Knowing the realm of diseases your horse's clinical signs might indicate could impact the information and urgency you convey when you call your veterinarian. | Photo: Kevin Thompson/The Horse

Veterinarians walk us through three real-life examples of potentially deadly equine diseases

Murphy’s Law lives strong in the horse world.

If there’s one nail in a 40-acre pasture, unseen forces seem to inevitably draw your horse to it, resulting in a nasty gash. The one time you leave the feed room door unlatched, your horse escapes his stall and gorges on grain, resulting in a painful case of laminitis or colic. And if there’s a disease-causing organism within 50 miles, it’s as if it must hone in on your horse.

Some types of cases appear on your veterinarian’s call list almost daily: palpations, lacerations, lameness. But less-common diseases—including some that might manifest as more common ones—can come as out-of-the-blue surprises