Horse Health

Equine Parasite Management

October 17, 2011 By Daniel Beatty DVM 1 Comment

If you have been paying attention the last year or so you have been hearing and reading that here in the US we have developed some resistant parasites in our horse population. How did we develop these resistant parasites? Well to be honest our deworming protocols. In our zeal to have a clean worm free horse population we have instead developed worms that are resistant to treatment.

SO what to do? There are reports everywhere saying we should deworm regularly only with ivermectin, and others saying we should only deworm after testing to be sure our horse has parasites, and others still saying use a rotational deworming program but base it on the time of year rather than just every 30 or 60 days. However very little information is out there on how to actually prevent your horse from being infected in the first place. Well it is a matter of equine parasite management.

In equine parasite management one needs to first consider the actual risk of your horse being infected by parasites. The risk for a horse stabled and fed inside a barn and turned out by itself in its own personal dry lot is going to be much less than another horse that is kept in a small pasture with 5 other horses. With a horse in the environment as the latter, it is going to be near impossible to prevent infection from parasites, so one has to be dedicated to management of the pasture to prevent an overabundance.

The rules of equine parasite management -

Clean up the manure in the pasture/turnout – a minimum of once a week this reduces the amount of eggs being delivered to the pasture and also the larva.
If you feed hay and/or grain, feed inside the barn or at a minimum in a bunk off the ground and in an area separate from the pasture. If you do feed in a bunk outside place the bunk on a concrete pad or limestone. Clean feed buckets and bunks regularly.
If possible divide your pastures and rotate the usage allowing a rest period to help kill off parasites.
Test each horse’s manure regularly (once every 2-3 months) for parasites. One horse can be a high shedder and be the main infector and another have a very low parasite count. Knowing the high shedders will help you manage those individual horses and keep them separate from the rest of the herd if possible. Also you can treat the horses that shed and treat each horse as an individual which actually helps the entire herd.
Deworm any new horse prior to introducing them to your herd.

If you use these five steps you can lower the risk of your horse being infected with parasites, then you do not have to worry about what you have to do with the deworming schedule or if you have to rotate or what product you have to use, because you will have a lower risk of parasite infection.

Other Sources for deworming and horse parasite control

Two Horses, Adjoining Pastures–Two Wildly Different Deworming …

The worm load for the mare? Very small–only 34 (which is the number of eggs per gram), which makes her a “low shedder” of worm eggs. According to thi.

http://myhorse.com/blogs/horse-care/two-horses-adjoining-pastures-two-wildly-different-deworming-needs/

A Chilling Thought About Horse Deworming Schedules | MyHorse …

Like you, I’ve read many conflicting horse deworming schedule reports. And it seems that for every horse deworming program based on a rotational drug.

http://myhorse.com/blogs/horse-care/a-chilling-thought-about-horse-deworming-schedules/

Every Horse Boarder’s Nightmare: A Young Horse’s Death from Severe Worm Damage and the Ten Commandments of Parasite Control

From the very day that newly-initiated horse owners pick up their crisp new how-to horsecare book or go to that first horse health lecture, the first commandment of horse health management echoes in their ears: Thou shalt worm thy horse religiously.

http://blogs.equisearch.com/horsehealth/2011/10/13/horse-worm-strongyle-clot-thromboembolism/

A cute video explaining the new concepts for deworming -

Superworm.m4v

Eggzamin Superworm – Drug Resistant Parasite in Horses. Time to rethink our deworming strategies.

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: deworming, Horse Health, parasites, resistance

EHV-1 Hysteria

May 21, 2011 By Daniel Beatty DVM 1 Comment

Calm down horse people, all this EHV-1 hysteria is getting to me. As of today there are less than 40 horses that have contracted Equine Herpes Virus 1 from being exposed at a national cutting show in Odgen, Utah. Despite what certain news outlets are reporting it has not spread yet. Think about it there are over 7 million horses in the US, less than 40 have contracted the disease and less than 5 have died – 0.00057% of the population is definitely NOT an epidemic.

Yesterday I was a little disappointed in one of The Horse’s articles relating to the outbreak – EHV-1 Outbreak: Number of Confirmed Cases Rising. The title of this article and definitely the first line in the article really irritated me. Here is a respected health journal and they are playing to the hysteria that is building. Worse yet with the line, “It’s been nearly a week since the first indications of a neurologic equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) outbreak began to surface, and the outbreak shows no signs of slowing down.” they certainly are continuing and even promoting that hysteria. I tweeted my disapproval with two tweets -

Oops Twitter conversation about horse health not loading.

Stephanie Church the Editor-in-Chief responded back to the tweets with a tweet of her own -

Oops Twitter conversation about horse health not loading

I agree with their mission and the responsibility they have placed on themselves which is why The Horse is an excellent source for articles on health for your horse (I have blog envy for sure). I said so and reiterated my displeasure with that specific title and first line of the article. Stephanie understood and followed up with this tweet -

oops Twitter conversation about horse health not loading

I am glad that Stephanie commented and listened to me explaining my displeasure and in the end seemed to be more conscious of what I was trying to say. I’d like to expand and clarify my position, first by saying that The Horse is by no means the problem here. They are still one of my most trusted sources for information about the outbreak. I also want to say that I am concerned about this outbreak but not to the point that I have seen some people and owners out here on the internet. On top of the hysteria, the misinformation is horrific. I can not believe with as much good information being repeated in many different reputable areas that there still is misinformation being given, even by veterinarians! And not only misinformation but information that may be detrimental to your horse’s health rather than helpful.

The Facts about this EHV-1 Outbreak

EHV-1 has been around a very long time and it is unknown at this time whether this outbreak is caused by a new strain.

EHV-1 causes respiratory disease, abortions, foal deaths and/or neurologic disease. If a horse obtains the neurologic form it is not a death sentence.

This outbreak has been limited to the horses that were exposed at the cutting show in Odgen, Utah and their stablemates. It has not spread to other horses.

Containment/Quarantine is the best defense against spread and it appears that at this time it has been contained by quarantining the horses that have been exposed.

Vaccination is ineffective against the neurologic form and controversial.

Reliable Sources for EHV-1 Information

AAEP – EHV Owner Resources
UC-Davis College of Vet Med – Center for Equine Health: EHV-1
The Horse – Equine Herpesvirus (EHV)
USDA – APHIS – Equine Herpes Virus type 1

A Few Words on Vaccination for EHV-1

First and foremost – the vaccine will NOT protect your horse against the neurological form of EHV-1. There were neurologic cases of EHV-1 in horses that were vaccinated every 3 to 4 months with an approved vaccine in the last outbreak. At this time there is not a labeled or approved product to protect your horse against the neurologic form. There is good reason for this – because there is not one that will protect against it!

There is promise though and break-throughs in research. The modified live vaccine shows some promise and did protect in one study of 5 horses, but still seemed ineffective in the outbreak a couple years ago. New advances in vaccine technology with recombinant DNA vaccines and Chimera type vaccines are also showing some promise but still are not available or ready to prove they are effective.

One of the biggest problems with the current vaccines, besides not being effective against the neurologic form, is the duration of so called protection. The vaccines currently available only protect for 3 months or so. (In some horses as little as a few weeks) So this means that if you really wanted to properly vaccinate you would need to vaccinate every 2-3 month, but it still will not prevent the disease and may only limit symptoms. It does prevent virus shedding which could possibly be of some benefit to limiting the exposure to other horses.

This is where my opinion comes in based on experience with the immune system and evidence from other species (cats and dogs). It is not advisable to be stimulating the immune system with a vaccine multiple times a year especially once every 60 days, unintended consequences may occur. In dogs and cats it has been proven that annual vaccination can and does cause immune system disorders such as allergies, auto-immune disorders and even cancer. Why would the horse be so different? And we are not talking about annual vaccination; here we are talking about giving a horse a vaccine every 2-3 months that’s 4 to 6 times a year. Talk about over vaccinating! It has not been proven in horses to have detrimental effects but it really has not been researched either. So in my opinion why would you risk your horses immune system to try and protect against a disease that it can not protect against? It is possible that the reason we see an increase in the neurologic form of the disease in vaccinated animals is because of over-vaccination. No research just an opinion based on other species experience with over vaccination.

In the end just remain calm horse owners. Be educated and informed. Pay attention to where the disease has occurred and realize that taking your horse to a show is a risk, but why do you have the horse in the first place?

Filed Under: Horse Health, News

Horse Chiropractic Explained

March 22, 2011 By Daniel Beatty DVM 2 Comments

I received a question about horse chiropractic. Leah did not understand what her horse chiropractor was saying to her, so I attempted to help her understand a little about chiropractic -

If the femur was truly out either in the hip joint or the joint of the tibia and the femur in the hind leg, then wouldn’t the horse be unable to use the leg? Is it possible for these joints to be out of place? And if so is it possible to realign them with a chiropractic adjustment?
Thank you very much for the information.
Leah

My explanation -

Leah,

Now you are talking the difference between a medical luxation and a chiropractic subluxation. When a chiropractor or someone talking about chiropractic says that a joint is “out” they do not mean that the joint is totally displaced. If it were totally displaced or luxated, yes the horse would be unable to walk initially and it would be very very painful. You would know and would be calling your vet right away if you saw this problem. It would be like if the leg was broken.

However when a chiropractor using the lay term the joint is “out” it is a very simplistic and often misinterpreted way to describe a subluxation. A subluxation in chiropractic terms is a joint that is not moving effectively or efficiently. When a joint does not move correctly then it affects the tissue surrounding the joint as well, reducing blood flow and nerve conduction around the joint. This is what causes the symptoms or possible long term chronic sometimes subclinical (meaning you can not tell there is a specific problem at the moment) issues. A chiropractic adjustment is an attempt to reset the joint, to correct the movement and thus correct the nerve conduction and blood flow around the joint. I am also giving you a simplistic description – one that is easier to understand but more descriptive than the joint is out. There are books devoted to trying to explain what occurs with a chiropractic adjustment.

The resetting of the movement of a joint does involve chiropractic adjustments and sometimes even muscle massage to help the joint return to normal function. It may take several adjustments to have the joint return to normal function. Also there are times due to stresses on the joint such as biomechanical changes from conformation or activity of the horse (jumping, dressage, barrel racing, etc) or even vices such as weaving, cribbing, circling that can affect the success of an adjustment. Other problems such as bad teeth alignment, bad hoof balance, poor saddle fit or even an unbalanced rider that can have an affect on the animal and the success of a chiropractic adjustment. Lastly physical problems or pathologic problems such as strained ligaments, torn muscles, arthritis, or even synovitis which is inflammation in the joint can affect the success of an adjustment. In my practice I use chiropractic as a tool to help discover these underlying issues. I do the adjustments but also look at the animal as a whole and help the owner/rider/trainer understand why the horse is not moving correctly and we fix the problems we can and those we can not we help by continuing to do chiropractic adjustments to correct the biomechanics as best as we can to help the horse move the best we can help it move.

I hope this answers your questions.

I hope it helps others understand what I do as an animal chiropractor. Here is a video of me doing an adjustment on a horse.

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: chiropractor, horse chiropractic, Horse Health, veterinary chiropractic

Buying Horse Drugs Online

September 28, 2010 By Daniel Beatty DVM 4 Comments

: Image via Wikipedia

One of my clients today was excited to find Bute powder online at the cheapest price she had seen. I did write her the prescription but with a warning of buying horse drugs online can be dangerous.

The internet truly is the wild west out there – it is the land of buyer beware. Companies have sold expired drugs, re-labeled drugs, counterfeit drugs, and drugs that have not been stored properly. All of these situations can be dangerous for your horse. One of the big concerns is that of improperly stored drugs that have lost their effectiveness.

There is no way for you as a consumer to know if the drug that you are buying from a pharmacy online has stored the drug like it should have been stored. It might look the same, has the appropriate label and even has a good expiration date, but has lost its effectiveness because it was stored in a warehouse that was not climate controlled and was exposed to excessive heat or cold.

The FDA has been trying to figure out a way to solve the growing problem of online scammers selling drugs in the human pharmaceutical industry and now finding similar problems in the pet drug industry – Purchasing Pet Drugs Online: Buyer Beware

Now of course there are some companies selling online that are reputable and follow the correct procedures in operating a pharmacy. They maintain patient confidentiality, quality control of their products, and require prescriptions when appropriate.

So how do you find a reputable online company selling horse drugs that are safe?

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has a program called Vet-VIPPS an acronym for Veterinary-Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites. It is a new program and the FDA recommends if you purchase from an online pharmacy that it be Vet-VIPPS accredited. It is a voluntary program but the requirements are stringent. At this time because of the requirements and how new the program is there are only 6 companies on the list – Find a Vet-VIPPS online pharmacy

It can be safe and very cost effective to buy your horse drugs online, but you need to take the necessary steps to protect yourself and your horse. The cheapest is not always the best. Be wary and smart about purchasing online. I would suggest purchasing from a Vet-VIPPS and if your favorite online pharmacy is not on the list I would give them a call and find out why they are not on the list. There should be no reason why they should not be if they are reputable and can make the criteria. There are only 19 criteria and they are all important, if the pharmacy can not meet the criteria you should not do business with them.

Growing problem of fake drugs endangers consumers’ health (usatoday.com)
Dan Rather: Counterfeit Prescription Drugs A Growing Threat (huffingtonpost.com)

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: Food and Drug Administration, Horse Health, National Association Boards of Pharmacy, Online pharmacy

Horse Riding: Risk of Injury to the Horse

September 18, 2010 By Daniel Beatty DVM 7 Comments

: Image via Wikipedia

How risky is riding a horse to the horse?

We know that horse riding is risky. Falling off a horse can sometimes cause pretty severe injuries, such as happened to Christopher Reeves. Even being around horses can lead to injuries, they are large animals that weigh much more then us mere humans and they can pack a very powerful blow.

But what about the horse? Is the horse at risk of injury when we ride? Well about 25% of horse owners this year will experience a lameness in their horse – is it from riding?

The answer to that question is… it depends.

Risk of Injury while riding depends on the following factors –

Discipline
Level of riding
Conformation
Ground Surface
Previous Injury
Fatigue

Discipline - Obviously a race horse will have a higher incidence of injuries than a trail horse. Jumpers, Barrel Racers, Reiners, Eventers, Dressage horses all have different common injuries related to the discipline in which the horse performs.

Level of Riding – The higher the level of riding the more likely for injury – A Grand Prix jumper is more likely to have a serious injury than a training level horse.

Conformation - A horse with crooked legs will more likely to move incorrectly and cause injury to itself.

Ground Surface – Uneven ground, deep footing in an arena, wet ground will be more likely to cause injuries when riding.

Previous Injury - an old injury or even an existing unhealed injury that may be unknown to the rider is more likely to be reinjured or more injured.

Fatigue – A tired horse is much more prone to injury.

Of all of these factors the one that is in complete control of the rider during competition is fatigue. It is up to you as a rider to monitor your horse. If your horse is tired and has signs of fatigue, YOU are in control, then it is up to you to slow down or even stop. A common injury in competition horses is damage of the Suspensory Ligament and/or the Superficial Digital Flexor Tendon and it is much more common to have this injury in a fatigued horse. Is it really worth another class at a horse show to risk injury to this ligament because your horse is tired?

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: Horse Health, horse riding, injury

Horse Health: What do you want to know?

June 1, 2010 By Daniel Beatty DVM 15 Comments

I plan on posting more often, but I want to give you an opportunity to dictate what I write about.

So in the comments section below give me your ideas, your concerns, your desires on what you want to know about your horse as it pertains to its health.

It can be traditional or alternative, medical or surgical, nutrition, movement, lameness, dentistry, specific diseases or a general question. One rule is that I can not give advice on your specific case as in what you should do about your horse it has such and such problem. I can discuss in general a specific problem, giving you the best options and the most common methods of diagnosis and treatment.

Go ahead the floor is yours – What do you want to know?

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: health, horse, Horse Health

Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy for your horse

January 21, 2010 By Daniel Beatty DVM 2 Comments

Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy is a viable alternative to drugs for the treatment of pain and inflammation in horses due to a variety of causes such as arthritis, surgery, and wounds. Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy or PEMF affects pain perception in many different ways. It affects calcium ion movement, endorphin levels, acupuncture point stimulation, nerve regeneration, circulation, tissue oxygen, and even cellular metabolism. All these affects help reduce inflammation and promote healing.

How does it work? No one really has a definitive answer but there are some good theories and some good scientifically based research pointing to some very likely causes of the success of this treatment. One of the more prominent and most likely reasons for the reduction of pain and inflammation has to do with the calcium ion movement that an electrical field causes in the body. PEMF therapy causes a natural anti-inflammatory process to occur more rapidly. It binds Calcium and in a cascade of events produces Nitric Oxide (NO), a natural anti-inflammatory. NO then continues the natural healing process by reducing pain, improving blood flow, reducing swelling and helps in the production of a molecule called cGMP, a growth factor producer. This growth factor producer helps in the regeneration of blood vessels and tissue growth and remodeling.

In the past the machines that produced the electromagnetic fields were large and very powerful. New research however has suggested that the fields do not have to be so large to produce great healing effects. Also with the advancement of technology now we can produce a good healing PEMF with a very small device powered by simple batteries. One of the devices available for dogs and horses is made by the company ASSISI Animal Health. Assisi makes 2 types of units one for the veterinarian for use in the office and a portable PEMF unit for an owner to bring to the barn and do treatments themselves. Considering that treatments should be given for up to 15 min twice a day for 2 weeks or even longer for horses suffering with arthritis, the portable units are an excellent choice. The cost is about $250 for a unit which gives 90 15 min treatments which is about $2.75 a treatment and should last about 6 weeks.

One of my clients is currently using them for her dog with severe degeneration in its knee joints. The dog is doing very well with nutritional supplements and using the unit every other day for 15 minutes and no need for pharmaceutical anti-inflammatories, so there is no risk of stomach ulcers or liver damage.

PEMF is a great tool for veterinarians and horse owners in the treatment of pain. Check out Assisi they will send information to your veterinarian for you.

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: alternative treatment, Horse Health, inflammation, pain, PEMF

Performance Horse Movement – a Team Approach

December 14, 2009 By Daniel Beatty DVM Leave a Comment

A horse is built to move. In the wild a horse is a grazer and the herd moves several miles a day in search of food. We as humans use this to our advantage – in the beginning a horse was used as a mode of transportation, because how they are built to move. Today our recreational use of horses still is in transporting humans through some sort of activity be it trail riding, to endurance riding, to roping steers, to jumping fences – the amount of activities is too numerous to list here, but they all have something in common. They take advantage of how the horse is built to move.

With all the changes we have done to the horse to compete in events maintaining proper movement can be difficult and it requires a team approach. You are the crew chief, the head honcho when it comes to your horse’s care. Of course, there will be people with more knowledge than you about the specifics of your horses movement but ultimately you are the decision maker – it is your horse, you need to process the information and make the best decision you can. In order to do this might I make some recommendations on who needs to be included on your team to allow your horse to have the best opportunity to maintain proper movement.

Nutrition – You barn manager and your vet or nutritionist

Hoof – Your farrier

Teeth – Your equine dentist

Tack Fit – Your saddle fitter/maker

Body – Your chiropractor and massage therapist

Riding – Your instructor and rider

Overall Health – Your veterinarian

Did you notice that I placed Your in front of each of these people? You are in charge – these people are there to guide you and work together as a team. Will they disagree? Many times they will it is up to you as the owner to make the best decisions for your horse. Even though you may have some disagreements all of these people need to be involved in your horses care to give your horse a chance of competing at the best of it ability. Think of your horse as a race car – a high end race car does not go to a race without a race team and neither should your horse.

The reason I bring this up is that many horse owners think of these practitioners only as individuals, however they are a team and you need to treat them as such. A properly working team knows what the other team members are doing in order to get the project (in this case your horse) to the best possible conclusion (in this case the best possible movement to compete). If you think of these practitioners as team members for your horse’s care you will do well to make better decisions in your horse’s care.

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: horse, Horse Health, horse movement

Horse Health Blogs

November 20, 2009 By Daniel Beatty DVM 10 Comments

OK I have found 3 thats right, only 3 good quality horse health blogs! (well besides this one).

I am sure there are more than these three out there but since I have not received any insights from my readers as to what else they might be reading I will go with what I know – In no particular order here are the three -

The Jurga Report

Equid Blog

The Horse

These are the blogs that I read almost everyday. They provide good quality information and insight of your horses’s health. I may not always agree with what has been written on these blogs but overall it is great information.

Next I will be looking for some great blogs on other horse related topics like farriery – I think Fran Jurga will be in that list as well

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: Horse Health, horse health blog

Horse Health: Looking for a few good blogs

November 10, 2009 By Daniel Beatty DVM Leave a Comment

OK the transfer of this site is almost complete – however I ran into one small problem. My blogroll is gone! A blogroll is a list of sites that are of similar content to the blog that they are listed on or are sites that the author of the blog likes. I had a few on the old blog but somehow they did not transfer over when I updated and transferred to this blog. So I have a request – are there any horse blogs out there that you think I should put on my blogroll?

Let me know what else you read, what is good out there, what deserves recognition as a great blog?

Thank you!

Filed Under: Horse Health Tagged With: blogs, Horse Health

Equine Parasite Management