While your veterinarian is stitching wounds, delivering foals, and monitoring colics, researchers from around the world are publishing research that often advances the collective of horse health care. So to bring busy practitioners up to speed on the top studies in a variety of fields, a panel of veterinarians presents a news-type program each year at the...
By the time a human infant reaches 4 months of age he or she has likely received a battery of vaccinations, starting shortly after birth. In contrast, four- to six-month-old foals whose dams were vaccinated properly are likely just starting to receive immunizations, as recommended by the American Association of Equine Practitioners' (AAEP) vaccination...
In the equine industry three simple letters, when said in order, can silent a room of horsemen, turn a showground into a ghost town, and send shockwaves through barns. They're E, H, and V, and they stand for equine herpesvirus-1, a contagious equine virus that can cause serious neurologic problems in affected horses. Fortunately for owners, veterinari...
Equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM) put dozens of show horses at risk for infection after they were exposed to a sick horse at a single competitive event in Utah in 2011. Unaware of the exposures, owners of these horses dispersed the show animals to 19 states and several Canadian provinces, unleashing the potential to infect others in epidemic pr...
Racehorses must be healthy and at their peak fitness to be successful. One commonly combated health condition—exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, or EIPH—can be performance-limiting and even deadly among these athletes. And as racehorse medication reform has taken center stage in recent years, the racing world has been rife with controversy...
A $2.7 million gift from Centaur Gaming will help Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine build the Centaur Regional Equine Diagnostic and Surgical Center in Shelbyville, Ind.
Are you looking for a special treat to give your horses this holiday season? Look no further: The Horse staff members have compiled and made four homemade horse treat recipes just in time for Christmas. And to get the verdict on each straight from the horse's mouth, their own horses served as the treat testers.
One of the great mysteries surrounding the field of stem cell therapy is how the cells are distributed after being injected. Do they disperse evenly? Do they travel to the area where they’re needed? And how long do they stick around?
Your horse is itchy. You find patches of missing hair on his sides and shoulders. There are gaps in his mane, holes in his tail. Sweet itch? It could be. But then again, maybe not. Belgian researchers say the only way to be sure that your horse is affected by sweet itch is to evaluate him using a confirmed diagnostic test for the disease.
For years, the veterinarians and podiatrists at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, in Lexington, Ky., have been testing stem cell therapy's efficacy as an adjunctive treatment for the hoof disease laminitis. Their access to a large stem cell bank combined with a high caseload has created the ideal scenario for studying this cutting-edge treatment.
Soaking hay in water is a common practice used to reduce dust and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) levels for horses with respiratory or metabolic conditions. But soaking can leach essential nutrients, such as phosphorus and magnesium, from hay and be labor-intensive.
Veterinarians use casts to help stabilize and treat a variety of equine foot and leg disorders, from lower limb injuries to severe foot infections to chronic laminitis cases. The latter condition, however, is one of the most challenging to treat—when the leaflike laminar tissues that suspend the coffin bone inside the hoof wall detach, allowing the ...
Depending on the breed and breeder, white markings on horses might be something to strive for or against. Swiss and Australian researchers have recently tuned into the genetics of white leg and face markings, and they've learned that these features are the result of complex genetic processes—but not too complex for modern science.
Do you think your horse moves a bit unevenly after a trim? You might be right. Researchers recently showed that while routine farriery care had little influence overall on horses' movement, horses do show some movement asymmetry after being trimmed.
Managing a horse with chronic laminitis is hardly a one-man job. Both veterinarian and farrier expertise is required to rehabilitate and maintain these horses' feet for the best possible outcome.
When it comes to caring for insulin-resistant (IR) horses, diet plays a very important role in managing insulin levels and preventing associated diseases such laminitis. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are key features of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) and can also occur in horses with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (or equine Cushing'...
Could something as simple as hoof wall tubule (the keratin-based, tubelike structures that form the hoof wall) density provide veterinarians with clues as to a laminitic horse's prognosis? Not yet, but researchers are taking the first steps determine if it could be a possibility in the future.
Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has signed a lease-buy agreement with Racebrook Capital Advisors, LLC, for the former Ruffian Equine Medical Center to establish Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, a referral and emergency care hospital.
Does longeing surface really make that big of a difference in how a horse moves? One research team believes so, and they recently worked to determine exactly how surface affects a horse's movement.
Does your otherwise healthy horse have trouble keeping pounds on? Here are some tips to consider when feeding the mature, healthy hard keeper.
When an owner makes the difficult decision to euthanize a horse with laminitis, it's often because the horse is simply in too much pain to justify prolonging treatment. For this reason, researchers are continually trying to come up with improved analgesic (pain relief) methods. Andrew van Eps, BVSc, PhD, MACVSc, Dipl. ACVIM, senior lecturer in Equine ...
In recent studies, researchers have confirmed the benefits of using cryotherapy (cold therapy, or digital hypothermia) to treat acute laminitis. The technique's anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects help prevent the laminar failure (when the laminae anchoring the coffin bone within the hoof fail to support the bone) characteristic of this devastatin...
Collapsed heels are a common problem in horses, particularly Thoroughbred racehorses, and can cause decreased performance and lameness. Because little is known about the mechanism behind this condition, a group of researchers from The Royal Veterinary College, in London, U.K., recently examined the relationship between collapsed heels and hoof deformation...
You know that nagging feeling when your performance horse is just not quite right, yet you can’t pinpoint the problem zone? Here's some good news: By using hoof kinematics, researchers at the Gail Holmes Equine Orthopaedic Research Center at Colorado State University (CSU) are developing a technique to aid in the diagnosis of mild or subclinical...
Whether your horse takes several short, quick trot steps into the canter or jumps right into that rocking-horse gait, the moment when his legs change sequence probably seems fleeting. To a group of researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) though, that moment of change is of great interest.
During pregnancy, a broodmare's body and hormones go through many changes: Her belly swells, and her insulin and glucose levels vary. When you consider the association between obesity, insulin resistance, and laminitis, this becomes a health concern beyond just delivering a healthy foal. The endocrine changes associated with pregnancy might actually i...
One reason laminitis is so challenging to study is that it can result from many different primary diseases—from metabolic disorders to black walnut exposure. Researchers might be able to make headway, however, if they take an epidemiological approach to studying the disease. Epidemiologist Noah Cohen, VMD, MPH, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, a professor in Texas...
If you’ve ever considered your horse to be your “better half,” you’re not alone. Norwegian and American researchers recently found that riders and horses can enter into a unique state of interspecies “co-being” with one other.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such phenylbutazone, flunixin meglumine, and ketoprofen—these are all common drugs when it comes to managing inflammation in horses. Each has its advantages and disadvantages though, and when trying to block the inflammatory response in horses with laminitis there is no gold standard treatment. But what if a new...
A laminitis diagnosis can be a life-changing event for both a horse and an owner. And when it comes to dietary changes for laminitic horses, owners might not know where to start.
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has published the sixth edition of the Health and Safety in the Racing and Breeding Industry guide, commonly known as the "Red Book," the group announced Oct. 31.
If Kentucky is going to join the Mid-Atlantic Uniform Medication Reform's efforts to put uniform medication rules in place in each racing state, it's going to take some work and time.
Equine respiratory disease is no fun for horse or owner, and it can have a significant economic impact on the performance horse industry in both cost of treatment and in training and performance days lost.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine announced that students Lauren Duffee and Emma Gorenberg were each awarded a $6,000 scholarship from the Thoroughbred Education and Research Foundation.
Scientists have long considered obesity to be a primary driver of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). If this is true the horse industry is facing a very big problem; in a recent study of 300 horses in Virginia, researchers found that 51% of them were obese. That means more than half the country's horse population is at risk of EMS and, thus, laminitis, ...
The risk factors associated with laminitis are many—from grass access to obesity to stall confinement. But which ones are most important for owners to watch for? James Orsini, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) New Bolton Center got one step closer to answering this question with their retrospective study of ...
The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), a nonregulatory division of USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service—Veterinary Services, in collaboration with the National Agricultural Statistics Service, is planning for its third national study of the equine industry. The survey is scheduled to begin in summer 2015.
The training and racing of 2-year-old Thoroughbreds has always been a source of debate in the racing world due to concerns that exerting young skeletons might make horses more likely to injure themselves. But recent study results from Italian researchers suggest that at least one set of bones in Thoroughbreds might not impacted by training as juveniles: t...
Depending on what study you read, laminitis prevalence in horse populations ranges anywhere from 1.5% to 34%. One of the most frequently cited prevalence estimates, from a study of horses in Great Britain, is 7%. But which figure is correct? Claire Wylie, PhD, MSc, BVM&S, a veterinary epidemiologist at Rossdales Equine Hospital, in Newmarket, England,...
When you buy a new horse trailer, chances are you'll also get lots technical information about the “fatigue life” of mechanical parts like the shocks or the clamp to close the hitch. That fatigue life refers to how long these parts can be used—opening and closing, absorbing shock, clamping, or whatever they do—before they break.
Beautiful hair is a widely sought-after commodity. Just look at the millions of dollars people spend on various hair treatments. Britney Spears alone reportedly spends more than $60,000 on personal grooming expenses every year! Horses are similarly pampered and preened, as evidenced by the fact that nutritional supplements marketed for skin and coat are t...
Since it was first identified in 2007, deadly equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis (EMPF) has been reported in numerous horses across North America and Europe. While still considered a rare disease, EMPF appears to be related to a very common one—equine herpesvirus (EHV)—and early treatment appears to be the main hope for survival.
Equine veterinarians representing the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ (AAEP) On Call program will assist NBC Sports with horse health information during the Nov. 1–2 Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia, Calif.
Ever heard of the horse's third trochanter? It's a part of a bone, and guess what: It can break. While not common, third trochanter fractures can cause almost instant, severe hind limb lameness that can be difficult to diagnose. But the news isn't all bad: French researchers say these fractures probably won’t end a horse's athletic c...
The benefit of horse housing might be obvious during cold winter months, but what about during sun-filled summer days?
We all know that hitting the treadmill once in a while can be beneficial for human health, but recent study results indicate it could be good practice for young racehorses, as well.
One topic horse owners have heard a lot about in the past few years is anthelmintic resistance. And while many veterinarians encourage their clients to change to fecal egg count (FEC) directed deworming from rotational deworming—something many have practiced for years or decades—some are slow to adapt. But new study results from Scotland sugge...
Osteochondral lesions that show up on young horses' radiographs might appear worrisome, but the veterinarian behind a recent research review concluded that surgery isn’t always necessary, or even recommended. And in many cases the worry isn’t necessary either.
Italian researchers believe that a wide number of “healthy” variables—such as breed and geographic location—might impact horses' blood test results. And with the current textbook reference hematology values being based on the Thoroughbred horse in the United Kingdom, the team believes it might be time to develop new reference v...
The Malone Family Foundation, led by media magnate and philanthropist John C. Malone, has donated $6 million to Colorado State University's Orthopaedic Research Center.
