Pine Ridge Equine Hospital

01/31/2025

Is it baby time yet?!
💕 When mares are getting closer to foaling, there are several things owners can monitor themselves. These things can help you estimate the foaling time as well as ensure everything is developing normally.

🍼 The mares bag will enlarge with milk in the last month. If you are nearing her foaling date and her bag still appears small, please contact your veterinarian as your mare may need additional medication OR diet change to stimulate milk production. 🚨 Call if you are unsure what this means!

💪 The muscle and skin around the tail head will soften dramatically as foaling nears. This is something you can check easily and safely yourself as shown in our video. The v***a will also elongate as it softens.

⬇️ Ventral edema (swelling on the bottom of the belly) is a normal occurrence in the last trimester of pregnancy. This can become quite dramatic and if you have concerns, contact your veterinarian to ensure everything else with the fetus is normal.

🕯️Lastly, wax will develop on the teats of the mares bag. The amount of wax can vary between teats and between mares. Waxing occurs typically 1-3 days (but up to a week) prior to foaling. Keep in mind, not all mares will wax prior to foaling.

If you have any questions or concerns about the progression of your mare’s pregnancy, call 918-827-8000 to speak to one of our vets. OR take the stress out of foaling and foal your mare with us! We are happy to welcome your little one into the world at Pine Ridge Equine and ensure their first 48 hours go as smoothly as possible!

01/31/2025

🏔️This horse is a good example of just because they “don’t complain or drop feed”, doesn’t mean they don’t need their teeth done. This 18 year old gelding was seen for a routine vaccine visit and an oral exam was advised as we do with our wellness exams. His last dental was unknown as he had more recently relocated to the area. On oral exam, Dr Matz appreciated mild to moderately sharp enamel points and noticed a ramp in the back. But once the horse was sedated and an oral speculum placed, it was shocking to see how severe the ramp was on this lower arcade specifically. This horse had shown no performance issues, difficulty eating or behavioral abnormalities! Some horses are just tough!

💰🦷 Does your horse need an oral exam? Or are they due for their annual dental?! ⭐️ Call 918-827-8000 to schedule in clinic during February 10-21st to save 20% off during our ANNUAL DENTAL SPECIAL!! ⭐️

01/26/2025

🤠 Last Saturday Dr Johansen traveled south for the annual Texas A&M SCAAEP Wet Labs & Job Fair. She spent several hours meeting veterinary students from almost every vet school in the US discussing their current and future goals as equine veterinarians. Some may not know, but Pine Ridge Equine has always been dedicated to mentoring veterinary students in various ways such as our externship program. Our externs are heavily involved in all aspects of our hospital and provided vital hands on experience. Many of our externs return to our hospital after graduating vet school as an intern doctor to further enhance their knowledge and skills.

🥼 Are you a veterinary student who’s interested in visiting our hospital? We welcome you to reach out to our practice manager Ruthie at 918-827-8000 for remaining available dates. We also provide on site housing!

01/25/2025

🐴 Here’s an interesting case for your weekend! This 17 year old quarter horse gelding had a 5+ year history a relatively firm and somewhat moveable mass in his chest area near his sternum. It was first noted when it was about the size of a ping pong ball and could only be seen when the horse turned certain directions with his head/neck. We monitored it a couple times a year with palpation, ultrasound and recorded measurements. No pain was ever noted or change in size until recently it started to get a little larger/more noticeable and it was elected to be surgically removed by Dr Metcalf and team.

The horse was sedated, clipped and aseptically prepped. A local anesthetic was used to numb the area. The mass was excised carefully to minimally disturb surrounding muscle attachments and keep the mass itself intact as we were unsure what was within it. Once it was removed, the inner tissue layers “dead space” were closed in multiple layers to reduce the chance of seroma formation and dehiscense. The skin was closed last with non absorbable sutures. He was given anti-inflammatories and a single dose of antibiotics.

The mass was opened once removed and to our surprise was filled with inspissated pus suggesting it was more of an abscess! How this formed, we are really not sure. No foreign body was located within the pus and the horse had no history of a trauma in this area or evidence of scarring on the skin. The surgery site has since healed well and he has fully recovered without complications! It’s pretty wild what can live inside animals for years without any problems, isn’t it?!

📲 Have questions about a strange mass or swelling on your horse, call 918-827-8000!

01/17/2025

🦷 ANNUAL DENTAL SPECIAL 🦷

Our annual IN CLINIC dental special starts Monday, February 10th through Friday February 21st. Save 20% off dentals + sedation! 💰 Our $60 permanent ID special is also during this time for freeze branding OR microchipping.

📲 We have received numerous calls from our repeat clients trying to schedule already before we announced the dates—please don’t wait till last minute as appointments do fill up early, call 918-827-8000 to get scheduled!

You will never find the answer if you don't ask the question! Post a question to our wall, discussi

01/17/2025

😍 Isn’t this the cutest trio? They are very well behaved and definitely prefer to travel together. Our doctors and staff always enjoy when they come visit us and many other clients love visiting with them too! BUT there are some horses who almost lose their mind 🫠 when they see those tiny feet and long ears go trotting by 🫏

01/15/2025

💕 The 2025 foaling season is here! Are you expecting and if so, are you adequately prepared? Do you have a plan in place if the mare’s delivery does not go as expected? We cannot stress enough how TIME SENSITIVE foaling is and to be prepared! This checklist outlines necessary items we feel every owner should have for foaling and how the first few hours of the foal’s life should progress. Please familiarize yourself with the 1-2-3 rule ⭐️

🤨 Have questions, please call! You can alleviate a lot of stress on yourself and foal your mare out at Pine Ridge Equine. Call 918-827-8000 for pricing and more information!

01/09/2025

‼️ OFFICE IS CLOSED 1/9 - Due to the weather, our office has closed early today and the phones have been rolled to our on call doctor for the evening. But don’t worry, Stewart is keeping our reception couch warm and ready for when we open back up tomorrow morning! Call 918-827-8000 to get in touch with our on call team! 🐈‍⬛

01/05/2025

‼️ COLD WEATHER ALERT ‼️
During abrupt cold weather changes, we see an increase in colic cases, specifically related to impactions. We believe this increase may be due to inadequate water intake and decrease physical activity.

TIPS for your horse(s) during this time include:
❄️ Add salt or electrolytes daily to their grain
❄️ Offer “mashes” by adding water to their grain
❄️ Ensure water sources are not freezing, offer additional buckets of warm drinking water or a heated water source. Flavoring an additional bucket of water with Gatorade or handfuls of sweet feed or senior grain can encourage water intake.
❄️ Provide adequate shelter from wind/precipitation
❄️ Provide access to free choice good quality hay (or pelleted hay if horses have poor dentition) to keep their digestive track going and keep them warm

If you notice colic signs in your horse, please act quickly. Impaction colics can rapidly worsen without proper veterinary intervention. This picture is the large colon of the intestinal tract of a horse suffering from a pelvic flexure impaction that didn’t resolve with medical management. He was taken to surgery and an enterotomy (incision into the large colon) was made to resolve the impaction. Take care and stay warm everyone!

12/30/2024

⭐️ Staff Spotlight ⭐️ Laura Sloan

Laura grew up in Broken Arrow and graduated from BA High School. She moved to Georgia after high school and returned to OK in 2016. She has worked as a veterinary technician for 27 plus years in small animal. Together with her husband, they have 2 dogs, 4 cats, and 4 ducks. Laura is the friendly face you see and voice you hear often as she is one of our client service representatives multitasking the front desk the past two years.

🐴 What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part about my job is getting to see all the different kinds of horses. When I worked in small animal, I never had the  chance to work around any.

👙 What is your favorite thing(s) to do outside of work?
My favorite thing to do outside of work is cross stitch and in the summer months you can find me in our pool. I spend most of my time outdoor.

👏 What is your favorite thing about PREH?
My favorite thing about working here is the staff. You couldn’t ask for a more dedicated, hard working, friendly staff.

Laura makes our lives so much easier everyday! She handles much more than answering the phone and scheduling appointments. She does a lot of detective work fulfilling various client requests, finding documents, ensuring patients’ medications and paperwork are ready to go at discharge, etc. And if she had her way, she would spend hours grooming all our patients, giving them extra care and attention during their time with us to ensure they feel the best they can.

✨ Laura, your kind heart and love for all animals is a huge bonus to us at Pine Ridge that does not go unnoticed. We appreciate all the hours you put in at the front desk, handling the day to day things we need, and all the extras you do for everyone. Thank you so much and we are grateful to have you as part of the team!

12/28/2024

🌲 Our annual Pine Ridge Christmas Party was a success! A fun night filled with good food, escape rooms, bowling, arcades, and a lot of laughter. We ended the night doing something so many of our team members enjoy outside of work….line dancing! 🤠 We are incredibly proud of our team and thankful for another great year at Pine Ridge! 👏

12/25/2024

🎄 It wouldn’t be a holiday without equine emergencies, and why not add a surgery or two! But that is horses and we are here to help! Merry Christmas from some of our team today 🎄

12/23/2024

✨ Office Hour Holiday Changes ✨

Please note our office will be closed the following days to allow our staff to enjoy the upcoming holidays with their family and friends.

🎄 Tuesday - Christmas Eve 12/24
🎄 Wednesday - Christmas Day 12/25
🎇 Tuesday - New Years Eve - 12/31
🎇 Wednesday - New Years Day - 1/1

As always, we have a full on call team present to take care of our hospitalized patients and handle any emergencies! Please call 918-827-8000 to reach our on call doctor! Happy Holidays everyone!

12/21/2024

‼️ WARNING : Graphic pictures ‼️
These pictures may be disturbing to some but are only shared for educational purposes. No horse was harmed during this procedure.

🦷 This 19 year old mare presented to Dr Labbe for intermittent right nasal discharge and weight loss. On oral exam, a tooth infection involving the right first maxillary molar (109) was found and a large area was packed with malodorous feed. The feed material was removed and a 2-finger fistula (opening) was palpated into the right sinus cavity. Radiographs were taken and showed that the remaining tooth was fractured into 3-4 pieces.

🏥 The horse underwent a standing sinus flap surgery where an opening is cut into the horse’s skull and reflected open temporarily to allow visualization and access into the sinus. The sinus was filled with old, foul smelling hay 🤢 which had eroded another hole into the nasal passage. All foreign feed material was removed and areas flushed thoroughly. The remaining fractured tooth fragments were then removed via punch and the socket cleaned. An antibiotic impregnated dental plug was made to seal off the fistula and extraction site to prevent any further foreign material from entering the sinus. The sinus flap was replaced and sutured closed.

The horse was discharged on antibiotics, pain medications and a soft diet. She was rechecked every two weeks to ensure the dental plug was in place and all surgery sites were healing well. At her last recheck, she was doing really well and had continued to gain weight.

Excellent job Dr Labbe and Pine Ridge team!! ⭐️ Routine dental care is extremely important! We stress twice a year oral exams for this very reason. ⭐️

12/19/2024

🩻 Dr Metcalf and his team started their day with a kissing spine surgery first thing. These surgeries are performed standing majority of the time under IV sedation and local anesthetic. Kissing spine is the common term used for overriding dorsal spinous processes. The most common presenting clinical signs are: back pain when pressure is applied (saddling, grooming, etc), bucking, poor performance, tail swishing, reluctance to go forward and even some subtle hind limb lamenesses can be caused by kissing spine lesions. Diagnosis is made via radiograph of the horse’s back.

➡️ If you would like your horse evaluated for any of these clinical signs, call 918-827-8000 to schedule an appointment or speak to a doctor further!