Whinny, Author at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic

Ready for Evacuation

Sep 7, 2012 | Disaster Preparedness

Tony the cat here. One of the things we talked about recently was being prepared for a hurricane. This week I wanted to talk more about evacuation plans. So last week I was lounging about while Isaac was passing us by, and I overheard the girls talking about how badly South Florida flooded from the rain Isaac dropped. I even got to see some pictures which I’ll share with you. While we saw just enough rain for me to hate being outside, those poor folks down there were riding around in boats, swamp buggies, and large trucks that were just barely able to drive through the water. Some places registered two feet of flood water. I feel bad for the cats down there that got soaked. In some places, humans had to leave their homes and their animals. Rescue personnel had to go back and get the animals, or other helpers. The girls made some strong arguments about the importance of having Coggins and other forms of identification ready in case you humans have to evacuate quickly. You see, when an area floods, has electrical damage, has devastating fires, or another disaster, many people are forced to evacuate. Sometimes they are forced to evacuate quickly, and aren’t prepared to take their animals along. In these cases, animals may be evacuated by emergency personnel or rescue organizations who work to re-unite the animals with their owners once the disaster has been contained or remedied. When this happens, animals need to have all proper documentation and some kind of identification for them to be properly reunited with their owners. There are a few very important things that horse owners can do to ensure that their equine pals are ready for any type of emergency or natural disaster in which they must be evacuated.

First and foremost, most states require that a horse have an updated Coggins test to be transported. Now, you may think, “But what good is a Coggins going to do if I’m not there with it in hand to transport my horse?”. Though you may not be present, I’ll talk about ways to make sure your horse can be identified. Coggins reports are stored on an online database, so if they are up to date, they can be searched on that database to ensure the horse is ready for transport. The Coggins documents now have color photographs of each horse from the left, right and front to allow easy identification. Any time you are forced to leave your property, make sure that your horse’s halters are labeled with their name, and your name. The Coggins reports can be searched by the owner name and horse name, so if the horse’s halter is labeled with their name and your name, they can easily be identified, and their Coggins can be referenced. Keep your horses’ Coggins in a three ring binder in plastic sleeves to ensure they are not damaged. If you are able to haul the horses with you when you evacuate, then you’ll already have their Coggins paperwork on hand and at the ready. If emergency personnel have to go in to retrieve your horses, you can provide them with a copy of the Coggins reports. Many owners decide not to pull Coggins on horses that they don’t haul regularly, but this kind of situation should show owners why Coggins tests are a necessity for their horses. Even those older horses, and yes the pesky babies who like to chase us cats, are important to their human owners, and in the case of an emergency they should be just as up to date on their documentation as your other horse partners.

Given the low cost, the ease of testing and administration, and overall importance of Coggins and animal identification, it’s easy to see why any human should make sure these things are done for their animals. Natural disasters and emergencies happen every day. Here in Florida, we’re often visited by those pesky tropical storms and hurricanes, plus we often face brush fires in the dry seasons. If you ever have to evacuate, wouldn’t you feel better knowing your horses, and even your other animals, were all set for a speedy getaway? I’m sure your horses would feel reassured too, I know I would. So in closing, I hope that you’ll take a second to look and make sure your horses (and your other animal friends) are fully prepared should you ever have to evacuate. Make sure all documents are up to date, make sure you have labeled halters, collars, or name tags, and look into the options available to help ensure your animals are located. Dr. Lacher is always ready to help you out, should you need or want to update your horses or have them micro-chipped. She can go visit you, or you can bring your horses here to the office, where I’ll happily greet you and help out where I can. May your litter box always be clean, and your food bowl full.

Are you prepared?

Aug 25, 2012 | Ailments, Disaster Preparedness

I try never to pass up the opportunity of a storm headed our way to talk about being prepared! So with Isaac headed our way here goes.

Have a plan. Look at your farm and decide if you will stay or go. Here in Gainesville, staying is often a reasonable plan but that means planning for no electricity, lots of water where we don’t want it (as a cat I hate this part) but no water to drink, and plenty of other fun inconveniences. If leaving is the better option, leave early. It is very important to get your animals out ahead of a major evacuation so you don’t get stuck in hot weather with animals in a trailer. If you are staying, think about everything you do in a day and determine what you need to do tasks such as feeding and watering, both humans and animals. Stockpile what you need to do these tasks for at least 14 days.

Take pictures and/or video of your property, home, vehicles, trailers, and anything else you can think of to document what you have and what it looks like. Gather important documents. Place both of these in a waterproof, secure location. Even better upload them to an internet application such as Dropbox and they will be available no matter what happens. An often overlooked step here is having an out of area contact. Pick someone your entire family knows who lives outside the area likely to be affected by the storm. Call your out of town contact and let them in on the plan and how things are progressing. More on how important this person is in the next step.

Identify your animals! There are several ways to do this and the more of them you use the better! All animals should have a halter, collar, or some way to catch them. These should be breakaway in case they get tangled in debris. They should have your home phone number, cell phone number, and your out-of-area contact on them. The easiest way to do this is write everything on a piece of cloth with a waterproof marker. Place in a Ziploc bag and duct tape on. Pieces of cloth with your information can also be braided in to manes and tails. Livestock grease markers work great to write phone numbers on the sides of horses and cattle. And the single best way to identify your animals is a microchip! Microchips helped over 90% of horses get reunited with their owners after Hurricane Katrina.

Storms are a constant threat living in Florida. Spending some time on websites such as http://www.fldart.org/preparedness.htm can help you formulate the perfect plan for your farm and family. We have disaster preparedness workbooks available at the office. And as always you can contact the humans at Springhill Equine for help formulating a plan for your horses. Most important though, may your food bowl be full and your litter box clean! So plan ahead and head to the grocery store now to buy cat food and kitty litter!

Do pigeons cause Pigeon Fever?

Aug 4, 2012 | Ailments, Pests

I was hanging out on the counter the other day when a client came in asking about Pigeon Fever. My ears perked up at the thought of chasing pigeons but it turns out this conversation had nothing to do with birds. Pigeon Fever is a syndrome cause by a very specific bacterium, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, which leads to abscesses. This bacteria hasn’t been a big problem for Floridians since it prefers dry weather but this year has been different!

Let’s start with a little bit of learnin’. Pigeon Fever or Dryland Distemper or Lymphangitis is a relatively common problem in the hot, dry regions of our desert southwest. For reasons the experts don’t really understand the organism has been marching its way across the country to wetter regions. C. pseudotuberculosis is perfectly content to live in soil until drought conditions occur. At that time it seems to begin looking beyond the ground for somewhere to live and reproduce. The bacteria is readily spread by common insects like the stable fly and infects horses through any small wound.

The most common appearance of Pigeon Fever is a large swelling of the chest, so the horse looks like a pigeon, or underside of the belly. Upon further examination the swellings turn out to be large abscesses. Another, less frequent problem, is what’s known as ulcerative lymphangitis. This is a big swollen, oozing infection of the leg. Even rarer is an invasion of the internal organs such as the kidney and liver by the organism.

Once Dr. Lacher has decided that a C. pseudotuberculosis abscess is likely to be the problem she will start treatment by draining the abscess and flushing the area. The tricky part is any pus that hits the ground can contaminate the entire area so all pus must be contained and disposed of properly. Dr. Lacher said she tries to open them on concrete so bleach can be applied to the area. Opened and regularly flushed abscesses generally heal rapidly with minimal scarring. However, ulcerative lymphangitis can be very difficult to treat. These horses are placed on aggressive antibiotic therapy with both injectable antibiotics and highly concentrated therapy into veins in the affected leg. The leg is kept bandaged to help reduce swelling, absorb drainage, and keep antimicrobial ointments in place. Unfortunately chronic scarring of the leg and repeated infections are often left over effects of this form of the disease. Infection of the internal organs is treated with rest and aggressive antibiotics with a full recovery the usual outcome.

Prevention is aimed at controlling insects in the stable area and making sure any wounds are regularly addressed. The very bottom of the abdomen is a common area for us to see insect bites leading to open skin and excellent entrance sites from many diseases. SWAT fly ointment is the best way Dr. Lacher and her team has found to prevent this problem. Several groups are working on a vaccine but so far they have had no luck. The good thing in Florida is that Pigeon Fever time of year and scratches or dew poisoning time of year are not the same.

The biggest lesson I learned is, once again, if in doubt about what is going on with your horse: Call Springhill Equine! And in the meantime May your litter box be clean and your food bowl full!!

Vacation Time!!!!

Jul 22, 2012 | Feed

Dr. Lacher spent the week before her vacation running around the clinic trying to make sure Dr. King and our fabulous team were up to speed on all her cases before she headed to Paris for a week. She assured me she would bring me back something tasty from France so I allowed her to go. Along with making sure we have good communication in the office, Dr. Lacher all her animals at home were taken care of. I thought I would let you in on her preparations for leaving since I thought it was great information for all humans.

First thing Dr. Lacher did was to make sure she had plenty of feed and hay for the horses, and was stocked up on cat and dog food. She went through her feed room to be sure she had her feeding board up to date. Her feeding board was, of course, out of date with one horse listed in the wrong stall and a few on their winter feeding amounts. Making sure these details are clear for her farm sitter will minimize any confusion while she is gone. While in the feed room, Dr. Lacher made sure there was enough Myristol, Solitude, and One AC for the non-sweaters. She added a bucket of homemade electrolytes just in case the horses sweat overly much one day or someone wasn’t drinking enough. Recipe: two containers of Morton Salt Balancer, or two regular salt and two lite salt containers, and 10 ground up Tums.

In the barn, Dr. Lacher made sure all the stalls were labeled with the horse’s name and that halters and lead ropes were in obvious locations. Dr. Lacher tried to make sure that all those little things we put up with, such as the snap that isn’t quite right, were fixed up. On her last stall cleaning she made sure she added a little extra bedding and made sure they were super clean. She gave all the water buckets an extra scrub and generally did a bit of tidying up. While her farm sitter is excellent, it makes it flow a little easier to have things a bit “over” ready. Just like most farm sitters, Dr. Lacher’s has places to be after taking care of her farm and she tries to get her in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Finally Dr. Lacher made sure that an extra copy of the feeding and turnout instructions were posted in the barn aisle and e-mailed a copy to her farm sitter.

Now that all the concrete work was done Dr. Lacher sat down to work on the hard part: paperwork. Dr. Lacher filled out an owner/agent form for each of her horses, cats, and dogs. This form allows her to designate her wishes for each of the animals. There is a location for what kind of procedures are allowed and not allowed, and a monetary amount she is willing to spend on each animal. It also legally allows her farm sitter to authorize veterinary care up to the designated amount. The form has a paragraph designating what to do in case euthanasia should be necessary. This form makes sure everyone knows what should be done with each animal in case anything is necessary! These forms, along with all contact information are placed in a folder readily visible for the farm sitter.

It’s hard going on vacation and leaving us furry kids behind but with the proper preparation you can be sure we will be well taken care of!

May your litter box always be clean and your food bowl full!

Horse Breeding for Dummies Part 6 – Stallion Basics

Jul 12, 2012 | Breeding

What a week! I am exhausted just from watching the clinic staff in recent days – Springhill Equine has been in full swing for breeding season these past two weeks! In honor of that, I felt it was time we continued our discussion on horse breeding. This week, I would like to segue into the male side – basics of management of stallions and geldings. A stallion is a male horse that has not been castrated and is sexually mature (vs. a colt, which is not mature). A gelding is a stallion or colt that has been castrated. Sexual maturity is reached at about 4 years of age, but many colts will exhibit stallion-like behavior and sexual activity as early as 8 months of age. They should be separated from females when this is observed.

Castration, or removal of the testes and associated structures, is commonly performed on horses, as stallions can be tricky and difficult to handle and manage. Stallions are often housed in facilities separate from mares so no accidental breedings occur. They must be handled with a firm but cautious hand. With all of this said, there are many stallions out there who are considered docile and easily managed. Geldings that are castrated before significant stallion behaviors develop, on the other hand, make wonderful companion and riding animals, and are generally more docile. If a stallion is castrated later in life (eg, more than 2 years of age), stallion-like and/or aggressive behaviors may persist post-castration. It is not recommended for the beginner horse-person to own a stallion – usually males are only kept stallions (or ‘intact’) in situations where they will be specifically used for breeding purposes. Some are left intact until physical characteristics develop (eg, larger size, crested neck), and are then castrated. Thoroughbred racehorses are often kept as stallions so they have the potential for a breeding career if their racing career proves successful.

Let’s talk more about the specifics of the male horse reproductive tract. As with any mammal, both stallions and geldings have a penis as their external genitalia. Unlike humans, however, the male horse’s penis at rest is telescoped within itself, and is housed inside the body during the majority of the time. He will externalize the penis (as one would extend a telescope) during times of sexual arousal, for urination, or during sedation/relaxation. There can be medical issues that result in the horse becoming unable to retract the penis, and can become a major problem if left externally for an extended period of time (just like they say on the Viagra commercials – 4 hours is too long!). Tumors and other skin conditions of the penis are relatively common in horses, so regular cleaning of the dirt and skin oils (termed ‘smegma’) from the penis and sheath is important. The vets here at Springhill Equine clean any male horse who is sedated for a dental float, and check them thoroughly for any signs of cancer or other abnormalities.

Stallions also have a pair of testes housed externally in the scrotum. Veterinarians are aware of several conditions that can arise with the scrotum and testes – including infections, tumors, testicular torsions (a medical emergency that presents often as severe and sudden colic), and scrotal hernias. The testes is the assembly factory for sperm, while the next-in-line epididymis is responsible for sperm maturation – eg. packaging and storage. On ejaculation, the sperm leave the tail end of the epididymis, where they are waiting in storage, and travel up toward the pelvis along the ductus deferens (analogous to the vas deferens in humans) until they dump into the urethra (also the exit for the urinary tract) at about the level of the anus. Fluid is added from three different glands (bulbourethral glands, seminal vesicles, and prostate) to help the sperm along their journey. They travel along the urethra through several feet of penile tissue (whose base is just below the anus internally) before exiting with the goal of seeking an egg. In our next blog, we will discuss the various routes a sperm can take to reach that egg – with the stallion actually breeding a mare, or via artificial insemination (A.I.) with fresh, cooled, or frozen semen.

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog this week, maybe next time I could see you in person at the clinic (for some pets)! Keep emailing if you have any specific questions you would like me to cover in my blog (or in the newsletter, for that matter!)! May your litter box be clean, and your food bowl full!