Apr 11, 2017 | Cushings, Haircoat, PPID, Seniors, Uncategorized
Cushing’s Disease
Is your older horse taking longer to shed out than usual this spring? Is it getting harder to keep weight on the old man? Has your retiree had more than one hoof abscess in the last year? If so, you may be dealing with PPID, better known as Cushing’s Disease. Read on to learn more about PPID from this wise old cat!
What is PPID?
PPID stands for Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction, which is the technical term for Cushing’s disease in horses. In the most basic sense, PPID is a brain tumor. The brain actually has a very intricate system of glands that produce hormones which stimulate additional glands to produce other hormones that control functions elsewhere in the body. When one of these glands (the Pituitary) in the horse’s brain goes AWOL, you have Cushing’s disease.
The tumor growing on the pituitary gland is called an adenoma. This tumor applies pressure to the gland as it grows, causing over-production of its hormones (namely, adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH). The clinical signs of Cushing’s disease in horses are all a result of too much ACTH in circulation. Time for a nap break…all of these letters are giving this cat a headache!
What are the signs of PPID?
Cushing’s disease can lead to a bunch of problems. For one, overproduction of ACTH can confound the whole winter-coat-growing system, so your horse winds up with long, curly hair in the hottest summer months. Failure to shed out completely or in a timely manner is the most well-known sign of Cushing’s disease. However, now that we know early treatment seems to slow the progression of the disease, our efforts are aimed at diagnosing the disease earlier, using more subtle signs.
In the early stages of the disease, PPID can cause lethargy, muscle wasting, regional fat deposits, recurrent infections, increased water consumption, and increased urination. The most worrisome side effect of Cushing’s disease is chronic laminitis. There is no known cure for laminitis, and it can even be life-threatening in horses with PPID. And that’s bad, because horses have 8 fewer lives than us cats.
Pony with Equine Cushings Disease
How do I know if my horse has PPID?
Since the early signs of the disease can be subtle, our docs recommend annual testing for Cushing’s disease on any horse over 10 years of age. First the docs will draw blood, then it goes on a trip to Cornell University where they test the ACTH levels. Then, the doctors will compare your horse’s ACTH levels to the normal range for a horse during that time of year.
Considering your horse’s test results and clinical signs, your vet may recommend daily medication to treat PPID. Luckily, the folks at Boehringer Ingelheim have come up with a great medicine called Prascend that is easy to give, and works really well too! Just one tablet a day mixed in with grain is a sufficient dose for most horses. I’ve heard it tastes better than the cheese-flavored medicine the humans squirt in my mouth every day.
Conveniently, I have an event coming up here next week at Springhill Equine on Wednesday April 19th at 6:30pm, where you can learn all you ever wanted to know about PPID and other senior horse problems! Some of my favorite people from Boehringer Ingelheim will be there to answer any questions you may have, and best of all there will be food! Oh, and a chance to win a free ACTH test for your horse. You may think that is even better than food, but that’s where we will have to agree to disagree………
See you there!
-Tony
Jan 24, 2017 | Ailments, Colic, Deworming, Feed, Hay, Uncategorized
Colics. We see a heck of a lot of them. Now a decent amount of those colics can be attributed to the fairly ridiculous design of the equine GI tract. I mean, honestly, who thought that was a good idea? However, I spent my weekend pouring through the computer to look at colics the Docs saw last year. That’s right, I spend my weekend working. What’s a cat to do when it’s far too windy for civilized folk to be outside but sleep in the sun and play on the computer?
I would like a drum roll here to acknowledge my hard work, so please play one in your head now….
Our Docs saw 318 colics last year. Of those colics, three went to surgery. That’s right, three. Four others needed surgery, but for a variety of very good reasons their owners weren’t able to take them to surgery. I did remove one very specific type of colic from those numbers, but I will explain why later. I’m going to start with the moral of story: Most colics don’t need surgery. There you go. You have the punchline. Now, let’s move on to some helpful guidelines to avoid seeing Dr. Lacher and Dr. Vurgason for… umm… ‘unscheduled opportunities’ to spend money on your horse.
Alfalfa (or peanut). I’m not talking about the bad hair day or the comic strip. I’m talking hay. Feeding coastal hay is very, very strongly associated with an emergency visit from one of my Docs after hours. Coastal hay in a round roll virtually guarantees you will see my Docs for an emergency. If you run out of round bale hay, cold weather moves in, and you put out a new round bale, make sure you throw plenty of alfalfa or peanut hay alongside. Feeding a minimum of 4-6 pounds of alfalfa or peanut hay daily will go a long way towards preventing this cause.
Be obsessive-compulsive about water. The old adage “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink,” exists because it’s so true. If you even have a doubt about how much water your horse is drinking, get water into them. How, you ask? Watch this handy video about how to make colic soup for your horse. Besides colic soup, adding a bit of molasses to the water, or giving them a small amount of salt slurry will entice some to drink up. Each horse is different; work with your horse to figure out what works best.
Manage your horse’s environment. If your horse is in a sandy area, keeping plenty of roughage going through the system is a great way to prevent sand build-up. Psyllium is also an option here for the horse who needs fewer calories, but hay works better than anything else. For the Fall season, be aware of acorns. Acorns are like cute little field mice for cats: bite size morsels of deliciousness. Too many can lead to gas, and we all know gas can be painful. Acorns are tough to avoid, but our Docs have used muzzles and creative electrical fence configurations to help.
Finally, let me go back to that one particular colic: lipomas. Lipomas are a fatty tumor that grows in the area of the small intestine in older horses. It happens in skinny horses and fat horses alike. Lipomas are associated with age. They are not because of nutrition, bad or good, management, or any other factor you can control. These tumors are wicked. They wrap up a section of small intestine much like the bolos used by Gauchos, and strangle it until it dies. If a small amount of intestine is trapped, and the colic is caught early, surgery can be very successful. Unfortunately, many of these horses aren’t found for a few hours and by then surgery is very risky, with laminitis a very real risk about 72 hours post surgery.
Colic sucks. There’s no other way to put it. A little work on the diet and a dash of environmental management, and it will suck less. Want help with a diet plan? Contact my trusty minion Beth. She’s super smart when it comes to everything equine nutrition! And now I’m off to supervise the Clinic.
Oct 18, 2016 | Events, Farriers, Feed, FES, Hoof Care, Lameness, Our Facility, Pet Pigs, Uncategorized
Well, what a whirlwind this last week has been! The humans around here moved everything up off the floor during their Hurricane Matthew preparation, and it took them far too long to get it all back to the way Teenie and I like it. Then there were several late-night colics that came into the clinic for fluids and emergency care, which would have been fine, except that no one would let me out of the office to prowl supervise because it was night time. Geesh. And finally, there is a mountain of stuff in the office that is to be given away during the Open House (pronounced “See Tony Event”), and it is blocking all my favorite sleeping places except the computer keyboard! It’s hard being at the top.
Stephanie has been working hard organizing this Open House, which takes place this Saturday, October 22nd from 10am til 2pm. She has been on the phone during my Official Nap Time (which is daytime, basically) arranging for all these feed stores, tack shops, drug companies, trainers, boarding barns, and someplace called Backyard BBQ who is catering lunch (I assume they specialize in cat food?) to be here, with all these door prizes and so on. The doctors and techs are going to have educational stations set up, and they even have a farrier coming to talk about hoof care, trimming, shoeing, and to answer questions.
In addition to the farrier’s hoof trimming demonstration, there will also be a chance for you to check out Sox for Horses, and see how they go on and off (there is a special technique that makes it easier if you have a horse with giant feet, like Dr. Lacher’s Ernie), and Mallie Jo will be demonstrating the FES, which is taking the barrel racing world by storm right now. If you have a performance horse of any kind and you don’t know about the FES, you don’t want to miss this!
One of the things everyone is excited about is the Wellness giveaway. From what I hear, everyone who signs a horse up for a 2017 Wellness plan between October 1st and the end of the Open House on the 22nd goes into a drawing, and one horse will win a refund, giving them a year of free Wellness! That is a big deal, which you know if you read the flier I sent you. If you don’t know about Wellness yet, or want to know more, you can read up on it at www.SpringhillEquine.com/wellness or you can call and talk to Stephanie about it.
The other thing everyone is excited about is getting to see me, of course. I’m something of a celebrity around here, in case you didn’t know. I have been in a lot of selfies with people on Facebook, and if you bring me a cat treat, I might be in yours, too! So, load up the kids and come on out to Springhill Equine this Saturday!
Oct 11, 2016 | Uncategorized
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Thank you Hurricane Matthew. No, really, thank you for veering a little bit east instead of west. It made all the difference to us. It meant some rescheduling, it meant Dr. Lacher couldn’t go to the Purina Research Facility, it meant some inconvenience, but overall we made it through another storm. I said it last time and I’m going to say it again: go write down what you wish you had done differently and what you did right so you are even more prepared for the next storm. I’m also going to mention microchipping again. It’s quick, easy, and ensures your horse can be identified. Now for the aftermath: abscesses and skin funk.
After spending hours getting rained on, or just hanging out in 100% humidity in the barn, your horse’s feet and skin will be primed for great things. When feet get wet they allow bacteria to wiggle their way up between the hoof wall and the lamina. This area is the Velcro that holds the hoof capsule on. The bacteria find this to be a warm, comfortable place to set up shop. The body sends in the troops to fight and pus is the result. All that pus causes pressure inside the hoof capsule. As discussed before horses have a very stupid design which involves them walking on their finger tip. Which means all that pressure has nowhere to go and it hurts. It hurts a lot. I really should have been consulted in the design phase of horses. I really could have come up with a better plan. Anyway, if your horse is suddenly very, very lame on one foot in a few days the chances are pretty good an abscess is brewing. I do recommend you check in with our Docs to be sure they think an abscess is brewing. Sometimes, especially with horses, what you think is going on isn’t really what’s going on. I recommend a cat scan, but then I always recommend a cat scan for everything.
Ugh, the skin. I can relate to this one as a sensitive skinned guy. All this weather wreaks havoc on my skin and luxurious, panther-like coat. Oh wait this is about horses. Well it’s the same for them. Giving them a bath in an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal shampoo like Equishield CK as soon as possible will help reduce the skin funk. If you see spots that have crusts or bumps, wash those daily until they clear. If you aren’t seeing improvement after 3-4 days, let the Docs know. They have a bunch of stuff to help with skin funk. And if all else fails, antibiotics are brought in. I hate the antibiotics, and like to come up with new and creative ways to be downright evil about getting the pills!
Hope you all fared Hurricane Matthew well. I hated the extra day locked inside but I suppose it was for my own good. Until next week, may your litter box be clean and your food bowl full!
Sep 6, 2016 | Disaster Preparedness, Events, Uncategorized
I’m going to start with a reminder to come visit with me on Thursday evening at 6:30pm. We have a limited number of Meet Tony opportunities, so don’t miss your chance. There will also be some talk on why horses need vaccines so often. I say it’s because they are a lesser evolved critter, but the humans say that’s not true. Oh and there will be good food. All in all a good time.
Moving on to Hurricane Hermine. I realize I have discussed hurricanes before but I felt you humans would be well primed for a refresher course given recent events. Let’s start with the basics: food, water, shelter. Did you have all of these after Hermine? Where there close calls? Walk in the feed room today and take stock of what you have. Don’t forget to check on medications. We were lucky this time; the phones never went down so our Docs were reachable, but it doesn’t always work that way. If your supplies levels are good, then you probably would have done OK if you are in the greater Gainesville area. Cedar Key and similar areas weren’t as fortunate. Determine if you are prepared for that level of destruction.
Did you have enough water for the horses? Being a cat, I was fine on water but a 5 gallon bucket will pretty much last me forever. Horses do love their water. We recommend 15 gallons per day per horse multiplied by how long you think power will be out. Planning for a week without power is the minimum we recommend. Of course, our amazing power companies normally do much better than that, but the bigger a storm, the longer it takes. In 2004 many people were out for over two weeks! Have a way to get water if power stays out. A generator to run the pump or tanks to haul water make the world a much happier place.
How did you fences do? Which brings up are your horses microchipped? We were pretty lucky at the Clinic, and the human houses to have intact fences for the most part. It’s easy to see how a tree can hit a fence line and free a horse though. And being horses they will run the least safe direction. Picking a pasture that, at the very least, directs them away from power lines or other dangers is a good start. Microchipping them so they can be identified when found is an even better step.
Take this opportunity to evaluate your disaster plan. Were the cats (ok and the horses) happy? I was about to strike over the no air conditioning thing. Do you feel you were ready for worse? Look at Hermine as Mother Nature’s little pop quiz. She just wants us to know what she can do. Kind of like us cats. Shameless plug here at the end: The humans have continued the microchip special for two more weeks. It’s ridiculously easy. The $43 price includes LIFETIME registration. Can’t beat that deal. Also since the weather was not completely disgusting today, horse show season must be upon us. We are offering 10% off Back-To-School, Back-To-Horse show lameness evaluations.
Apr 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
I have been perusing the internet in the evenings when there is no one
around to scratch my chin. I landed on one of these forum things where
horse owners discuss all sorts of things, and I do mean all sorts of
things. As a cat I found it be a fascinating study in human psychology.
I am now addicted to checking these things. There were a few recurring
themes I would like go over, especially given where I live and who
provides the food I so dearly love.
Often seen Question type #1: My horse is doing something that may be a
medical emergency. I would like to have the advice of all the people on
the internet who are not Veterinarians. I may or may not then call my
Veterinarian.
Yep, I saw this type more than any other. I'm going to start by stating
the obvious: call Springhill Equine if you think you have an emergency.
I have trained the Docs well. I promise they will answer your questions
patiently and thoroughly, and then determine if it is a real emergency.
This will save your horse time in pain, and, here's the best part, it
will save you money. I hear our Docs talk about the ways in which they
could have helped horse owners so much more effectively if they had only
called sooner. While I may bite if you don't provide food fast enough,
or scratch behind my ear appropriately, my Docs won't bite, kick, or
scratch you for calling to ask questions so call and ask them!
Question Type #2: I saw this supplement and it looks AHHMAZING what does
the Internet think of it?
I understand crowdsourcing. Really I do. Come to any Springhill Equine
gathering and you will see me crowdsource some attention. However, when
it comes to my health care and whether or not I need to eat this or that
I check with the experts. These experts come in the form of my
veterinarian and trained nutrition professionals. Neither of these are
available in an internet chat forum. My veterinarian is at my beck and
call so that one is easy. My nutrition professional is also easy. There
is a 1-800 number on the back of my cat food that allows me to talk with
one. I understand this is true of those bags of horse feed too. I
asked one of my technicians, Beth, about the nutrition information
available from these magical 1-800 numbers. I asked Beth since she has
spent many years in the retail equine nutrition world. Beth told me the
people on the other end of the phone have something called a PhD and
that makes them a Doctor of Nutrition. Seems like a good source of
information to me. Beth said our Docs often work with these Docs to
make sure horses with special diet requirements have all their needs
met.
Question Type #3: My horse is doing this thing, pretty sure he is
hurting somewhere. Oh great Internet magical beast using your powers
tell me where my horse hurts and how to treat it.
This one I'm just going to leave at: Please call your veterinarian.
Horses show pain in about 3,427,862 ways. A hind end lameness can show
up as a front end problem and vice versa. So please stick to the
professionals when it comes to diagnosing.
So what do I get from all these forums? I learn about the best options
for stall floors, the most awesome leather cleaner (Higher Standards
Leather Care in case you were curious), Tips and Tricks for horse care
when it's really cold or really hot, if that cool new pitchfork is
really as good as it sounds, and a million other things about day to day
life with horses. I stop asking the internet machine questions when it
is about pain or discomfort without first consulting my veterinarians.
There you have it! Wise words about the Internet from a very wise,
handsome cat.
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