To blanket, or not to blanket. That is the question. With the drastic change in weather, it’s difficult to know exactly when and with what you should blanket your horse. I, for one, am all for blanketing. My staff recently went as far as purchasing myself and Teeny some very nice flannel to keep us warm on these chilly days. I pretend to hate it, I can’t let them know that I actually appreciate their gesture, but I just love my new flannel, I look so fancy and chic, plus it keeps me warm while I’m out patrolling the clinic. Enough about me. Well, not really, it’s always all about me, but I know you all are here to learn about blanketing horses, not cats, so let me tell you all about it.

When I grow up, I want to be a weatherman. It’s literally the only job where you can be wrong 99% of the time and you don’t get fired, what gives? You all know what I’m talking about. This past weekend in Florida, for example, it was supposed to rain part of the day Friday but then turn out partly sunny on Saturday and Sunday with highs in the 60s. Well, guess who was wrong again? Not me, of course, but you guessed it, the weathermen! Not only did it rain all day Friday, it rained and was overcast all day Saturday. Certain parts of our area saw the sun for a brief moment on Sunday, but other areas saw only clouds. The bigger disappointment was the temperature.  I spent the whole weekend inside, but I don’t think it got over 60 all weekend, with feels like temperatures in the 50s! So, this leads us to this week’s blog topic, blanketing.

Has your horse ever been blanketed?

So many factors go into when we should blanket our horses. First and foremost is, has your horse ever been blanketed? If your horse has never had a blanket on him for his entire life, now may not be the time to start. If you do decide that you want to start blanketing your horse, remember to always monitor how your horse tolerates having a blanket on. As you all know, some horses think that ripping blankets to shreds is the best game and will find any way to rip their blanket off or may try to take their friends’ blankets off.  This can get very expensive unless you know someone who is handy with a sewing machine, and don’t look at me. I have many talents but sewing is not one of them. Apparently opposable thumbs are necessary for sewing. The other thing horses like to do is get caught on objects, fencing, trees, etc. So, for horses who aren’t used to wearing a blanket, please keep an eye on them for the first few days while they are getting used to it.

Let’s say your horse tolerates blanketing well and kind of actually enjoys his new clothes. Now we have to decide at what temperature we blanket and what type of blanket he needs.

Is Your Horse Body Clipped?

Has your horse recently gotten a snazzy new ‘do? I bet he looks great, but when you clip your horse, they lose a layer of insulation they use to keep warm. I am all for keeping your horse clipped and looking his best, so when the weather gets cold, be sure to have blankets on hand. My rule of paw is, if your horse is clipped and the temperature drops into the mid 50s, your horse should have a light sheet on. If it drops into the mid 40s, I recommend a blanket. Anything in the mid 30s or below, you may want to consider a sheet and blanket or a very heavy blanket.

If your horse has not been body clipped recently, he probably doesn’t need a blanket at all. The exceptions to this are horses who can’t regulate their temperature or put on an appropriate winter coat, such as older Cushing’s/PPID horses, or horses who are subjected to a lot of rain followed by freezing temps. If you have a horse you aren’t sure about, call my docs.

Where does your horse live?

Does your horse live in a barn, is he in a pasture, or a combination of both? I am a fan of the combo living myself, I like to spend my days laying in the sun outside and my nights inside sleeping in the office chairs. Whatever lifestyle you have picked for your horse will also dictate what kind of blanket you may want for your horse.

If your horse spends most of his time in a stall and is only turned out in fair weather, you can probably get away with having a stable sheet and stable blanket on hand for your horse. However, if your horse is ever going to be out in inclement weather, I highly recommend having a waterproof sheet and blanket on hand. Even if your horse lives in a pasture with access to a stall or shelter, I still recommend waterproof clothes for him. Horses make bad decisions sometimes and will stand in the rain despite having a stall right in front of them, so waterproof is necessary in these situations. Who wants to wear a wet blanket when it’s freezing?

What if your horse is wet/sweaty?

If for some reason your horse is out in a blanket that is not waterproof and it gets wet, it is always better to take the wet blanket off and let it dry. Do not leave a wet blanket on your horse in cold weather, this is just asking for your horse to get sick.

Is your horse already wet or sweaty? Wait for them to dry before you put their blanket on them. This is where wool coolers come in handy. You can put the cooler on your horse while he dries. It helps to pull the moisture away from your horse while keeping the heat in. While coolers make excellent beds for me to sleep on, I do not suggest leaving your horse in his cooler unattended as they tend to slip and can get caught around feet, legs and necks, and well, we know what happens after that. You got it, a call to my docs. So, once your horse is dry, switch out the cooler for a sheet or blanket with secure straps to prevent injury to your horse.

As always, your horse’s safety is most important and what is best for your horse may not be best for your neighbor’s horse and vice versa.  If you have questions about blanketing your horse and what is best for your individual situation, do not hesitate to ask my docs. Remember, they are horse owners too, and make the same decisions about their horses that you make about your horses every day and they love talking about what is best for your horse to keep him happy and healthy.

Want to learn more about this? Check out the upcoming episode of the podcast my humans produce. The December 1^st episode is all about blanketing. While you’re at it, you should check out the hottest horse book on the market. It’s called Adventures of the Horse Doctor’s Husband. You can read all about it by clicking on the banner below, or on the Books link up in the menu bar. But before you do any of that, scroll down a bit more and subscribe to my blog. It’s what all the cool cats do.

Until next week,

~Tony

There is a widespread misconception that a stallion is going to “fix” what you don’t like about your mare. Just…no. That’s not how genetics work. As a matter of fact, genetic traits are passed on in a one-or-the-other fashion. This means that if you breed a mare with bad feet to a stallion with good feet, you have a 50% chance of getting a baby with bad feet, and a 50% chance of getting a baby with good feet. Keep in mind, this is my very oversimplified feline explanation of a very complex topic.

A lot of money

Let me just tell you upfront, from one frugal guy to another, the more you try to cut corners in this breeding thing, the more it will end up costing you. For example, if you have 2 mares, you may think you can flush an embryo out of one, and the other will be the surrogate…thus eliminating the need to ‘rent’ a recipient mare. False… or at least extremely unlikely and ill-advised. Embryo transfer is an advanced, complicated, delicate, and expensive process. The greatest expense in maintaining an embryo transfer program lies in maintaining a herd of at least ~50-100 recipient mares. Do you know why they have 50-100 recip mares? It’s so they can pick the one mare whose cycle matches up perfectly with your donor mare, so that the delicate embryo transfer process is successful. You may read that there are ways to synchronize the cycles of 2 mares. However, these protocols are not an exact science, and they require hormonal manipulation which never works as well as allowing things to happen naturally. There is a higher risk of the embryo transfer failing, and the next thing you know, you are out $2000 and you don’t have a baby on the way.  

Having just read that bit about embryo transfer, you may be thinking that sounds expensive, but you are going to find a way to do it cheaper. I can assure you, you will not. If you want to breed your own mare and raise your own foal, you need to be prepared to invest thousands of dollars in the process. Which begs the question: would it be cheaper to just buy a horse? And the answer is usually ‘yes.’

Consider the fact that you will have the costs of breeding on the mare end (pre-breeding screening tests, ultrasounds, artificial insemination, etc.), the costs of the stud fee (factor in 1-3 collection fees, too), the costs of pregnant mare care (ultrasounds, vaccines, foal watch). Then, once the foal is born, you still have to get it to survive it’s first 3-4 years of life or so before you sell it. That means 3-4 years of feeding, housing, preventive care, emergencies (baby horses LOVE to hurt themselves), training, etc. Add all that up. Go ahead, I’ll wait. I have hours until my Friskies is served.

A lot of time and patience

A horse’s gestation is around 11 months on average, but it is not unusual for them to carry over a year. So by the time the foal is born, you have already invested almost a year and a half in creating this perfect little once-in-a-lifetime horse.

What’s the deal with Supplements?

What’s the deal with all the supplements you people feed your horses? There must be thousands of different things you can add to your horse’s food on a daily basis. Who would even want to eat all that stuff in their food, it has to mask the deliciousness that is food, right? As a diabetic kitty the only “supplement” I take is my insulin twice daily, thank goodness. My staff just pokes me with a tiny needle to give that and doesn’t mess with my food, because I might go on a hunger strike if they messed with my food! Since I didn’t know much about horse supplements, I wanted to learn a bit more, so I talked to my docs about what they think about all the different types of supplements out there. Let’s chat about some of the most popular types that you’ll see daily at your local feed store.

Electrolytes

It has been so refreshing and cool this past weekend, it’s almost easy to forget how much horses sweat (if we are lucky). Hopefully your horse is a good sweater and you don’t have to deal with anhydrosis, but that is a topic for another week. As you know, horses lose sweat during exercise and in hot and humid conditions aka FLORIDA. When they sweat, they lose more than just salt, they lose sodium, calcium, chloride, and magnesium. This means they need all of these elements replenished through their diet. You might think that hanging a salt or mineral block for your horse will be enough to get them all they lose when they sweat but unfortunately that’s not always the case.

Often times my docs will recommend adding an electrolyte to your horse’s food or water. The problem with salt and mineral blocks is the intake per horse is highly variable and it can be hard to tell how much your horse is consuming. The best way to replenish what is lost in sweat is to add an electrolyte to their feed or water. When you walk in your local feed store you may be overwhelmed with all the different types of electrolytes. So how do you pick the right one for your horse? My docs recommend you evaluate the sugar content and pick one that is low in sugar.

You may have noticed that this past weekend with the cooler weather your horse has not been drinking as much as he should. This is often the case when the weather turns colder, horses forget to drink. And we all know what happens when horses forget to drink, yup, the dreaded C-word, colic.  I never forget to drink or eat. Cats are too smart for that!  So, how do you get your horse to keep drinking when the weather changes? Add in some electrolytes to their feed, even just some plain table salt can encourage them to drink more. However, there is some concern with adding in plain salt to your horse’s diet. Some horses will not eat plain salt. They may lick a salt block, but if you add salt to their grain, they won’t eat it. Explain that logic to me!

The other potential problem with feeding table salt is in feeding it to horses with active gastric ulcers. Think about it: if you feed your horse salt and he has an ulcer in his stomach, you will literally be pouring salt on a wound, OUCH! That being said, you may find that electrolytes are the easiest and most palatable to feed your horse.

Joint Supplements

If I know anything, I know that you people all want the best for your horses and will do whatever you can to keep your horse feeling 100%, including feeding the most expensive joint supplement on the market. Well, luckily for you, I am here to save you all the money. Joint supplements may seem like the answer to all your problems. However, I am here to tell you that is not always the case. Unfortunately, the science behind feed-through joint supplements is lacking and the studies out there only show how the supplements work before they hit the horse’s digestive tract.

If you have ever had a horse colic you know they have the most wonky GI tract and who knows if joint supplements can even withstand the digestive process and do what they are supposed to do in the joint. If you ask my docs about feed-through joint supplements, they will tell you all you’re doing is making some very expensive manure. However, if you have the desire to add a joint supplement to your horse’s feed, by all means, go for it, it might help and can’t hurt. But if you want the next level treatment for your horse’s joints, I recommend you talk to my docs to get their recommendations on exercise programs along with a possible injectable joint supplement such as Adequan that may benefit your horse more than feed-through joint supplements.

Hoof Supplements

You all know the saying, no hoof no horse, and your farrier has probably recommended a hoof supplement for your horse, especially if they have any history of feet problems. Your farrier is definitely not wrong to recommend a hoof supplement, but let’s look at them a little further to see if they are something your horse really needs.

Most hoof supplements are made up of mostly biotin. You know, maybe I should take a hoof supplement, biotin would surely make my coat gleam and my nails sharper to better catch those rats with, but I digress.

As we have discussed, horses have wonky gastrointestinal tracts and weird-o digestive systems. However, their odd GI has set them up to make their own biotin in their hindgut which suggests they don’t really need any supplemented in their diet.  That being said, there have been reports that with the addition of a hoof supplement, owners, farriers, and veterinarians have noticed an increase in hoof growth, improvement in the quality and elasticity of the horn, and strengthening of weakened hoof walls, particularly in horses with “shelly” feet.

Similar to joint supplements, hoof supplements certainly might help and won’t hurt. If you are going to feed a hoof supplement, make sure you’re feeding the appropriate amount of 15-20 mg per 1000lb horse per day, but remember, you cannot rely fully on hoof supplements for the health of your horse’s feet. A good working relationship between my docs and your farrier is essential as well as good nutrition.

We have only just begun to scratch the surface of supplements that are available to feed your horse. If you have any questions about what supplement you should or should not feed and how they work, be sure to call the clinic and talk to my docs about your horse’s needs.  Remember, there is no supplement that can replace a balanced diet, and feeding your horse a balanced diet of appropriate grain and forage is essential to their wellbeing. My docs are always available for appointments to discuss nutrition including what grain, hay and supplements to feed your horse, so call the clinic and schedule your appointment to see me, and talk to the docs about feeding your horse.

Want more right now? Check out the podcast my docs did on Supplements. It’s Season 2, Episode 16. You can listen to it right on my website by clicking here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Until next week,

~Tony

There’s a problem in equine veterinary medicine that rarely gets discussed. The bodies. The reality is that horses are really big, and it’s going to take a decent amount of work to manage the body after they pass. It’s not a pleasant topic, but it’s an important one. And since it’s Halloween week, and I’ve got this bad cat sense of humor, I felt it would be a good time to talk about this grave topic. 

The Elephant in the Room

Let’s start with the obvious problem: the size. Horses are, generally, pretty darn big. When they pass, we are left with a very large body to manage. The goldfish option is definitely no good. Then there’s the pet cemetery in the back yard, but unless you have a really big backyard, that’s not going to work. There’s cremation, but you need to find a crematorium that’s big enough. And finally, there’s the someone who picks them up and takes them away option. Even in Marion County, where a lot of horses live, this last option has long been the most used option. However, a few things have happened to make this option more and more expensive.

Residues

One of the primary ways horses have been euthanized for many, many years is with an overdose of a drug called pentobarbital. This an anesthetic which has many nice properties for humane euthanasia. First, because it’s an anesthetic, the horse falls asleep first, then gently passes away over a very short time frame. Next, it is relatively inexpensive in large quantities, because again, being the realistic cat I am, you need large quantities of anything for horses because they’re big. Finally, while pentobarbital is a controlled drug, which means it has special paperwork to go with it, most humans don’t really want to use it to get high so my Docs don’t have to worry too much about that. 

Here comes the but. But, pentobarbital residues have shown up in some places they weren’t supposed to, namely pet food. Personally, I was horrified by this. Anything that jeopardizes my food supply is very not OK with this fat cat. Pentobarbital also stays in the environment a really, really long time. This means those horses that are buried are contaminating groundwater near their bodies. The environment can handle this if you have one or two buried on a large property, but get three or four in a small area, and it’s not so good. Here in Florida we are especially sensitive to this, since our groundwater level is so high you can find standing water in a hole 6” deep. That’s the water we drink.

Are there good options?

Yes! Many really smart people have been working on this issue, and have come up with very humane euthanasia methods that don’t require drugs which leave bad residues. Now, these people aren’t as smart as a cat, but I do think they’ve done a pretty good job. Veterinarians the world over have also been discussing what to do with the bodies, even without the residue, and have a few options. Some readily available, some needing a little more work. Let’s start with cremation. Step one is to find a crematorium which can handle something as large as a horse. They are out there. However, it is really pricey at around $1500. Cremation also carries its own environmental issues. 

Composting of the remains is possible, but requires a large volume of compostable material like wood mulch to go under and over the body. This is being explored in many horse-dense areas like Marion County, but this cat doesn’t know of any commercial-level horse composting facilities. The other option is burial, but with one of the alternative euthanasia methods. Finally, there is the county landfill option. While this one doesn’t sound very good to you horse owners, it is often the best, most cost-effective option available. In north central Florida, this option has been the go-to, but now it’s getting harder and harder to find as many landfills have stopped accepting them.

Want to help come up with better options? Check with my Docs, or your veterinarian, to see what alternatives are being explored in your area. I will say I learn some interesting things sitting at the front desk. I never thought of this issue until the price to pick up a body recently went up $200 in one day because of increased landfill fees. That makes euthanasia and removal cost about $800. That’s a big bill on a tough day, that no one wants to make harder. Rest assured my Docs are trying their hardest to work with options in the area to come up with the best solutions possible.

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Did you know that Dr. Lacher’s husband wrote a book? It’s called Adventures of the Horse Doctor’s Husband. It’s been the #1 best selling book on Amazon in the horse care category for a few months now. Apparently that’s a big deal, so I thought I would mention it. You can click on the banner below to learn more about it. Okay, I’m going to take a nap.