Can you believe it’s the time of year where we talk about breeding again? It’s like I woke up from my nap this weekend and it’s already mid-November and we’ve got to start preparing the mares.  Well, I don’t. But, if you intend to breed your mare in 2021, it’s time to start planning now. Believe it or not, there’s a significant amount of preparation, planning, and follow-up when it comes to breeding.  It’s not a one-and-done kind of thing. Sometimes I wish it were, and I know my docs do as well. Did you know that during breeding season, my docs disturb me multiple times a day, even on the weekends, just to check on mares. Rude!

 Preparing Your Mare

Yes, I realize it is not even Thanksgiving yet, and oh, how I long for leftover Turkey! My address for sending leftovers is 2283……. ugh, never mind. My minions have said I am not allowed leftovers, apparently diet is important when you have diabetes. Anyway, if you are breeding your mare next year, now is the time that she needs to be put under lights. 

 What exactly does that mean and why do we do it? It means exactly what it sounds like. In “winter” it gets dark early. We need to keep the mares exposed to light for more hours a day to encourage early ovulation.  When the days get shorter, most mares stop ovulating. They are what my docs refer to as “long day ovulaters”. Meaning, they do not cycle and ovulate year around.  If left to nature, most mares do not start to cycle until late April, early May.  By this time of year, it is already well into what most people consider the normal breeding season. In order to comply with what society has deemed the normal breeding season, we have to alter our horse’s normal cycle. We do this by exposing them to light for longer periods of time.

 Broodmares who will be bred early in 2021 should be brought into their stalls early evening where they can be exposed to additional hours of light. The goal for these mares is to have them under light for a total of 16 hours and allow them around 8 hours of darkness.  The type of light doesn’t matter and it’s not necessary to make a gradual increases in duration of light exposure. You know I love topics that have been researched. Well, it has been studied and shown that if a mare is housed under 10 or more foot-candles of light, follicular growth will be stimulated. A 200-watt incandescent light bulb is enough to provide 10-12 foot-candles of light in a typical 12ft x 12ft stall. 

 If your mare’s stall is attached to a run, you will need to lock her into her stall so she can’t go out into the darkness unless the run-out area is lit as well.  If you choose to encourage follicular growth by using artificial light, it is highly recommended that you keep your mare housed this way until she has been confirmed in foal.  Research has shown that if a mare is allowed to resume her normal daily activities and light exposure is reduced, she may regress and return to an anestrus state where she will not have any follicular growth and will not ovulate.  Bad news if you are trying to make a baby!

 Planning

You have your mare set up under lights so that hopefully she will start to cycle early next year, great job! You might think that you are all done for a while now, but you would be wrong. The next step is to bring your mare into my docs for a checkup.  A full health check should be performed on your mare by the first part of January. This is the time to talk to my docs about your mare’s over all wellbeing. They will perform a full physical examination on your mare. They will listen to her heart and lungs, they will evaluate her for any lameness, and any other abnormalities that could prevent your mare from conceiving or carrying a foal to term.

 Your mare’s body condition and conformation will also be evaluated. A mare that is too fat or too skinny will undoubtedly have trouble conceiving and most certainly will have trouble foaling out. Some mare’s conformation sets them up to be passing manure right over their vulva. If your mare has this kind of conformation, she may be more prone to uterine infections and may require a procedure where part of the vulva is sewn shut (called a caslicks). Don’t fret, your mare will still be able to urinate normally, this procedure just prevents fecal material and bacteria from entering your mare’s vagina, and subsequently, her uterus. 

 During this examination they will also perform a full evaluation of your mare’s reproductive system.  A rectal ultrasound of your mare’s uterus and ovaries will be evaluated for any abnormalities. It will also give my docs an idea of where your mare may be in her cycle. Any abnormalities will be noted and explained. A speculum examination will be performed to assess your mare’s cervix for any scarring, discharge, or other abnormalities. A uterine culture may be recommended, and many stallion owners require a negative culture prior to shipping semen for the mare.  More reasons to get this examination performed earlier rather than later!

 If a culture comes back positive, this leaves my docs time to treat it before breeding season is in full swing. For completeness, it is also a good plan to have my docs obtain a uterine biopsy.  Your mare’s uterus is given a score, which tells my docs how easy it will be to get your mare pregnant, how easy it will be to keep her pregnant and if she will be able to carry a foal to term.  The full physical examination and reproductive system evaluation are crucial to a successful breeding season. 

 Follow-up

Let’s say you’ve done all the right things. You put your mare under lights, you brought her in for a pre-breeding evaluation, and my docs were able to get her in foal quickly.  Awesome for you! Breeding is rarely that easy in real life.  It can often take up to 3 or 4 cycles to get a mare confirmed in foal, which is why you want to start breeding early in the year.  But let’s pretend it was quick and easy for you. 

 You bring your mare back for her 14-day pregnancy check and everyone gets to see that little black dot in the middle of the ultrasound screen, yay, right? One little black dot is great, but what if my docs see 2 little black dots? Twins are bad news. We never, ever want to see twins. If my docs see twins at your 14-day check, they are going to insist your mare stay with them for several days. They have to perform a procedure where they reduce one of the twins. Mares should never be allowed to carry 2 foals to term.

 Hopefully you only saw one dot. You might be thinking, surely Tony, I’m done now, right? Nope, you get to bring her back in another 14 days.  The 28-day check is when my docs will confirm that your mare’s fetus has a heartbeat.  Once a heartbeat is confirmed, the next check is the 60-day pregnancy check, followed by the 90-day pregnancy check.  During these exams, my docs are ensuring that the fetus is developing properly and checking for potential early embryonic loss.

 Next you get to bring your horse in at 5, 7, and 9 months.  These visits are usually fairly quick, particularly the 5- and 9-month checks.  During these visits, your horse will get her pneumavbort vaccines. At her 7-month visit an ultrasound will be performed to assess for the development of placentitis. Then, finally, your mare is due. Whew, that was a lot to get to this point! But wait, there’s more.

 Now you get to determine where your mare will foal out. Will you have her in her pasture, will she be in her stall, or will you bring her to the Clinic?  No matter where she foals out, she needs to be monitored very closely and my docs highly recommend that someone who has foaled out mares before be present during the birth.  Within 24 hours after the foal is born, my docs need to see it. They will assess the mare and foal for any post-foaling complications and will check that the foal has nursed well to ensure that he received adequate colostrum from the mare. Colostrum provides the foal with antibodies to fight off any illness/infection in his early months.

 As you can tell, breeding is not for the faint of heart. It requires impeccable timing, planning, and follow-up on your part. Many vet visits are required and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows all the time.  It can be heartbreaking, but it is also beautiful.  If you think you might want to breed your mare, give my docs a call and get your mare on their schedule soon.

 Until next week,

~Tony

 P.S. My docs have done several podcasts on the topic of breeding and foaling. You can listen to them free on my website, or you can subscribe to Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re breeding, you’ll need all the information you can get, trust me!

This week, let’s talk worms. I should have done this topic for Halloween. Worms are creepy, crawly, icky, and you humans hate to even think about your horse having a single one of them. A huge motivation for this week’s topic comes from this article I saw in one of the Doc’s science magazines: Importation of macrocyclic lactone resistant cyathostomins on a US thoroughbred farm. That’s a fancy way to say they found strongyles on a farm in Kentucky that weren’t killed by Ivermectin, and, even scarier, the parasites came in horses imported from Ireland. To keep your horse safe, this week we go from Mythbusting to Proper Parasite Procedure: Wisdom of Worms by Tony the Clinic Cat.

The Worms

Let’s talk parasites. The biggies we worry about in horses are large strongyles, small strongyles, ascarids, bots, pinworms, and tapeworms. Sure, there are others, but these are the ones that cause problems, and formulating a plan for these takes care of all those others. I’m talking to you, neck threadworm. I hear all kinds of craziness about the neck threadworm.

Know what kills neck threadworms? Ivermectin. And it kills them really effectively with ZERO documentation of resistance. This will be the end of my neck threadworm soapbox. Moving on to other soapboxes…..Large strongyles, bots, and tapeworms take a long time (in worm time anyway) to have babies. This means strategically deworming once yearly takes care of all your deworming needs here. It also means it’s really hard for them to develop resistance to drugs. Ascarids are mainly a young horse issue so skip to the babies section if you want to learn about them.

Pinworms are super annoying, and are generally addressed only when they’re an issue. Short answer for them: call my Docs if your horse is itching their tail. That leaves small strongyles. We base most of our deworming program on these guys.

Deworm all the time: MYTH

Every time the farrier comes. Every month. Once then again in two weeks, then again in two weeks. These are just a few of the very wrong deworming schedules I hear from my throne at the front desk.

Rotate different dewormers. Give Ivermectin all the time. PowerPac every horse. Give them Strongid, then Ivermectin. These are just a few of the wrong deworming drug scenarios I hear from that same throne.

What’s the correct answer? Fecal Egg Counts. This is how you tell what parasites are having fun in your horse’s GI tract, and how many of them are in there partying down. My Docs recommend every new-to-you horse gets a fecal egg count before deworming, and that every single horse gets a fecal egg count in the Spring. Using this fecal egg count, my Docs will then put your horse in the low, medium, or high shedder category.

Around 85% of the horses at Springhill Equine are low shedders!! That’s a lot of horses who don’t have a lot of worms. And our goal is to let those low shedders keep some of their worms. That’s right. We want some horses to have some worms. Low shedders have an immune system that keeps those worm numbers down, which lets us have a population of parasites that don’t get exposed to a lot of drugs. When this group mates with a strongyle that has resistance, the babies come out without resistance. The Docs even have a fancy term for this: Refugia.

Deworm the Right horse at the Right time!

“Ok Mr. Smarty Cat,” you say, “what am I supposed to do now?” As Mr. Smarty Cat I, of course, have an answer. If your horse is a low shedder, you deworm once a year, in the Fall, with a combination Ivermectin and Praziquantel product. The two brand names in the US are Equimax and Zimectrin Gold. Word of caution about Zimectrin Gold: some horses react very strongly to the carrier, so my Docs recommend Equimax. Why Fall? Because that’s when worms are old. By deworming them when they’re old and frail the drugs can kill more worms with less effort.

If your horse comes up as a medium or high shedder on that fecal egg count, they’re going to get dewormed in the Spring, and maybe again in Winter. That’s a call for my awesome Docs. That will most likely be with a plain ol’ Ivermectin. It will not be 5 days in a row, once with this drug, then wait two weeks and go with a different drug. It will be once with an Ivermectin. In 10-14 days after that ivermectin, a fecal egg count should be checked again. Why? Because I said so. And also because there has been documented resistance to Every.Single.Drug available to deworm horses. By checking that fecal egg count in 10-14 days, you can be sure Ivermectin is still working on your farm. It’s cheap insurance. That way you don’t end up like the super fancy Kentucky thoroughbred farm with very drug-resistant parasites.

Babies

Now, babies are different. Babies should be dewormed at 90 days of age with either pyrantel, fenbendazole, or oxibendazole. There are some reasons to pick one drug over the other for some farms so I HIGHLY recommend talking with one of my Docs before you start down this road. Babies are most susceptible to a class of parasites called ascarids. These guys love, love, love to learn how to survive any dewormer thrown at them. That means we have to be super careful with deworming programs for them to make sure we don’t help them learn all about dewormers. The good news is nearly all horses develop natural immunity to ascarids by about 12-18 months old. Fecal egg counts are super important for managing these guys!! You definitely want to talk with my Docs about that for your babies.

It all sounds complicated, but the answer is quite simple: bring poop to the Clinic. Start with a fecal egg count. From there my Docs will formulate a custom plan for your horse, and your farm. That plan will help you have happy, healthy horses for years to come!

Until next week,
~Tony

Want even more wisdom? Check out all my other blogs. I’ve been doing this for a very long time. You can also listen to the humans on something called a podcast. You can listen right here on my website, or subscribe to Straight From the Horse Doctor’s Mouth wherever you get your podcasts.

This week I am going to take you all back to elementary school when you all learn about teamwork. You learn about it at a young age and it ends up playing a role throughout your life.  Who knew when your teachers were talking to you about the importance of teamwork that years later you would be reading a blog, written by a cat, about the same thing? I’m a cat, cats don’t do teamwork. However, as you all know, I have put together one of the best teams around to take care of your horse and they really thrive on teamwork. This is why it is so important that my doctors work as a team with your farrier, your trainer and any other professional you have working with your horse to provide top notch care and achieve results based on a common goal.

Farrier

You’ve heard the saying “no hoof, no horse”. Your horse’s hoof care is imperative to his wellbeing. Farriers play such an important role in your horse’s soundness. From proper trims to specialty shoeing, they can really make a huge difference in a horse’s movement and performance. Having a farrier and veterinarian who are willing to work together towards a common goal will allow for any problems or issues with your horse to be addressed quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

If you’ve ever had a lameness exam performed on your horse, you know that the docs always start by looking at your horse’s hooves. They will pick them up, test them for soreness with this big metal clamp thing, and they will look at the angles and shape of the hoof. Once the lameness exam is complete, they may even perform nerve blocks in which they inject anesthetic around nerves. This causes anything below the nerve to go numb, just like Novocain for a dental procedure.  With the nerve blocks, the docs can determine if the problem stems from your horse’s feet or is further up his leg.

If the lameness is from the hoof, it can usually be resolved with proper shoeing. Diagnostic imaging, such as radiographs, will likely be suggested. These can show the docs and your farrier the angle of your horse’s coffin bone within his foot along with his hoof/pastern angle. Changes to trimming and shoeing can be made based on your horse’s lameness exam and radiographic images. This is why it is essential that your veterinarian and farrier work together. Your farrier is extremely knowledgeable about all things horse feet, and your veterinarian is extremely knowledgeable about all things horse feet and lameness. Therefore, putting both their brains together to address you horse’s issue will certainly help resolve it quickly.  Take it from this cat, have a farrier who is willing to work with your veterinarian. It will save you a lot of time, money, and heartache in the long run.

Beyond lameness, it is super helpful when you have a farrier who is willing to work with your veterinarian in the event of an injury or illness.  One incidence in particular I can think of is laminitis. A quick diagnosis and corrective shoeing can be the difference between life and death when it comes to laminitis. Excuse me while I get on my soap box for a minute, but I feel it is necessary. Find yourself a farrier who knows his/her limits and is willing to say, I don’t know or I’m not comfortable with that. That farrier is worth his/her weight in gold and could be life saving for your horse.  Having a farrier who is humble enough to admit this will allow my docs to employ a farrier with the appropriate skills to apply corrective shoeing. As you all know, my docs love to educate, so if your farrier isn’t comfortable with what your horse needs, my docs will be happy to teach them. If your farrier doesn’t tell us that he isn’t comfortable with performing what your horse needs, my docs won’t know that he/she needs direction. This could be disastrous for your horse. Ok, soap box over now.

Trainer

Your trainer is a wealth of information. They know horses and they know your horse. They can tell when a horse isn’t performing his best. Having a trainer who is quick to notice when something is amiss is priceless.  No one knows your horse better than you, but your trainer can provide you with an outsider’s perspective. They can be present to communicate with your veterinarian when you may not be able to be there.

In my experience trainers are a wealth of information, some good and some, well, not so good. Having a trainer who is willing to listen and learn is invaluable. I’ve been present when some trainers come through the clinic, and I can’t help but shake my head at their old school ways. I know you all have read my numerous blogs on colic, but when a trainer comes through saying they’ve been walking a colic for the last 4 hours and it still isn’t better, I can’t help but face-paw. I know you know not to do that but sometimes trainers are a little late to get the new info.

On the other hand, trainers are really amazing at picking up when your horse is mildly colicky and they are usually very comfortable in administering medications.  That being said, a trainer who is open to listening to your veterinarian, learning new things, and making changes to their daily routine for the better of your horse, is irreplaceable. Just like with your farrier, my docs are ready, willing, and able to educate them so they can provide the horses under their care with the best and most up-to-date veterinary care. In doing so, my docs are able to help you and your horse stay in tip top condition all while preventing any unforeseen issues down the road.  As horse people who have worked with trainers for years, my docs know just how important it is to have a trainer who is willing to be a part of your horse’s care team.

Other Professionals

Other professionals, including, but not limited to your veterinary dentist, equine massage therapist, equine transportation team, and grooms/stable hands are all part of your horse’s team. While my docs provide a wide array of veterinary care including dentistry, lameness, acupuncture, and spinal manipulation, they have informed me that not everyone is as blessed to have a team that provides it all. This means you may have to have a different person out for all the different treatments your horse needs.  Having professionals who are a part of your horse’s team who are also willing to communicate with all the other professionals in your horse’s life is going to make your life and your horse’s life run that much smoother.

On occasion, there may even be more than one veterinarian involved in your horse’s care, so having two veterinarians who communicate effectively about your horse is incredibly important so that nothing gets missed. Two heads are better than one, right? Well, sometimes, but not always. In my opinion, stick with one veterinarian or one veterinary clinic where all of your horse’s records will be kept. That way you won’t run into issues like missing or duplicate vaccinations, expired coggins the day before a show, or incomplete medical records. It can get very confusing and frustrating for everyone involved when there are too many chefs in the kitchen. Find a veterinarian or clinic you are comfortable with and stick with them.  Veterinarians are not like underwear; you do not need to change them every day.  As for all the other professionals in your horse’s life, just like your farrier and your trainer, find those who are openminded, want to learn more, want to communicate with each other and your veterinarian and want to be a part of your horse’s team.

Remember: teamwork makes the dream work!

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. The humans are always busy working on podcasts. Stroll on over to the podcast page here and listen to what they have to say. I know I always find something new to listen to. And make sure you subscribe to my blog before you go. You can do that by scrolling down just a bit further to the purple box.

Bleeders. Nothing ruins a good run like seeing blood at your horse’s nostrils. This week we’re gonna chat about Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage, or EIPH. That’s the fancy acronym doctors use to describe bleeders. EIPH is complicated! Hang on for a wild ride with some really good prevention stuff at the end.

Bleeding while running seems like a bad plan

It seems like a theme to life here at the Clinic. Horses have some serious design flaws, and bleeding from your lungs because you ran too fast certainly seems like one of them. As an apex predator, I do have to run down the occasional mouse out in the shed, but I’ve never encountered bleeding from my lungs. When I asked my Docs about this, I was blown away by the explanation (total airway pun there. I do crack myself up). 

Fast-running horses move air out of their lungs so quickly, they literally suck the air across the blood vessel wall. What the what?!? That’s just crazy. When horses are running fast (cats too, just in case you didn’t think we were athletes), the guts are a huge component of breathing and heart rate. As the inside front foot hits the ground, the guts push forward on the diaphragm, pushing the air out of the lungs, and causing the heart to contract. As the hind feet push off to propel the horse forward, the opposite happens. The guts move back in the abdomen and pull air into the lungs, and give the heart room to expand. This means horses aren’t moving air in and out with their muscles alone, that massive GI tract is throwing its weight around. This all works in a very delicate balance. Anything messes that balance up, and poof you’ve got blood cells on the wrong side of a blood vessel wall.

Small bleeds

A cat could lose himself in Google Scholar for days looking at EIPH research. You don’t think I spend all my time just sleeping on the keyboard, do you?? Anyway I spent a long weekend with no humans around diving deep into EIPH. The literature is kind of scattered on the early stages of EIPH. This is not because no one is looking! Completely shameless plug here for supporting basic level science research. This is how curious cats find the answers to life’s questions! 

Anyway, a pretty decent association has been made between inflammation and EIPH. Fungus in the airways plays a role, and Winter/Fall seems to, as well. Oddly, bacteria don’t seem to matter. The research also shows that lots of these horses start out with tiny bleeds, the lungs scar and develop more inflammation, and they bleed worse. It is well documented that age is a huge factor in EIPH with older racehorses being way more prone to having career-limiting episodes. 

What’s it all mean??

Great, you say, but what does this mean for horses? Never fear, I have wisdom to drop. Many of you have heard of giving furosemide (Lasix) to bleeders. It works, but it only works OK, not spectacularly. Furosemide makes the blood thicker so it’s harder for it to cross those blood vessel walls. It does this by dehydrating your horse a little bit. If you’re going to use it, make sure you talk to my Docs about managing this dehydration, and the potassium loss that goes with it. 

The way, way more important thing to do is prevention! Those fungi I talked about earlier? Those come from the air. Keeping horses in really well-ventilated spaces is a huge preventative measure for not just EIPH, but also all kinds of respiratory challenges. Think about hay bags on the trailer, stabling at equine events, arenas (especially those indoor ones). All of these are great ways to put your horse in an area with massive amounts of fungus traveling through the air. 

What’s a human to do? Wet your hay down, especially if you’re feeding it from anywhere higher than the ground. Keep your stall meticulously clean and dust free. This goes for anytime, really, but in particular those indoor stalls at horse shows can get NASTY. Think about the ammonia smell that knocks you down as you walk in the doors. All that ammonia is murder (literally murder) on lung cells! Finally, encourage show management to keep arenas appropriately watered down to keep dust in the air to a minimum.

Confounding factors

EIPH rarely shows up all by itself in older horses, and by older, I mean horses over 4 years. It’s really, really important to do what’s called a Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL) on these horses to make sure all the lung things are taken care of. In one study nearly half (!!!!!) of all the barrel horses tested had asthma and EIPH. You can give that horse all the Lasix you want; it’s not going to run any better because it still can’t breathe! Lameness is also strongly associated with EIPH. What I’m saying is don’t go all cowboy tough on this one. Talk to my Docs!!!! This is complicated and you need help to keep your horse performing at their best.

EIPH is way more than a little blood from the nose. Manage your horse well, and they’ll have years of performance ahead of them. You know where to go for help with that. My awesome Docs are just a phone call, email, or even a text away.  

Until next week,
~Tony

P.S. The humans have a great podcast on this topic called Airway Issues. You can find it over on the Podcast Page if you’re not already subscribed to the podcast. If you want to step up your game on this stuff, that’s a great resource. Trust me. I’m a cat.

In case you all missed it, a few weeks ago, everyone here at the clinic up and abandoned me and Teenie for a weekend.  Yes, you read that right, they left us all alone to fend for ourselves. Well, not really, they had a kitty-sitter come and feed us and medicate me, but don’t think for a second that I didn’t protest their absence.  When they came back, they explained to me that the reason they left was to go on a team-building trip. That’s all well and good, but aren’t Teenie and I part of the team too? Then they explained that they went kayaking and that it involved water and getting wet, so I finally understood why they left us. Team building is such an important aspect to the well-oiled machine that is this clinic.  So, this week, I want to talk to you about the people in my clinic that make the gears turn and allow us to come treat your horses every day.

The Office Staff

When you call the clinic during the day you will get the girls in the office. They are the first line of communication between you and the docs. They control the schedule. And let me tell you, sometimes they can be really strict! They keep the docs on point making sure they get to their appointments on time, bill and collect money appropriately, and answer all your questions throughout the day. Furthermore, they keep the financials of the clinic up and running. Without them, the doctors and technicians would be lost.  Not to mention they make sure my feeding schedule is set and I receive my insulin daily, as you all know I am extremely demanding when it comes to food. Thankfully, I have them wrapped around my little paw.

Beyond keeping the docs in line, the office staff processes, packages and mails lab work. When we have a horse hospitalized, they will also administer medications as per the docs instructions. Similarly, when you call and request a medication for your horse, they get doctor approval and then get the medication prepared for you to pick up. I have been thinking about getting my own Facebook/Instagram page, but then I am reminded, I don’t have thumbs so making posts would be rather difficult. Nonetheless, Springhill Equine has both Facebook and Instagram which are primarily monitored and run by the office staff. I suppose I could employ one of them to manage my page, but I’ll just take over Springhill’s page when I want to. As you can tell, the office staff is essential to the everyday ins and outs of running the clinic.

 The Technicians

This past week was veterinary technician appreciation week. A week really isn’t long enough to show just how much our techs are appreciated. They deserved to be recognized every single day for their efforts. Teenie and I like to show our appreciation by vomiting daily, drooling all over the computer screens, and getting locked into places we are not supposed to be.  As you know, whenever my docs are working with your horse, they almost always have a technician with them. This is not only for the safety of my docs but for your safety and your horse’s safety.  Our technicians are first and foremost horse people. They are wonderful at reading horse language. This allows them to know what a horse is going to do before they do it. Knowing and understanding horse language allows them to predict when and how a horse is going to react to certain situations. This allows them to keep the docs out of harm’s way.

Beyond horse handling and communication, the technicians provide your horse with love and care as if they were their own horse. They love each and every horse. A major part of the techs job is to be prepared for every appointment. They arrive at the clinic before the docs, they look at the schedule and get everything ready to load on to trucks for the day. When the docs arrive, the techs go over the plan for the day, they check to make sure the truck is stocked and that all equipment is charged and ready to go. When we have horses that are hospitalized, they administer medications and provide treatments to any hospitalized patients.  The technicians are the doc’s right hand women. They are always one step ahead of them and always cleaning up after them. In case you didn’t know, the docs can be pretty darn messy. They expect me to clean it up but, I have more important things to do. Thank goodness they have amazing technicians who don’t mind picking up after the docs, and, well, me.

The Veterinarians

You all know my docs and you know what they do for you and your horses. I want you guys to know a little more about them though. Veterinarians go to school for at least 4 years before they even go to Veterinary School. Veterinary School is also 4 years long. So at the very least they have been through 8 years of school to become veterinarians. All the docs in my practice went on to participate in a year-long internship after veterinary school where they got to practice all they had learned while under the watchful eye of another veterinarian.

When you schedule an appointment with my docs they are giving you and your horse their undivided attention. They look over every aspect of your horse to develop a diagnosis and treatment plan going forward. What you probably don’t know is that even after your appointment is over, they are still thinking about your horse. They will often go home, research, and think about your horse for hours. So, while they may not be with you and your horse, I can promise you, cats honor, they are thinking about you and your horse. They worry, they internalize, and they grieve right along with you every step of the way. And they do it all because they love horses as much as you do.

 The Wild Card

Dr. Lacher’s husband, Justin, is the wild card on our team. He does a lot of different things. For example, he pays all the bills and does the bookkeeping so we can keep getting drugs and supplies to use on the horses. If you’ve been to one of my seminars, you’ve seen him running the audio and video equipment. You might have even listened to the podcast he hosts and produces with Dr. Lacher called Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth. Or maybe you’ve read one of the books he’s written about all the crazy horse things that happen around here, called the Adventures of the Horse Doctor’s Husband series. If you’ve watched one of the videos we’ve released, he was behind the scenes making it happen. Justin wears a lot of hats around here, but the most important one is Chief Cat Scratcher. It’s a critical role.

 The Cats

Not to be out done by any of the other team members, the cats, aka myself and Teenie, are an essential part of the Springhill Equine team. We provide hours of entertainment for everyone. We regularly get ourselves into trouble which keeps the team on their toes. Teenie enjoys bathing everyone in her drool and screaming demands for treats daily. I, on the other hand, prefer to keep things a little more lowkey and would rather wander down the street only to have the docs and techs come find me later.  Of course, you know yours truly provides you with this weekly blog, but did you know that when you bring your horse to the clinic, I also provide free “CAT” scans of your trailer?  When your horse is hospitalized it is up to Teenie and me to keep a close eye on him and alert the docs of any problems.  They say they check the cameras at night, but we know they rely on us to keep the horses in line.

Needless to say, the Springhill Equine Team is a group of fine individuals who have been selected carefully. Everyone plays an imperative role in your horse’s care and without each and every one of them, I would surely starve. It is the goal of the Springhill Equine Team to provide care and support to you and your horse, night and day, no matter what.

 Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. If you haven’t been listening to that podcast I mentioned, you can find on the Podcast Page. It’s what all the cool cats are listening to these days!

As horse owners I know you all know every curve, every scar and every lump or bump your horse has. So, when a new bump pops up it can be concerning. Any time I have a new scratch or lump or scab the humans are all over me, making sure I am okay.  Frankly, it’s rather annoying. I am a perfectly healthy cat and don’t need them all over me all the time. I just need them to feed me and respond to all my demands.  While I’m aware of my health, horses, they just aren’t as smart, and they need you to keep track of them.  Monitoring new lumps and bumps can be lifesaving for your hose. This week I want to talk to you about a type of tumor that horses get that, for the most part, the docs will tell you not to worry too much about and just keep any eye on: Melanomas.

 What is a Melanoma?

A melanoma is a type of skin tumor that occurs mainly in grey horses but can rarely occur in other colored horses as well. These tumors can pop up on your horse’s body just about anywhere. The most common areas include the underside and dock of the tail, corners of lips, neck, and head. They can also be found in and around your horse’s sheath, anus and from your horse’s iris in his eye.

Melanomas can pop up at any age in any horse with little known about any predisposing factors other than your horse’s color. That being said, most grey horses will not start to develop tumors until they’re around 10 years old.  I am well into my teens, I am not grey, and thankfully, I am not a horse, so I think I am safe, but be sure to check on your grey horses.

As I mentioned, melanomas are part of owning grey horses. It’s usually advised to keep an eye on them for any significant changes.  However, it is important to understand that “keeping an eye on them” does not mean allow them to grow uncontrollably. In fact, if your horse has been diagnosed with melanomas, you should have my docs check on them at least twice a year, measure them and possibly even take some photos of them. This will help ensure that the tumor does not progress rapidly and cause long term problems for your horse.

 Treatment

While it is common practice to keep an eye on melanomas, there are other treatment options for them as well. One option is surgical removal. However, removal of one tumor will not prevent the development of other tumors. Likewise, if a tumor is too large or in a precarious location, surgical removal cannot be performed.

Injection with a chemotherapy agent is another treatment option. Cisplatin in the form of injectable oil or impregnated beads can be used around tumors to reduce the size of the tumor and allow for possible surgical excision. Treatment with cisplatin can be extremely effective, but it often takes several treatments and can get expensive.

Finally, there has been a vaccination developed for use in dogs that is still experimental in horses. The vaccine is created from your horse’s specific tumor, targets proteins in the melanoma cells, and stimulates an immune response. The vaccination shows promise for treatment of melanomas in horses, but more work is needed to prove its effectiveness.

Whatever form of treatment my docs recommend, it is important to start treatment early and not necessarily just keep an eye on it.  Ask my docs which method is best and how to start treatment if your horse is diagnosed with melanomas.

 Complications

 If a melanoma is left to progress without intervention, they can become obstructive.  Tumors around the head and neck can obstruct your horse’s airway and predispose your horse to choke. As you can imagine both of these conditions can be life threatening. If left to progress and grow, tumors around the anus can prevent your horse from passing manure.

Similarly, tumors in and around your horse’s sheath can lead to difficult urination. Remember our discussion about sheaths a few weeks back? Annual examination of your horse’s sheath will help the docs monitor your horse for tumor development, and if your horse in on one of our wellness plans, this examination is included.  (Here is my shameless plug to sign your horse up for 2021 Wellness today.)  If a tumor is allowed to progress and obstruct your horse’s sheath, urine scalding becomes a concern.  When your horse cannot fully drop his penis from his sheath he’ll still have to urinate, and urine will splatter in all directions including on his abdomen and legs. This can lead to burning of these areas which is very painful.

Melanomas that arise from the iris of the eye can also become obstructive, leading to vision and other ocular problems. Any kind of tumor in the eye should be treated immediately. If left to progress, your horse may lose his vision completely, may develop uveitis (inflammation), glaucoma, or may lose his eye completely.

Besides obstruction, melanomas can become ulcerated, particularly underneath the tail.  It is a warm, moist, dirty area and the perfect environment for these tumors to get really ugly and nasty really fast.  Unlike cats, horses are disgusting creatures who fail to groom themselves regularly. Anyways, since your horse is lazy and allows you to groom and clean him, you must be the one to keep the underside of his tail clean.  However, despite your most diligent efforts, melanomas are tumors and will do whatever they want, including becoming ulcerated, necrotic and/or infected.  Once this happens, they can be nearly impossible to treat and can result in my docs having to recommend humane euthanasia for your horse.

The takeaway message is this: Have my docs monitor any lumps or bumps on your horse and show you exactly what kind of changes to watch for. Early, aggressive treatment is key and can be lifesaving for your horse.

Until next week,

~Tony

PS – Looking for more information on other conditions that may come up with your horse?My people also have a podcast that is filled with incredibly useful information, check it out here. Also, we will be having a VIRTUAL facebook seminar on Thursday October, 22 at 6:30. They will be talking about asthma/heaves. Wow, we have seen a lot, I mean a lot of heaves this year.