Controversy over medication and drug testing has been around since organized equine competitions came into being. There has always been more disagreement than agreement among the various factions involved, and more contention than harmony. Drug testing is a legal part of nearly all breed and discipline competitions these days, and much of what is done ...
Selection of Thoroughbred horses for racing and breeding is based primarily on equine performance, pedigree, and phenotype (physical characteristics). Although conformation plays a critical role in the evaluation of horses, current methods of analyzing equine conformation are largely subjective and vary according to personal opinion and individual experie...
Musculoskeletal injury is the most common cause of lost training days for Thoroughbred racehorses. This type of injury, particularly fractures, is also cited as a major reason horses leave the industry. But the incidence and characteristics of fractures in racing Thoroughbreds are not well understood.
Characterizing fractures was the aim of Kristi...
Wet weather is known to give rise to increases in some equine diseases, including botulism, Potomac horse fever, and mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, and Eastern, Western, and Venezuelean equine encephalitis.
Researchers at Texas A&M University have just completed a retrospective study into the safety of administering the killed West Nile virus vaccine to pregnant broodmares, the first study on this topic in equine reproductive research.
Track surface conditions play an important role in the risk of bone fractures in racing Thoroughbreds. Unfavorable conditions of turf and dirt impair the natural shock-absorbing mechanisms of the equine limb, increasing the likelihood of a career-ending fracture.
The United Kingdom's Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs announced Dec. 17 that it imposed restrictions on Oct. 29 on a 5-year-old stallion on a premises in the Newmarket area of Suffolk following a positive blood test result for equine viral arteritis.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners has announced plans to host an Unwanted Horse Summit. The summit, a one-day conference bringing equine industry leaders together to address the problem of unwanted horses, will take place Tuesday, April 19, 2005, during the American Horse Council's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
High incidences of leptospirosis-induced abortions in Central Kentucky horses could be caused by a tandem effect of temperature and precipitation in certain years, said Capt. David Hall of the U.S. Air Force.
The Dec. 5 open forum discussion of pre-purchase exams at sales at the American Association of Equine Practitioners convention in Denver covered several topics critical to consignors, buyers, and veterinarians.
Reports have been circulating that there is a disease similar to mare reproductive loss syndrome occurring in Australia. Dr. Nigel Perkins of the private consulting firm AusVet Animal Health Services has termed it equine amnionitis and fetal loss (EAFL).Additional information was released Dec. 1 by the Hunter Valley Equine Research Centre, a research facility adjacent to Scone racetrack in the heart of the Australian breeding area, concerning a problem that is causing sporadic abortions throughout the area in mid- to late-term pregnancies.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners is celebrating its golden anniversary in 2004, and will hold its 50th annual convention in Denver, Colo., Dec. 4-8. The AAEP was founded in December 1954, in Louisville, Ky., by 11 charter members and now boasts approximately 8,000 members in 57 countries. Based on past conference attendance averages, some 2,700 veterinarians, veterinary students, and technicians will be there, while guests and exhibitors in the trade show that accompanies the conference will bring the grand total to about 5,500.
Dr. T. Douglas Byars, a senior medicine clinician, has announced he will end his 22-year tenure with Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Associates in January 2005.
The Rutgers Equine Science Center's Annual "Science Update" will take place from 6-9 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, Dec. 7, at the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture on the Cook College campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in Brunswick, N. J.
The American Horse Council reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken another step toward the implementation of the National Animal Identification System to trace animal movements in case of a major disease outbreak.
New joint product development is being driven by an increased awareness of the need to treat joints without hurting the stomach--that is, without causing gastric ulcers. In June 2004, a product that delivers the strength of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) in a topical cream formulation was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating joint pain and inflammation in horses. Its name is Surpass Topical Anti-Inflammatory Cream. This new product and others for treating equine joints will be covered here.
A new product for preventing gastric ulcers in horses is due for release by the end of this year, when Ulcergard joins GastroGard as the second product approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for ulcer management in the horse. On the more distant horizon, new developments in musculoskeletal pain management that are gentle on the stomach might one day arrive on the equine market, and that too could help prevent ulcers in racehorses.
New York State Police have charged a former part-time Emergency Medical Technician at Finger Lakes Racetrack in connection with a scheme to defraud horse owners by telling them she would take their horses and find safe homes for them.
The Fund for Horses, a Texas-based group dedicated to the protection of the country's equine population, will have an informational table at Lone Star Park on Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships Day, Saturday, Oct. 30, as well as on the previous two days.
The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. has entered into a partnership with nearby Georgetown College in an effort to provide what is described as "an exceptional learning experience" for students enrolled in the school's newly designed Equine Scholars Program.
Go Smarty Go--To Stud at Three Chimneys Farm By Ron Mitchell and Evan Hammonds
Gastric ulcers are so common in racing horses that many equine practitioners maintain their racing patients on anti-ulcer medications to prevent and treat gastric ulcers. Reports in the literature place the percentage of racing horses in training with endoscopically visible gastric ulcers at grater than 80%. Unfortunately, despite the variety of anti-u...
A human interventional cardiologist and an equine veterinarian in Lexington, Ky. have successfully completed the first step of a landmark procedure to repair a heart problem called a –ventricular septal defect” in a foal. The procedure was performed July 9.
The neurologic form of equine herpesvirus type-1 has been confirmed as the cause of disease in two Maryland horses infected during a deadly outbreak this spring.
Kentucky has altered it regulations concerning vesicular stomatitis in the wake of new cases in Colorado. The Kentucky Department of Agriculture issued a release July 6 that said animals at three properties in Las Animas County and one property in Douglas County have been diagnosed with VS.
Breeders' Cup, which has plans to set up a "disease-free zone" to allow horses to ship in and out of Lone Star Park, is moving full-steam ahead with preparations for this year's World Thoroughbred Championships even as a limited outbreak of vesicular stomatitis continues in Texas.
Kentucky state veterinarian Dr. Robert Stout Thursday issued a ban on all livestock, wild or exotic animals -- including horses--from Texas from entering Kentucky due to reports of vesicular stomatitis in horses in west Texas.
By Dr. Tom R. Lenz -- Federal legislation to ban the slaughter of horses in the United States for human consumption has become an emotional issue on which some groups within the equine industry can't see eye to eye. Here are the facts regarding the American Association of Equine Practitioners' position on H.R. 857, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act.
An undisclosed number of deaths attributed to salmonella has forced the New Bolton Center to close to the public.
Prominent sire Broad Brush was taken out of stallion service the end of April at Graham J. Beck's Gainesway Farm near Lexington because of a problem with his left front ankle.
Mares going from Ireland to Britain are being tested for Equine Viral Arteritis, a practice which has been routine for mares visiting the country from the rest of Europe.
Until recently, the only sure way of knowing if a horse was free of lower airway disease was through endoscopy, writes Marcia King in the April edition of The Horse. But scientists in England have developed another technique that involves collecting and measuring the amount of hydrogen peroxide in the moisture of the horse's exhaled air.
Cushing's disease (CD) has been identified as the most common cause of laminitis among horses seen at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. Dr. Mark Donaldson, an assistant professor at the university's School of Veterinary Medicine, led the research effort.
A federal jury in Santa Ana, Calif., has awarded more than $1 million to the owners of a California Thoroughbred breeding and training farm over a feed additive that is designed to kill fly larvae in manure.
Cushing's disease has been identified as the most common cause of laminitis among horses seen at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.
At an open meeting at Keeneland on Tuesday, two entomologists shared their best recommendations for monitoring and reducing the ETC population.
Shock Wave Therapy
Racehorses with specific conformation are more likely to have certain musculoskeletal injuries, according to two recent studies completed at Colorado State University (CSU). At the 2003 American Association of Equine Practitioners' convention, C. Wayne McIlwraith, BVSc, PhD, DSc, FRCVS, Dr.medvet (hc), Dipl. ACVS, director of CSU's Gail Holmes Equ...
"Respiratory disease is the second-leading cause of lost training in the Thoroughbred racehorse, second only to musculoskeletal injuries," said Jeff Blea, DVM, of the Southern California Equine Foundation in Arcadia, Calif., during the 2003 American Association of Equine Practitioners convention. "Endoscopy of the upper respiratory tract pl...
Results of a study from the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center suggest that there is a high chance that a horse can return to racing after surgery for laryngeal hemiplegia (partial or complete paralysis of the larynx, also called roaring) or arytenoid chondritis (inflammation of the arytenoid cartilages resulting in paralysis). Presented b...
Dr. Robert Stout of Versailles has been named Kentucky's state veterinarian by the Kentucky Board of Agriculture.
While it might be easy to forget about the small accessory ligament that anchors the superficial digital flexor tendon to the upper foreleg bone (radius), acute desmitis (ligament inflammation) of this structure has now been shown to be a significant cause of pronounced, transient lameness in Thoroughbred racehorses. Johanna Reimer, VMD, Dipl. ACVIM, of R...
Thankfully not a large part of a racetrack veterinarian's job, severe injury of a racehorse nevertheless is one of the most visible and critical situations these practitioners must handle. Two experienced racetrack veterinarians, Mary Scollay, DVM, senior association veterinarian for Gulfstream Park and Calder Racecourses; and Celeste Kunz, VMD, chief exa...
Transporting a horse is always fraught with potential problems. The potential for trouble increases when a foal, only weeks (or days) of age, is added into the mix, such as at breeding time when a mare must travel away from her home farm. In some cases, the transportation is only down the road a short distance to the breeding barn. In other instances, ...
Fred Winters, former president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club, a longtime farm manager at several prominent Lexington-area farms and a partner in Equine Farm Management Inc., was named the Director of Operations of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Jan. 23.
Comparing pasture samples from 2002 and 2003 didn't associate Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome with anything other than the Eastern tent caterpillar. However, Wayne Long of the University of Kentucky's Department of Agronomy provided some insight on pasture management in Central Kentucky and stressed the dangers of tall fescue toxicosis.
The use of a treadmill during endoscopic exams is becoming more common and useful.
Shuttling Thoroughbred stallions between Northern and Southern hemisphere farms for breeding began in earnest around 1992. Stallions had been shuttling from Great Britain and Ireland prior to that time. Between 1996 and 2002, 117 stallions from the United States were shuttled to the Southern Hemisphere in the late part of the year to complete a second bre...
"In the final analysis, we do not understand this disease," said Dr. Bruce Webb, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky who has been a leading researcher into the problem of Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome.
Septic arthritis in a Thoroughbred foal significantly reduces the likelihood the animal will race, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and veterinarians with Rossdale and Partners in England. The scientists evaluated the medical records of 69 foals treated for septic arthritis and compared each foal's ...
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