There are certain things held sacred here at Springhill Equine. One of those is the mission to make the world a better place for horses. Sometimes that mission means the kindest option we have is euthanasia. Wow, that got heavy in a hurry. The life of a clinic cat isn’t all foals and fun though. There are tough days, too. This week I want to talk about euthanasia since there is a very important drug shortage affecting how we euthanize horses. Don’t worry, my Docs still have very safe, kind, humane ways to be sure your horse doesn’t suffer. It simply might look a little different than it has in the past. 

Pentobarbital

For reasons which aren’t entirely clear to this cat, pentobarbitol, which is the main ingredient in euthanasia solution, is on backorder. This happens periodically, and as with many of these backorders there isn’t often a clear reason. I’m going to guess they have clinic cats too, and they, as I sometimes do, revel in doing fun things like holding down the escape key with my paw then watching the humans become increasingly frustrated with the weird things the computer is doing. In this case, I imagine it shut down a factory. This is what Teenie and I talk about on weekends. 

Anyway, pentobarbital is an anesthesia drug with the ability to cause the brain and heart to stop when given as an overdose. It has been used for many, many years for this purpose so my Docs have a good feel for how it works, and how horses are going to respond. In general, my Docs give a very large dose, the horse falls asleep, and then passes away over a few minutes. 

The Problems with Pentobarbital

Recently scientists have found a few problems with pentobarbital. The first is groundwater contamination. It’s tough to think about, but when a horse gets buried it slowly decomposes away. Pentobarbital is one of those things that sticks around for a very, very long time, and loves to head for water. This is not something you want happening, especially since many of you humans live on farms with wells. This is one reason several groups who write euthanasia guidelines began discussions on some other options. 

Speaking of pentobarbital sticking around, it also remains very active in the body after death. This becomes an issue if burial or removal of the body is delayed for any reason. Scavengers like vultures, coyotes, and bald eagles, among others (like your dog), are attracted to the body and do what Mother Nature designed them to do. This can be a big problem in areas where the ground freezes in the winter, and burial can’t happen until Spring. I’m going to insert a bit of an aside here that as a sun-loving cat, the thought of ground freezing is awful. Anyway. Scavengers can be affected by pentobarbital and inadvertently killed. 

The Alternatives

There are many alternatives. The goal of all of them is to allow the horse to pass as peacefully as possible. The three most commonly used by my docs may look a little different, but work very similar to pentobarbital. These are an overdose of potassium chloride, an overdose of magnesium, or an injection of lidocaine into the space around the spinal column. 

All three start by placing your horse under general anesthesia, exactly like that used for surgery. Then the medications are administered, and the horse passes away over the next few minutes, much like they do with pentobarbital. These medications are all safe for the environment and scavengers, if there is an unexpected delay in burial or removal. Gunshot, or captive bolt, is a very humane option if you have someone very knowledgeable about the proper location. The key here is that horses don’t have the psychological trauma of a gun pointed at them. My Docs recommend the horse be sedated to minimize the risk of last-second movement.

After reading a not-so-great article recently about the shortage of pentobarbital, I wanted to assure my readers that my Docs have got a plan in place. They always have the safety and comfort of your horse on their minds. 

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. The humans just recorded a podcast that goes into a lot more areas on the topic of euthenasia. If you haven’t become a listener yet, this is a great time to start! You don’t even have to read it, you just listen while you’re riding, or driving, or whatever it is you humans do. You can check it out over on the Podcast Page.

“No hoof, no horse”. Since you’re a horse person, you’ve probably heard this old saying, and it will always ring true. Let me purr-suade you to learn a little more about a common hoof problem – White Line Disease. You may have even seen it without realizing!

Mild white line at the toe

Also called seedy toe, white line disease can start with just a little separation at the hoof wall. Maybe you’ve gone a little too long between trims and your horse’s hooves have gotten a bit too long. You notice a small gap between the outer hoof wall and the sole, and some dirt is packed in there. That can be how WLD starts, and at this early stage it can be pretty manageable, but it can get out of control before you know it. Let’s go into what white line disease is, what causes it, and what you can do about it.

What is White Line Disease?

White line disease is basically an infection in your horse’s foot caused by bacteria and fungi getting into a gap in the hoof wall. The infection takes place in the tissue between the outer hoof wall and the sensitive inner tissues of the hoof. It doesn’t take any special evil organisms to cause this problem, it’s just the normal bacteria and fungi in your horse’s environment that are just waiting for the opportunity to find a nice place to set up shop. What they love is a dark, moist place, and a little space inside the hoof wall is their real estate dream. As the bacteria and fungi work their way into the hoof wall, they eat away at the tissue that should be keeping the hoof connected to the deeper structures. It’s a vicious cycle – once they access even further up inside the hoof and have a lovely dark, protected area, it gets much more difficult to clean them out. If you look at a foot with WLD, you’ll see a cavity between the outer hoof wall and the sole. You may be able to stick a hoof pick up in there and pick out some crumbly material that is the degraded hoof plus dirt, bacteria, and fungi.

This foot has several spots where bacteria and fungi have invaded

You can find WLD on just one or two feet, or it can affect all four. In the early stages, your horse may not yet be sore, but as the tissue invasion becomes extensive, it can cause lameness. It can even progress to a very serious stage where the coffin bone loses connection to the hoof wall and begins to rotate (similar to, but different from, laminitis).

Half of this hoof wall is separated

Look how far up inside this horse’s foot the dirt, bacteria, and fungi have travelled. The outer layer of the hoof wall has been cut away to treat the infection.

Severe WLD has caused this coffin bone to rotate

What causes it?

Like I said, bacteria and fungi are involved in WLD, but it’s not so simple as that, because the bacteria and fungi are always there in the environment, and not every hoof gets WLD. So how do they get into a foot?

It comes down to a separation that occurs in the hoof that gives the organisms a chance to invade – the bacteria and fungi are just there to take advantage of it. Why does that separation occur in the first place? Poor trimming or sometimes a conformational issue such as club foot can be the cause. A horse with chronic laminitis can also be at greater risk due to the loss of integrity of the hoof. Most commonly, a long toe or overgrown foot can distort the hoof and cause mechanical stress that leads to the hoof wall separating near the white line. Just another of the 10,000 reasons it’s important to stay on top of your horse’s hoof care and get him a quality trim at a regular interval.

Any age, sex, or breed of horse can be affected.  While it can occur in any climate, it’s more common in humid conditions (ahem, Florida anyone?) since wet footing can soften the hoof and allow the organisms easier entry into the tissues.

How do we treat and prevent White Line Disease?

First, we have to recognize the WLD. You’ll want to pay close attention to your horse’s feet when you’re picking them out. If you think there are any areas of separation, pockets of dirt, and crumbly hoof near the white line, talk to my doc and your farrier. If your horse wears shoes, it’s a little trickier to observe this area, so your farrier should take a good look when she removes the shoe to trim the foot. One of the best things you can do to prevent WLD is just to have your horse trimmed frequently (about every 5 weeks, depending on the horse) and to make sure the toes don’t become too long. A well-trimmed foot is much less likely to develop this problem. On top of that, pick your horse’s feet regularly and give them a chance to dry out. Admittedly, the drying part can be tricky during some times of the year.

A hoof wall resection. You can see the new healthy hoof growing down from the coronary band.

If your horse does develop white line disease, my doc and your farrier should work together to develop a treatment plan. Unfortunately, just picking the cavity out and applying medications is unlikely to stop the progression. A very minor WLD may be able to be trimmed out by your farrier during a routine visit. Larger areas of separation will require additional treatment. My doc may need to take a radiograph to see how extensive the damage is within the foot. She’ll need to correct any abnormal forces on the foot (such as an overgrown toe) that are causing the separation. All the other treatment will not really be effective if the primary cause isn’t fixed.

Next, my doc has to stop that bacteria and fungus in their tracks. The most important part is to remember what those organisms love – a nice dark, moist space that can’t easily be cleaned out. So my doc takes the roof from over their head by performing a hoof wall resection! Those critters don’t stand a chance once their hiding place is exposed to light and air. My doc uses a hoof nipper or Dremel to remove the outer layer of hoof wall from over the cavity. The organisms are prevented from hiding up there, and the infected area is exposed for medications to be applied. Medical treatment is almost never useful unless the hoof wall over the infection is removed, so don’t waste your money on the various lotions and potions that make lofty claims.

This hoof required an extensive resection to remove the diseased tissue. Normal hoof will grow downwards from the coronary band over the next few months. This horse was walking sound right after the resection.

I’ve been watching my docs do a bunch of hoof wall resections lately from my spot in the middle of the barn aisle. It can look a bit dramatic to see a bunch of hoof wall removed, but don’t worry, it’s actually only the outer part of the hoof that is already disconnected. So there’s no bleeding, and it’s not painful to the horse. It’s much better than leaving the bacteria and fungus to eat away at the hoof. If a lot of hoof wall must be removed, a shoe can be helpful to stabilize the foot until new hoof grows down.

A rocker shoe is being used in this case to support the hoof and to improve the horse’s breakover. This is the same horse as in the x-ray above.

Once the outer hoof wall is removed, you’ll need to keep the hoof clean. My doc likes to soak the hoof in CleanTrax once a week to disinfect the hoof. The new, healthy hoof wall will grow downwards from the coronary band and as long as you have corrected the primary problems, your horse should grow in a normal hoof!

Until next week,

Tony

P.S. If this wasn’t enough info to make you purr, you should check out the podcast my humans recently did on White Line Disease. It’s loaded with interesting discussion, and you can listen free right from your phone or computer. Check it out over on the Podcast Page of my website.

I am always up for a full day of laying around in the sun. I hear some people even worship the sun.  Horses also seem to enjoy a good nap laying out in the middle of the field. Half the time I think they enjoy scaring you into thinking they’re dead, but in reality, they are just enjoying basking in the warm sun. Unfortunately, the sun is not always so nice to your body, and just like it can be harmful to you and your skin, it can also cause irreparable damage to your horse. 

 With the summer months ahead of us there are many problems that can pop up and plague your horse, like anhidrosis (when they stop sweating), bugs, allergies, and overall heat intolerance.  Rarely do we think about how the sun and UV light can affect our horses. Many of us live in Florida for the beautiful spring and summer days when the sun is shining, and the air is crisp. However, with every sun-filled day comes inherent risk to your horse.  Risk of sunburn, risk for cancer, risk of losing your horse.

 Sunburn

Some horses develop what is called photosensitization, which is a sensitivity to sun exposure and different from sunburn. Photosensitization results from ingestion of certain forages including clover and alfalfa, as well as administration of sulfa medications and secondarily from liver damage.  Photosensitization can occur in similar locations as sunburn and therefore can sometimes be mistaken for sunburn.  Sunburn is diagnosed by ruling out potential causes of photosensitization. 

 The skin is the largest organ of the body. It is also one of the most vulnerable organs of the body, as it is exposed to the elements, bugs, and every part of the outside world. Just as with people, horses are at risk for developing sunburn with too much sun exposure.  Horses with pale or non-pigmented skin are more susceptible to developing sunburn, and breeds like paint and pinto horses, appaloosas, and cremellos are most susceptible.

 Sunburn can affect every part of your horse’s body but is most commonly seen around their eyes and muzzle. Horses with pale skin over their necks and backs can also develop sunburn in those areas which can lead to behavior changes. That does not mean that if you have a horse with dark skin and dark coat that they are completely risk free, but their risk is lower. My docs tell me that sunburn can sometimes go unnoticed until it has progressed and is painful. They often get reports of horses who have suddenly become head shy and may even develop head shaking. Saddling and riding can also present an issue for horses who have developed sun burn over their backs. I don’t know if cats are at risk for getting sun burnt but I am certainly willing to risk it for my daily sun naps.  Plus, I have my minions to cater to my every need should I need treated for sun burn. 

 Cancer

In addition to discomfort and behavior changes, sunburn poses other risks. In people, sunburn can lead to skin cancer. With every insult to the skin that results in sunburn, your horse’s risk for developing cancer increases as well. Horses with non-pigmented or pale skin are at an even higher risk for developing squamous cell carcinoma. They don’t even have to have developed sun burn! Exposure to UV rays alone increases the risk for development of squamous cell carcinoma. SCC develops around the eyes, particularly on the third eyelid, around the nose and muzzle and around the anus.  All of these areas are more commonly surrounded by lighter skin, have significantly less hair present and are easily exposed to sun and UV rays.  Squamous cell carcinoma does not just occur in areas where sun exposure occurs, it can expose in and around the sheath and vulva, in the stomach, and other mucosal tissues such as the surface of the mouth and nasal passages.  However, sunburn markedly increases the risk of developing cancer.

 Treatment

Once sunburn has developed there is little to do for treatment besides supportive care.  I have trained my minions well in pampering me, so I am certain if you ask them what you need to do to pamper your horse if he is sun burnt, they would be happy to teach you their ways.  The most important thing to remember about a horse who has developed sun burn, is that sun burn can take months to heal. During the healing process it is important to protect the new skin. Keeping areas that are sun burnt clean, dry and moisturized is important in aiding in healing and prevent cracking.

 Squamous cell carcinoma should be treated quickly and aggressively. You all know your horses better than anyone else and should you notice any areas on your horse that look abnormal, I highly recommend getting my docs out to take a peek.  The sooner you do this the better.  Treating SCC early is essential to its possible cure. Treatment may include surgical removal of the affected area, intralesional chemotherapy and/or topical chemotherapy. Oftentimes, treatment is multimodal, meaning it involves surgical removal with chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, if left untreated for too long, squamous cell carcinoma that involves the eye can lead to your horse losing his eye or even worse, losing his life. 

 Prevention

Prevention is key when it comes to sunburn.  Sunscreen is useful, however, as with people, it is necessary to reapply frequently. Everyone here raves about Kinetic Vet SB (SB stands for Sun Block). This time of year, the docs and techs all come back after a long day of work with white streaks on their face. Come to find out, they have used the SB on themselves. The great thing about SB is that it stays on for days at a time, which means it does not require application every day even if your horse is playing in the water troughs. 

 Another way to prevent sun burn is to avoid the sun completely.  I can’t imagine not basking in the sun for hours, but if you want to help prevent your horse from getting sun burned it’s recommended that you keep your horse in a stall during the day and turn him out at night. If your horse lives out 24/7 or nighttime turnout is not an option for whatever reason, please, invest in a good, sturdy fly mask.  Most fly masks will provide some protection again UV rays, and you can get fly masks that have ear covers as well as long nose covers to protect your horse from the sun.  If your horse has areas on his neck or back that get sun burnt as well, you may also want to invest in a full body fly sheet.

 As always, my docs are here if you have questions. And watch out for me when you come to the clinic, as I’ll likely be sleeping in the sun out front.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Wondering about other summer troubles? Rain rot? Insect bite hypersensitivity? We have a couple of great videos on our YouTube page from previous seminars. Titles to look for are Summertime Blues or Skin Funk. They are packed with useful information; including one of our favorite pharmaceutical lines, Kinetic Vet. They make our favorites, SB, CK & IBH to name a few.

Connoisseurs of the crooked foal, let’s get into part 2 of our series – flexural limb deformities! Last time in part 1, we talked about angular limb deformities, which are inward or outward deviations of the leg from midline, when viewed from the front of the foal. A flexural limb deformity, on the other hand, means that the limb is abnormally flexed or extended when viewed from the side of the horse. You’ve probably already heard of one kind of flexural limb deformity – a club foot. We’ll get more into club foot and some other kinds of FLDs shorty.

First, there are 2 types of flexural limb deformities – hyperextension and hyperflexion. Let’s deal with hyperextension to start with, because it’s easy and I’m a lazy cat.

                                           Hyperflexion caused by tendon laxity

                                               Hyperflexion of the carpus (knees)

Hyperextension

This is common in newborn foals, especially when they’re premature. The flexor tendons that run along the back of the legs are weak and allow the leg to stretch too far. Both front or hind limbs can be affected. The great thing about hyperextension is that it usually fixes itself in a few days or weeks. But it’s important to have my doc out to make sure the bones in the legs are fully formed and there isn’t incomplete ossification to complicate the tendon laxity (see part 1 of crooked foals). As long as my doc says the bones are fine, the foal will need some controlled exercise to help strengthen the tendons. We don’t want to lock these guys up in a stall full time, but we also don’t want them overdoing it and galloping around in a pasture with mom. A small paddock is usually good to allow limited exercise. Resist the urge to put a splint or heavy bandage on the legs! That will make the tendons even looser and worsen the condition. If the baby’s heel bulbs are hitting the ground, a very light wrap around the pastern can protect the skin, or my doc can put a glue-on extension on the foot to help the foal stand. No heavy bandage, got it? Generally, hyperextension is pretty easy to deal with, so I don’t lose too much cat nap time over it.

                                                         A heel extention shoe

Hyperflexion

The hyperflexion kind of FLD is commonly called “contracted tendons”. This name really bristles my fur because it’s usually incorrect. The tendons are not usually “contracted” at all, just functionally too short compared to the bony column.  If a tendon is actually contracted, that means there is a defect in the tendon, and that can happen in adult horses after an injury but it’s usually not the problem in foals. Nevertheless, you will hear the term “contracted tendons” term used. But now you can feel superior and correct your friends if you hear it.

Hyperflexion can be present when the foal is born, or it can develop later. If it’s there at birth, the cause might be a toxin or disease the mare had during pregnancy, or it could have been caused by the position of the foal in the uterus. If it develops later, it may be caused by incorrect nutrition or excessive energy intake in the first weeks and months of life, causing rapid growth of the bones. If the bones grow longer quickly, the tendons can’t keep up and a flexural deformity results.

This is most often a problem of the front limbs, though rarely the hocks can be affected. It usually occurs at the level of the foot, the fetlock, or the knees. My doc will need to examine the foal and feel the tendons to determine which ones are affected and she’ll probably need to take X-rays of the legs. The structures involved determine which kind of deformity is present. Then the treatment plan will depend on the deformity. Let’s talk about the different kinds of deformities.

Club foot

Club foot is a flexural deformity at the level of the coffin joint in the foot. It’s caused by a deep digital flexor tendon that is relatively too short compared to the bones of the leg. Since the DDFT attaches to the back of the coffin bone (down in the foot), if the tendon is too short it pulls the coffin bone and the hoof wall backwards, creating an abnormal steep angle to the hoof. In a normal horse, the front of the hoof and the pastern should be at the same angle, but a club foot will have a hoof that is more upright than normal with a short toe and high heel.

Flexural deformity at the fetlock

If the superficial digital flexor tendon is relatively too short, it causes the fetlocks to be too straight or even knuckle over. The SDFT attaches to the bones of the pastern instead of the coffin bone, so that’s why you’ll see the fetlock knuckled over even though the hoof might be normal.

Flexural deformity at the carpus (knee)

This deformity is usually present at birth and can be a cause of dystocia (difficult birth). The tendons and ligaments around the back of the knee prevent it from extending.  A mildly affected foal should be treatable but unfortunately, if the condition is severe, the foal may be unable to stand and correction may not be possible.

So what can we do to fix hyperflexion?

What exactly my doc will do to straighten your foal’s legs will depend on its age and how severe the deformity is. Once of the most important things my doc will do is balance your foal’s nutrition and perhaps reduce his energy intake, because rapid growth can be one of the main causes of this problem. Exercise should be limited, and pain medications may be recommended. With very young foals, my doc may be able to give a dose of a medication called oxytetracycline that allows the tendons to stretch. Corrective trimming and toe extension shoes might be used. Remember how I told you never to use a heavy bandage or splint for hyperextension because it can make them even looser? Bandages and splints can actually be really useful in hyperflexion because loosening is what we want in this case.

For foals that are either more severely affected or unresponsive to conservative treatment, surgery might be needed. The procedure my doc will choose depends on the type of deformity and how severe it is. For example, a young horse with a milder club foot may respond very well to cutting the accessory ligament of the deep digital flexor tendon and still have a good prognosis for an athletic career. A severe club foot may require cutting the deep digital flexor tendon itself, and would be unlikely to be an athlete. Horses less than a year old respond best to surgery.

If the horse is younger, there are generally more options for treatment, and more likelihood of success, so don’t wait long before giving my doc a call. Are you surprised that advice applies to pretty much any problem your horse could have? If you’ve been reading my blog like you should, you won’t be!

Until next week,

Tony

P.S. – If this is the  first time you have come across my blogs; or you read them on facebook, be sure to sign up below to get them emailed to you a day before everyone else gets to read them! Also, make sure you are listening to my docs podcast. It is filled with an incredible amount of useful knowledge. You can find it right here.

Farm Emergency Preparedness

Be prepared. I was never a boy scout, but I have certainly taught myself what it means to be prepared. Be prepared to eat, be prepared to sleep, be prepared to groom and be prepared with giant cat eyes in order to get whatever I want.  By being prepared, I can assure you I am always ready when the time comes for something in my life to change.  You’re reading my blog which means that in some way you enjoy horses, which also means you should also always be prepared.  As you know, horses are unpredictable and often find ways to hurt themselves or fall ill in the most unusual ways at the most inopportune times. Therefore, it is in your best interest to have all your emergency plans in place prior to the inevitable time that an emergency does occur.

Minor Emergencies

Everything from small lacerations, mild colics, minor eye problems, and hoof abscesses may require a veterinarian’s attention. Should a situation arise where you are faced with an emergency there are a few items you can have on hand and several things you can do while you wait for help to arrive.

First and foremost, if you believe you are dealing with an emergency, it is always, I repeat ALWAYS, best to call your veterinarian. My docs would much prefer a call for something small over something that has been going on for days. Moreover, they can help you triage your horse before they can get there, so please heed their instructions and have patience.

If your horse has a laceration that’s not bleeding too bad but has associated swelling, it’s never wrong to rinse with cold water. Avoid sticking objects or fingers in the wound, but washing topically with a mild soap such as Ivory is acceptable.  I like to lick my own wounds. I do not, however, recommend licking your horse’s wounds or allowing your horse to lick his wounds.  So, prior to my doc’s arrival, allow cold water to run gently over the laceration, wash with mild soap and if necessary, you may cover the injury with a clean bandage.

Be prepared with a laceration emergency kit. This should include mild soap, baby diapers (yes you read that right, baby diapers are clean and super-absorbent), clean towels and duct tape. With these few items you will be able to protect your horse from further injury while my docs make their way to you or you make your way to them.

 Colic

Colic is the 4-letter word of the horse world.  It’s the dreaded emergency that no one wants to ever experience with their horse, but also the illness that 99.9% of horse people will experience more than once in their lifetime.  Colic is common, but fortunately it’s usually treated and resolved on the farm.  Colic is going to pop up twice in today’s blog.

First, let’s talk about the mild colic that only requires my docs to visit once and then resolves.  It is important to be prepared for these mild colics just as much as the major colics.  That does NOT mean having medications such as banamine on hand and administering them yourself without a veterinarian’s direction. What it does mean is having a small area, whether a stall, a small paddock or a round pen where you can keep your horse separated from other horses and where he can be closely monitored for 24-48 hours.  Trust me, 2 o’clock in the morning is not the time you want to be assembling a make-shift stall/paddock. Have one already assembled with no access to food but easy access to water. While I find myself having the zoomies at 2 am, I hear people typically are not as energetic around that time. My docs will thank you for having this area prepared and you will be thankful too. It is likely you will need to keep any eye on your horse’s water intake and manure production for the next several days as well as limit their feed/hay intake.  By having a designated area for your horse, this task becomes significantly easier.

 Eyes

If you are faced with an emergency that involves your horse’s eyes, being prepared means having a designated area for your horse to stay for treatment. It also means having a clean fly mask on hand that will fit your horse well.  If you notice that your horse’s eye has excess tearing present, has swollen eye lids or the globe looks abnormal in anyway, please call your veterinarian immediately.

Being prepared for the eye problem, like colic, does NOT mean applying medications that you have lying around to your horse’s eye for a week before calling the docs. This can make a mild eye injury severe very quickly. Every eye medication has a purpose, and some medications are not appropriate for every eye injury. Therefore, while you wait for the docs to arrive, you can place your horse in the assigned small area and place a fly mask on him to prevent further damage. Once my docs arrive, they will assess your horse and develop a plan from there.

 Abscesses

There is a theme, other than be prepared, to this week’s blog and that is, have a small area to separate your horse in and keep him safe before the docs can arrive. Hoof abscesses can very often look like a broken leg and are very scary to watch.  Your horse may not want to put any weight on his leg and there may be some minor swelling involved.  If you noticed these signs you may attempt to get your horse into a small enclosure, however, if it is too difficult to get him to move, don’t move him! Just wait for my docs to arrive and assess him.

Definitely do not administer any medications prior to my doc’s arrival unless they instruct you to do so. Having fresh water available to your horse is acceptable and remaining calm is imperative.  In the instance that my docs come out and diagnose an abscess, it is a good plan to have epsom salt on hand and a low-walled rubber bucket with a flat surface that you can use for soaking feet.  Access to warm water is ideal but not essential.

The moral of the story with minor emergencies, is call early, don’t wait and be prepared.

 When Emergencies Require Even More

Being prepared for the situations when minor emergencies turn into something more can make them that much more bearable and ultimately may change the outcome.

 Transportation

Recently, my schedule has been jammed packed. All 3 of my docs have been working their tails off. That being said, we are booking out appointments 2 weeks in advance, which makes getting to emergencies increasingly difficult.  However, if you can haul your horse to the clinic, they are guaranteed to see you, and often times much sooner than if you have to wait for them to come to you. While not everyone may have a trailer of their own, having access to a trailer is extremely important to anyone involved with horses. More on trailers and trailering in a bit.

In the rare instance where your horse’s colic doesn’t resolve on the farm, the next step may be to bring your horse to my clinic or to a referral hospital. This is where having access to a trailer really comes in handy. The ability to haul your horse to our clinic for evaluation will most certainly allow for quick assessment and further treatment if necessary. Lacerations are another emergency that may be handled on the farm but may also require hospitalization. Hospitalization may be necessary for wound treatment, antibiotic administration and observation.

Having access to a trailer, whether you own one yourself or borrow one, is important. I highly recommend you have a plan in place should the need for a trailer arise.  I can guarantee you it will be nearly impossible to find transportation for your horse at 3 o’clock in the morning if you don’t already have a trailer lined up. There are some transportation companies that offer after-hours services, but I highly recommend contacting them and having an account set up before an after-hours emergency occurs, and to make sure they cover your area.  Similarly, your neighbor may have a trailer they have offered to let you to use, but are they going to answer their phone in the middle of the night?  Have a set plan in place with them so there is no doubt you can use the trailer and that it will be available should you need it.

Have a backup plan too.  Trailers like to have flat tires at the most inopportune time. Knowing where all the equipment is to change the tire will save you a lot of headaches, as will having a backup trailer or transportation available should an emergency arise. If the trailer available to you doesn’t get used much, make sure you air up the tires and pull it around the block once in a while. Also, make sure you know how to hook it up! A crisis is not the time to learn all the things.

 Cost

While no one likes to talk about money, we have to talk about money.  Part of being prepared for an emergency means knowing how much money you have available for said emergency. It may be $200, or it may be $20,000, but knowing exactly how much you are willing to spend is necessary to make informed decisions about your horse’s care. I highly recommend having a separate savings account for your horse emergencies. Let’s be honest: it is not if your horse is going to have an emergency, it’s when.  Having money saved for emergencies allows for significantly easier decision making. Typical colics and lacerations that can be handled on the farm usually cost between $400-600 depending on the extent of the problem. Colics that require hospitalization with fluids and monitoring are usually around $2000, and severe colics that require surgery can cost anywhere from $10,000- $20,000.  If you have questions about the cost of common emergencies, be sure to ask my docs the next time they are out for your horse’s wellness visits.  They want you to be prepared and able to make the best decisions for you horse just as much as you do.

Remember: being prepared for all types of emergencies may reduce the severity of your horse’s problem, help you make the best decision possible, and could even save your horse’s life.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. The humans have a podcast that covers even more aspects of being ready for anything! You can find it here on my Podcast Page.

Sugar, starch, carbs. All words describing the same thing when it comes to horse diets, and lately, all words to strike fear into the hearts of those who feed horses everywhere. I’m a diabetic cat. I get the concerns about sugars. I’m also here to tell you that only a very small population (literally, it’s mostly ponies) of horses need to super-closely monitor their sugar intake. For the rest of you, the word of the day is moderation. For any horses working as athletes, the word of the day is need, as in you need some sugar in your life. So let’s talk sugar! 

What is sugar or starch or carbs?

Carbohydrate is the broad category nutritionists put sugars and starches into. Carbohydrates are the things the body breaks down into glucose, which it then uses for energy.  Starch is the name for the way plants store sugar, and sugars are the building blocks of all of this. Sugars come in chains, and those chains are named based on lots of things, but mostly how many sugars they have in their chains, and how those sugars are holding hands. 

For horses, there are two other categories of carbohydrates that are important: structural, and non-structural. These are sort of what they sound like. Structural carbs are inside the parts of plants that give them structure. That blade of grass needs some support to grow up instead of being a blob. These guys require help from bacteria for the body to absorb them, and that happens in the large intestine. Non-structural carbs are mostly inside grains, and are the plant’s own energy storage. Your horse (and you for that matter) can break these down all by yourself, and your small intestine takes care of that task.

Why all the worry?

Sugar, rightly so, is very, very strongly associated with laminitis. Let me backup a bit to give the full picture about sugar and laminitis. It’s not as simple as my diabetes. If I eat more sugar than I have insulin to process it with, my body can’t handle it, and things go poorly. Horses handle things differently because horses are weird. 

Give a horse more sugar than they need for a day, a week, a month, or even a year (What? I watch Friends when no one is around) and not a whole lot happens. The pancreas makes insulin in proportion to the amount of sugar around, the cells absorb it, and if they don’t need it right away they turn it into fat. After a while your horse has all the fat even the body thinks it needs. Like survive an entire year of drought, not just a season. Remember that’s how our metabolism thinks: survival. The metabolism says Okay, we’re good, and stops listening to the insulin. The pancreas says, Whoa! We’ve got a lot of sugar running around,”and makes lots and lots more insulin. 

This is where the cat and human pancreas give up and say, if you’re not listening we’re not playing, and stop making insulin. The horse pancreas NEVER gives up. No, seriously, NEVER. There are only a very few documented cases of horses who stop making insulin. 

All that insulin has other tasks it directs, and those don’t quit. Most of those tasks have to do with building and repair. This makes sense if you think about it. When you’ve got energy (aka: sugar) you should build and repair. The problem is with all that insulin screaming at those building and repair mechanisms, they get a bit rushed in their work and don’t do a great job. The feet are a prime example. The body is so busy building lamina that it does a not-great-job at it, and the cells are so busy not listening to insulin that they don’t even get the sugar to do the job they are designed to do. 

It’s not a great plan all around, and one Mother Nature avoids by making horses in the wild work really hard for their food, and presenting them with periodic starvation so they use those fat stores. You modern day horse owners definitely don’t make them work hard for food, nor do they experience periodic starvation unless you count breakfast being 5 minutes late! 

Don’t Panic!

If your horse considers a walk from one side of the pasture to the other exercise, and sports a body condition score of 7 or above (ask my Docs how to get a weight and BCS on your horse), you need to monitor sugar. Here’s the important thing: most of the sugar is coming from the grass in the pasture your horse is moseying across. Most of the calories are coming from that grass as well. A grazing muzzle and low-sugar diet like a ration balancer are your best friends.

If your horse does any work at all, evaluate the sugars in your diet with less of a critical eye. Most commercial feeds these days understand the value of controlling carbs in equine diets and they do a great job. There are some in there, but not too much for the average horse doing some level of work. If your horse is maintaining good weight, and a BCS of 4-6 you don’t need to critically evaluate how much sugar you’ve got for fear of all the dreaded carb side effects.

If your horse needs a burst of energy doing their job, you NEED some of that sugar! You read that right. You need some sugar. To turn that barrel, jump that jump, make it through that upper level dressage test with some pizazz, or spin and lope off, you’ve got to have sugar available. The muscles responsible for that quick fire use sugar. If you’ve had the zip in your step you were looking for, consider your horse’s diet. Keeping the athlete on ration balancers and alfalfa, for example, will have them looking good, but doesn’t provide much in the way of high test fuel for those muscles. Putting them on a high sugar feed isn’t the right answer, either. That’s akin to asking Michael Phelps to swim the Olympics on nothing but McDonalds. It’s all about fueling the athlete for the job they are being asked to do.

Need help formulating the perfect diet to keep the Dad Bod at bay? Or add some zip to your spins? My Docs are a great resource. They can help you get started, and help you find a great equine nutritionist to help with special needs. Just like lots of other things in life, sugar is perfectly fine in moderation. 

Until next week,

~Tony

It’s spring in Florida and that means my docs are out checking new foals to make sure they’re healthy. With their long, awkward, spindly legs, it’s a wonder any foal can ever stand up and run around, but they seem to accomplish it somehow. No foal is a match for my feline elegance, but sometimes, a foal is born with legs more crooked than usual, or his legs become that way over time. If you’ve got a foal around, it’s really important for you to know what to look for in limb conformation. What you do now to take care of your new foal can set him up for success (or potential crippling lameness problems) for the rest of his life. Crooked foalsYeah, no pressure! The good news is my doc can fix a lot of these issues if they are identified in time. Now let’s talk about what we mean by “crooked foals”.

There are 2 major categories we’ll discuss: Angular limb deformities and flexural limb deformities. I know those names are kind of intense, but here is a super basic breakdown: an angular limb deformity looks crooked when viewed from the front, while a flexural limb deformity looks crooked when viewed from the side. There are different causes and treatments for each of these, so let’s look at them a bit closer. This week we’ll talk about Angular limb deformities, and we’ll go over flexural limb deformities in part 2.

Angular limb deformities (ALD)

An ALD is an inward or outward deviation of the leg from midline, when viewed from the front (or back) of the foal. We call an outward deviation “valgus” and an inward deviation “varus”. Then we add the name of the joint at which the deviation starts. So for example, if you’re looking at a foal from the front and his legs are straight until the knee (carpus), then the lower legs deviates outward, he would have a “carpal valgus”.

It’s not uncommon for a foal to have a mild “knock kneed” appearance at birth, but it’s really important to have an exam by a vet to ensure that it’s not a conformation problem that is going to extend into adulthood. This type of deformity can have several different causes, some present when the foal is born and some developing over time. The treatment is very different depending on the cause, so you’ve gotta have my doc out to find out what the underlying problem is. Here are several potential issues:

• Incomplete ossification of the cuboidal bones

During gestation, the small bones in the foal’s carpus (knee) and tarsus (hock) turn from cartilage into bone. We call them cuboidal bones since they’re roughly shaped like little cubes.  Normally, these bones are fully turned to bone (ossified) by the time the foal is born. If the foal is born premature, or the mare was sick during pregnancy, or for one reason or another the baby doesn’t “cook right”, those little cuboidal bones are still cartilage when the foal is born. Here’s the big problem with that – cartilage is much softer than bone and not meant to support the foal’s weight through the joints. If there is only soft cartilage where bone is supposed to be, it can be crushed by the foal standing and moving around on it. Once it turns into bone, it will be fixed in whatever shape it was deformed into, dooming the horse to joint pain and lameness on a malformed joint. So we really have to start working on these cases immediately – you really don’t want to wait long before calling my doc to have a look! Foals that have signs of prematurity should have x-rays taken of their knees and hocks to make sure the bones are fully developed into bone. If incomplete ossification is found, the foal will need his legs splinted and to stay resting in the stall. My doc will take x-rays at intervals to check when the bones have formed. Once the bone is there, the foal will be allowed to resume more normal activity. If we can keep the bones from crushing, they will ossify over time and the prognosis is good.

Normal  ossification of the bones in a foal’s carpus

 The bones of this carpus are incompletely ossified – that’s why they don’t show up on this x-ray.

See the crushed bone in this hock? You don’t want your foal’s hock to end up looking like this!

• Laxity of ligaments around the joint

Sometimes the ligaments that hold the joint straight are a bit too loose when the foal is born. My doc might notice this when she manipulates the joint. She would be able to manually straighten the leg, but when the foal stands on it, it becomes crooked again. If she takes an x-ray and is satisfied that those cuboidal bones aren’t the problem, that’s probably good news, since ligament laxity will usually improve in time. Controlled exercise and growth of the foal will usually resolve this problem.

• Disproportionate growth

This is the most common cause of angular limb deformity and can be caused by unbalanced nutrition, excessive exercise, or overload of the limb, which damages the growth plate. As the foal grows, one side of the leg increases in length faster than the other, resulting in an angular limb deformity that develops over time. My doc has several tools at her disposal to influence the rate of growth to correct the imbalance so that the limb will straighten up over time. The trick is she has to be able to do this while the growth plates are still active. Different growth plates close at different times, and for some joints (especially the fetlock) we have to act sooner than others. Unfortunately, if you wait too long to call my doc and the growth plate has mostly closed, there isn’t a whole heck of a lot she can do. For the fetlock, we have to act before the foal is 2-3 months old, so don’t mess around!

For a foal that is only mildly affected, therapeutic trimming of the hoof and glue-on shoes may be enough to help the foal stand more correctly and encourage the joints to align correctly. For a more significantly affected foal, a surgical procedure called a “periosteal strip” (aka “periosteal transection and elevation”) can be used to stimulate the growth rate on the side of the limb that is lagging, helping it to catch up to the other side. However, in situations where the foal is more severely crooked or when there is not much time left until the growth plate closes, a procedure called a “transphyseal bridge” may be needed to correct the deviation. This involves temporarily placing a metal implant across the growth plate to slow the rate of growth on the side of the leg that is growing faster, allowing the opposite side to catch up. The implant is usually one screw or two screws with a wire in between. It will be removed when the foal’s leg has straightened.

This screw is used as a transphyseal bridge to show the growth on that side of the limb so the opposite side can catch up.

You’ve waited a long time for your foal to be born, so give him the best start by having him evaluated at regular intervals. My doc will make sure those legs are growing nice and straight and help you avoid CAT-astrophe!

Until next week,

 Tony

PS – Don’t forget to check out our podacst page. It is filled with tons of knowledge. I am quite certain you will learn something new!

Dermatophilus congolensis

Spring is here, the flowers are blooming, the vehicles are covered in pollen, everyone is sneezing and boy oh boy the horses are shedding. The docs and techs around here are obsessed! They cannot stop themselves from scratching and rubbing and plucking out all the long tufts of hair the horses are losing. They claim it’s therapeutic, but I think it is just messy! The birds seem to like it, so I guess there’s that.

Now that spring is finally here, we’ve had some really warm days, and some rainy days as well.  For horses who haven’t quite lost their winter coat, this can prove to be problematic, as they can develop the dreaded Skin Funk underneath all that hair. Take it from me, skin problems are no fun. Your horse is miserable with it, you are miserable trying to get rid of it and everyone around you is miserable because all you talk about is skin!

What is this skin funk?

Contrary to popular belief, that “rain rot” your horse has is probably NOT fungus. I know, I know, you’ve been around horses forever, and it’s always been fungus. Wrong! It has never been fungus. In fact, it has always been Dermatophilus congolensis. Maybe “fungus” is just easier to say, but Dermatophilus congolensis is actually a bacteria. The fun part about it is that the bacteria is naturally occurring on your skin. Most of the time it remains dormant and doesn’t cause a problem. However, when the environment changes, and all the stars align (which isn’t hard to do for Dermatophilus) the bacteria activates and proliferates.

Horses with long coats that get damp to the skin are significantly more prone to developing Dermatophilus. That’s why we see it so much this time of year.  Any small breaks in the skin from an insect bite, a laceration or an abrasion allows the bacteria to enter the top layer of your horse’s skin. It then forms pustules that create scabs. These scabs are what you see and feel on your horse’s coat.  They’re referred to as “paint brush” lesions because when you pull off the scabs, the hair comes with it and looks like a paint brush.  I think they just look itchy and irritating, but I’m no artist.

While unsightly, irritating, and frankly just a pain in the rear end, Dermatophilus can be a rather mild infection. However, if left untreated it can become a much more serious bacterial infection such as streptococcus or staphylococcus. Strep and staph infections are significantly more difficult to treat, they are more painful, and can lead to systemic infection.

Symptoms and Causes

Symptoms of a Dermatopilus infection may include matted hair, small, crusty bumps on the skin, and hair loss. Your horse may be painful in heavily infected areas, their skin may be inflamed and there may be some pus-filled scabbing present.

The fun part about Dermatophilus is that it’s easily spread among horses. Sharing grooming tools, saddle pads, blankets, wraps, etc. are all very effective ways to spread the bacteria between horses in the same barn. Even just being in the same area as a horse with an active infection can cause the bacteria to spread to others. The good thing is, it’s not transmittable to people or cats! Remember, horses may have the bacteria on their skin in a dormant status, which means they’d have no signs but can still spread it to other horses that could develop the infection.  Horses with an impaired immune system from stress, travel, illness, or malnourishment are significantly more susceptible to developing outward signs of infection.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing Dermatophilus is usually straightforward. The clinical signs are pretty clear. However, there are some other skin diseases that are important to rule out, including ring worm, parasitic infections, and other bacterial infections.  This is done by several different means.

Skin impressions are an easy and inexpensive diagnostic tool that will confirm diagnosis based on clinical signs.  A hair tuft is obtained and placed on a slide, mashed around, and then stained with special stain. The docs look at it under the microscope and if they see the classic “railroad track” bacteria, they know it’s Dermatophilus.

Another diagnostic tool my docs have up their sleeves is the skin scrape.  Oh, heck no, you’re not coming towards this cat with a blade and the word ‘scrape’ in mind, nope, not going to happen. A skin scrape is performed using a dull surgical blade (don’t worry, it’s not previously used or anything) and my docs will make a small abrasion in your horse’s skin to get a sample of the deeper layers. They take this sample back to the clinic and look at it under the microscope as well. Rarely, they might find some little bugs (or mites) in the sample which would indicate an underlying problem causing your horse’s skin funk.

Treatment

Do me a favor: go in your tack room or wash rack or wherever you keep all of those expensive shampoos.  It’s okay to cry a little, but those that say “anti-fungal” on them, they’re not going to solve your problem.  You’ve spent a small fortune, I know. You probably could’ve sent your kid to college with the amount of money you’ve spent on different shampoos. You don’t have to dump all of those out, don’t worry. You can still use them for bathing at horse shows, or just for fun. However, they won’t be of use for treating Dermatophilus infections.

Since Dermatophilus is a bacteria, anti-fungal shampoos usually don’t contain the anti-bacterial properties necessary to kill it. Almost always, you’ll need an antibacterial shampoo that your veterinarian will prescribe. My docs love Kinetic Vet CK shampoo. They recommend bathing at least twice a week and allowing the shampoo to soak for 10 minutes each time. Occasionally, for very severe infections they may require more frequent bathing.

You might think, oh no! My horse has rain rot all over, I should go clip him right away. DON’T! Yes, it might seem like the easy fix, but it can cause small breaks in the skin allowing the bacteria easy entry and encourage spread.  Same can be said for aggressive grooming. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for an aggressive grooming. I love it, it’s like a deep tissue massage. However, very aggressive grooming can also cause small breaks in the skin, and when your horse has an active infection, it can be quite painful.

On rare occasions, my docs may recommend systemic antibiotics. Meaning medications that are given either orally or via an injection. Luckily, this usually only happens if the bacterial infection has progressed to a strep or staph infection. Similarly, my docs may recommend a topical antiseptic ointment to apply to any open abrasions to prevent the spread of bacteria.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, do not share equipment between horses. Every horse should have his or her own brushes, saddle pads, blankets, wraps, etc.  If you have to share, clean and clean often!  Bleach is your best friend in this scenario. Soaking brushes in bleach water is a great way to get rid of the bacteria. Follow up the bleach soak by drying them in the warm sunshine. Bacteria hates dryness and sunshine. Wash your saddle pads and wraps after every use, and blankets, well, let’s just not share those.

Dermatophilus, if recognized and treated early, does not have to be the pain in the rear that we all know it to be. Horses recover easily and well from it. That being said, it can and will reoccur, so if you think you have a problem with skin funk, give my docs a call and have them come see your horse so you can come up with the best plan to manage that nasty bacteria.

Until next week,

~Tony

PS – You know the drill by now..be sure to take a listen to our Podcasts. Our docs work tirelessly gathering the best horse information out there. You can sign up on our podcats page right here. Also, did you know we have a YouTube page? We do, follow this link and catch one of our famous seminars. We have a few on Skin Funk.

Spring is springing. Grass is starting to grow. Pollen has backed off a little bit. ‘Tis the season to wonder what to do about hay. Every year my Docs get questions this time of year about hay. This year I thought I’d be a helpful cat and answer your most often springtime hay questions. I’m awesome like that. Just ask me. I’ll tell you how great I am. 

I can’t get hay!

Lots of you humans feed coastal hay to your horses. It’s a great option for those easy keeper horses. I relate. I look at food and put on a pound or two. This can be a tricky time of year to find coastal hay. The new crops aren’t baled yet, and farmers may be on short supply from last year’s crop. This can mean questionable quality and quantity of hay available. My number one piece of advice here is don’t buy the low quality stuff!! This is a surefire way to see my Docs on emergency late at night or on a weekend. 

Low quality coastal is way, way more likely to cause colics. Coastal hay loves to cause a specific type of colic called an ileal impaction. This happens when the hay stacks up like a bad lasagna at the very end of the small intestine, called the ileum. Luckily, since you are a regular reader of my weekly wisdom, you are feeding some alfalfa to your horse to prevent these colics because you know that’s what I recommend, and you follow every word of my advice. This means your horse’s GI tract is ready to increase that alfalfa some, and stick to quality coastal even if it means decreasing quantity. My Docs can help you adjust for calories and overall quantity so your horse doesn’t get too fat, or have too little roughage in that finicky GI tract. 

Adding different roughage types can really help provide roughage without adding too many calories until farmers can get good quality coastal baled again. Some great options are available such as beet pulp, hay pellets, and even bagged hay. Anytime you change up roughage be sure to go slowly. Add small amounts to start, then increase over 7-10 days. The bacteria in the gut need a few days to adjust to a different roughage type. If you go too fast they get upset, and take it out on you by causing increased gas production, or diarrhea. Neither of these is a fun option.

 SAND!!!

Ooooohhhh those little tiny bits of green grass that are just coming in are just the most delicious things on the planet! At least that’s what I hear from the horses. I eat some grass, but I am no connoisseur of the stuff. The problem with those super delicious little bits of grass is they come with bits of sand as well. The horse GI tract is an excellent collector of sand, but not so excellent at getting rid of it. What’s a human to do? Feed more roughage. Now, this can be tricky this time of year as I will discuss in my next section. Roughage does an excellent job at picking up sand and moving it on out. 

Feeding a minimum of 2% of body of your horse’s body weight will keep the beach outside where it belongs! Don’t know how much your horse weighs? Any one of my minions can show you our quick and easy technique. Like I said in the previous section, you can get creative with roughage types. Beet pulp, hay pellets (or cubes, as long as they’re soaked), and bagged hay all count as roughage. There’s also the tried and true psyllium method. My Docs recommend one of the horse psyllium products rather than a human product like Metamucil. The horse products have more psyllium per scoop, and cost less so that’s a win-win! For a horse suspected or known to have lots of sand, start with a double dose for one week, then go back to the normal dose for one week out of every month. It’s super important to only do this one week out of the month. You know those gut bacteria? They can learn to digest psyllium which will inactivate its super sand fighting properties. By only exposing the bacteria to psyllium intermittently we can keep them from learning this skill. 

 I don’t want the hay

As those tiny bites of delicious greenness come up, your horse may decide they taste way better than any dried version (hay) you have to offer. I don’t personally relate, but this may cause them to [GASP!] leave hay behind. I have never voluntarily walked away from food so I have no idea why a horse would do this. Anyway. My Docs get asked what to do about this all the time. To start, it’s important to assess your pasture and decide if you have enough grass present to potentially meet your horse’s roughage needs. My Docs or a county extension agent can help you here. If you do, then it’s likely you can dramatically decrease or even stop hay offerings. This is why you want good pastures! You get to save on hay! Take advantage of all that beautiful grass if you can. 

If you are concerned you don’t have enough grass to meet those roughage needs, you may need to make hay a more appealing option. The two most common ways to do this are increasing the quality of your hay, and confinement. Slowly introducing better tasting stuff like alfalfa or orchard grass hays, or adding beet pulp to grain meals can convince your horse that they can still eat hay while your grass gets a chance to grow. Confining your horse to a stall or small sacrifice paddock with some hay will also allow your horse to realize they may as well eat the hay since there aren’t other options. Some horses will see this as ridiculous horse torture, but let’s be honest: it isn’t. 

Never fear, the grass will grow in, the farmers will bale new hay, and, with a little help from you the human, your horse will survive this time of roughage scarcity. Need help figuring out the best option for you and your horse? My Docs are here to navigate the plethora of options available in the roughage market. They will work with you to find the best option for your horse, farm, and lifestyle.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Are you looking for more horse knowledge? Check out the podcast that my docs produce. It’s called Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth and it is absolutely loaded with great information. And it’s free! Any cat knows better than to pass that up. I’m just saying.