Dec 29, 2015 | Medication
December 29, 2015
Let’s talk about drugs! Drugs for your horse, that is. Many of the drugs we use on horses are only available as prescriptions from the Docs here. Seems a little strange since you humans can get Advil off the shelf, but there are reasons. Most of it revolves around livestock which enters the food chain like pigs, cattle, and goats. Bute can be very toxic to humans in even low doses, so the FDA decided that it must be controlled by veterinarians. Many antibiotics are under veterinary control for similar reasons. It is the FDA and USDA trying to maintain our safe food supply.
Veterinarians, as the keepers of these drugs, are under strict guidelines regarding when and how they can use and prescribe them. The FDA takes this so seriously that a violation of these guidelines could cause our Docs to lose their license. Now cats aren’t much for rules, but I think even I would have to follow these rules. The biggest part of this rule is what’s known as the Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship. This means that even as the real power behind the throne here at the office, I can’t give drugs out without permission of our Docs, and they have to have seen the critter in the last year. This rule doesn’t mean that once our Docs have seen you, you have free access to any and all drugs whenever you want, of course. The second part of this rule states that the Doc has to feel the drug is the right one for the animal at this time. So much for me supporting my catnip habit selling drugs out the back door….
Our Docs are more than happy to write prescriptions for medications. In fact, we love Publix for their free antibiotics, and cookies, they have awesome cookies, and pretty much the entire bakery section, and subs. OK, we just love Publix. That being said, all companies are not created equal. There is a thriving black market industry in prescription drugs for humans and that has slipped over to animals. It is very important that medications are approved for sale in the United States. Why does the United States label matter? Drugs approved for sale here are required to meet very stringent quality control measures. Drugs approved for sale in some countries can have as little as 60% of the labeled amount of the main ingredient in them and still be considered OK! It is also important that the company keep the medications happy. Wait, happy? Yep, like me requiring two ear scratches and a treat each morning, some medications like to be warm, or cold, or only cool but not room temperature. Some don’t like air, some don’t like water. Medications make us cats look as carefree as, I hate to say this, a dog.
Real world here: Pergolide. Originally made for humans with Parkinson’s. Unfortunately caused really bad heart problems in people who were on it for years and years. FDA pulled it from the human market and left us with nothing to treat Cushing’s. Any of you with an older horse know Pergolide is as important to them as a good meal is to me. For a few years our Docs had to have the drug made through a special process called compounding. This means a pharmacist mixed everything in small batches and then shipped it to our Docs. Only problem was Pergolide is overly sensitive (Teannie has this problem too when I try to steal her cat treats). The medications we were getting often didn’t contain nearly as much as we thought they did! Luckily a company called Boehringer Ingelheim developed Prascend, which means easy, consistent access to therapy for the senior crowd.
Why did I go in to all that? Because it’s important that you know what all goes in to the drug choices around here. Sure, I can make fun of them all day long for playing with drugs, but at the end of the day these two Docs work awfully hard to make sure the medications you get are the right ones. That means finding pharmacies that provide good pricing, good service, and ethical products. That means knowing all the things happening in the research world. That means knowing what works on what horses when. And that means a whole lot of behind the scenes work to make sure your horse has the very best care!
Dec 19, 2015 | Castration
Castration Clinic 2015
Dear intact, neutered, and spayed followers,
This past Saturday I supervised our annual castration clinic, and it was a huge success! 12 former stallions left here as happy geldings (well, the happy part is subjective, but I know their owners will thank us later). The vet students did an awesome job, and hopefully gained a lot of useful experience for their future careers.
I’m not clear on all the scienc-ey details, but here’s the Springhill Equine castration protocol as I could tell from my distant vantage point:
Step 1- catheter placement: Wary vet student attempts to hold untrained weanling still, while other vet student stabs a 2-inch needle in weanling’s neck with trembling hands.
Step 2- inducing anesthesia: 90lb vet student attempts to guide 800lb horse to the ground gracefully. It usually isn’t all that pretty. Students tie lots of knots around horse’s legs because they don’t remember exactly how to do that neat rope trick that Dr. Lacher or Dr. Vurgason taught them.
Step 3- surgical prep: senior vet student suddenly forgets how to don sterile gloves, and how to put a scalpel blade on a handle. Junior vet student scrubs surgical site way more thoroughly than necessary. Meanwhile, half of anesthesia time has passed, and horse already needs another dose.
Step 4- castration: All I heard was Dr. Vurgason and Dr. Lacher saying over and over, “cut deeper, push harder, make your incision longer…” Bless their hearts, they are just learning. I tried chanting “Be aggressive! B-E-aggressive!” to help them along.
Step 5- power tools: Tomcats, you may not want to read this part. Basically they attach a scary-looking clamp, it makes a sickening crunching noise, and an excited vet student runs a DRILL which more or less twists the testicle off. Job done!
After watching one or two of these, I thought it best to take a nap in Dr. Vurgason’s truck for the rest of the day. Of course the best part was all the pets and treats I received from 30 eager vet students! Made all the blood and gore worthwhile.
If you have a stallion who yearns to become a gelding, be sure to keep an eye out for next year’s castration clinic! It’s always a good time (don’t ask the horses).
-Tony
Nov 24, 2015 | Cold weather, Colic, Feed
Thanksgiving Day
Hello all….so last year at this time I was pondering what “I” would be doing for my Thanksgiving. The humans were around here discussing their plans for dinner with their family. So I decided to go on my own adventure. One of our clients came into the clinic with a trailer. I saw an open opportunity to make the great escape. After all the discussion about dinners, I wanted some turkey, giblets, mashed potatoes, and all the other wonderful food they were discussing. So, I hopped into the trailer in the stealth mode that I can do from time to time. I remained silent in the trailer, and then off we went. I was on my own holiday adventure and I was going to have me some turkey and not be stuck alone with my sister in the clinic. I arrived with all kinds of anticipation but I could not let the humans know I had made the great escape. I am sure they were extremely worried about me at the clinic but I did not care, I was going to have turkey dinner. I decided to make my grand appearance a day or so later and wow were they surprised to see me! They kept asking, “What I was doing here”? “How did you get here”? Silly humans and their questions…..a cat will never tell! So this year, unfortunately, they are onto me and I won’t be making the great escape again this year. Maybe someone can bring me a taste of turkey this year….If not, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
However, being inside for the weekend isn’t all bad. I sure would hate to be out and about with the cooler temperatures that have arrived in North Central Florida. I have seen and heard some strange things around the office about SALT and horses! Ya don’t say?? From what I understand, you add salt to the horse’s feed in the evenings (yuck not a cat thing) and according to Dr Lacher, this should stimulate them to drink more water because it makes them thirsty. The key thing here is keeping these guys and gals hydrated in the cooler temperatures so that you don’t have to call us out in the middle of the night because your horse is colicing. We have had several phone calls this past week with horses needing our help. I can get on board with the Docs recommendation to keep lots of food in front of the horses. Hay in particular but I’m not sure about that nasty stuff. The Docs say hay acts as an internal heater when the horses digest it and, if it is alfalfa or peanut hay, it keeps the poop moving. I can’t believe how difficult it is for horses to perform this basic operation: moving poop. So on really cold or wet nights throw an extra flake or two of hay to your horse, and they will stay toasty warm.
And now my feline opinion on blankets: I love them! Soft, warm, fluffy, great to curl up in, and purr. Yep, love blankets. Horses sometimes love blankets. Most horses handle our cold weather just fine. Older or fine haired horses may need blankets on the coldest nights. If they are shivering, our Docs recommend a blanket but if not then they are happy frolicking naked through the winter’s eve. Clipped horses definitely need blankets since not only have we taken off all their hair (appalling thought for a cat) but what little hair they have left doesn’t work like the natural stuff to block rain and wind.
I have generously closed the office Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. But Dr Lacher is still reachable at 352-474-5007 for emergencies.
Nov 10, 2015 | Drugs
What better to do on a dreary Monday than help Beth with inventory? After spending late last week bugging Dr. Vurgason with “Is she here yet? Is she here yet?” (the answer is no) and supervising Dr. Lacher while she performed lameness evaluations at the clinic, I was looking for something a little more low-key to start my week off.
Beth is in charge of making sure we have all the stuff the Docs need to do their jobs, and boy is she serious about it! I’m going to warn you not to nap in a box she hasn’t unpacked yet. She gets a little angry about it. My supervision on Monday did lead me to a greater understanding of all the stuff we have. Generally I limit my time in the pharmacy to finding the best sleeping spot. It is in the VetWrap box, in case you were interested.
Let’s start with things that put stuff in horses. We have 10 different kinds of syringes and another 8 different kinds of needles. On top of that, we have 4 different sizes and kinds of catheters. Beth said the Docs have to be able to give different quantities of medications and give them in different way. For instance, injecting a joint uses a smaller needle than an IV injection, and some horses get so many IV injections we put a catheter in them. Foals need smaller catheters than big horses, and if the catheter is going to be in longer than 7 days, we use a different kind. Several different kinds of suture for all those cuts horses get were over in this area as well. It got very complicated very quickly!
Near the sharp stuff we had plastic tubes, which had me baffled. Turns out that was the breeding equipment area. Being neutered, this isn’t my area of expertise, but I learned we use different things for frozen semen vs. shipped, cooled semen, vs. live cover. We also have longer tubes to put fluid and treatments in to the mare’s uterus. There was also an AV (artificial vagina) for collecting stallions for breeding. Beth told me some treatments we keep for use in the mares includes antibiotics, treatments for mucous and something rather gross sounding called biofilm, and just plain fluids.
Next we moved on to lots of lotions, potions, pills, and pastes. From this I learned that horses have delicate stomachs, they like pain medication, and their skin gets very funky in this lovely Florida heat and humidity (see my earlier post about why I live indoors). Oh, and they like to poke their eyes on stuff. Heck, we keep 4 different kinds of eye ointment in stock, and there are times we can’t order it fast enough! Beth told me horses really, really like to poke their eyes and with all that eye stuff I don’t think I could argue.
Last but not least, on the shelves we had all the injectable products. This covers an array of equine ailments. Beth told me some of the stuff was also sedation. Sedation sounded nice… especially with a catnip chaser!
Our pharmacy also has bandaging stuff, hoof stuff, vaccines, more antibiotics, emergency drugs, stuff to make horses sleep, stuff to wake horses up, and drugs that make mares come in heat. Personally I find the bandaging stuff to be the best part, since napping is great in that area. Moral of my day with Beth is that we have a lot of things in that room. Our Docs have to be prepared for just about anything to happen, anytime. We have foaling, surgery, bandaging, antibioticing, anti-inflamming, bellyache treating, life-saving and more so that our Docs are ready. And Beth has my admiration for keeping it all in-stock and ready to go!
Nov 3, 2015 | Ailments, Feed, Leg issues
Tuesdays with Tony – November 3, 2015
Ok, I am all for summer. Really I am, even as a black cat. Sunshine until 9pm, green grass, afternoon thunderstorms. It’s all great. Then Fall is supposed to come. Even in North Central Florida there is a season which is less hot and humid than the one called Summer. Some people call it Fall, Winter, or Spring. Around here, it’s really just not Summer but at least it’s not Summer and that doesn’t seem to be happening. Luckily, as the smart species, I just hang in the air conditioned office where I can kick Renee out of her chair and sleep in comfort.
Horses, not being as smart as cats, are stuck outside in this heat and humidity. Even worse, many of them think that they should grow a winter coat. Mother Nature gave them an internal clock which says come August 15th it’s time to get ready for winter. This worked fantastic on the steppes of Mongolia
(horses evolved there) where summer was often a balmy 65 degrees but here in Florida where it is 90 degrees on November 1st, not so much. All this adds up to some very hot horses.
What’s a horse got to do to stay cool around here? Well, as a cat, I recommend moving in to the house, supervising the humans, and demanding food at all hours of the day and night. However, if you can’t move inside have your human get out the clippers. Just like us cats, especially Teanie, my cohort in crime at Springhill Equine, horses have more than one layer to their coats. When they grow a winter coat they not only grow longer hair, but they grow more undercoat. Undercoats are awesome…if you live somewhere with Winter! Undercoats hold on to body heat, offer water resistance, and puff up your upper coat making even more insulation. None of that is good if you are trying to cool off. Clipping removes the long hairs and shortens the undercoat so the heat can leave the skin. The trade-off is no more waterproof layer. The answer: the ever-artistic trace clip. Trace clips take off the hair where most of the body heat needs to leave. Most commonly this is the underside of the neck and belly, and up the flank a bit where horses sweat the most. Depending on what your horse does you can increase or decrease the size of the clipped area. This leaves hair, and thus waterproofing, on the top-line. Most horses in Florida can get through an entire winter without a blanket with a trace clip.
Having really embraced domestication I find the temperature controlled environment of the clinic to be ideal for this cat. Horses just haven’t quite moved in to the house and are stuck outside in the weather (eww, I mean all that nature). Need help sorting out if your horse is sick, hot, or lame? Give us a call. Oh, and Baby Vurgason, you can get here any time now 😉
You must be logged in to post a comment.