Thyroid/Cushing’s Disease

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.

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Newborn Foals: Routine and Emergency Care

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.

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Mucus Accumulation and Effect on Performance

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.

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Furosemide (Salix) Effect on Racing Performance

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.

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Evaluating Saddle Fit

The initial saddle fit examination begins with evaluation of the horse’s back, including a fingertip exploration of the entire area under the saddle to identify any bumps caused by friction or areas of localized pain or swelling, he said. Also, the horse should extend and flex his back willingly, and his vertebrae should be palpated.

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Facts About Blood

Blood is an essential component of the mechanism whereby oxygen is transferred from the lungs to all of the body’s organs and tissues. So just how much blood does a horse have anyway?

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A Look at Rein Tension During Therapeutic Riding Lessons

Bits: Pain in the Mouth

If a bit is causing pain or discomfort, communication breaks down and your horse’s performance, as well as his mouth, suffers.

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The Essential First Aid Kit

The preparation of a horse first aid kit for your stable is easy to make and–in an emergency–can be of great importance. Once you have assembled such a kit, make sure everyone knows this golden rule: its contents are for emergency use only.

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Breeding Your Stallion On Cue

Our stallion has a great pedigree, and we have kept him intact hoping he could eventually become a breeding stallion. We?ve put a lot of effort into getting him to show well enough to be worth breeding. He has always done really well except for

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A New Orleans Vet’s Perspective

“It’s just so amazing to me that in one day, it can all be lost and suddenly you live in a dangerous place,” said Allison Barca, DVM, who has served many of the horses in and around New Orleans for years. Most of Barca’s clients were affected by

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Do Horses Have Heart Attacks?

I read about horses dying of “heart attacks,” but I’ve had veterinarians tell me there’s no such thing as a horse having a heart attack. What are people talking about when they say a horse died of a heart attack?

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