|
2009 Newsletters |
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MONTH
Click link to read... |
SUBJECT
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Winter |
Worming Reminder - Feeding
questions and Winter issues |
|
Spring |
Vaccination Clinic -
PLEURITIS or BACTERIAL
PLEUROPNEUMONIA |
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Winter
2009-2010
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
We would like to wish everyone a
warm, happy, and healthy holiday
season this year.
Paul, Stacie, and little McCoy
Melissa and Tim
Worming
Reminder:
November/December wormer is Quest
Plus or Combicare. This will clean
out horses of most parasites
(including tapeworms). The wormer
for February/March will be Panacur
or Safeguard. These wormers will
focus on roundworms, which is the
only parasite that persists well in
a colder environment.
Feeding Questions and Winter Issues
Question:
Do horses need grain in their diets?
Answer:
No. The horse's digestive system is
designed to get everything they need
from forage. Horses are meant to be
grazing animals, consuming small
amounts of food continuously
throughout the day. Many horses do
just fine (and maybe better) on
forage-only diets. The only extra
addition that may be necessary in a
forage diet is a vitamin/mineral
supplement that is balanced for a
hay/grass diet. If your horse is in
light work, a pasture pet, or an
easy keeper, they may not need any
grain at all. Remember, overfeeding
horses is primary cause of
overweight horses. An analogy is
someone who is a couch potato cannot
eat the same amount that an olympic
athlete would eat without gaining a
lot of weight.
So why do we recommend grain for
some horses? Grain meals help
provide concentrated energy in the
form of extra carbohydrates,
proteins, and fats. Horses that burn
a lot of calories on daily basis
(e.g., barrel horses, race horses,
show horses, and nursing broodmares)
need the extra nutritional support.
It is important to remember that
horses are not designed to digest
large meals because they have very
small stomachs. Instead, they are
designed to eat small meals
throughout the day (i.e. grazing),
which is why we recommend feeding no
more than 3-4 lbs of concentrate per
feeding. High volume grain meals put
horses at risk for colic, stomach
ulcers, and laminitis.
Question:
Will feeding alfalfa hay cause
kidney failure, bladder stones,
colic, hyper behavior, or any other
bad behavior of the day?
Answer:
No. It may not be the ideal hay for
every horse, but it is not the
culprit for all the things that ail
your horse. What is true is that
alfalfa hay is higher in protein,
calories, and calcium than grass
hay. If alfalfa is 20% protein and
your grass hay is 5%, then your
horse will get same amount of
protein from 5 lbs of alfalfa hay as
it would from 20 lbs of grass hay.
This is where people get in trouble
because they feed similar amounts of
both. Alfalfa can be a very good
supply of forage for horses that are
burning large amounts of energy
(e.g., racehorses and broodmares).
Alfalfa is also "tastier" than grass
hays, so it can be a great feed for
finicky eaters. For this reason, it
is often recommended to feed alfalfa
in fixed amounts (not free-choice)
as some horses will have a tendency
to overeat and become obese. If they
are getting vitamin/mineral
supplement they may need a different
balancer because of the calcium and
phophorus levels in alfalfa.
Question:
Will high protein feeds
make my horse "hot" or
high-spirited?
Answer:
Yes and no. Protein content
has nothing to do with
“high-spiritedness”. It doesn't
matter if you are feeding corn,
oats, hay, or straight molasses
given via nasogastric tube (NOT
RECOMMENDED!!), it is about the
calories consumed versus the
calories burned during the day. If
you are feeding your horse more
energy than he/she is using, the
horse will have excess energy. If
the horse is not burning this energy
with exercise, then it will probably
use the extra energy for bad
behavior instead! Additionally, a
fit performance horse is going to be
feeling good, so naturally they have
a bit more spunk than your pasture
pet.
It is important to remember, if your
horse has a change in activity level
(summer show season versus winter
pasture pet), they may need a change
in the amount of feed they are
getting so that you aren't
overfeeding them. A simple rule of
thumb is - more activity and
exercise equals more food, less
activity and exercise equals less
food. Most inactive horses only need
hay and/or grass.
Question:
Are horses with allergy problems
okay in winter because there are no
pollens in air?
Answer:
No. Surprisingly, many horses have
more problems with allergies in the
winter than the summer. There are
two main causes for this. First,
horses are kept inside barns at
night in the winter. And, the barns
are usually closed up tight because
of the cold. The tightly shut barn
tends to cause a decrease in
ventilation and an increase in mold
and dust concentration. These
particles can be very allergenic.
Solutions to this problem are simply
to improve ventilation and to not
close up barn so tight at night.
Second, although round bales are
great economically and reduce the
amount of work required for feeding
an herd of horses, horses tend to
have their noses in the bale for a
large amount of the day.
Consequently, they are breathing in
all the dust associated with the
hay, which is very irritating to
their airways. Many horses in our
practice breathe well when off round
bales, but as soon as they get on
round bales they start coughing. The
treatment is simply to remove horses
from round bales and feed flakes of
hay.
Question:
Do horses always need to
be blanketed in the winter?
Answer:
No. Many horses, if allowed to grow
a good winter coat, will do fine
without a blanket. That being said,
there are many horses who may need a
blanket: horses that do not grow out
good coats, horses that are older
and need protection, or horses that
are just plain wimpy. Horses are
most susceptible to getting cold
when it is wet, windy, and cold.
Once their haircoat gets wet it
loses its insulation abilities and
horses can get very chilled. It is
also important to remember if your
horse is blanketed to check under
the blanket periodically. Many
blankets can cause friction sores.
Additionally, in colder winters
horses may require a lot more food
and can lose weight very quickly if
their food intake is not increased.
It is also easy to miss weight loss
in your horse when they are wearing
a blanket.
Question:
Do horses smell veterinarians?
Answer:
No. They love their veterinarians!
We're hoping everyone has a safe and
Happy Holiday Season,
Dr. Paul and Dr. Melissa
Spring 2009
The winter is FINALLY coming to a close.
Remember to deworm your horses in
April/May with Quest Plus or Combicare
to get tapeworms!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Vaccination Time!
Its springtime (although still a little
chilly out) and time to start planning
for spring vaccinations, coggins tests,
and any other odds and ends of care that
have been put off because it has been
TOO cold to be out in the barn.
Weitz Equine is planning a couple of
vaccinations clinics in conjunction with
some local boarding stables this spring.
This could greatly benefit those of you
who have a few horses at your own
property and have the ability to trailer
them to one of the clinic locations. You
get to save money on a travel call
without sacrificing the care of your
horses. We all know that the economy is
rough right now and money is tight. SEE
DETAILS FOR UPCOMING VACCINE CLINICS
BELOW!
For those clients already at a larger
barn or boarding stable, you often
already have a reduced travel call since
we typically see more than one client on
each visit.
Vaccination Clinic to be held at
Cornerstone Equestrian Center
|
WHAT: |
Spring Vaccines (rabies,
west nile virus, sleeping
sickness, tetanus,
flu/rhino, strangles if
necessary) AND Coggins tests |
|
WHEN: |
9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March
21st |
|
WHERE: |
CORNERSTONE EQUESTRIAN
CENTER
4650 200th Street East
Hastings, MN 55033
www.CornerstoneEquineCenter.com |
No need to sign up ahead of time. Call
our office with any questions
507-301-3400.
|
PLEURITIS or BACTERIAL
PLEUROPNEUMONIA |
For this newsletter, we decided to cover
pleuropneumonia. As better weather heads
our way and you decide to show or travel
with your horses, it is important to
know about this disease that is often
associated with long distance trailering.
What is it?
Pleuritis or
bacterial pleuropneumonia is a bacterial
infection of the lungs that leads to
accumulation of fluid both inside and
outside of the lungs. The pleura are
thin sheets of tissue that line the
inside of the rib cage and the outside
of the lung surface and allow easy
movement of the lungs back and forth as
the horse breathes. When these areas
become infected and inflamed it can
cause fluid to accumulate between the
ribcage and the lung surface. This is
called pleuritis. If there is an
infection within the lungs as well this
would then be called pleuropneumonia. It
is not an uncommon occurrence in horses
under certain settings and can be quite
serious if not caught and treated in a
timely fashion.
How does it
happen?
Horses (as
well as ourselves) are exposed to
bacteria and viruses (germs) all the
time through air inhaled into the lungs,
through skin contact, or with food that
is eaten. Normally, the body handles
these germs quickly and eliminates them
before they can cause a problem.
Sometimes, the immune system is not able
to prevent an infection because of
stress, fatigue, age, or any other
number of factors. When a bacterial
infection sets up shop in the lungs, the
resulting inflammation causes blood
vessels in this area to become leaky.
The fluid then leaks into the
surrounding lung tissue and out of the
lungs into the pleural space. As the
infection continues, bacteria then
invade the fluid filled pleural space
and cause greater inflammation and more
fluid accumulation. Cellular debris
(pus), fibrin (a kind of inflammatory
scar tissue) and fluid start to fill up
the pleural space and lungs. This will
make breathing difficult and painful.
There is less room for the lungs to
expand because of the pleural fluid and
less functional lung tissue as some of
the air space is filled up with fluid.
Obviously, having fluid in the chest
cavity is not good for breathing!
Why does it
happen?
Although it
can occur spontaneously, pleuritis
occurs most often in horses under
stress. Long distance trailering,
exposure to many new horses, racing or
competition, and recent illness are just
some of the stressful events that could
incite an infection. It has been shown
that horses shut in a trailer with their
heads tied for a prolonged period of
time have decreased clearance of mucus
(snot) from the lungs and higher
concentrations of bacteria in the lungs.
Young and old horses are more
susceptible. Studies have shown that
horses that travel more than 500 miles
in a trailer are at much higher risk for
developing pleuropneumonia.
Clinical Signs:
The most
common signs of a developing
pleuropneumonia are HIGH FEVER
(especially after transport), dull
attitude, cough, nasal discharge,
off-feed, weight loss, putrid odor to
the breath, and stiff gait. The chest
can be very painful as the horse tries
to breathe, so sometimes they will even
act colicky.
How is it diagnosed and treated?
When
examining a horse that we suspect might
have pleuritis, we listen very closely
to the lungs and will often check
bloodwork to determine the severity of
the infection. To further evaluate the
condition of the lungs, we also
ultrasound the lung surface. With the
ultrasound, we can assess how much fluid
has accumulated in the pleural space and
the extent of consolidation
(fluid-filling) or abscessation of the
lung tissue. Treatment typically
consists of a long course of antibiotics
for the infection and banamine to reduce
the fever and minimize discomfort. In
very severe cases, a horse may need to
be hospitalized and have a tube placed
in its chest in order to drain the
fluid.
What can I do
as the horse owner?
1. Make sure your horse is up-to-date on
vaccinations, including influenza and
rhinopneumonitis.
2. When trailering your horse long
distances, take breaks, and let the
horse get some fresh air. If possible in
your trailer, do not tie the horses head
up. Keep feed bags low rather than tied
above the head.
3. If your horse develops a high fever
(normal temperature is 98.6- 101.5 F),
nasal discharge, or dull attitude, call
us IMMEDIATELY.
The earlier the horse is diagnosed and
treated for pleuritis, the better his
chances for a quick and uneventful
recovery!
Enjoy the nicer weather,
- Dr. Paul, Dr. Melissa
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