Apr 27, 2016 | Our Facility
I can remember the simple days around here at Springhill Equine when all I had to entertain myself was watching the docs and playing with my ball of string. I suppose even then I was pretty lucky; most equine vets around here don’t have a facility like this. Who knows, I could have been stuck as a barn cat. Yikes!
But things continue to improve around here. Dr. Vurgason’s husband Aaron works for Oak Ridge Electric, and he sure has been busy at this place. We jumped from a mobile hot-spot all the way up to a T1 internet connection. I don’t know what that really means other than that it’s really fast! Why is that important you ask? Well, it means the docs can be quicker in the office with their paperwork (why do humans still call it that if it is digital?) and thus spend more time practicing (another phrase I’m not crazy over) being a vet.
With this big T1 upgrade comes some pretty cool other stuff around the office, too. We now have HD security cameras in every stall so the docs can check-in on patients throughout the night. I still don’t know how I feel about this new lack of privacy I have.
We’ve also made some upgrades to our lighting with a Crestron building automation system. I’ve never been fond of the light switches around here, so now I can use that iPhone I found to control lights and fans. Oh, and if someone forgets to turn the lights off for me at the end of the day, I can still get a good night’s sleep in the dark because they’ll shut down on their own.
Yup, this is definitely quite the facility we have here. The docs will definitely be getting more done than ever before. I just hope that the next round of upgrades includes an automated litter box… I’ve always wanted one, what can I say?
Apr 19, 2016 | Regular Vet
Wow, we sure have been busy around here! This week I supervised the docs as they stuck their arms in many mares’ butts. I watched Dr. Vurgason run a camera up a horse’s nose, and Dr. Lacher put stitches in a mini’s eyelid. Also, I enjoyed plenty of attention from the Alachua County 4-H members at our hands-on Fecal Egg Count Seminar this weekend! With the docs running around like kittens chasing catnip, they barely have time to use the litter box, let alone add emergencies into their busy days. However, if you have been using Springhill Equine as your Regular Vet, the docs are much more inclined to find a way to work you into the schedule.
When our docs get a call from someone they don’t know for an emergency, it is understandable that they like to ask a few questions before cancelling all of their scheduled appointments for that day. Question 1: Is this a horse? (You would be surprised how many times we get called for dog, cat, sheep, even parakeet emergencies.) Question 2: Where do you live? (Just because we are Springhill Equine does not mean we are located in Spring Hill, Florida. FYI, Spring Hill is a lovely little town north of Tampa and just west of Brooksville. However it is 2 HOURS away from here.) Question 3: Who is your Regular Vet?
There are a few common answers to this question. Most often, “I don’t have a regular vet, because I haven’t needed one.” This answer baffles me. Who gives your horses their vaccines? Who floats their teeth? Who oversees your deworming protocol and does your horses’ fecal egg counts? Who do you get medications from when you need them? Who do you call for advice when you have questions about your horses’ skin, feet, diet, allergies, etc? If I didn’t have my Regular Vet, I would be in rough shape. He protects me from diseases with vaccines, prescribes a special diet food for me to eat (although this is NOT appreciated by yours truly), keeps me free from fleas and ticks, and gives me that shot to make me stop itching when my skin is driving me crazy.
The second most common answer to that question is, “My Regular Vet is Dr. SoandSo, but I always use you for emergencies!” Believe it or not, this is NOT a compliment. Emergencies are not very lucrative when you consider that all other productivity has to stop in the meantime. I’m not a business cat, but I do know that the bulk of our income is generated through wellness visits during business hours.
Also, why is Dr. SoandSo not coming to see your emergency? Do you owe him money? Is he out of town with no plan for another vet to cover his clients? Is he unreliable about picking up his phone? Perhaps you should consider another vet that is more reliable and consistently available for your horses (and I happen to know two pretty cool ones).
At Springhill Equine, we promise 24/7 emergency coverage for OUR CLIENTS. When you call you will reach a DOCTOR, anytime, day or night. And if Springhill Equine is your Regular Vet, one of our docs will throw on their boots and hurry over to save your horse! I will stay here and guard the cat food until they get back.
Heck, I might even drive them to you!
-Tony
Apr 12, 2016 | Breeding, Foals
The babies are coming! The babies are coming! Yep, foaling season is well underway around here and I felt it was about time I discussed what the heck one is supposed to do with them once they get here.
Let’s start with a quick foaling review. Once your mare starts foaling, things should happen very quickly. And by quickly I mean at the same speed I come running when I hear food hit the bowl. If you don’t think anything is happening, call one of our Docs. They would rather talk to you at 2am than have something bad happen. Next: The 1-2-3 rule. Foals should stand by 1 hour, nurse by 2 hours, and the placenta should pass by 3 hours post foaling. If any of these thing don’t happen, you guessed it, call the Docs. Depending on some other stuff, they may come out right away, or they may wait until the routine new baby check time of 18-24 hours old, but these are very important things that must happen for the foal to get started in life on the right hoof.
OK, now on to the wee adolescent life of a foal. To start, it is unfortunate they come knowing what a halter and lead rope is. In fact, I’m pretty sure they think halters and lead ropes are instruments of the devil when they first arrive. Luckily, they are good at following mom. Putting a halter and lead rope on your foal daily and leading them from one place to another is excellent practice at grown up life. They do have a shorter attention span than a cat (and that’s pretty short) so keep training sessions short. As they learn one skill, add another. I try to consider what my Docs will need to do with them later in their life. So we practice picking up feet, pinching skin for shots, standing sort of still, being touched over their entire body, these sorts of things. Much like cats, foals think humans are a bit stupid in their demands for obedience. Unlike cats, they do need to listen since they get rather big, rather quick. I don’t mean to say I couldn’t kill you if I wanted to, just so we are clear on that point. I am a cat, after all.
Foals are much like teenage boys when it comes to food. They eat ALL. THE. TIME. Making sure your mare has a little extra fat at the end of her pregnancy will help her get through the intense grocery providing stage in those first few months. Notice that says a little extra fat, not a lot of extra fat. I know, who am I to discuss weight, but this is a “Do as I say, not as I do” sort of thing. Checking in with our Docs or Beth, our in-house Nutrition Expert, to be sure you are making good feed and hay choices will make sure everyone stays happy and healthy. Foals will start by eating a little bit of what mom eats, then gradually eat more and more. Make sure they have grain and/or hay of their own available, especially if mom failed Kindergarten and doesn’t share well. The rough guideline is 1 pound of grain for every month of age. Foals can be free fed if the mare can be kept away. Unlike adult horses, foals won’t just eat until it’s gone. I feel free choice feed is the best plan for this cat as well, but Dr. Lacher keeps putting me on a diet. Oops sorry about the tangent there. Not really. In fact, I would appreciate it if everyone would tell Dr. Lacher I require free choice food next time they see her. Once your foal is eating 4-5 pounds of grain per day it is safe to wean them off mom.
Weaning. How? Let’s face it, no one loves the sad whinnies from the foals on weaning day. There are several options to make this as low stress as possible. First, move the mare if at all possible, and not the foal. Second, have friends with the foal that don’t change. Third, try to take the mare out of listening range. Generally, once the foals are around 5 months of age, the weaning process goes pretty smoothly since everyone is ready for it. Mom is over this annoying child, and foal is tired of all those “rules” mom imposes. Wait until they find out adulthood isn’t what they thought!
Most of a foal’s immune system for the first few months of life comes from that first milk, colostrum, they get from mom. To make sure munchkin got enough, our Docs do a blood test called IgG at that New Baby Check I mentioned earlier (yes that was a quiz to make sure you are paying attention). At some point though, your foal will need vaccines to get their own immune system up to speed on the diseases it will see. If the mare was well vaccinated before foaling, these vaccines start at 5 months of age with boosters at 6 months and 9 months. If we don’t know mom’s vaccine history or she didn’t get vaccines, immunizations start at 4 months and include an extra booster.
Deworming for foals is different as well. The primary parasite the Docs treat for is called an Ascarid. High levels of ascarids can kill foals, so it is important to keep them in check. Unlike strongyles in adult horses, ascarid levels can’t be predicted by fecal egg counts. This means we put foals on a timed schedule. The Docs do like to check a fecal at about 9-10 months of age to be sure the dewormers are working. Springhill Equine recommends the first deworming happens at 3 months of age with a pyrantel product. From there foals get dewormed every 90 days rotating through pyrantel, ivermectin, and fenbendazole.
The care your foal gets in the first year of life sets them up for a healthy lifetime. Do your foal (and yourself) a favor and set them up for success right from the start. Then do me a favor, and bring me a cat treat!
Apr 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
I have been perusing the internet in the evenings when there is no one
around to scratch my chin. I landed on one of these forum things where
horse owners discuss all sorts of things, and I do mean all sorts of
things. As a cat I found it be a fascinating study in human psychology.
I am now addicted to checking these things. There were a few recurring
themes I would like go over, especially given where I live and who
provides the food I so dearly love.
Often seen Question type #1: My horse is doing something that may be a
medical emergency. I would like to have the advice of all the people on
the internet who are not Veterinarians. I may or may not then call my
Veterinarian.
Yep, I saw this type more than any other. I'm going to start by stating
the obvious: call Springhill Equine if you think you have an emergency.
I have trained the Docs well. I promise they will answer your questions
patiently and thoroughly, and then determine if it is a real emergency.
This will save your horse time in pain, and, here's the best part, it
will save you money. I hear our Docs talk about the ways in which they
could have helped horse owners so much more effectively if they had only
called sooner. While I may bite if you don't provide food fast enough,
or scratch behind my ear appropriately, my Docs won't bite, kick, or
scratch you for calling to ask questions so call and ask them!
Question Type #2: I saw this supplement and it looks AHHMAZING what does
the Internet think of it?
I understand crowdsourcing. Really I do. Come to any Springhill Equine
gathering and you will see me crowdsource some attention. However, when
it comes to my health care and whether or not I need to eat this or that
I check with the experts. These experts come in the form of my
veterinarian and trained nutrition professionals. Neither of these are
available in an internet chat forum. My veterinarian is at my beck and
call so that one is easy. My nutrition professional is also easy. There
is a 1-800 number on the back of my cat food that allows me to talk with
one. I understand this is true of those bags of horse feed too. I
asked one of my technicians, Beth, about the nutrition information
available from these magical 1-800 numbers. I asked Beth since she has
spent many years in the retail equine nutrition world. Beth told me the
people on the other end of the phone have something called a PhD and
that makes them a Doctor of Nutrition. Seems like a good source of
information to me. Beth said our Docs often work with these Docs to
make sure horses with special diet requirements have all their needs
met.
Question Type #3: My horse is doing this thing, pretty sure he is
hurting somewhere. Oh great Internet magical beast using your powers
tell me where my horse hurts and how to treat it.
This one I'm just going to leave at: Please call your veterinarian.
Horses show pain in about 3,427,862 ways. A hind end lameness can show
up as a front end problem and vice versa. So please stick to the
professionals when it comes to diagnosing.
So what do I get from all these forums? I learn about the best options
for stall floors, the most awesome leather cleaner (Higher Standards
Leather Care in case you were curious), Tips and Tricks for horse care
when it's really cold or really hot, if that cool new pitchfork is
really as good as it sounds, and a million other things about day to day
life with horses. I stop asking the internet machine questions when it
is about pain or discomfort without first consulting my veterinarians.
There you have it! Wise words about the Internet from a very wise,
handsome cat.
Mar 30, 2016 | Ailments, Colic, Hay, Uncategorized
March is almost over, and you've all heard the saying, "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Personally I prefer lions because they are really just big, less cuddly cats. Anyway, all this weather fluctuation has made for a bunch of colics!
In horses, colic is just a general term for signs of GI pain. Colic may be due to an impaction, a twist (the fancy doctor word for this is volvulus), gas, stomach ulcers, or inflammation (doctor word enteritis). Colic may even be due to something non-GI like a urinary obstruction, although that is more of a cat thing. Luckily I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing one yet.
About 90% of the colics we see are termed "mild colics." Less than 10% of colics are severe or "surgical colics," so named because they would require surgery to correct. So what makes a colic a mild or severe one?
In many cases, the answer is time. Most colics, when treated early with pain medication, laxatives, and electrolytes, will improve. There are some cases where a really big impaction will require rehydration with IV fluids to get it to pass.
When a mild colic is left untreated, it has the potential to become a bad colic. In the case of gas colics, the gas-filled intestine can float to the top and cause the large colon to twist. An impaction due to long-term dehydration can get worse and worse until it would need to be cut into and flushed out with a hose to get rid of it (yes, that is literally what they do during colic surgery).
Unfortunately, some horses are very stoic and don't tell you their belly hurts until it hurts really, really bad! Also, some people have jobs and can't stay home watching their horses all day to see if they colic. So if your horse colics at 8am and you don't get home until 5:30pm, it might already be a bad colic.
There is also something fat horses can get called a lipoma, basically a fatty tumor, that wraps itself around the small intestine and cuts off the blood supply. Nobody can do anything about that without surgery. Just one more reason I chose not to be a horse!
Luckily our docs are well trained to tell whether your horse has a mild colic or a bad colic, and they will know what to do either way! So the next time your horse has a bit of a bellyache, give us a call. The sooner the better! Odds are in your favor that it will be mild, but I wouldn't want to take my chances. Maybe that ball of yarn doesn't look so tasty after all...I'll just continue my nap.
Until next week, may the odds be ever in your favor!
-Tony
You must be logged in to post a comment.