If you have a Thoroughbred with a narrow shoulder base and tall withers, also called more “A-frame,” you will need a more narrow saddle shape.

Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Another thing you want to consider is how long the saddle is in relation to your horse’s back. Ideally you don’t want the back of the saddle to extend beyond the horse’s last rib, or the last thoracic vertebra. You should try to avoid any weight from the rider sitting farther back than this point because it will be supported only by muscle, which could cause fatigue and soreness in the lower back.

The stuff inside the saddle

Another cool thing we learned from Faye is what’s on the inside of a saddle! We learned the advantages and disadvantages of various flocking materials including air, foam, and wool. We talked about saddle pad materials, both what to look for and what to avoid.

It turns out that air under your saddle, while it sounds nice, comes with a few issues. This type of saddle panel typically comes with several separate, adjustable plastic air bladders. Everything’s great when they are new and full, but they pop easily. Once the air bladder has popped, you are basically left with an uneven plastic container with hard pieces sitting directly on your horse’s back. Not to mention, a popped air bladder will definitely cause uneven pressure along the rest of the saddle. If you have one of these saddles, be sure to check that all the air bladders are inflated every time you go to put your saddle on your horse!

Foam paneling is nice and comfy, but be aware that it does break down over time. Eventually, the foam will develop this black goo around the edges, and the padding will essentially turn to dust. If you have an older saddle made with foam, you may want to consider having it re-flocked with wool. Wool is a nice saddle flocking material because it lasts forever, it is relatively light and breathable, and it holds its shape.

Being light and breathable is especially important when it comes to saddle pads. Faye suggested avoiding any saddle pads with any type of plastic material, as they are the opposite of breathable. The pro recommends ThinLine or Mattes saddle pads. When it comes to saddle pads, you generally get what you pay for. This is in contrast to my monthly seminars, where you can get all this information and more for free!!

Remember, if you are absolutely married to your current saddle, you can’t afford a new saddle right now, or the used saddle you just bought online doesn’t fit your horse quite right, you can usually make it work with a high-quality shimmable saddle pad. Just be sure to enlist the help of a saddle fitter, veterinarian, or other knowledgeable horse person to make sure your saddle/pad combo is comfortable for your horse.

-Tony

P.S. Did you know my docs have a podcast? That’s right, when my once-a-week amazing blog isn’t enough to satisfy your thirst for horse knowledge, you can go to the podcast page on my website, or listen right from the Podcast host, or search iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app for Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth. You can learn all about colics, vaccines, eyes, and all kinds of other horse stuff. Use caution, as binge-listening may cause horse-nerdiness, know-it-all-ness, and other hyper-knowledgeable disorders.

 

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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