Strategies for Preventing Founder

The coming spring will bring lush new grass, wild temperature fluctuations and other stresses to our horse's sensitive systems. Besides colic, the most prevalent and dangerous affliction I usually see around this time of year is laminitis or founder.

The terms "founder" and "laminitis" refer to the same basic condition, when restricted blood flow to the laminae structures (that which holds the coffin bone to the hoof wall) causes the laminae to weaken, and the coffin bone to shift downward, away from the wall. The more the coffin bone shifts, the more the condition worsens. Shifting of the coffin bone causes heat, soreness, lameness and permanent changes in the horse's gait. Corrective shoeing can help a horse with chronic pain. Generally, laminitis usually refers to a singular, acute condition, while founder describes the chronic, recurring condition.

A horse that founders tends to be prone to do so again, therefore, prevention is the best medicine.

On April 21, 2009 The University of Michigan is hosting a free one hour webinar called "Countermeasures for Equine Laminitis.” Dr. Bridgett McIntosh from the University of Tennessee will host the session, which will discuss strategies to prevent laminitis based on the most current scientific research.

Click Here to register for the Laminitis Webinar.

The Tell-Tale Smell: What Scent Can Tell You Around Horses

If you've been around horses long enough, you might have realized already that your sense of smell can play an important role in proper horsekeeping. Knowing what smells can indicate and what your horse "normally" smells like can give you early indicators of changes in his or her health.

Food Smells:

• Smelling hay for mold can detect "on the fence" hay that doesn't look obviously moldy but maybe isn't the best hay to feed.



• Smell grain to see if it's sour or musty (it's hard to get a sense for this until you compare bad grain with fresh grain)

Horse's Breath:

• Take a good whiff of you horse's breath to give yourself a baseline of what he or she smells like. If it suddenly changes - it could indicate a digestion or tooth problem: infections (like a tooth abscess) smell like rotten eggs while ulcers or upset stomachs can smell sour, like bad wine.

Urine/Manure Smells:

• The potency of urine smells can range from faint to knock-you-back with ammonia and changes in the strength of smell are normal based on diet. Changes in pasture (weed growth) are the most common contributors to changes in urine smell.



• With manure odor, it's best to know what is "normal" for your horse. A horse that eats a higher protein diet may have a more "meaty" smell (think dog poo) and a horse with higher carbs may give off a more sour odor. It's normal for each horses manure to smell different - horses can actually identify each other by catching whiff from a pile.
  

Hoof Smells:

• Most horsepeople have had a good whiff of the thrush smell - a combination of rotten eggs, sewage and bacterial infection. Thrushbuster will probably do the trick, but if the thrush is deep in the crevices, you may benefit from having the blacksmith gently clean out the cleft and open the heels to make sure you can get your hoofpick along the entire length of the frog.
  


• Hoof abscesses can also smell - a foul, rotten-flesh smell - once they open and drain. If your horse has a hoof abscess, make sure he is current on his tetanus vaccine. Your veterinarian may need to prescribe antibiotics depending on the severity of the abscess.
  

Image courtesy of www.nps.gov

The Bran Mash Controversy - Helpful or Harmful?

It's only in the mid-thirties here in Virginia today for a high - the air is cold and dry, the ground in covered in snow and tomorrow we're expecting another small snow storm. I'm thinking bran mash! and, I think, so are the horses in the barn after spending a boring day munching dry hay. But there are the Bran Mash Downers out there, and I thought it would be a good day to highlight some arguments from both sides (for fun, let's call them the Bran Booers and the Bran Brigade).

The Bran Booers:

In this article on About.com Kathy Blocksdorf writes:

"Horses already eat a large quantity of fiber if they are getting 60% of
their diet in fodder such as hay or grass. The addition of bran whether wet or
dry is not likely to be a benefit."

From Equiseach.com (editors of Equus Magazine)"

"Bran is believed to have a laxative effect in people, but to get the same effect in a horse, you'd have to feed huge amounts of it-more than he could eat. Some horses do produce softer stools the day after eating bran, but this probably reflects bran's tendency to irritate the lining of equine intestines. If fed daily over a long period of time, bran may actually contribute to the formation of enteroliths."

The Bran Brigade:

From theHorse.com

"An invaluable aid to veterinarians and horse owners, bran mash adds to its list of helpful qualities an element conducive to a horse's optimum health--water replenishment." This is a well-written article with tips on making the best possible mash and a recipe. Note from the GHP - the carrots, apples, molasses, etc... are a nice touch, but totally unnecessary - most horses love just the bran.

Also from Equisearch:

"It's comfort food, as fulfilling to prepare as it is for your horse to eat. But it's also an effective way to get your horse to eat and drink what might otherwise elicit an upturned nose such as vegetable oil, mineral oil, medicines, and a good dose of water."

Which side are you on?

Oh, and for fun go here to see Smartpaks new Gourmet Bran Mashes (pictured above) - $35 a bag - what a hoot!!

(picture above courtesy of www.smartpak.com)

Horse Health Tip - How to Spot an Ulcer or Other Digestive Problem

The stresses of the domesticated horse, especially the competition horse are many. You may have noticed an explosion of equine digestive medicines and supplements on the market lately - for good reason - but don't implement them just for the heck of it. Here's a few of the more concrete warning signs that your horse could be developing a digestion problem:

1) Change in attitude towards work, i.e. a normally willing horse becomes reluctant, stubborn and yet appears to be sound

2) Change in appearance - a dull coat, listless eye, failure to shed out normally

3) Repeated bouts of colic or tying up

4) Visible amounts of grain in manure (note - for horses on sweet feed or other whole grain feeds a little grain in the manure is normal)

5) Overly stressed at feeding times - especially after eating.

The focus on digestion's effect on the performance horse is still a relatively new emphasis in overall care - if you feel your vet isn't making the connection you are, it's probably best to get a second opinion. Don't forget to talk to your barn manager whenever you notice a change in behavior and/or temperament. Often he or she has noticed something out of the ordinary and just needs prompting to talk about it - the best plan is to catch him/her at an off-peak time to chat.

Good Horseperson's Vocab Word-of-the-Day: Enzootic

Working "enzootic" into your daily conversation may be nearly impossible, but it's a handy word to have in your head to impress your vet during spring shot season. The Good HorsePerson learned this word from an recent article in Equestrianmag.com regarding Equine Influenza. It seems like a fitting follow-up to our 10 Steps to Disease Prevention.

Enzootic means "constantly present though affecting only a small number of animals at any one time." In that case, it also means -danger- since this kind of infection keeps cropping up over the years and can threaten to turn into an epidemic.

To read the whole article, click here:

http://www.equestrianmag.com/news/equine-influenza-02-08.html

Enough of this vaccination stuff - tomorrow we'll have a training exercise!

Good Horse Health: 10 Steps for Disease Prevention

In the February Issue of Dressage Today an article by Barb Crabbe, DVM outlines 10 steps every barn should take to protect their horse's health. Here's a summary:

1) Select the Right Vaccines. Crabbe writes that the most commonly admistered "core" vaccines are tetanus, sleeping sickness, influenza and West Nile and sometimes Rhino. Crabbe advises to select other vaccines based on geographical location and individual horse's exposure risks, like traveling habits. She advises every horses owner to question their vets as to which specific vaccines they reccomend and why.

2) Time the Administration of the Vaccines Properly. Crabbe advises vaccinating 3-4 weeks prior to the time when you think risk of exposure is highest (give West Nile in early spring, before the insects come into full bloom).

3) Administrate the Vaccines Properly. Here's a bit of a no brainer, but makes perfect sense. Crabbe advises that if you inject the vaccines yourself, ask the vet to teach you how or make sure you're doing it right.

4) Consider Your Horse's Turn Out Buddies. Try to keep all horses turned out together on the same vaccine schedule.

5) Utilize Isolation Strategies. Crabbe says the ideal quarentine for boarding barn is 30 days for incoming horses. (hmmm, that IS ideal!, but probably not possible at most barns...) And a good tip for isolation on the road is to keep your horse 35-50 feet away from other horses on the grounds.

6) Choose Stalls Near Horses in a Similar Risk Group as Your Own. Again, great idea and makes good sense, but probably not possible in a huge boarding facility where the barn manager is struggling to keep Food-Possessive Alpha Mare and Jealous Stall-Kicking Gelding away from each other while keeping the 50 individual owner's stall requests in mind. But the idea of grouping show horses that travel often together and horses that rarely travel is a good one, for those who can manage it.

7) Disinfect. When stabling at an overnight show, Crabbe advises spraying down the stall walls with an "effective" disinfectant (one that includes phenolic-based products). She notes that bleach is not so effective against organic material like manure.

8) Avoid Sharing - Crabbe notes that horses purposely stabled away from one another shouldn't share paddocks or water tubs. Spreading manure on shared turnout fields should be avoided for the same reason.

9) Minimize Stress (This is the Good HorsePerson's favorite tip!). Give your horse a routine in his daily life - feeding, turnout and exercise. Horses who know what to expect trust their surrounding and their people. Low stress horses have stronger immune systems, just like people.

10) Keep Your Horse in Good Health - This isn't so much a tip as a summary, I suspect.

The Good HorsePerson would like to add one more tip to Dr. Crabbe's list.
11) Pay Attention - Learn your horse's personality, likes, dislikes and habits (without humanizing him too much) so that alarm bells go off when he just isn't acting right. Learn how to take a temperature, observe the color and consistency of the manure and nasal discharge every day, know every blemish and bump and discoloration, and make sure you can handle every single part of him or her without objection (if they start objecting out of the blue, you can bet they're uncomfortable). This tip won't keep your horse from catching a virus, but you might recognize it first, save your horse and stop an outbreak.

Dr. Crabbe recently published a new book, "The Comprehensive Guide to Equine Veterinary Medecine" which is available from http://www.horsebooksetc.com/ Dressage Today is published by Source Interlink Media, and you can subscribe at www.equisearch.com/dressagetoday/