Being familiar with your horse’s normal resting temperature, pulse, and respiration rates (TPR) help you recognize when things are abnormal. The TPR vitals help you determine “how abnormal.”
From arena footing to walking paths, the Kentucky Horse Park improvements put the horse first.
A recent study by University of Kentucky researcher Mary Rossano, MS, PhD, assistant professor in Animal and Food Sciences, suggests that two commonly-used dewormers (fenbendazole and moxidectin) might no longer be as effective against small strongyles as once thought.
Quarantine, confinement, and stress can affect World Equestrian Games (WEG) horses.
Since you can’t tell your horse to “Take a deep breath,” listening to your horse requires some technique to hear lung sounds.
The crooked little bacterium that causes Lyme disease is causing quite a stir in the equine community.
Knowing how to identify abnormalities in your horse’s heart rate and rhythm will help you and your veterinarian treat him or her when illness strikes.
Unlike heart and respiratory rates, abdominal sounds do not punch a specific time clock for generating “gut sounds.” The rhythmic peristaltic churning of food mixed with fluids within the gut varies in slower waves depending on meal time, the meal itself, and the level of activity. You don’t actually “time” bowel sounds, but you do want to know if they are present.
According to a research group based in Australia, if you feed your horse spores of the fungus Duddingtonia flagrans, the spores pass harmlessly through the digestive tract and are deposited in the feces along with eggs shed by adult intestinal parasites.
An adverse event can be broadly defined as an undesirable occurrence after the use of a vaccine, drug, animal device, insecticide, medicated feed, etc. Multiple federal agencies are involved in taking reports of adverse events in animals, which can make it difficult for owners and veterinarians to easily notify the appropriate agencies. Adverse reactions can range from a minor swe
A hot humid day. One rider. One horse. Both are exercising at a moderate level. Who is more likely to overheat?
Lyme disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi that is spread to some mammals via the bite of specific hard-bodied ticks. Also known as borreliosis, it is widely considered the most important insect-borne bacterial infection in North America. But it is unknown whether ticks transmit the bacterium to horses and cause disease or because the two coexist.
We’ve all heard the statistics about an aging America. The elderly represent the fastest growing-proportion of the U.S. population. In recent years horses have experienced a similar population shift.
A large portion of the equine population (about 15%) is composed of horses older than 20 and, even at this age, many remain actively involved in equestrian sports, reproduction, or as companion
Discussion of equine medication use and compounding concerns with pharmacist Scarlet Thomas.
Discussion of the changing recommendations for horse deworming strategies (focusing on strongyles) and how you can help prevent resistance to dewormers.
Therapeutic drugs such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications, anesthetics, and antiparasitic drugs can dramatically improve the health and well-being of horses. However, many horse owners are unaware that virtually all drugs can cause unintended side effects, or adverse effects, that sometimes can be serious.
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