Latest News – The Horse

Mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in the United States highlighted the need to have all livestock–including horses–identified and easily traced. While some states have required equine identification programs in place now (such as Louisiana), there are grumblings from some horse owners about “big brother” becoming involved in the horse industry.

The identification

Tetanus, or lockjaw, is an often fatal disease caused by the anaerobic (grows in low oxygen conditions)bacterium, Clostridium tetani. The spores of C. tetani are commonly present in the soil and can contaminate puncture wounds, crushing wounds, open lacerations, surgical incisions, and the umbilici of foals. Upon gaining entrance to the body, they produce a powerful

Samuel Johnson once said that, “Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.” This old adage definitely applies to Days End Farm Horse Rescue, a 501(c)(3) non-profit equine rescue and humane education facility founded by Kathy and Allan Schwartz in 1989 and located in Lisbon, Md.
Unfortunately, Days End has outgrown its current property, which is leased to the

“We believe that this technique (MRI) could revolutionize the assessment of certain musculoskeletal lesions of the distal limb,” Mair said. “MRI has many advantages over other conventional imaging techniques. MRI does not use ionizing radiation and provides multiplanar, 3-D imaging capabilities.

If you’ve had equine cases of West Nile virus (WNV) pop up in your county, most of the equids in the area probably were exposed to the disease or even infected by the time those infections occurred. That is why it’s extremely important to vaccinate horses at least two months before the WNV season.

“Ultrasound was the sole means of diagnosis (of pelvic fracture) in 13 horses and was corroborated by nuclear scintigraphy or radiography in the remaining 15 cases,” Almanza said. “Ultrasound was able to provide excellent detail of the bony contours of the fracture sites and was useful in identifying associated muscle tearing and hematoma formation.”

“The results of this study strongly support the use of ultrasound to diagnose soft tissue and bony abnormalities of the entire shoulder region,” Whitcomb stated. She also noted that lesions of the infraspinatus tendon and bursa had not previously been reported, but were found in this study.

Many options for treating equine ailments exist–some are more traditionally performed by veterinarians in some regions, and some are often labeled as alternative therapies and might tend to fall more to non-veterinarians. Who can legally handle the treatments that are not always performed by veterinarians can be a sticky problem, which is compounded by the fact that in the United

A packed room during the AAEP’s Racing Forum held sometimes heated discussions about the facts and nuances of the on-going Racing Medication and Testing Consortium’s (RMTC) attempt to create a uniform medication policy for racing in the United States. Milton McClure, DVM, a racetrack practitioner from Bossier City, La., chaired the session that centered around information presented by Scott

While some forum discussions at the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) annual convention are fairly small affairs, that wasn’t true of the 2003 podiatry forum. About 65 veterinarians and farriers filled the room to discuss diagnostic analgesia, pads, Strasser trimming, ultrasound, and much more.

Tracy Turner, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, a professor of equine surgery at the

“MRI has proven to be a valuable tool for making specific diagnoses in horses with performance-limiting lameness problems,” he stated. “Navicular disease is one of the most common causes of performance-limiting lameness in many types of athletic horses. Despite the high incidence of the disease, our understanding of the problem is relatively limited.

EPM is a protozoal disease that causes inflammation in the brain and spinal cord of the horse. In the late 1970s to early 1980s, Morgan said there was debate whether a toxoplasma or Sarcocystis organism was the cause.

While it might be easy to forget about the small accessory ligament that anchors the superficial digital flexor tendon to the upper foreleg bone (radius), acute desmitis (ligament inflammation) of this structure has now been shown to be a significant cause of pronounced, transient lameness in Thoroughbred racehorses.

Charlotte A. Lacroix, DVM, Esq. (attorney) of New Jersey, presented a session on compounding at the convention. Lacroix cautioned her veterinary audience that illegal compounding is a potential tidal wave in liability.

The FDA says a drug is any substance, food, or non-food used to treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent a disease. A drug also is any non-food substance that is intended to

Veterinary application of shock wave therapy has come a long way in five years, with many veterinarians now finding it helpful in the treatment of their patients. Rather than the “What is this all about, and does it work?” questions of past forums on the subject, the general consensus question at the 2003 AAEP Convention’s shock wave therapy table topic was, “How can I make this technology

Thankfully not a large part of a racetrack veterinarian’s job, severe injury of a racehorse nevertheless is one of the most visible and critical situations these practitioners must handle. Two experienced racetrack veterinarians, Mary Scollay, DVM, senior association veterinarian for Gulfstream Park and Calder Racecourses; and Celeste Kunz, VMD, chief examining veterinarian of the New York