Improve Your Horse’s Performance and Heal Injuries with this Therapy Tool by Deborah Powell Microcurrent therapy is an easy-to-use tool that can be incorporated into your horse’s physical maintenance program or be used to speed up injury recovery. Horses frequently come in from the pasture with minor injuries or …
Identifying Distortion by Mark and Karen Plumlee, Mission Farrier School Using the principles in this 5-part series will give you the basics for evaluating your horse’s hoof health. It includes: Understanding Foot Falls, Identifying Distortion, Understanding the Sole Plane, What is Breakover?, and Load Sharing. In August we talked about …
Part 1: Understanding Foot Falls by Mark and Karen Plumlee, Mission Farrier School This 5-part series, Principles for Evaluating Hoof Health, will give you the basics for evaluating your horse’s hoof health and include, Understanding Foot Falls; Identifying Distortion; Understanding the Sole Plane; What is Breakover; and Load Sharing. …
An Unusual Colic in a Performance Horse: Part 2 by R. Paul Schwab, DVM When we left off last month, Hemi had been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease and was started on corticosteroids and put on a low bulk diet (no hay, only complete feed/pellets). His serum protein was dangerously …
An Unusual Colic in a Performance Horse: Part 1 by R. Paul Schwab, DVM Colic in horses is a stressful situation for owner, horse, and veterinarian. It’s especially difficult on the chronic colic cases where the horse continues to have low grade pain despite passing manure and even eating off …
How Dental Health Affects Athletic Ability by Jennifer Warmke with Dr. Hannah Mueller How could a young, well-cared for performance horse end up with behavioral issues and a handful of medical problems that could have been easily prevented? By neglecting regular dental care. “Whether dealing with a young horse in …
A Difficult Delivery and an Orphan Colt: Part 2 by Dave Sauter, DVM The foal was suffering from Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy, more commonly known as “Dummy Foal” Syndrome. It refers to a condition of neurologic abnormalities that are not related to infectious, metabolic, developmental or toxic causes. In this case the …
Equine Hypersensitivities and Autoimmune Disease by Stephanie Meyer, DVM, CVA Hypersensitivity is a state of altered reactivity of the body’s immune system to an allergen (e.g., biting insects, pollen, grass, molds, insects, dust, drugs). After repeat exposure, the immune system mounts an overzealous attack on the invading allergen, resulting in …
Are Grass Clippings Good for Your Horse? by Eleanor Blazer You might think feeding lawn clippings to horses makes sense. After all horses are designed to eat grass, but think again. The sensitive equine digestive system does not tolerate change. Anytime you introduce new feed to a horse it must be …
From Prevention to Prognosis by Michelle Delco, DVM, DACVS Tendon and ligament injuries are common causes of equine lameness, responsible for up to 30 percent of lameness in athletic horses by some estimates. With the changing of the seasons, following is some timely information on preventing tendon and ligament …