Mar 21, 2017 | Allergies, Coughing
We in the animal world think it’s fun to display our allergies in fun ways designed to mystify our humans. For instance, I myself suffer from allergies. My allergies manifest themselves as itchy skin. Luckily, I live at a veterinary clinic. My minions do their best to manage my allergies, but I do my best to come up with ways to avoid their treatments. Turns out cats and horses are similar in this way.
It’s not snot
Usually, horses don’t get the runny noses and itchy eyes you humans encounter. Instead, they get itchy skin, diarrhea, and sometimes coughing and wheezing, but very rarely straight up snot. Diarrhea is most often a food allergy. Itchy skin can be caused by allergies to pretty much anything: food, oak trees, sawdust, gnats, the sky, sunshine. Coughing and wheezing are more common with allergies to pollen and dust.
What are they allergic to?!?
The best way to treat allergies is to avoid the thing you’re allergic to. Right. Because it’s easy to avoid bugs and pollen in Florida. So what’s a cat to do? There are a couple of options. One is to treat the horse for allergies to anything. The other option is to identify what your horse is allergic to, then treat with a combination of allergy shots and avoidance.
Let’s talk about identifying what your horse is allergic to first. Just like they do for humans, my Docs do what’s called intradermal allergy testing. They take very small amounts of allergens, like oak pollen, and inject it under the skin. Next, they wait a few hours to see how big a bump that allergen makes on the skin. The bumps get ranked on size, and a custom allergy shot mix is made for your horse based on that.
The other option is the broad-based drug approach. This is like you humans taking benadryl or Claritin. Horses can take Claritin, too. Okay, they do better on Zyrtec, but whatever. These treatments are aimed at reducing the entire body’s allergic response, but, as you humans know, there can be side effects. The most common side effect is drowsiness. This side effect makes many of these drugs a big no-no for show horses.
Making life livable with allergies
Now that you know the options for treating allergies, let’s talk about real world management.
Allergy shots work really well for the coughing, wheezing horse. However, they do take a while (as in a year) to kick in. Allergy shots start with a low dose, then gradually increase over about 2-3 months. These shots get the body to tone down its response to allergens. This means less coughing and wheezing.
Cetirizine (the drug in Zyrtec) and dexamethasone are the most common drugs my doctors use. Cetirizine is cheap and easy to give, but again, can’t be used if you have drug testing at your shows. Dexamethasone is even easier to give, and can be used if drug testing is performed. Depending on your horse, farm, and situation, our Docs can help you design the plan that works best for you.
There is a new drug available to help allergic horses: Apoquel. This drug has been used in dogs with some pretty fabulous results. My Docs are among the first in the country to use this drug on itchy and wheezy horses. I hear the result have been spectacular.
Avoiding Allergies
Okay, so let’s just agree that this is not a possibility for most allergens. The only one it is sort of, kind of possible for is gnats. This is done by covering your horse with fly sheets and masks from head to toe, dousing them in fly spray, IBH salve (ask my humans, they have it at the Clinic), and keeping them in front of fans at sunrise and sunset.
Need help in the eternal battle against allergies? Call my humans. They don’t just treat allergic horses, they own allergic horses.
Until next week,
-Tony
Tuesdays with Tony is the official blog of Tony the Clinic Cat at Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. If you liked this blog, please subscribe below, and share it with your friends on social media! For more information, please call us at (352) 472-1620, visit our website at SpringhillEquine.com, or follow us on Facebook!
Mar 15, 2017 | Buying and Selling, Competition Horses, Craigslist, Disaster Preparedness, Events, Horse Trailer, Q & A, Safety, Trading, trailering
Ever have problems loading your horse on the trailer? Tony reveals all the tricks of the trade!
So, I have a complaint. On Saturday morning my minions came to feed me as usual. But then, as they all headed off eagerly to Canterbury Showplace to set up for my Trailering Seminar, they slammed the door in my face! That’s right, they left me here at the clinic with stinky Teanie! Can you believe it? I do all the work designing and promoting the event, then they leave me behind and take all the credit. Well, in case you too got locked behind your kitty door, here is a recap of what you missed.
How NOT to load a horse
Hanging out and observing all the goings on at the clinic, I have seen many methods of loading a horse on a trailer that are fantastically ineffective. If you stand in front of your horse pulling on the leadrope, making lots of noise, rushing, and trying to force your horse into a dark scary hole, I guarantee you it is not going to work. Other poor choices I have seen include shaking a bucket of grain in the trailer while your horse stands outside terrified of the noisy echo coming from inside the hole where he was already convinced monsters were lurking. Also, using short crops on the shoulder or lip chains on the leadrope, both of which tend to drive horses backwards rather than forwards. Another good way to set yourself up for failure is to try to load a horse that does not yet know how to lead, and to move forward when you ask.
If you’re not bored, you’re doing it wrong
Now I am going to share with you and only you, my adoring fans, the great, big, awesome, mind-blowing, earth-shattering, best-kept-secret-in-the-world for loading a horse on the trailer: patience. If you put a very patient person at the horse’s head (like Nancy, who perfectly demonstrated this at my seminar), chances are very good your horse will get on the trailer. Now first, Nancy will have to make sure your horse knows to move forward when asked. Then, your horse will have to get comfortable being close to the trailer, to convince himself that the horse-eating monsters that live inside have left for the day. Finally, Nancy will ask your horse to step into the trailer, immediately rewarding any motion or even a hint of moving in the right direction. For this part, it is helpful to have your second-most-patient friend behind the horse with a longe whip to gently encourage that forward motion, and to immediately release pressure when the forward motion is achieved.
How to haul a horse trailer
Well, I guess I would know what to tell you here if they had invited me to my own event! Apparently Justin did a killer job giving demonstrations, explanations, and hands-on training to the attendees. He taught them how to do this fancy move called an L-turn for backing your trailer into a tight spot. He warned against passenger-side backing, and advised using a ground person to watch your blind spots whenever possible. The biggest take home message that was passed along to me was safety first when hauling: always think about what you are going to do before you do it. Don’t pull into that gas station without thinking about your exit strategy. Don’t pull forward into a narrow spot if you are not comfortable turning your trailer around. Don’t hesitate to get out and walk around the back of the trailer instead of just backing up until you hear a crunch!
I hope everyone other than me was able to make it to this amazing event. But if you missed it, save the date for my next seminar, Wednesday April 19th on Geriatrics! Don’t worry, I won’t let them keep me away next time.
-Tony
Mar 7, 2017 | Ailments, Breeding, Buying and Selling, Competition Horses, Craigslist, Dr. Google, Foals, Infections, Q & A, Safety
Ah, your mare! You look wistfully back on your history with her. You and your mare have accomplished a lot. She’s made your dreams come true; she’s been there as your partner, and companion through thick and thin. You’re ready for her to carry on her legacy with a foal. You’ve poured through the magazines, you’ve researched performance records, and you’re a pedigree expert. Your perfect stallion has been found and is even 5 panel testing negative! Oh goody!
What the heck is 5 panel testing? Is it a good thing when a stallion is negative? What’s a positive mean? Never fear, your intrepid feline source of information is here.
Why do I care about 5 panel testing?
Long ago, in a land far, far away horses were bred for speed, muscle, good looks, color. You name it, humans have bred for it. Along the way some other stuff was selected for too, on accident. Beginning about 30 years ago, scientists found a way to test genes to see if some of the not so desirable stuff was present in the DNA of a horse.
In 2015, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) took the important step of saying “Hey, we can test for a bunch of bad stuff. Let’s make sure we breed responsibly.” This means that ALL stallions that file a stallion report now have these results available to you the mare owner. Many other breeds have their own genetic diseases that are routinely tested for. Not sure about your breed of choice? Ask the registration association for that breed or check with my minions. My minions work hard to stay up-to-date on this ever changing world.
What does 5 panel testing test for?
The 5 Panel Test covers, shockingly, 5 major genetic disorders common in Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, and Paints: Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP), Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy type 1 (PSSM 1), Malignant Hyperthermia (MH), Hereditary Epidermal Regional Dermal Asthenia (HERDA), and Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency (GBED).
These diseases are all caused by one teeny, tiny mutation which makes them easy to test for, and they all cause really bad diseases. I put a short description about all of them at the bottom of this blog in case you want to read more about them.
Should I test my mare?
You really should. That’s the short answer. Here’s the long one. You can never have too much information when it comes to breeding. Additionally, HYPP, PSSM, and MH could cause health problems for your mare during pregnancy so knowing if she’s got them can be very helpful to your wonderful veterinarians.
You really, really should do the 5 panel testing if your stallion choice is positive for any of them. If you have found that perfect hunk of a guy for your mare, but he’s positive for one of these diseases, you really need to know if your mare is positive too. If she is, you are definitely going to have to go back to the pretty pictures and find her a different guy.
I’m pretty sure I can now pass a test on this 5 panel testing! Want more information? Call, text, or e-mail my humans. They love talking about mares, and babies, and stallions, okay, pretty much anything horse. Until next week, may your litter box be clean and your food bowl full.
HYPP
HYPP stands for Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis. This disease affects the electrical impulses within the body that control muscle contraction. The defective gene results in clinical signs of muscle tremors and fasciculations. In some severe cases, horses may be unable to stand, or even unable to breathe. Horses can show symptoms with only one copy of the defective gene, but symptoms are often more severe if they have two copies of the mutation. This disease affects mostly halter horses, and can be traced back to the prolific stallion ‘Impressive’. Since Impressive lines were also used in Paint and Appaloosa halter breeding programs, HYPP is found in those breeds as well. AQHA does not allow registration of foals that test positive for two copies of the defective gene (H/H), but will allow registration of foals that are H/N: one defective and one normal gene.
PSSM 1
PSSM stands for Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy. This disease causes changes in the way sugars are stored and used by the muscles. It causes frequent episodes of ‘tying up’ if not properly controlled by a special diet and regular low intensity exercise. There are two types of PSSM. Type 1 is caused by a genetically identified mutation, which is testable. Type 2 is suspected to be genetic, but that mutation has not yet been identified by researchers. Most Quarter Horses with PSSM have type 1. Horses will show symptoms of PSSM type 1 with one or two copies of the mutation. Like HYPP, PSSM type 1 is more common in halter QHs than in other lines. Some QHs have been shown to have mutations for both HYPP and PSSM.
HERDA
HERDA stands for Hereditary Epidermal Regional Dermal Asthenia. Horses with HERDA have defective collagen, an important protein that is part of skin, cartilage, muscles, and tendons. The major clinical sign is skin that is easily injured, torn, or even sloughed off. The skin is also very slow to heal. There is no treatment for the condition, and horses that have it are often euthanized. Horses will only show symptoms if they have two copies of the mutation for HERDA. Horses with only one copy of the mutation are clinically normal. These animals are called ‘carriers’. They can pass copies of the mutation to their foals, and if one carrier is bred to another carrier, the foal might inherit the mutation from both parents and be symptomatic. HERDA is limited mostly to horses with reining and cutting horse bloodlines.
GBED
GBED stands for Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency. Like PSSM, this disease also affects how sugars are stored, but in a different and more severe way. It results in abortions, stillborn foals, and foals that are alive but weak at birth and die or are euthanized soon after. Like with HERDA, horses may be carriers for GBED – if a horse has only one copy of the mutation it will be clinically normal. Paints and Appaloosas can also carry the GBED mutation.
MH
MH stands for Malignant Hyperthermia. This disease changes the way muscle cells handle calcium, and thus the metabolism of the cell. Horses with MH will appear normal most of the time, but have specific occasions when they show symptoms. During an attack, horses will have a very high fever, profuse sweating, high and irregular heart rate, high blood pressure, and rigid muscles. Attacks are triggered by certain anesthetic agents or stress, and are sometimes fatal. MH is believed to be less common than either HYPP or PSSM, but the percentage of affected horses is not yet known. Several breeds including Quarter Horses and Paints can be affected. Horses may be positive for both PSSM and MH together, and these animals appear to suffer from more severe episodes of tying up than horses that have PSSM alone.
Feb 28, 2017 | Buying and Selling, Craigslist, Q & A, Re-homing, Retired, Trading, Weight loss/gain
Nobody ever sells their best horse. At least, not that I’ve seen during my 9 lives supervising an equine vet clinic. Typically, the docs are asked to help find homes for the 20+ year old retiree whose pasture-mate just had to be put down, the 13 year old lawn ornament that the kids grew out of, or the 3 year old un-broke colt who has barely been handled. Nobody is selling their 8 year old Grand Prix jumper….or at least they aren’t asking my advice about it!
Why are horses tough to sell?
The problem is, horses are working animals. Typically, it’s not good enough for them to just sit around and look adorable (like me). There is still a demand (and a price) for horses that are willing, able, and experienced doing a job. The docs frequently encounter clients looking for a quiet trail horse for their husband, a dead-broke pony for their 3 year old daughter, or a young, trained, athletic horse that they can put some finishing touches on and then re-sell for a profit.
Consider other solutions
In case you didn’t know, we at Springhill always know a long list of horses in search of homes. Would you consider finding a new pasture-mate for your old retiree? Perhaps you could lease the pony that your kids grew out of to another child in need of a mount? As for the un-broke 3 year old: 30 days of training might be a wise investment in terms of getting him off the market (and off your feed tab)!
How Springhill can help
Lucky for you humans, I happen to have created an excellent networking resource for our clients who are looking to buy, sell, lease, trade, donate, rescue, or otherwise exchange horses! It’s called Springhill Equine’s Client Corner, and it’s super easy to join! Simply log into your Facebook account, search “Springhill Equine’s Client Corner” and request to join the group. Once you are approved as a member, you will have access to a secret group made up of only Springhill’s finest. What better way to start re-homing your horse? You’re welcome!
-Tony
Feb 21, 2017 | Athleticism, Competition Horses
As a cat I’m pretty much a loner. I understand you humans are what is known as a social creature. You like to be around other humans who like the same stuff you like. I guess I can relate. Teannie and I both enjoy the chair in the inventory room so sometimes we hang out on it together. Where am I going with this? We did a survey of the humans who come to Springhill Equine recently. We found you guys like to do stuff with your horses. And a lot of you like to do the same stuff.
Turns out about 80% of you do something athletic with your horses. It’s about evenly split between barrel racing, dressage, trail riding, and hunter/jumper, along with strong representation by western dressage, breed shows (from Arabians to Paso Fino), eventing, and driving. You guys also simply enjoy the company of your horse. Many of you have horses for companionship (I really think a cat would be a better choice but that’s just me) or are giving your horses the retirement you dream of for yourself. Anyway you are a diverse group!
My minions are a pretty diverse group too. We have Dr. Lacher and Dr. Vurgason showing in the hunter/jumper circles, MJ representing at the barrel races, Kayla and her horse are working on a career choice, Beth enjoys trail riding and hanging out with her horses (and minis), Nancy does western dressage and obstacle challenges, and last, but not least, Stephanie enjoys pampering her horse and an occasional saunter around the pasture. Whew we sure do keep busy with a variety of horse activities!
Why does all this matter? Well to start, it means my minions are a part of the big, huge (though shockingly interconnected) horse community. It means if you’ve got a problem, my minions have a broad knowledge base to pull from. And they don’t look at your horse as a motorcycle with hooves. They eat, sleep, breathe horses. It means they know you have goals, even if it’s that your horse has the longest, most comfortable retirement they can. It also means, they will sit and “talk horse” with you. They tell me you’re never too old to learn more about horses.
Looking for something to do with your horse? We can point you in a direction. Heck just this weekend, I had people at the Cops for Cancer benefit trail ride and a hunter/jumper show at Canterbury. I’ve got my paw on the pulse of stuff to do with horses! You horse people are a passionate lot and at the end of the day, even this cat is happy to be a small part of the horse community.
-Tony
Feb 14, 2017 | Competition Horses
Folks, you’ve been following me for a while now. I think it’s time I let you in on one of my deepest, darkest secrets: I am addicted to food. Yes, it’s true. If it weren’t for my human minions constantly rationing my meals, I would be in the running for the world’s fattest feline. I have already been diagnosed with diabetes (twice), and the humans only feed me 2 tiny bowls of prescription cat food a day. I constantly beg and try other methods to get their attention: sleeping in or on the docs’ trucks, laying on the computer keyboards, sitting in the chairs, climbing on the X-ray and ultrasound equipment, and often standing right in their path so they can’t ignore me. But to no avail. They are absolutely starving me here!
In my valued opinion, addiction to food is one of the most difficult addictions to fight, because you have to put some of the substance you are addicted to into your body every day in order to survive. I often hear our clients compare their addiction to horses to other addictions such as alcohol, hard drugs, caffeine, chocolate, etc. But there’s no way your addiction to horses can be as rough as my addiction to food, right?
Let me ask you a few questions to get an idea of how severe your substance –in this case horse– addiction is…
1) Does time with your horse ever interfere with your daily activities? i.e. Spending time with family, attending social events, eating a healthy diet, practicing average hygiene (such as washing the horse manure off of your jeans before going into public), or getting enough sleep. Yes? Hmmm OK, next question…
2) Have you ever lied to cover up your addiction? For example, “Yes honey, I’ll be back from the barn in 2 hours.” *5 hours later you are oiling your tack and braiding your horse’s mane*. Yes? OK this may be more serious than I thought…
3) What would you be willing to do to get back to your last high: that amazing ride, that winning round, that flawless trip, that moment of perfect harmony that you and your horse shared? Wow, just about anything? OK, you really may have a problem!
Don’t worry, Springhill Equine can help! No, not with your addiction…you might need a professional for that. But our docs can help you get back to that high. Whatever is standing in your way: lameness, disease, improper nutrition, or conditioning- let the docs help you get back to that moment of glory with your horse.
Well, after my questionnaire I have a newfound respect for people who claim they are addicted to horses. It might even compare to my addiction to food! I truly hope you find the help you need.
-Tony
Feb 7, 2017 | Radiographs, Ultrasound
I closely supervised the Docs this week in the Clinic, and I noticed two significant pieces of equipment being used on a regular basis: the ultrasound and x-ray. Being a curious cat, I sat them down and asked why x-ray this horse but not that one? Which led to: when do you use the ultrasound? Read on for some profound learning from a very wise cat.
Ultrasound
Both ultrasound and x-ray use waves of energy to make a pretty picture, kind of like a camera. The ultrasound uses, wait for it, sound waves. Sound waves go into the body and bounce off different tissues before coming back to the probe. The computer inside the ultrasound then turns the waves into an image. Lots of things affect the waves, but the biggie is how much water is in the tissue. This means things like muscles and babies make really pretty images because they are mostly water.
Tendons and ligaments can be easily seen too. While they don’t contain as much water as muscles, they are very tightly organized and surrounded by other tissues which do contain water (mostly, see more later). When tendons and ligaments do get injured, they dramatically increase the water (edema) in the area of an injury making injuries very easy to see (again, mostly, you’re going to have to keep reading).
What are ultrasounds bad at seeing through? Air, think lungs and gas filled guts, and hard stuff like bone and hooves. The Docs can still use the ultrasound to get an idea about the contours of lungs and bones. In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways to tell if a horse has pneumonia. Ultrasound is also a first line tool used to check for some bone fractures. The ultrasound can’t see through air though so only the very outside edge of the lungs can be checked. That air (well gas really) is very useful in the GI tract. In the image below our Docs used the gas/tissue interface to determine if this horse had the potential for hind gut ulcers.
The next place that would be really nice to see with the ultrasound is inside the hoof. There are some really important things in there that would be great to see with an ultrasound. Unfortunately, the hoof capsule is great at bouncing those sound waves. In a pinch, the hoof can be soaked for about 24 hours, then the outermost layer of sole pared down with a hoof knife, and the ultrasound very, very firmly held against the frog. This is a very limited viewing window, but can be useful to recheck after an MRI.
Another place sound waves like to be difficult is the back of the hock. In this area lives a very important structure called the proximal suspensory ligament. This ligament is a source of many curse words here at Springhill Equine. The ligament is between the splint bones, under some blood vessels, and right next to the cannon bone. To top it off it contains muscle and ligaments in a twisted, woven bundle. Sound waves bounce around like crazy which drives the computer inside the ultrasound machine crazy. The computer does it’s best to sort it all out, but often it fills in the blanks a little wrong, causing what’s known as an artifact. Moral of the story here is that imaging proximal suspensories is hard, and imaging is only part of the picture. Yes, that’s a pun, and I’m pretty proud of it!
X-ray
Moving on to x-rays. Technically, radiology. X-rays are the waves that are used to make a radiograph, just like visible light is the wave used to make a picture. OK, technical stuff covered. All those things ultrasounds hate, x-rays love. Radiographs are the best option for anything bone, or air filled (again there’s an exception, and I’m going to make you read the entire blog to find out what it is). X-rays shoot straight through bone and air to make a picture on a plate placed on the other side.
Radiographs are very much like the pictures you shoot with your camera. Think of the x-ray machine as the sun and the plate as your camera, with the subject of the picture being your horse. Radiographs are great at seeing changes in bone like arthritis, and changes in density. Radiographs are also great at looking at the whole structure of the lungs, instead of just the surface that ultrasounds see. And x-rays go right through that pesky hoof capsule to let us see the bones inside. What they can’t see are soft tissues. And this means it’s very often a team effort between radiographs and ultrasound to get a complete image of the inside of your horse.
I’m not making you read to the very end for the x-ray exception, only mostly to the end. Horses are big. They are nearly as big as I think I am. This is a problem for radiographs and ultrasound. Neither of these waves are strong enough to push through the big ol’ butt on a horse. From about where the back of a saddle sits to the start of the tail, horses are solid muscle, bone, and hay filled gut. This combination is able to scatter all the x-rays that hit before they can reach the plate and absorb all the sound waves so that deep ones can’t get back to the computer.
We can get some hints about what’s going on in there, but getting a clear picture is like trying to figure out what it looks like at the bottom of the Marianna’s Trench in the Pacific Ocean: it ain’t easy. Make stronger waves you say. Sadly, physics says no. If you make the wave stronger it can’t go as deep, if you make it weaker it can’t reach the other side. There is no easy answer here. A good physical exam, watching your horse do what it does, and then evaluating the problem are the best answer for low back pain and high hind end lameness in horses. Luckily I know a couple of awesome veterinarians with a ton of horse sense to back up their medical knowledge 😉
Until next week,
Tony
Jan 31, 2017 | Breeding, Foals
For the record, I did not choose to jump on the phantom for this week’s photo. I was forced to pose there by my humans- hence the look of displeasure on my face. That being said, my Breeding & Foaling Seminar this month was one of the best-attended educational events I have ever hosted! But in case you were one of the 2 or 3 cats who forgot or couldn’t make it here to see me, I’ll give you a re-cap.
If you are considering breeding your mare, there are several stallion factors to consider. These include but are not limited to: germs, bloodlines, history of breeding success, and legal jargon. Make sure your stallion of choice checks all the boxes before committing to breed to him. If you need help deciphering a breeding contract or remembering what diseases he should be tested for, ask our vets! That’s why they went to 8+ years of school after all.
Breeding a mare is a lot like baking a soufflé. In the cookbook, it sounds easy: just follow the recipe and voila! But in real life, lots of things can go wrong. Mares don’t like to read the cookbook. Failing to come into heat, not ovulating in a timely manner, reacting to the semen placed in her uterus, or fertilizing twins…these are just a few of the things mares try to do to make the docs bang their head against a wall.
Let’s say your soufflé comes out perfectly: after one cycle, you end up with a single, beautiful, round little embryo at the 14-day pregnancy ultrasound. Fast-forward 11 months, and now you are ready to welcome your new bundle of joy! But when?
This is another point where mares can be tricky. Their “due date” is just an estimate, and can easily range from 320-360 days gestation, or even longer. In the docs’ opinion, the best way to know when your mare is going to foal is to test her milk pH daily. When it drops to 6.4, there is a 98% chance she will foal within the next 72 hours. I like those odds! You can also use the good old signs like bagging up, relaxation of the vulva, and waxing of the teats.
So your mare is in labor, now is the time to panic, right? Yeah…no. Stage 1 of labor can last several hours and is characterized by acting restless, pawing, not eating, and flank-watching. Stage 2 is the exciting part- it begins with the mare’s water breaking, and ends with a foal on the ground! This stage of labor should last NO MORE than 20 MINUTES. Don’t forget about Stage 3: passing the placenta. The docs will appreciate if you save that stinky sucker in a bag or bucket until they can get out there to evaluate it.
Mares rarely need help with labor, but it’s important to know what is normal so you can identify when something goes wrong. Might I point out that cats NEVER need help having kittens (or so I’ve heard). This is where the 1-2-3 rule comes into play. A normal foal should stand within 1 hour of birth, nurse within 2 hours, and the mare should pass her placenta within 3 hours. If the foal misses any of these milestones, what should you do? You guessed it- call the docs!
Well, that’s my story. Of course there is no way to put into words the best part of the seminar that you missed: me! But you guys are such quick learners, you are all going to do great!
-Tony
Jan 24, 2017 | Ailments, Colic, Deworming, Feed, Hay, Uncategorized
Colics. We see a heck of a lot of them. Now a decent amount of those colics can be attributed to the fairly ridiculous design of the equine GI tract. I mean, honestly, who thought that was a good idea? However, I spent my weekend pouring through the computer to look at colics the Docs saw last year. That’s right, I spend my weekend working. What’s a cat to do when it’s far too windy for civilized folk to be outside but sleep in the sun and play on the computer?
I would like a drum roll here to acknowledge my hard work, so please play one in your head now….
Our Docs saw 318 colics last year. Of those colics, three went to surgery. That’s right, three. Four others needed surgery, but for a variety of very good reasons their owners weren’t able to take them to surgery. I did remove one very specific type of colic from those numbers, but I will explain why later. I’m going to start with the moral of story: Most colics don’t need surgery. There you go. You have the punchline. Now, let’s move on to some helpful guidelines to avoid seeing Dr. Lacher and Dr. Vurgason for… umm… ‘unscheduled opportunities’ to spend money on your horse.
Alfalfa (or peanut). I’m not talking about the bad hair day or the comic strip. I’m talking hay. Feeding coastal hay is very, very strongly associated with an emergency visit from one of my Docs after hours. Coastal hay in a round roll virtually guarantees you will see my Docs for an emergency. If you run out of round bale hay, cold weather moves in, and you put out a new round bale, make sure you throw plenty of alfalfa or peanut hay alongside. Feeding a minimum of 4-6 pounds of alfalfa or peanut hay daily will go a long way towards preventing this cause.
Be obsessive-compulsive about water. The old adage “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink,” exists because it’s so true. If you even have a doubt about how much water your horse is drinking, get water into them. How, you ask? Watch this handy video about how to make colic soup for your horse. Besides colic soup, adding a bit of molasses to the water, or giving them a small amount of salt slurry will entice some to drink up. Each horse is different; work with your horse to figure out what works best.
Manage your horse’s environment. If your horse is in a sandy area, keeping plenty of roughage going through the system is a great way to prevent sand build-up. Psyllium is also an option here for the horse who needs fewer calories, but hay works better than anything else. For the Fall season, be aware of acorns. Acorns are like cute little field mice for cats: bite size morsels of deliciousness. Too many can lead to gas, and we all know gas can be painful. Acorns are tough to avoid, but our Docs have used muzzles and creative electrical fence configurations to help.
Finally, let me go back to that one particular colic: lipomas. Lipomas are a fatty tumor that grows in the area of the small intestine in older horses. It happens in skinny horses and fat horses alike. Lipomas are associated with age. They are not because of nutrition, bad or good, management, or any other factor you can control. These tumors are wicked. They wrap up a section of small intestine much like the bolos used by Gauchos, and strangle it until it dies. If a small amount of intestine is trapped, and the colic is caught early, surgery can be very successful. Unfortunately, many of these horses aren’t found for a few hours and by then surgery is very risky, with laminitis a very real risk about 72 hours post surgery.
Colic sucks. There’s no other way to put it. A little work on the diet and a dash of environmental management, and it will suck less. Want help with a diet plan? Contact my trusty minion Beth. She’s super smart when it comes to everything equine nutrition! And now I’m off to supervise the Clinic.
Jan 17, 2017 | Abscesses, Farriers, Hoof Care, Lameness, Leg issues, Q & A, White Line Disease
Last Wednesday evening was an atypical night for me. There was pizza, which is always a plus. But then about a half dozen big burly men with a bunch of tools showed up, pulling trailers with–get this–built-in furnaces! The docs called them Farriers. Turns out all you have to do is let them know there will be pizza, and they will come from far and wide. Beth brought in her horse, Princess Chubby Butt, to be the test subject. The docs learned how the farriers approach a problem foot, and the farriers learned why things are not always as they seem on X-rays. It was a great learning experience for everyone…OK, I’ll admit even I learned a thing or two.
It turns out if you ask 6 different farriers the same question, you get 6 different answers. In fact, it is widely accepted that if you ask 20 different farriers the same question, you will get 20 different answers. Luckily, we have a bunch of great farriers in our area, and although they may have different opinions about the right way to approach a problem, none of them are wrong. If your horse was experiencing a foot lameness, it used to be commonplace for your vet to blame your farrier, and for your farrier to blame your vet. But here at Springhill Equine we are trying to change that!
We see the vet, farrier, and horse owner as a team, and we try to come up with a solution by putting our heads together. Whether the problem is laminitis, club foot, navicular disease, arthritis, thrush, etc… you need a vet and farrier working together to get the foot going in the right direction. Farriers are often grateful to see what’s going on inside the foot with the aid of X-rays, and I know the docs are grateful to have somebody else in charge of hammering nails into the horse’s foot!
All in all, our first vet/farrier team building/brainstorming meeting (event name pending) was a huge success, and we hope to have more in the future. Oh, and Princess Chubby Butt is loving her fancy new shoes! If you are ever looking for a farrier, there is a long list of names in the desk that I like to sleep on, and we would be happy to find one to meet your horses’ needs.
Until next week,
Tony
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