Jun 28, 2016 | Athleticism, Competition Horses, Events, Exercise
Continuing on my athlete theme from last week….Let’s talk fitness! I will admit to having to research this Tuesday’s edition. This cat is not in to fitness, working out, sweating, or any activity which threatens to burn more calories than I consume. You people seem to want to do stuff with horses and that means a certain level of fitness.
Got a new horse or starting one over? The most important thing to remember is slow, slow, and more slow. This is a concept I can really get behind. I do slow very well. Step one: check your horse’s vital signs before you even get on. Especially in the heat of summer, add work in very small increments. Use those smart phones for something smart and set up timers for yourself. Begin with lots of walking. I’m talking 20-30 minutes of walking. Walking builds a base level of fitness while not stressing joints and tendons. It also lets everyone get used to the ridiculously hot weather we have during summer. At the end of your 30 minute walk, check your horse’s vital signs. Heart rate and respiratory rate should return to normal in 5-7 minutes. Since you are only walking this may happen faster and that’s ok. It means you are ready to add more! Add 3-5 minutes of trot or canter work every 7-10 days until you are doing the work you want to do. If in doubt, check those vital signs!
Shiny thing distraction: These two companies are coming out with FitBits for horses!
http://www.equisense.com/en/
http://seehorse.ca/
You can also check this app out to help guide your horse’s fitness routines.
http://www.kerclockit.com/
On the horse that is already in work, it is important to remember that high temps can change how much work they are capable of safely doing. Vital signs are, again, key to how much is enough. Work your horse at their normal level, then stop and evaluate respiration. You may notice that in this ridiculously hot weather, your normally really fit horse will take longer to come back to normal respirations. That is because horses don’t just exchange oxygen, they also blow off a lot of heat with each breath. I always say horses are full of hot air and I see this as proof.
From a fitness standpoint your goal for most arena sports (dressage, hunter/jumper, barrel racing, western pleasure, etc.) your horse should be fit enough to twice what you need for the event. So if you are a barrel racer 30-40 seconds of very intense work with very rapid return to normal vitals will tell you your horse is fit enough to do the job. A dressage horse will need to be able to hold that canter for 5-6 minutes at a time to do all that is necessary in one stretch of training level. Really sit down and look at the athletic endeavor you want to do and then determine what is necessary in terms of fitness. Need help? Call our Docs. They both love this stuff.
Meanwhile, I’m off to train. I’m working up to 4 straight hours of napping. It’s hard work but someone has to do it.
May 10, 2016 | Competition Horses, Events, Exercise, Leg issues
This past weekend was my opportunity to thank a select group of my fans: Our Wellness Plan Participants. Every year, on the first Saturday in May, we gather around a shrine called a TV to watch some horses run around in a large circle to the left. There is much fanfare, wearing of some very strange hats, good food, good times, and adoration of Tony. After all the partying died down, I hit the computer on our new faster internet connection and researched this crazy thing called Thoroughbred racing.
As someone who is not very fond of exercise, I found this running thing a bit much. When I found out these horses are only three years old, I thought that seemed like a bad plan. Then a rare thing happened: I was wrong. It doesn’t happen often in the cat world, but if you felt a shudder of the earth, or a sudden chill on Saturday evening around 10pm, that was a cat being wrong. I found numerous well-designed research papers on the influence of early exercise in thoroughbred racehorses. Training as a two year old was directly correlated with a longer career as a racehorse. The horses didn’t necessarily have to race, just being in race training was enough to cause a positive effect. Based on my research, this effect is due to remodeling of lots of structures in the leg due to exercise. The cannon bone, tendons, and ligaments were all found to be stronger when exercise was started at 2 years as opposed to 3 years. In fact, there are studies which show that exercise started as early as 21 days of age didn’t cause developmental issues. I will say that these horses were exercised under very exacting schedules designed to allow the tendons, ligaments, and bone to adapt. Another aspect I found interesting was that the comparison group of foals were allowed free range pasture access. This wasn’t standing in a stall compared to exercising. This was turnout compared to exercising. Made this cat think….
While researching the young horse exercise thing, I found a lot of discussions about racehorses breaking those ridiculously-designed legs they run on. I mean, who designed the “run fast on four sticks” system? Just by its very nature it is bound to break sometimes. I did find out that there are some very interesting reasons racehorses break their legs the way they do and learned about research by veterinarians to try to prevent these fractures. One of the biggest issues trainers, riders, and veterinarians face is the horse’s love of the job. Unlike cats, especially black ones named Tony, horses love to run and do a very bad job recognizing pain when running around a racetrack with eight to ten friends. This means that if the leg starts to fail while the horse is running they are unlikely to demonstrate a lameness or give the jockey any indication of a problem until the leg actually fails. So, veterinarians are working to use standing MRI, CT scans, bone density scanning, x-rays to assess joint geometry, and ultrasound to try to identify early changes in bone and tendon that indicate a problem is coming. There are also programs in many States that perform in-depth post mortem exams on any horse who suffers from one of these serious injuries. As a difficult-to-impress cat, I was impressed by the level of dedication the racing industry has to keeping the horses safe!
Coolest fact I learned while playing on the internet: During each stride a racehorse takes the heart beats once and they take one breath. Here’s how it goes down: front leg of the lead they are on hits the ground, intestines push forward on the diaphragm, this pressure collapses the lungs causing a breath out, and compresses the heart. As the weight is transferred back to the hind end, the intestines slide back, opening the lungs, and allowing the heart to expand and fill with blood. How amazing is that?!?!!?
It may be difficult to admit but I have a little more respect for the athleticism of horses. I have lost a bit of respect for my staff around here after all those funny hats, but since they provide food I will keep them around. Until next week, may your litter box be clean and your food bowl overflowing.
Mar 15, 2016 | Allergies, Events, Infections, Pests, Skin Funk
Last week me and about 60 of my closest human friends learned just about everything there is to know on the topic of skin funk! I almost wish I were a horse just so I could try out these products on myself…but I’ll stick with being a cat for the superior intelligence. Thank you to MaryLu from Kinetic Vet for her excellent talk, and the folks at HorseSox for their demonstration. They really should start making CatSox tho…less knitting.
For those of you who didn’t come out to see me on Thursday: ouch. That really hurt my feline feelings. But I’ll be the bigger cat, let it go, and tell you what you missed!
There are several types of skin funk that horses can get. There is itchy skin funk, scratchy skin funk, buggy skin funk, sunny skin funk, fungus-y skin funk, and bacterial skin funk. Lucky us, we live in Florida, so most of these are going to be exaggerated by our awesome warm weather! The first step is recognizing when your horse has a skin problem. Skin funk can show up as hair loss, hives, welts, crusties, scabs, redness, or abnormal hair growth. The second step is calling me! Well, more specifically, Dr. Lacher or Dr. Vurgason. With their experience, they will be able to tell what type of skin funk you are dealing with, what the cause is, and how to treat it. The third step is using one of Kintetic Vet’s awesome products (plus HorseSox for lower leg skin funk) to get your horse’s skin back under control!
Dr. Vurgason’s favorite KineticVet product is the IBH salve. This is great for horses with Insect Bite Hypersensitivity (“I.B.H.”), and a little bit of salve goes a long way! Did you know there are 89 species of gnats (that’s not counting horse flies, mosquitoes, house flies, etc) that are probably going after your horse’s eyes, ears, mane, and tail!? Dr. Lacher’s favorite product from KineticVet is CK shampoo. This stuff is amazing for treating scratches, rain rot, and any other bacterial or fungal skin funk. Only a few treatments and the results are amazing! My favorite product is KineticVet’s new SB (sunblock). Not only does it provide sun protection for my delicate skin, but it also repels insects and contains aloe vera which makes it feel really good.
There was definitely a little something for everybody at Thursday’s seminar. Most notably, there was plenty of me! Stay tuned for our next “Come See Tony” event on Equine Nutrition, coming up in May. Until then, take care of that skin!
Nov 2, 2015 | Events
Sooo, let me start by saying, I am the star of this show! ME, Tony, that’s why they call it Tuesdays with Tony. The humans ran around here all last week talking about some event happening on Saturday. It sounded like it was going to be an exciting time and I was looking forward to meeting a multitude of people with some really strange names.
Saturday Mallie came in to poke and feed me yeah….that was the highlight of my day. However, there was nothing going on here at the clinic. She said she had to be off and running to go to a thing called a Wedding? WHAT you say? (Yes my response exactly). Seems our infamous Dr Lacher got married and that was the event of the day!
Now why am I so upset about this? Because I am supposed to be the star of the show around here (at least that is what they keep telling me) and from what I hear, Dr Lacher and Justin stole the day away! Then there was Gandolf (preacher), Lara Croft (Dr Lacher) and King Arthur (Justin). I hear they said some pretty awesome vows to each other devoting their love, friendship, future and happiness together.
I found it very curious that she climbed a tree and descended down upon her guests and groom with her Maid of Honor Michele the spider, while King Arthur galloped to his lovely bride to be with Kristen the Jedi Knight.
There were many other guests that arrived to witness this wonderful event: Curious George and his Handler, Juno and Bleeker, Batman and Robin, Mork, Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker, Caesar and The Fairy God Mother, Elmo and Cookie Monster, Dr Who #10, Fred and Wilma, Bonnie and Clyde and the list just goes on. How I would have loved to have met all these people. But no,
I spent my Saturday napping instead of enjoying the festivities as you can see from the picture of the Springhill Staff Members.
I heard that it was a good time had by all and congratulations are in order for our good Dr! I did get to see the pictures of this amazing event and very happy for them and their turnout.
Now I hear, I will be upstaged again in a couple of weeks by Baby Vurguson…..
Please join me in congratulating them both! (I need my food bowl full)
Left to Right: Charly, Mallie, Beth, Dr. Vurgason, Dr. Lacher, Justin, Nancy, and Renee
Oct 13, 2015 | Dentals, Events, Leg issues
Tuesdays with Tony
Holy busy week Bat Cat!! This has been one really busy week around here. Not only did the Docs stay super busy but also I had to make sure everything was ready to go for our annual See Tony event the humans call Open House. I have included some pictures for those of you who didn’t make it. Just know that I know who you are and I am judging you for not stopping by to see me.
Let’s start with cases.
We had a few older horses that needed some teeth removed. Unlike cats, horse’s teeth continue to erupt as they age. This means when they get older they have a really short tooth with no root holding it in. This week the Docs saw three horses for routine dentistry that had loose teeth. Luckily these teeth are very easy to extract and it doesn’t seem to bother the horses much. They still get a local Novocain block, and some pain medication but usually once the teeth are out they feel much better.
The horse we cut all that nasty Pythium stuff off of is doing pretty darn well. I got to do a brief cat scan on her when she came by for a checkup. The Docs are using some really cool silver impregnated socks on her legs to help cover the wounds while letting them air out but not exposing them to flies. So far they are feeling pretty good about the socks. Personally I think the horse looks rather silly wearing them and I would never tolerate that as a cool cat.
On Friday while I was trying my best to supervise See Tony 2015, I mean Open House; the Docs were in my way all afternoon working on putting this funny camera thing they called an endoscope up the nose of a horse to see inside a thing they called the guttural pouches. I asked why horses have this crazy pouch in the back of their throat and the answer was no one really knows but they think it works to cool blood on its way to the brain during high speed exercise. That explains why cats don’t work that way: no high speed exercise here thank you very much. Turns out guttural pouches like to get infected and it can be hard to fix. The endoscope let them get a sample directly from the pouch and test it for different bacteria and fungus so they could treat exactly what the problem was. Then Dr. Lacher was busy working on lameness. This horse had a tear in the check ligament. I asked what she was checking the ligament for and she said no it’s called the Check Ligament. I knew that all along; I was just messing with her. It’s what a cat does. Dr. Lacher told me this injury is usually one of the easier ones to manage in horses. A bit of rest and some rehabilitation and off they go. Unfortunately, this horse has re-injured his check ligament. Good news is this ligament isn’t 100% necessary so a little bit of surgery, a little bit of rest, and a little bit of rehab and he should be fine.
Finally, on to the most important day of the week: See Tony Saturday. I kept the humans here late in to the night on Friday and got them here early in the day on Saturday so that all would be perfect for my day. I was so happy to see you all and I trust you learned lots from my minions, I mean humans. I also have to give a big shout out to Bross Hogg’s Lunch Wagon for some seriously good food!
Oct 6, 2015 | Events
Tuesdays with Tony
What am I doing you ask? Getting ready for Open House 2015 on Saturday from 10am to 2pm.
That’s right it’s time for our Annual Come Meet Tony Festival. Some people in the office call it our Open House. Call it what you want but I know everyone really comes to see me. I like to give back to you, my adoring fans. We are giving away a Complete Wellness Package for 2016, polo wraps, pallet art, hats, sweatshirts, baskets of goodies, and more. Of course there will be food (if you share it with me don’t tell since they have me on this crazy diet for my diabetes), if you want to talk to my staff I will allow it, and there will be all kinds of cool stuff to learn.
While not supervising preparations for the Open House on Saturday between 10am and 2pm I have been watching over Dr. Vurgason. We sent Dr. Lacher off on what some say was a well deserved vacation so I had to take over all management duties. Luckily for her Dr. Vurgason does a great job so I only had to watch from my perch on the desk. Dr. V rechecked our horse who fell through the trailer. He is looking great thanks to my regular CAT scans. Along with vaccines, dentals, fecals, and the general routine stuff, Dr. V. sutured up a great eyelid laceration. Those are always fun!
In case I haven’t mentioned it yet we are having an Open House on Saturday from 10am to 2pm. Be there or incur the wrath of a black cat!
