Pastern Dermatitis With all the rain these past few weeks the ground is soggy and knee deep in mud. Horses standing in these conditions often develop cracks in the skin. (Think of it as our hands being chapped and cracked when being in too much water). Bacteria and fungus that live in the mud or standing water make their way into cracks in the horse’s skin and set up the infection, Pastern Dermatitis. Common names for this condition are scratches, dew poisoning and grease heel. The signs are scabby crusts on the skin of the back of the pastern, which are often painful. It is constant problem i ..read more

Spring is here and the grass is green. It is time to get the overweight horses off of the grass, especially those that have foundered in the past. Worming April 15th is the time to worm all horses with Ivermectin to kill the spring hatch/molt of worms and bots. On October 15th fecal exams should be done on adult horses to see if an additional worming is needed. Young horses, aged 1-3yrs should be wormed every 3 months. EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome) & ID (insulin Dyregulation) Horses that are obese, stay fat on nothing (easy keepers), have a cresty neck, a fat sheath or udder probably ha ..read more

March 2024 NL Black Gumbo Now that the weather is warm and dry It’s a good time to work on mud control.  If your soil is black gumbo, you likely fight it every year when the spring rains come.  Here are a few suggestions from clients and Facebook that will help with the deep clay/mud that is often difficult to work in. Put a load of sand or rock in the area.  If gumbo is really deep this may be a summer project. Put secrete sacks in the area, wet the top of the sacks, cover with sand Install Light Hoof mud panels 6×12 for $219.  Information is on the internet. Using gumbo ..read more

The month of January was very cold with long periods of freezing temperatures. Keeping water available for our horses was difficult to say the least. Many owners used a tank heater to combat the frozen water troughs. Be aware, a client using a tank heater said her horses would not drink or get near the trough. The owner then realized they were getting shocked when trying to drink! In her case, this was due to a short in the plug which resulted in electricity being sent into the tank. For safety’s sake, when using a tank heater, it is advisable to plug into a GFI receptacle. Also, you must con ..read more

Happy New Year! The end of the old year was a rough time at the clinic.  Dr Hayes treated an impaction colic every day for 6 days.  The drop in weather temperatures made water sources very cold, causing the horses to not drink. Impaction colic is caused by the horse failing to drink water at the time that they eat coastal hay, especially on a cold morning.  By that evening the hay is impacted in the large colon, causing a blockage and colic.  All of these horses’ guts shut down so they required iv fluids, which made for big vet bills. Prevention is simple: Add a tablespoon ..read more

Quarantine, Isolation and Disinfection Respiratory virus and Strangles cases are on the rise. This can be due to the adoption of rescue horses, bringing in a new horse, weather extremes cold nights/hot days, congregation of horses during competitions or trail rides, commercial horse van transport, and your horse coming home from the trainer. In any of these situations, the best policy is to isolate the horse from your other horses for 2-4 weeks so the disease that the horse may be shedding does not go through your other horses. Isolation means no nose-to-nose contact with another horse over t ..read more

STRATEGIC WORMING PLAN. FALL WORMING OR FECAL. The larval worm parasites that were picked up on the spring grass molt to adults in 6 months which is now.  After October 15, we can do a fecal to check the parasite load.  If there are a lot of eggs, we worm with pyrantel/ Strongid paste. If there are few to no eggs we do not worm. The next worming will be April 15 for the spring worm hatch using ivermectin or Quest. If you have not wormed your babies, it is time to do so.  Worm them with Panacur using the foal dose or use double the dose of safe-guard (Febendazole).&nbs ..read more

NEW WOUND TREATMENT     Dr. Hayes went to the Texas Equine Vet Association seminar on wound treatment where a new protocol using salt/water mix solutions was discussed.  This method is very effective in healing and preventing infection because bacteria cannot grow in a salty environment.  The wounds were cleaned initially, then daily, with salt water and bandaged.  Wounds kept bandaged healed twice as fast because the new cells can migrate in the moist bandaged environment.  Two new wound dressing pads to use under a bandage were discussed.  Calcium algo ..read more

COOL SCIENCE     We were always told to walk the horse to cool him out after exercise.  A new study looked at 5 different ways to cool a horse after exercise in the summer. Walking Walking with fans Walking with intermittent cold-water application Walking with intermittent cold-water application and scraping off the water Standing with continuous tap water (with a hose) application The method that resulted in the fastest return to normal body temperature was standing with continuous tap water application for 2 minutes. Just Walking took the longest (25minutes) to bri ..read more

JULY NL 2023 SUMMER TEMPS Summer so far has been HOT and HUMID!  This combination “cooks” the horses and predisposes them to colic.  A high roughage diet consisting of plenty of hay or pasture with a small amount of grain is the best summer diet.  (If your vet has recommended a specific feeding program for your horse, always check before changing it).  Grain on a large colon that is not full of hay causes gas and gas colic.  Feeding a probiotic such as Fastrack AM & PM also helps prevent colic.  Probiotics provide good microbes to the gut and prevent the overg ..read more