Jan 10, 2017 | Breeding, Foals
Ah, a New Year…a fresh start, new resolutions, exciting plans, and new horizons. Oh, and baby horses! Yes, it may still be ridiculously cold outside, but believe it or not breeding season is almost here! Now is the time to plan: get out pictures of your favorite mare and favorite stallion, pin them next to each other on your cork board, and envision what the resulting foal will look like- and what it will be able to do! Do you want the highest jumper? The fastest barrel racer? The most muscled halter horse? Or the leanest racehorse?
The other important part of planning your breeding adventure is how to get your mare in foal, or where to have your stallion collected. This is where I can help! Here at Springhill Equine we have a complete array of breeding packages for your mare and stallion. We can take care of everything from a breeding soundness exam (making sure your horse is reproductively healthy), to collection, to artificial insemination, all the way through foaling.
I have talked to you humans before about what responsible breeding is. You can always look back at my blog and read archived Tuesdays with Tony entries, because what better to do in your free time? But determining that your mare or stallion has several traits that are worth passing on, and very few traits that are undesirable, is only the first step. Now you need to think about what goes into breeding and foaling, and whether you have the time, money, and patience to take on the challenge!
The docs tell me that there are several factors that come into play when trying to get a mare in foal. These include age, parity (how many foals she has had before), anatomy, history of reproductive failure, metabolic imbalances…the list goes on! In short, just because you want to breed your mare doesn’t mean she will be able to get pregnant. Older, maiden mares are the hardest ones to get in foal, and this is a common challenge our docs face each year. It seems that after a certain age, if a mare’s reproductive organs haven’t been used, the body begins to shut them down. There is no exact number for mares, but “older” is generally defined as over 10 years old. I would like to point out that cats, like a fine wine, only get better with age.
Already expecting a little bundle of horsey joy this spring? I can help with that too! Don’t miss my next come see Tony event on Tuesday January 17th, a Foaling & Breeding seminar for all you need to know to be well prepared before your baby arrives. If you still don’t feel 100% comfortable, we offer reasonable foal-out rates here at our clinic where we have 24/7 stall camera monitoring, and a veterinarian will be present at your foal’s birth.
Other decisions to be made before breeding include: When do I want my mare to have her baby? Will she be bred by live-cover, or AI (artificial insemination)? Will I be using fresh semen, or frozen? Is my stallion trained to a phantom? How much am I willing to invest in making this baby? Where will the mare have her foal? Am I prepared to care for a pregnant mare/breeding stallion/newborn foal?
Our amazing doctors and staff are here to guide and help you every step of the way. Well, for the stallion collection I will be standing a safe distance away under the trees, but for everything else I like being up close and personal, especially the foaling.
Don’t forget that during the month of January we are offering $10 off a breeding package or stallion collection. Sign up now to save later! Also, I know I will see all of you next Tuesday 😉
-Tony
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Apr 12, 2016 | Breeding, Foals
The babies are coming! The babies are coming! Yep, foaling season is well underway around here and I felt it was about time I discussed what the heck one is supposed to do with them once they get here.
Let’s start with a quick foaling review. Once your mare starts foaling, things should happen very quickly. And by quickly I mean at the same speed I come running when I hear food hit the bowl. If you don’t think anything is happening, call one of our Docs. They would rather talk to you at 2am than have something bad happen. Next: The 1-2-3 rule. Foals should stand by 1 hour, nurse by 2 hours, and the placenta should pass by 3 hours post foaling. If any of these thing don’t happen, you guessed it, call the Docs. Depending on some other stuff, they may come out right away, or they may wait until the routine new baby check time of 18-24 hours old, but these are very important things that must happen for the foal to get started in life on the right hoof.
OK, now on to the wee adolescent life of a foal. To start, it is unfortunate they come knowing what a halter and lead rope is. In fact, I’m pretty sure they think halters and lead ropes are instruments of the devil when they first arrive. Luckily, they are good at following mom. Putting a halter and lead rope on your foal daily and leading them from one place to another is excellent practice at grown up life. They do have a shorter attention span than a cat (and that’s pretty short) so keep training sessions short. As they learn one skill, add another. I try to consider what my Docs will need to do with them later in their life. So we practice picking up feet, pinching skin for shots, standing sort of still, being touched over their entire body, these sorts of things. Much like cats, foals think humans are a bit stupid in their demands for obedience. Unlike cats, they do need to listen since they get rather big, rather quick. I don’t mean to say I couldn’t kill you if I wanted to, just so we are clear on that point. I am a cat, after all.
Foals are much like teenage boys when it comes to food. They eat ALL. THE. TIME. Making sure your mare has a little extra fat at the end of her pregnancy will help her get through the intense grocery providing stage in those first few months. Notice that says a little extra fat, not a lot of extra fat. I know, who am I to discuss weight, but this is a “Do as I say, not as I do” sort of thing. Checking in with our Docs or Beth, our in-house Nutrition Expert, to be sure you are making good feed and hay choices will make sure everyone stays happy and healthy. Foals will start by eating a little bit of what mom eats, then gradually eat more and more. Make sure they have grain and/or hay of their own available, especially if mom failed Kindergarten and doesn’t share well. The rough guideline is 1 pound of grain for every month of age. Foals can be free fed if the mare can be kept away. Unlike adult horses, foals won’t just eat until it’s gone. I feel free choice feed is the best plan for this cat as well, but Dr. Lacher keeps putting me on a diet. Oops sorry about the tangent there. Not really. In fact, I would appreciate it if everyone would tell Dr. Lacher I require free choice food next time they see her. Once your foal is eating 4-5 pounds of grain per day it is safe to wean them off mom.
Weaning. How? Let’s face it, no one loves the sad whinnies from the foals on weaning day. There are several options to make this as low stress as possible. First, move the mare if at all possible, and not the foal. Second, have friends with the foal that don’t change. Third, try to take the mare out of listening range. Generally, once the foals are around 5 months of age, the weaning process goes pretty smoothly since everyone is ready for it. Mom is over this annoying child, and foal is tired of all those “rules” mom imposes. Wait until they find out adulthood isn’t what they thought!
Most of a foal’s immune system for the first few months of life comes from that first milk, colostrum, they get from mom. To make sure munchkin got enough, our Docs do a blood test called IgG at that New Baby Check I mentioned earlier (yes that was a quiz to make sure you are paying attention). At some point though, your foal will need vaccines to get their own immune system up to speed on the diseases it will see. If the mare was well vaccinated before foaling, these vaccines start at 5 months of age with boosters at 6 months and 9 months. If we don’t know mom’s vaccine history or she didn’t get vaccines, immunizations start at 4 months and include an extra booster.
Deworming for foals is different as well. The primary parasite the Docs treat for is called an Ascarid. High levels of ascarids can kill foals, so it is important to keep them in check. Unlike strongyles in adult horses, ascarid levels can’t be predicted by fecal egg counts. This means we put foals on a timed schedule. The Docs do like to check a fecal at about 9-10 months of age to be sure the dewormers are working. Springhill Equine recommends the first deworming happens at 3 months of age with a pyrantel product. From there foals get dewormed every 90 days rotating through pyrantel, ivermectin, and fenbendazole.
The care your foal gets in the first year of life sets them up for a healthy lifetime. Do your foal (and yourself) a favor and set them up for success right from the start. Then do me a favor, and bring me a cat treat!
Mar 22, 2016 | Breeding, Infections
Well breeding and baby season seem to be in full swing from what this cat can tell. This time of year we suddenly start seeing the FedEx people every afternoon, the Docs are here working on mares at all hours of the day and night (this is my favorite part of breeding season), and supposedly cute baby pictures are greeted with squeals of joy. I have yet to figure out what is cute about a baby horse. I mean they don’t purr, they don’t claw you wanting a bottle, they don’t play with string. Humans are weird. I have learned more than I ever wanted to about making these babies as Head Cat at Springhill Equine. I know I talked about this recently but today I’m going to talk about how mares are weird and don’t do what they are supposed to.
There was once a veterinarian named Dr. Michelle LeBlanc. She was almost as famous as myself for her prowess at getting mares pregnant who really didn’t want to be pregnant. Dr. Lacher trained under her at the University of Florida. Cancer took Dr. LeBlanc from us way too soon but in the time she was here we did get some wise LeBlanc proverbs. Dr. Lacher’s favorite is: Reproduction is a gift not a right. And as soon as you doubt this, your mare will do something to prove how right this proverb is.
There are three main sources of frustration for our doctors: the follicle, infections, and semen issues. We will take them in order.
Follicles. A normal mare grows a follicle to about 35mm, gets some edema in her uterus which our Docs see on ultrasound, she gets a shot of Sucromate, and she ovulates 36-48 hours later. This timing lets our Docs order semen at just the right time, plan their schedules, and, with a little luck, make a baby. Because mares are mares (let’s be honest this applies to all horses), they often think it is great fun to do some part of this but not all. For instance, a mare will grow a 35mm follicle but won’t have edema, or, and this is a favorite, they will appear to do all the right things except for the ovulate part. This is where the crystal ball or Magic 8 Ball comes in. Dr. Lacher and Dr. Vurgason have to decide the best course of action. Most of this guess is based on knowledge of the hormone cycles, interpretation of ultrasound images, and what the uterus and cervix feels like, but a portion of the decision is a guess at what Mother Nature is going to do. Having spent a long time in school, and spent even more time after school keeping up on the latest research this is a VERY frustrating thing for doctors. I’m pretty sure the mares do this just to watch that frustration. I mean I would….
Next infections. Infections come from a couple of sources. The most common is simply the breeding process. Semen is seen as a foreign invader by the uterus so it tries to get that stuff out of there. The uterus does this by creating fluid and having contractions. The more I learn, the more I am seriously amazed that babies of anything ever happen. Normally, enough sperm survive this to get to the egg and the uterus cleans everything up and 14 days later our Docs see a baby. Sometimes the uterus over responds or, and this is very rare, there is bacteria in the semen. Either way, instead of a baby we see fluid in the uterus at 14 days. At this point our doctors use a special Q-Tip to determine what type of bacteria are growing and then treat the uterus directly with antibiotics.
The next source of infection is the outside world. I have heard, particularly from Dr. Lacher now that she’s over 40 (do not tell her I said that), that age is just a number. For mares who haven’t had a lot of foals this is true. For mares who have had more than five or six foals this isn’t so true. Carrying all those foals causes things to, how shall I say this, stretch. This means the normal defenses that keep bacteria out of the uterus aren’t as tight. It also causes the uterus to get larger, form some amount of scar tissue, and lose some muscle tone. Some of these problems can be corrected with surgery and some can’t. Our Docs can steer you in the right direction here.
The last source of problems is often the hardest to deal with. The boys. This is where I understand good communication between the mare and stallion owner are important. Communication isn’t something I’m good at so I claim no expertise here. I am much better at issuing orders. If stallions have issues then timing of the cycle on the mare end is even more important. It may also mean that a particular stallion and mare aren’t a good match. The Docs recommend that only one side of the relationship has issues if at all possible.
Whew, that was a ton of effort for this cat but breeding is tricky stuff and I do like to keep my adoring fans well educated. Shameless plug for my wonderful home: Our breeding packages make it easy and affordable to breed your mare. Contact my minions at the Clinic for more information.
Jan 12, 2016 | Breeding
Tuesdays with Tony: This week Tony talks about making babies.
Tuesdays with Tony:
January may not be a time when you humans think about the birds and the bees. But believe it or not, soon the horses are going to start getting all twitterpated. Along with breeding season comes some responsibility. I know baby horses are super cute, but trust me, they all grow up to be big horses, and not everybody wants one of those! The docs and I have seen it happen here at the clinic time and time again. So, before you decide to breed your little pride and joy, ask yourself these questions to make sure it is a good idea:
1) Is my horse registered as a member of an actual breed? Hint: a Quarter horse/Belgian/Lusitano/Mustang is not a breed.
2) Does my horse have good conformation? If your horse’s knees stick out in front of his toes on a side-view, your horse does not have good conformation.
3) Is my horse nice? Make sure you also ask this question about the horse you are breeding to. Personality is definitely an inheritable trait. My personality, for example, is exquisite.
4) Is my horse pretty? Believe it or not, breeding a pretty horse to an ugly horse almost always results in an ugly horse. It is a myth that breeding a mare with no hindquarters to a stallion with massive hindquarters will “fix her.” The same applies with breeding a short horse to a tall horse; the foal will not necessarily be medium-sized. Obviously I am extremely handsome, and they didn’t even breed me!
5) Do I have potential buyers for the foal? It is a really good idea to find out about this before breeding, rather than when the foal is a scruffy yearling with no training on board. You may be surprised to find that the market for your little nugget is already saturated. I know in my species there are more kittens at the shelter than Dr. Lacher could ever adopt- although she tries.
6) Has my horse had a breeding soundness exam? If not, we can help you with that! For a mare, this entails at a minimum a transrectal ultrasound to see if the ovaries are cycling and make sure the uterus is free of cycts. For stallions, this entails a collection with sperm count and evaluation of sperm motility and morphology. I will watch from the sidelines…those stallions can get pretty scary when they have only one thing on their mind.
7) Do I have a lot of money, time, and patience? Breeding a mare will require several ultrasounds (slightly different from cat scans), hormone administration, cost of the insemination, recheck ultrasound exams, pregnant mare vaccines, foal watch, assisted delivery, newborn foal treatment, foal vaccines and boosters, extra grain and hay for the pregnant/lactating mare, etc…. And that’s only if everything goes right the first time!
If you answered yes to all of these questions, then congratulations! You are a responsible breeder! Definitely come visit me here at the office to discuss our all-inclusive breeding package, which is a very smart way to alleviate some of the money/time/patience part of horse breeding. For the rest of you, hopefully this provides some food for thought. Speaking of food…I’ll catch you next week!
Aug 18, 2015 | Ailments, Breeding, Disaster Preparedness, Feed, Infections, Injuries, Leg issues
Tuesdays with Tony
Whew what a week! Yesterday was Black Cat Appreciation Day and my hordes of adoring fans came by to give me offerings. I am sure you all appreciated the Black Cats in your lives yesterday but if not we may still be adored today.
Many of you saw the pictures yesterday of the hind legs of a horse who went through the floor of a trailer. Luckily the trailer wasn’t moving at the time. Dr. Lacher and Dr. Vurgason have a long road ahead of them taking care of that guy. The first step will be seeing how much of the skin survives the first week. About half of what you see will survive; the other half will need to be trimmed off. Next week sometime they will remove the sutures and re-suture the wounds to try to get better coverage. After that it’s bandaging, bandaging, bandaging. I think regular cat scans will also be in order to be sure all is going appropriately.
The rest of the week was jam packed. Last week something called a pig came in to the office. Some may think those are little and cute but I have my serious doubts about that. It made a very loud noise when I sniffed it. Dr. Vurgason loves these things called pigs so I will likely be supervising more and more care. I have put in a request for earplugs. Dr. Vurgason does routine pig care including vaccinations, castration, nutrition, and Wellness Care.
It was a very busy and diverse week here around Springhill. I supervised Dr. Lacher doing something called IRAP on a horse with a lameness in a hind leg. IRAP is this amazing stuff that actually comes from the horse. Dr. Lacher draws blood then does some special processing which increases the concentration of IRAP and then injects that back in a joint that has pain or inflammation. It about requires a PhD to understand but luckily I am a cat so naturally I know everything. The horse she used it on this week had an infection in a joint in his leg. The infection was aggressively treated and fixed but the body was over-reacting and causing the joint to be painful. IRAP will help calm down all that inflammation like a cat purring on your lap.
Meanwhile in the office, Dr. Vurgason did a few dental floats and some breeding work. Being neutered since I was a little tyke I know nothing of this breeding thing. They assure me my life is better but I have my doubts. I ended the week making sure Charly correctly drew blood for an Oral Sugar Test. This test determines if a horse is responding to sugar correctly or if they have Metabolic Syndrome. I told the horse I hope she doesn’t have it since it sounds like exercise and a diet are involved and those are two words I do NOT like to hear. In preparation for another busy week I am now..
Jan 16, 2015 | Ailments, Breeding
The 5 Panel Genetic Test for AQHA registration
The AQHA offers its members a genetic test for a panel of 5 different genetic diseases affecting Quarter Horses. The panel tests for 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). All these diseases are genetic, and are caused by single mutations in DNA that are easy to test for. The University of California-Davis performs the testing for the AQHA, using mane or tail hair or blood samples.
The panel has been available for years, but just recently AQHA began requiring that results of the panel be on file for stallions before their foals could be registered. This applied at first only to stallions that were bred to more than 25 mares, but after January 1, 2015, ALL breeding stallions will need to have the 5 panel test results on file. This requirement doesn’t restrict the use of stallions that may test positive for one or more of the diseases, but it does give mare owners valuable information to consider when making breeding decisions. Although the requirements for the panel testing only apply to breeding stallions, owners may request testing of any horse if they are interested or have concerns.
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.
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