Excelsior Equine Veterinary Services

11/20/2025

Many clients have reached out to me with concerns over the EHV-1 outbreak occurring out West. The important things to know is that there are no reported cases in New York state at this time and a horse requires direct contact with an infected horse in order to catch the virus. If your horse has not traveled out west or has not had direct contact with a horse who was potentially exposed they are not at risk. For anyone that may be planning to travel to a state with documented cases with their horses I recommend staying home until this all settles down. The vaccine is effective against respiratory illness but it does NOT protect against the neurologic strain. Eliminating possible exposure is the most effective way to prevent your horse from contracting the herpes virus.
The great folks at Rhinebeck made a very educational post about the disease which I have shared below.

‼️ Recent cases of EHV-1 and EHM are confirmed after the WPRA event in Waco, Texas with potential exposure at other events. We have posted about EHV-1 and EHM in the past so here is a refresher on this highly contagious disease.

📖 What is EHV-1?

Equine Herpes Virus type-1 (EHV-1) is a virus that causes respiratory disease, abortion, neonatal death, and neurologic disease. EHV can cause Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM), the neurologic form of herpes.

🤧How is it spread?

EHV-1 is primarily spread by direct horse-to-horse contact by respiratory secretions. However, indirect contact with contaminated equipment and personnel can spread the virus. Following infection, horses may become latent carriers and the virus may be reactivated after stress such as travel and exercise, or high doses of corticosteroids. The incubation period ranges from two to 10 days.

🩺What are the symptoms of EHV-1?

Common symptoms include fever, coughing, lethargy, nasal discharge, and inappetance. Symptoms of the neurologic form include ataxia (incoordination), weakness, difficulty standing, recumbency, loss of tail tone, and difficulty urinating.

💊 What is the treatment for EHV-1 and EHM?

Treatment is primarily supportive care. Patients with EHM may require a sling.

😷How can you protect your horse?

💉 While vaccination can decrease clinical signs and shedding, it does not protect against the neurologic strain.

👃 While at a show, avoid nose-to-nose contact with horses from other barns, and don’t share equipment such as buckets, wheelbarrows, and pitchforks. Wash your hands frequently, and take extra precautions if working with multiple groups of horses.

🌡️ Consider taking your horse's temperature twice a day when traveling. Temperatures greater than 101.5 or any signs of illness should be reported to your veterinarian immediately. And consider quarantining horses returning from horse shows or are new to the farm.

🧬How is EHV-1 diagnosed?

The virus is detected in nasal swabs and blood samples by PCR testing. At Rhinebeck Equine, we offer in-house rapid EHV-1 PCR testing on nasal swabs. Results are available in ~60 minutes.

📸: We recommend horses avoiding nose to nose contact while at horse shows and events. These Chincoteague ponies clearly didn’t hear our recommendations.

10/14/2025

"tHeY dOnT tEaCH EqUiNe dEnTiStRy iN vEt ScHoOl.." 😶
I'm sorry, lay tooth floaters, this is factually untrue! The equine mouth is a critical component of overall health and routine dental care is a critical part of their health. Of COURSE we learn about it in vet school!! This isn't the 1950s!
Do some vets enjoy dentistry more than others? Of course.
Does a self proclaimed equine "dentist" have more knowledge of a horse's mouth than a veterinarian? No. Reminder that some equine "dentists" have NO formal training and those that do still do NOT have a medical degree! Human dentistry is a completely different medical school, such a thing does NOT exist for horses.

I'm excited to see the next generation of equine vets learning these critical skills! If any of you youngins wanna tag along one day drop me a line! 😉

10/11/2025

It might have been a bit damp, but still fun to watch the flying ponies! 🐎🐴 💦

09/24/2025

Great post by The folks over at Rhinebeck! Something I talk to clients about all the time

09/22/2025

ITS FINALLY AUTUMN!! 🍂 🎃

Summer sucks and Fall is the BEST... fight me 💪🏻🍁

Why? Because NY apple season is my happy place and then add in a little ice cream 🍎 🍦 🤤 Also like every basic white girl I love a good PSL. 🙌🏻

Plus who wants to ride when it's like >90*F??? So much better when it's cool and crisp and the horses get a little spicy spicy 🔥 🐉🐎

In other news, I seem to finally be recovering from COVID last week 😷 Back to business as usual this week (although moving a little slow and getting tired still) Thanks to everyone that has tolerated the needed schedule changes! ❤️

09/06/2025

This is a solidarity post for all of those taking the time, effort and expense of treating gastric ulcers the *right* way!
I'm going through it right now with my guy so I know what you're going through!
Stanley says a tube a gastrogard is NOT a proper breakfast and I need to give him his hay ASAP! 😡
Sorry dude! Even though your noodle neck giraffe impression is slowly destroying my rotator cuff we are staying the path because you are worrh it and we aren't accepting anything less! 🦒 🐍💪🏻

08/25/2025

🚩This might be my most important educational post I've ever made, so please share, share SHARE! 🤓
👏COMPOUNDED 👏OMEPRAZOLE 👏DOES👏 NOT👏 WORK!👏

I get it, Gastrogard is freaking EXPENSIVE. You know what is more expensive? Spending money on medications that don't even work! Money wasted is not money saved!

Here's the thing: the drug omeprazole is cheap. It's pretty simple to make and that's why lots of compounding pharmacies (and sketchy overseas companies) can manufacture *cheap* products and claim the name brand is a rip off. But there is a catch... omeprazole needs to be absorbed in the small intestine in order to work. And it is broken down by stomach acid (which is inconvenient). This means that in order to actually work, the drug needs to be protected by a gastric buffer which allows it to pass through the stomach acid and in to the small intestine for absorption. Human tablets have a thin enteric coating on the omeprazole tablets, but it's not exactly possible to get a horse to swallow without chewing medication.

THIS is why Gastrogard is so expensive, they have a gastric buffer that actually works! And they seem to be the ONLY one that actually does. There are some other pastes out there claiming to have a gastric buffer, but they predictably fail on gastroscopic exams.

As a veterinarian, it is my duty to provide the best quality care for your horse- which means recommending safe, effective medications that actually treat the disease in question. It is not because of some brand loyalty to BI, or because we get some kickbacks from big pharma (oh man I wish 😫) Once there is a product out there with a similar safety and efficacy profile as Gastrogard I will add that to my recommendations immediately.... promise!

Do you think you have a supplement/medication that works better than gastrogard? Put it to the test and get scoped! Gastroscopies never lie...👀

08/19/2025

Okay this has literally nothing to do with horses or veterinary medicine... But it was just too good not to share.
DRYDEN CREAMERY HAS UBE (PURPLE SWEET POTATO ) SOFT SERVE!!! 😮🤯😍😍
This is the most delicious soft serve I've ever had in my life. Such a unique, mildly savory but luxurious flavor.
I am going to dream about this.
I am obsessed.
(You can also get it in a twist with matcha soft serve, but I don't like matcha personally)
Go now!!!

08/07/2025

Why do horses get gastric ulcers? 🤔This is a question that I get asked quite a bit. The first thing people often think of is because of domestication. That is true to an extent, as we know the following things can promote gastric ulceration:
🐴Lack of access to constant forage
🐴High starch/sugar grain
🐴Confinement for majority of the day
🐴Stress of competition and trailering

HOWEVER❗️- the most important cause of gastric ulcer formation is simply that the horses stomach is poorly designed! 😬 Seriously, we all know horses are just walking biologic disasters waiting to happen, and the stomach is no exception! In fact, it may be one of the worst offenders!

Not only can horses not vomit (annoying) but their stomach has a unique design in that the top and bottom of it have two different tissue linings with two different functions.

🤓The upper part of the stomach, called the "squamous" region, is light pink in color and has no acid producing cells. It more importantly has no *protection* against acid. This mean the tissue is susceptible to damage with even normal amount of acid exposure.

🤓The lower part of the stomach is called the "glandular" region and is dark pink in color and has acid producing cells. It also has a protective layer of mucous that *should* protect it against acid.

Why do I think this is so important? Because the narrative of "all ulcers are caused by poor management" is fundamentally flawed. Does suboptimal management and lifestyle make gastric ulcers more likely? Sure. But I have seen MANY horses living literal ideal horse lives have gastric ulcers! Studies have shown that wild horses have ulcers, zebras have ulcers, foals can literally be born with ulcers! The stomach is only 50% protected from stomach acid... which it is actively making all the time.

So remember: gastric ulcers are INCREDIBLY common. Having a horse with gastric ulcers does not mean you immediately have done something *wrong*! And (more importantly) just because you have good management does not mean that ulcers are not possible!

The only way to know 100% if your horse has ulcers is to look! 👀

And I can tell you, the more horses I scope the more surprised I am at which horses actually do (and don't) have ulcers!

08/01/2025

Happy August Everyone! 😎☀️🐎 I have had my gastroscope up and running since May 1st and I have done over 60 scopes in that time! 😮 Every single horse I scope teaches me more about equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) and learning new things is my favorite 🤓 I decided to use the month of August as an EGUS education month where I can share some of the cool and interesting things I have seen! So stay tuned!

07/26/2025

Trying out my brand new miniature head stand on my own Mr. Caleb. 🐴
Anyone who has seen me do dentals on minis knows what a contortionist act it can be 🤪. This should make it much easier! And also isn't it just the most freaking adorable thing ever?!? 🥹💜