The Flies Have It

Hope you all are staying healthy out there. It is certainly an odd situation we are all in. It really is starting to become a bit more of the norm around here. We are all split into teams and everyone is adjusting well, as are all of you. I must take the time to give you all some major recognition and thank you for being understanding and accommodating to this new way of life. Really, my life hasn’t changed much, I still get my minions to open and close the door to let me in and then out and then back in again about 500 times a day. I still find time for lengthy naps in the sun, and of course I find time to eat. But enough about me and my life (well not really, it is always all about me) but let’s talk about this week’s topic, Fly Control. Every year about this time the flies really start to drive us crazy. The weather is warm, there’s moisture in the air, and the breeding grounds for flies are abundant. So, before your farm is swarming with flies, let’s talk about what you can do to control them.

 Breeding Grounds

Perhaps the most important step in fly control is to eliminate their breeding spots. Flies love warm, moist areas like wash racks, manure bins, or anywhere that water and feed or bedding material accumulate. Avoid having standing water around your barn and be sure to rake up any hay or bedding that may find itself at the end of your barn aisle.

Let’s talk poop. We all know horses poop, A LOT! I hear you guys complain about your horse’s poop all the time. Some even go on to say, “I wish my horse would just stop pooping so much”. But then you all panic and freak out and call my docs when your horse doesn’t poop. So, which is it? To poop or not to poop, that is the question. Please make up your minds, it gets confusing for this old cat to follow.

Assuming you want your horse too keep pooping, you have to decide what to do with their manure. Well, there are many different options and some are better than others for fly control.  You can spread the manure and wet bedding, however, if you do, be sure to spread it far from your barn, because I can guarantee the flies will find it and they will love it for laying their eggs. Larva will be happy little campers in the manure you spread. You can compost the manure, when you compost you make the waste so hot, no fly larva would survive. You can have you manure taken off your property by professionals. This may be the best option, however most manure haulers will only pick up a certain number of times a month. What that means is, you will have manure piles sitting around on your property making the flies very happy. If you chose to have your manure hauled away, I recommend that you cover the manure pile with a tarp to trap in the heat. Remember, flies don’t like extreme heat. What you do with your manure is up to you, but be prepared that no matter what you do, there will be some management involved in preventing soiled bedding from becoming the flies most sought after place.

 Fly Spray

I never knew there were so many fly spray options. There are all-natural sprays, there are concentrated sprays, oil based, water based, wipe on, spray on, the list goes on and on. How does one even know where to begin on picking out the best spray for your horse? My answer is always, research. Which sprays have research behind them, and which sprays have been proven to work in a research setting?  My docs have taught me a thing or two about the importance of making sure a product or treatment has research that supports it.

When it comes to fly spray, there have been numerous studies done. One such study looked at several products. They put the flies on one side of a container, something really smelly and nasty on the other side, and fly spray in the middle.  Two products out-shined all the others: SmartPak’s Out Smart and EcoVet. My docs like to keep the Out Smart on their trucks. It has a nice minty fresh smell to it that is not horribly offensive. I’ve been unfortunate enough to be around when Ecovet has been sprayed and let me tell you, that is one interesting smell. The nice part of Ecovet is it is made of all amino acids and it works. I’ve heard through the grape vine however, that Ecovet has improved their product and has hopefully made the smell slightly less offensive. Either way, whichever product you chose, be certain to read the label and use as instructed. Similarly, use caution when trying a new product on your horse. Some horses are more sensitive than others and some ingredients may cause reactions.

 Fly Predators

These tiny little bugs are my favorite bugs for fly control. They come in a prepackaged baggy with their own bedding. Once they hatch, you put them out around your barn where the flies like to accumulate and breed.  These clever little bugs take over the fly’s cocoon, killing the immature flies. Fly predators are safe, safe, safe. There are no toxins and they will not become pests. All they do is get rid of bigger pests: flies. You can get an order once a month and sprinkle them around areas where organic material accumulates. It is better to start the fly predators before the warmer months, but it is never too late to start them, either. One important point: they only travel 3 to 5 feet. Make sure you have enough to cover the area you are treating.

 Feed-Through Fly Control

Yes! We get to talk about food! If ever there was a poster child for “Will Work for Food” it is this guy right here. Sadly, we aren’t going to talk about cat food right now, but we are going to talk about feed-through fly control for your horse.  Does it work? That is always the question I get from people, and the answer is yes, absolutely, if it is used correctly. The feed-through fly controls must be used appropriately in order to be effective. This means that every single horse in the barn must have the product added to their feed. When the horses eat the product, it is passed through to their manure, and breaks the lifecycle of the fly at its larval stage and prevents maturation of adult flies. Feed-through fly controls should be started prior to the weather warming up. However, they can be started at any time, just be patient as it can take 4-6 weeks to see the effects the feed-through fly control has on the fly population.

Flies can be a pest, they can spread disease and cause the dreaded summer sores. But they don’t have to.  It will take some work and patience on your part, but your barn can be relatively fly free. And let’s face it, now is a great time to get to work on improving your barn and reducing your fly population. What else are you going to do while on quarantine?

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. If you really want to go to the next level with your fly control knowledge, my docs have a couple of podcasts on this topic. Check them out on our Podcast Page or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

I have heard from many of my cat brethren that their humans are still around ALL. THE. TIME. I told them this won’t be forever, and they should try their best to be patient and understanding. These are not cats’ finest qualities, so please know we are trying, but may not succeed in always being good caretakers of you humans. This does lead me down the winding road to today’s topic: What to do with your horse right now. While there aren’t any horse shows, or organized gatherings, trail rides can be tough with trail heads closed, and clinics are off the table, there are loads of things you can do to use this time wisely. Let’s talk fitness. A topic I absolutely despise.

All about that Base

That’s right, I know my recent Top 40 hits. When it comes to fitness, the base is incredibly important. And, yes, in some ways I do mean the butt, but I also mean a general level of fitness. To see where your horse is at, start with a fitness test. I would fail this one. Heck I wouldn’t even start this test. You can do this by yourself, but a helper makes it easier. Establish your horse’s resting heart rate. This is good to know on about a million different levels. To get your horse’s resting heart rate, check it a few times while they are doing nothing to do with anything. I like to get it while they’re standing around the stall, or pasture. Check it on a few different days to be sure you’ve got consistency. The number should be between 28 and 48. If the heart rate is higher than that it can indicate pain, or, more commonly in this scenario, fear of some imaginary monster in the woods. Give it 10 minutes to see if it goes back down.

Now that you’ve established base heart rate, go do something. Horses, being the athletes they are, can increase their heart rates very quickly, and quite significantly. We cats can do the same, we just prefer not to demonstrate. The heart rate should go the 150-160 bpm range while you are working. When you stop, it should drop to 60-70 bpm within about two minutes.

These two numbers tell you that you are working your horse in an appropriate range to put base fitness on them. This is often called long, slow distance by the endurance riders. Can I just say, 100 miles on a horse in one day???? That’s crazy. Anyway. This is where all horses should start, and many horses can stay. You will find that as you add distance or intensity to your exercises, it may take longer for your horse’s heart rate to come back down. That’s normal! However, your horse should get fitter every week, and get back into the happy heart beat range. If not, you know what to do: call my Docs!

What if I want more?

Base fitness is great, but doesn’t do much for any of the sports that require bursts of speed or power. For those, we have to get into interval training. Interval training pushes heart rates up for a short period of time, then slows things down, then picks them back up. For interval training you want your horse’s heart rate above 165 bpm. How long? So glad you asked. I am going to give the most cat of answers: it depends.

It depends because it depends on what you do with your horse. If possible, you want your interval to be twice as long as your maximal effort in the sport you do. Sometimes that’s hard to define because you humans do a lot of different things with your horses, but let’s start with an easy one: barrel racing. In a barrel race, you run flat out for, let’s say 18 seconds. That seems like a really long time to me. Anyway, in the alley way, around the barrels, and out again 18 seconds, maybe a bit more. This means you would ideally like to get your horse to go maximal effort for 36 seconds. In a perfect world, you would also repeat this three times in fairly quick succession. You’re likely beginning to see why cats aren’t big into fitness. I might run 18 seconds flat out for food, but never more than once, and certainly not twice that, three times in a row. Again, anyway, you don’t start at 36 seconds. More likely, start at 15-20 and be sure your horse can get their heart rate back down in two to three minutes. Once you’ve got that going, you can increase time, and add repetitions.

For the horse sports that require less defined times of maximal effort it gets a little trickier. For instance, reined cow horse. You will need bursts of maximal effort, but they aren’t sustained. Here you want to get an idea for how many of those you have during a run. Let’s say you need 10-15 seconds of running a cow down the wall, and you do that 4-5 times. Incorporate some short 20-30 second bursts in your base fitness program, check heart rates, and make sure your horse can handle it.

Footwork and Stretching

You know those cool movie scenes where the football players are running drills through tires? You should do those with your horse as well. OK not tires, but the footwork part. No matter what you do with your horse, poles will help. This is where the internet excels. You can find approximately 1.3 million pole exercise videos on YouTube, and another bajillion on Facebook. This can also be as easy as throwing some fence posts on the ground in random distances and asking your horse to walk and trot over them. It doesn’t have to get fancy. Taking your horse through poles at even the walk will help them develop timing and coordination. Add speed, and it helps strength as well. It’s no cat exaggeration to say that every horse can benefit from poles on the ground.

Take it from a cat, stretching does a body good. When you get done with all that fitness work, get a good stretching session in there. Every horse can benefit from side to side, and nose down stretches. For more specific stretches for your horse, you know what to do: call my Docs. A few quick stretching tips: how long the stretch is held isn’t as important as the action itself, they should be repeated 3-5 times per stretch, and only ask for a fraction of an inch past your horse’s comfort zone. For the side-to-side stretches, I recommend you stand with your back to your horse’s hip, extend your arm, and ask them to touch your outstretched hand. The goal is to arc the entire spine. If they reach their nose back to the hip directly, only the neck really bends. My way (let’s be honest, it’s always the right way) arcs the entire spine.

I know some of you humans are bored right now, and we animals are trying our best to keep you entertained. It’s a great time to get some of the basics done, and fitness is good for every horse, but not cat. Don’t work on cat fitness. Never work on cat fitness. Use this time wisely, and you will be ready to get back to the arena, or trail, or whatever you want when your pets finally let you off stall rest. Ha!!!

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Still looking for things to do while staying home? Check out our YouTube page for some great vidoes and previous seminars. Speaking of seminars, we have a Virtual Seminar on Facebook Live, this Thursday, April 16th at 6:30PM.

If you have been following the Springhill Equine Facebook page, and I know you have, you have probably seen the post about a couple of horses who took the opportunity this weekend to injure themselves.  For some reason I think horses are feeling a bit restless with all this stay at home, self-quarantine, social distancing stuff. I have heard about several horses who have wounded themselves in one way or another since the start of all of this.  I guess they must be experiencing stable fever. Don’t worry, you all will be back on the trails, headed to shows, and barrel races soon. In the meantime, let’s talk about what to do when your horse is the one experiencing stable fever and finds a way to injure himself.

So, you’ve been inside all day watching Netflix and you finally decide to spend some time outside with your horse only to find your horse has an open wound on his leg, or neck, or face, or really, just about anywhere.  Oh, no! Now what do you do? Well, I know you all have downloaded the Medici App already, so you grab your phone and get ahold of one of my docs through Medici.  They will look at the wound and determine if it needs to be seen.

Initial Treatment

My docs will probably tell you to go ahead and start running cold water over the wound. Remember, dilution is the solution to pollution. They will instruct you not to go exploring the wound. Vital structures may lay just below the surface and any type of probing may disrupt those structures leading to a life-threatening emergency for your horse. Depending on the injury, they may recommend moving your horse to his stall or a clean environment. However, sometimes it is best to not move your horse at all until my docs can assess the situation. This is why we love using telemedicine with Medici! My docs can really see the problem at hand in real time and get you the best advice for your horse before they even get there.

If it’s possible, my docs may recommend getting your horse a dose of bute or banamine to help with any swelling that is inevitably going to occur. Now that you have performed the critical steps in your horse’s wound care, sit tight and wait for the doc to arrive. I have heard this is the hardest part of all. I have no trouble sitting around all day waiting for dinner, so I am not sure what is so hard.

The Exam

Now that my doc has arrived, they will assess the situation.  The first thing they will do is ensure that your horse is safe. They ask themselves several questions, including how much blood has been lost, is the horse in shock, how long ago does it appear the injury has happened, are there any other injuries that need to be addressed, etc.

From here, they will likely sedate your horse. An injured horse is unpredictable, and sedation is best and safest for all involved.  While your horse is getting sleepy, they will gather supplies. Scrub, clippers, syringes, needles, medications, surgical instruments, suture and drains. Your horse is going to have a funny haircut for a few weeks as they heal, since my docs are going to clip an area surrounding the wound. This allows them to clean the affect area better and to visualize any hidden cuts/scrapes that may need addressed.

Once your horse has his new -do, they will scrub the area thoroughly to make sure there are not contaminants. Next comes the blocking of the skin. They will use lidocaine so your horse cannot feel the area while they manipulate it and get an idea of the extent of injuries. They will assess nerve and blood vessel damage as well as muscle, tendon and ligament damage. Next comes suturing. Any excess tissue that will prevent proper healing is removed. Oftentimes, several layers of suture are required to put a wound back together. Occasionally, if there is a lot of open space under the skin, a drain may be placed. Drains help to prevent fluid from accumulating and developing an infection. Once the skin is sutured closed, they will clean up the affected area and apply topical ointment to the wound.

Doctor’s Orders

When my docs are finished putting your horse back together, they will leave you with very specific instructions on how to manage your horse’s wound. They will go back to what we said in the beginning: dilution is the solution to pollution. You and your horse are going to be spending some quality time together with the water hose. This shouldn’t be a problem for you since you’re stuck at home anyway. Ten to twenty minutes of cold hosing twice a day doesn’t seem like much, but when you’re having to put your Netflix on pause, you may change your mind.

This is going to be the best therapy for your horse. Not only will cold hosing keep the wound clean, it will decrease inflammation and swelling. Hope you stocked up on antibacterial hand soap, because you’re going to need it.  Once a day you are going to have to wash the affected area with a mild soap. After the wound is clean and dry, apply a triple antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin to the wound. I am a big fan of Kinetic Vet, IBH salve for these kind of things. For one, it keeps the bugs off, 2, it has antiseptic properties, and 3, it just smells really yummy.

Depending on the location of the wound, where your horse lives, and how dirty the wound was to start, doc may start your horse on antibiotics. However, antibiotics are not always required and can sometimes be detrimental to your horse’s wellbeing. For the first few days post-injury, you can bet on administering some kind of anti-inflammatory medication to your horse. This will help will swelling and keep your horse more comfortable during the healing process.

Finally, and probably the most important part of your horse’s recovery, is you. Doc will instruct you to monitor the wound for any heat, redness, or discharge. If you notice any of these signs, call my clinic immediately and they will get you in touch with one the docs. You can also go through the Medici App to get the docs directly. Sutures come out in 14 – 21 days and then its smooth sailing from there.

Seeing your horse hurt is never easy and always scary.  Wounds take time to heal and can be frustrating at times, but just remember, we are only a phone call away and are always happy to help answer any questions you may have.

Until next week, stay safe, keep your distance, and go hug your horse!

~Tony

P.S. I have heard the humans talking about our Facebook Live seminar this month on Thursday, April 16th and they are talking about prizes? Be sure to keep an eye on our facebook page for that. Until then, looking for more great horse information? Don’t forget about our podcast. Click here to listen.

What Your Horse Does All Day

I’ve heard from the cat version of the dark web that some of you are suddenly home way, way too much during the day. I hear some virus is responsible. Let me tell you, the cats aren’t happy about it, and we’d like things to go back the way they were very soon. Those of you at home have also been watching your horses a lot more. You’re noticing things you’ve never noticed before. This week I’m going to help you determine if those behaviors you’re suddenly aware of after watching your horse for 8 hours while pretending to work from home are worth a call to one of my Docs, or if it’s no big deal.

Sleeping

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: us pets, small and large, spend a large portion of our time sleeping. In the wild, your horse would have to spend a large portion of the day trying to eat enough crappy, tough, dry grass to meet their nutritional needs. You have given them at least two square meals daily of delectable, nutritious concentrates, along with plenty of hay. While that hay is dried grass, it is of delicious varieties which were specially cultivated, and fertilized to provide optimum nutrition to the equine athlete. All that means your horse can spend most of the day sleeping under the thoughtfully provided fans, in their comfy stall, or in that perfect wallow they’ve made in the sandy area.
By now you’ve spent several days, at the very least, watching your horse’s patterns. As long as nap time happens around the same time every day, and involves snoozing either in sternal (the fancy word for sitting-up sleeping), or lateral (the fancy word for laying flat out) recumbency (the fancy word for laying down), then things are good. You may continue to “work” from home.
You will also notice normal nap time involves sleeping, then waking up, then moving on about one’s day. This is true for cats as well. If your horse is getting up, laying back down, getting up, laying down, and never truly sleeping, or getting on about their other daily chores, then it’s definitely time to call my Docs. Even better, send a video of the behavior to them via Medici. See last week’s blog if you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say Medici.
Repeated rolling, without a good shake upon standing, is also a reason to call the Docs. As is laying around at inappropriate times and locations. You may have noticed your horse is particular not only about what time naps occur, but also where. Changes to these behaviors are often early signs of colic. Definitely a reason to call the Docs!!

Standing around

Since you humans have provided all a horse could want, you may also notice them standing around an awful lot of the time. Much like napping, this often has a prefered location, especially if your horse is in a stall. While pretending to attend that Zoom meeting, you may be watching the camera on your horse. Take this opportunity to really notice how they stand around. Horses just hanging out will generally have one hind foot resting, with the opposite front foot popped forward a little bit. This keeps them stable, but allows that hind leg to really rest. Most horses will have a preferred hind resting leg, but will also switch legs periodically. There’s no hard and fast number here, but if your horse is constantly (think every few minutes) switching up the resting hind leg, there’s a good chance they have some level of lameness or soreness going on somewhere from the low back to the hind feet. If the opposite front foot is pushed more than about 6” in front of the other front foot, there’s a very good possibility that foot hurts.
Other clues to look for that can indicate pain, are resting against a wall, and piling footing underneath their feet. Horses will rest an entire side against a wall, or push their hips into a wall to help hold themselves up. A huge indicator of painful feet is stacked bedding underneath a portion of the foot. The most common way my Docs see this is pushing bedding into a hill that the horse then props their heels up on. By doing this, your horse has created their very own wedge shoe!

Eating, Drinking, Pooping, Peeing

These are the first four questions I often hear when my Docs are evaluating sick horses. Are they eating normally? Drinking the same amount? More? Less? Pooping as usual? And how’s that urine? Same color? Opacity? Quantity? These seemingly simple questions are huge clues about your horse’s basic well being. Now is the time to get a really good handle on how your horse normally goes about these normal daily tasks. Is the hay all scarfed down quickly? Or is your horse more of a savor-every-morsel kinda guy? How about drinking? A few visits to the water trough for a deep drink? Or more of a drive by sipper every time a cloud passes the sun? Get a handle on the details of the Big Four Questions, and you will be able to spot health concerns for your horse way, way before they become a big problem.

Many of you humans are looking at this stay-at-home thing all wrong. It’s not isolation, it’s a chance to understand a day in the life of your animals on an unprecedented level. This information can help you pick up on subtle clues about lameness, GI health, and more! As the official cat representative, I do ask that you keep these deep observational dives to the non-feline species. We cats would prefer to nap in peace!

Until next week,
~Tony

PS ~Looking for fun things to do while keeping your distance? Springhill Equine has a ton of videos on our YouTube channel. Catch up on all those seminars you’ve missed. Our website has every blog yours truly has ever written. You can get sucked down a rabbit hole of information there. Need more? Check out Springhill Equine’s podcast: Straight From The Horse Doctor’s Mouth. And maintain your distance!!

Tuesdays with Tony

You may have noticed (or not, if you’re oblivious to the racehorse world like me) that some major bad players were recently indicted by the FBI. That’s right, the Federales were involved. I am above these things you humans call laws, except when it comes to Rabies shots, but I understand some pretty big laws were broken. More importantly, horses were hurt, and potentially even died because of what happened. I will let you humans sort out the law side of things, but I wanted to chat about science, ethics, and supplements.

What do you want for your horse?

The trainers involved in this indictment obviously don’t want the best for their horses, but what do you want for your horse? I’m okay with saying we pushed hard for the championship. If I wasn’t a cat who’s only motivation is finding the ideal sleeping spot, I’d probably want to push hard for the championship too! You all know horses. You know they understand the game, and many of them like to do what you humans ask of them. Some of them don’t, but that’s a whole different blog topic. However, at the end of the day, it’s up to the humans to understand where the line is between pushing and breaking, and what’s more important: the win, or the horse. I’m not a young kitten, I do understand that the line is in different places for different people. Think about where the line is for you, and your horse. 

What’s in it?

One of the products involved in the FBI raids has an ingredient list that reads as: an innovative formulation consisting of amino acids derived from Ovine Placental Extract. SGF 1000 RMR is manufactured and purified through a patented low temperature process that involves homogenization, fractionation and ultra-filtration of the ovine placental extract suspended in a sterile liquid.

As stated earlier, I’m no kitten, but I am a wise cat. I’ve done my time on the front counter listening to my Docs. That is a bunch of big, sciency sounding words that don’t mean a thing. And nowhere do they have the unabridged version of what’s supposed to happen when they put it in a cold blender, then run it through an expensive strainer. Tony’s Take Home: Be very wary of a company that won’t give you a good answer to 1. The science behind their process, 2. What’s actually in the stuff they’re selling you for what I’m sure is a decent amount of money. This applies to every single thing you humans buy for your horses. From grain, to hay, to probiotics, to saddles, tack, bits, and ANYTHING called a supplement.

There is one particularly overpriced, but very pretty, supplement on the market that is 90% flax seed (!) plus some vitamins and minerals. You can give your horse a pound of flax seed daily, and a pound of a good ration balancer and have the EXACT same thing for about 1/10th the price. Anyway, you and/or my Docs should have a very clear understanding of what’s in any product you are putting in or on your horse. 

What does it do?

In the case of this supplement, it did a lot, and there were statements made like “it doesn’t test,” and “there’s no test for it.” Those seem like red flags to me. Many of these drugs are illegal because, not only do they cause profound performance enhancement, but they also have pretty awful side effects. Mother Nature has done what can be done with the available materials. Racehorses already perform at the edge of what their engineering is capable of. Giving them performance enhancers will only cause the engineering to fail.

That’s exactly what’s suspected in one horse, X Y Jet. One of the nasty side effects is the potential for a heart attack. Well guess who died of a heart attack? That’s right, X Y Jet. Imagine if your tiny human was on that horse when that happened rounding the third barrel and heading for home. I promise you, it’s not a good outcome. Things that promise to vastly improve Mother Nature come with a very, very high price. 

On the other side of the spectrum (and way more common) is the drug that promises to make your barrel horse run faster, your jumper jump higher, and your western pleasure horse to lope slower. Guess what? It very likely doesn’t do ANY of those things! The only thing this type of product, supplement, boot, saddle pad, widget, or thingy is good at is separating your money from your person. Horses are pretty good at that all on their own. You don’t need snake oil to help you. 

Know what makes your horse run faster, jump higher, or lope slower? Good training, hard work, and natural ability. If things aren’t going the way you want, here’s some simple rules:

1. Have my Docs talk with you, watch your horse perform, and do a lameness evaluation
2. Check your tack
3. Check yourself.

I’m not a big fan of rules, but they are important occasionally. So follow the rules, avoid the FBI, and have a happy, healthy horse at the end of the day. 

Until next week,

~Tony

P.S. Looking for more knowledge in the world of horses? Head on over to our podcast page for an abundance of useful knowledge. To get there, just click here.