The term ‘easy keeper’ or ‘easy doer’ is heard often in the horse world when it comes to animals that retain fat fairly easily or that simply maintain their body weight without having to be fed in large amounts. Most people don’t think much of it, while plenty are glad to have horses that are easy to feed. However, that ‘cresty neck’, fat on the tail head and on the sheath or mammary glands of horses can have a lot more to do with their health than most folks take into consideration. Yes, they’re overweight but, in most cases, it doesn’t seem like a very big deal. However, recent studies have shown that these ‘easy keepers’ may be a big target for a detrimental condition.
Horses and ponies that tend to store fair amounts of fat on their neck, butt and where their sheath or teats are can become chronically laminitic. However, this chronic laminitis is not limited to overweight or obese animals, but can occur in horses and ponies who are significantly leaner in their body or even, in some cases, perfectly normal. One key element to each of these horses and ponies is that they could possibly have a condition known as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) which is causing the chronic laminitic issue.
What is Equine Metabolic Syndrome?
The condition known as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) gains its name from the similarities it shares with a widely known disease in humans: Metabolic Syndrome or better known as Type II Diabetes. The condition was suggested in 2002 by Johnson of the University of Missouri Veterinary Medicine College. He proposed insulin resistance, obesity of the neck, tail head and sheath/mammary gland area, and an increased predisposition to laminitis were symptoms of a clinical syndrome in horses and ponies....
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... horses with EMS found that feeding grass hay that was restricted to 1.25% of the animals’ body weights in combination with soaking the feed in cold water and feeding a vitamin and mineral regimen managed to improve the condition of the effected horses. In a period of six weeks, these animals lost an average %BM of about 7% as well as improving in the circumference of their belly and body condition score. Also, the horses showed higher insulin sensitivity by the end of the study.
Chronic laminitis sufferers also should have foot/frog support to prevent a possible founder while the disease is in the infant stages of management. This isn’t to say that the condition is entirely reversible, there has been no proof that EMS will entirely go away. Prevention in this case is key, and by not overfeeding or over-supplementing, your horse is at a lower risk for EMS.
Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM) was first discovered in 1977, subsequent to outbreaks in Newmarket, United Kingdom and Ireland affecting Thoroughbred populations (Timoney, 2011). Following these outbreaks of CEM, a ban on the importation of horses into the United States from the UK, Ireland and France was put into effect (Schulman et al., 2013). Despite implementation of strict requirements concerning the import of breeding horses from countries known or suspected to be affected by CEM, the first United States outbreak was reported within a year of the discovery of the disease (Timoney, 2011). According to Timoney (2011), the U.S. outbreak in 1978 affected Thoroughbred horses in Kentucky and the source of the outbreak was determined to be two stallions imported from France. The 1978 outbreak of CEM in Kentucky resulted in a total economic loss of 13.55 million, with about 1 million dollars lost for every day mares were not successfully bred and movement restrictions were in place (Timoney, 2011).
Hippotherapy, a specialized form of equine therapy, “is a physical, occupational or speech and language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement. Hippotherapy literally means ‘treatment with the help of the horse’ from the Greek word, "hippos" meaning horse” (“Hippotherapy.”). Equine therapy is an all-encompassing type of therapy that includes riding horses, learning about the horse as a creature, the physical activity involved in horseback riding, and much more. Hippotherapy also requires a licensed, specially-trained therapist to teach and oversee lessons because of the hands-on nature of this method while therapeutic riding only requires a professional horseback-riding instructor, typically with some background in physical or occupational therapy Hippotherapy riders usually have more severe deficits and, therefore, hippotherapy is a little bit more intense than physical therapy. Both hippotherapy and therapeutic riding can utilize the unique movement of a horse to “assist in meeting therapy goals.” The horse’s gait mimics that of a human, and for that reason, horses can aid in the treatment of patients with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and the rehabilitation of injured people such as
Dysplasia causes abnormal wear of the joints, which are very common in large dog breeds; gastric dilation and volvulus (bloat) caused from over eating, is also an occurrence known in this breed of dog. The swollen and twisting of the stomach, causes restriction of blood flow to several major organs like the heart.
A place that will take unwanted horses is Equine Medical Services. Equine Medical Services is located in Columbia, Missouri. At Equine Medical Services (EMS) they specialize in in-vitro fertilization. In-vitro fertilization is the process of removing an egg from a show mare and the sperm from a stallion of the owner's choice and placing the fertilized egg into a brood mare which is a rescue mare from wild horse roundups. The mare will then carry the foal to full term and care for it as if it was her own. This mare will have no effect on the foals genetic
When owning a horse, you run into the problem of your horse getting injured. Getting the call from your barn manager or a friend saying that your horse is lame isn’t a call any horse owner wants to get, but is undoubtedly a call that everyone gets. The first thing that runs through their head is what happened? One of the scenarios that will enter a horse owner’s head will be a tendon, ligament, or joint injury. Many owners work very hard to prevent such injuries by feeding joint supplements, but owners can’t prevent the unexpected. Some of the major treatments out in the equine industry are even common in human tendon injuries, such as tendon splitting, stem cell therapy, and platelet rich plasma therapy. There are also several medicinal injections that have come available to veterinarians such as: Tildren, Adquan, and Legend. Every horse owner should have some knowledge of the above treatments, in order to provide the best therapy and healing for their horse.
For centuries people have enjoyed horses in various ways. From racing Thoroughbreds to western pleasure, the equine sport can be observed around the world. But, behind the glitz and glamour of horse shows, there is also a dark side. Nowadays, some horse people will use harmful shortcuts to get a leg up in competition. “ Pushed beyond their limits, most horses are subjected to cocktails of legal and illegal drugs intended to mask injuries and artificially enhance performance.” (PETA). Many trainers will use extreme, abusive techniques in the name of competition.
This is because the different types of training, racing, transport, breed and temperament can produce variations in blood constituents levels (Assenza, et al. 1996). However, only few researches studied the responses during a specific training period (McGowan, et al.,2002). Although the changes occur after exercise were poorly studied so the aim of this research was planned to evaluate the modifications of some physiological and heamatochemical parameters occurring after exercised thoroughbred horse at different interval of rest in order to assess their relationship to the standard
An assessment of adequate energy intake can be established by evaluating body condition. Deficient diets result in weight loss in the horse. Alternate causes of weight loss are internal parasites and disease. Excess energy intake wall cause obisity which stresses joints and reduces athletic ability. (arg.gov.sk.ca) A horse in moderate physical condition is described as “Back level. Ribs cannot be visually distinguished but can be easily felt. Fat around tailhead beginning to feel spongy. Withers appear rounded over spinous processes. Shoulders and neck blend smoothly into body.” (Henneke et al., 1981)
With over nine million types of horses in the United States, the need for quality health care for the horses has never been stronger. It’s certain that more equine veterinarians than ever before will be needed in the years to come to provide the care that owners want for their horses. According to the American Association of equine practitioners (AAEP), nearly half of the equine veterinarians are involved with performance horses(44.8%). The AVMA’S most recent employment survey of 2016 indicated that there were about 3,874 veterinarians in exclusively equine practice, with and additional 4,177 involved in mixed practices.
The history of being a veterinarian has been around since human beings have interacted with animals. For a long time, ever since man tamed animals, there is a need to monitor their health. Just as human, they suffer the same diseases: a cold, sore throat, stomach ulcer, and urolithiasis. Veterinary Medicin...
Draper, Judith, Debby Sly, and Sarah Muir. Complete Book of Horses and Riding. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Inc., 2003. Print.
Laminitis. “An inflammatory condition that affects the sensitive laminae, the fingerlike projections that line the surface of the bones within the hoof.” (Crabbe, DVM pg 74). It’s the most common cause of lameness and disability of horses and ponies (www.laminitis.org) and most often attacks the forelimbs over the hind ones. Laminitis is thought to be the cause of a toxic type of condition in the bloodstream of horses. The toxin is thought to originate in various spots, sometimes in the respiratory tract, sinuses, kidneys, liver, and in the mares, the reproductive tract. Finding it in the digestive tract is most common.
Riding encourages a child to work with their hands, exercise, and connect with horses and people of all ages, gain confidence, and learn new skills. Courtnee Niggel, an instructor summarizes how “A six year old child was told she will never walk again but after years of equine therapy she is now able to walk with a walker or by holding on to the sides of walls” (Niggel 1). Equine Therapy leaves a child with amazing results and changes their life drastically all the way from growing social skills to helping with motor skills, even to
domestic horses (equus caballus). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(3), 947-951. doi:10.1073/pnas.0809127105
Blowey, R. W. (1990). A Veterinary Book for Dairy Farmer (Third ed.). Old Pont Publishing Ltd.