How to care for the basic health needs of horses
The National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) is holding its annual meeting April 3-7 in St. Paul Minn., and will address issues ranging from zoonotic diseases to animal identification, animal health emergency management, equine health,
Limb conformation has bearing on the type of procedure used to alter a particular defect, including periosteal elevation, transphyseal bridging, hoof augmentation, and changes in management. Conformation also affects selection of sale and breeding
Observe the eye with the aid of a penlight or other light source. Evidence of pain is a clear symptom of most ocular diseases. However, sometimes it is not the first sign, so paying some attention to the eye and becoming familiar with what looks norm
“What is the relationship between conformation and performance, and what can we do to impact it?” These questions have been asked by those focused on performance in many species, and they were the focus of one presentation by Liz Santschi, DVM,
Sometimes a horse has a reaction following a vaccination. The local and whole body reaction to a number of the equine immunization products is a well-known side effect of these necessary shots. Some horses demonstrate signs of systemic illness, such as depression, inappetence, and fever.
Equine nutritionists and wise horse owners have long known that obesity in horses is not a good thing.
One of the most important facts regarding severe wounds is that the sooner they are noticed and repaired the better the patient’s prognosis, both functionally and cosmetically. Another aspect of wounds is that they bleed, some significantly more than others.
Dehydration can be a significant problem for the performance horse as well as for horses suffering from other disease processes.
To establish a baseline set of measurements when the horse is healthy, do your “hands-off” observations first. Then after watching the horse, measure its heart and respiratory rates.
Quite often, she said, horses suffering from laminitis, obesity, and poor fertility are administered thyroid hormone supplementation. But in many of these cases proper documentation or accurate diagnosis of hypothyroidism is non-existent.
The best chance to improve the survival rate of a newborn foal, she said, is adequate advance disease prevention and planning. The disease prevention includes a comprehensive vaccination program, Zimmel told her listeners.
“Adverse effects of administration of rhEPO to horses are potentially fatal.” He said that administration of the compound is associated with severe anemia that can cause death.
The results of this study suggest that moderate to severe tracheal mucus accumulation is a risk factor for poor racing performance in Thoroughbred horses. Indeed, horses with little to no tracheal mucus placed nearly twice as well in a race compared with horses with moderate to large amounts of tracheal mucus.
Overall, Standardbred mares given furosemide, Morley said, finished 0.18 seconds faster than untreated mares; treated geldings finished 0.05 seconds faster than untreated geldings, and treated stallions finished 0.11 seconds faster than untreated stallions.
Blood coming from the rectum can represent an extremely serious veterinary medical emergency.
Download the full contents of The Horse’s 2005 series of articles on equine vaccinations.
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