Twin Pines Equine Veterinary Services, LLP

12/02/2024

For the next week, we expect some interruption in our ability to send and receive text messages on our emergency line. (We are currently working on a registration that proves we are not spam. 🙃) So, if you text us and don't get a timely response, the following are also great ways to get ahold of us:

- Office phone number: 860-376-4373 (during regular business hours, 8am-4pm Monday through Friday).
- Email: [email protected] - for NON-urgent matters!
- Emergency line: 860-245-8946 - should be working just fine for calls, but may not be sending/receiving texts.

You may also be getting text messages from our office via EzyVet (our computer software) - those are still working fine! You can text back to that without interruption. Fun fact about texting back to EzyVet, though - we don't get your emojis, they just show up as "????" - which took us a while to figure out. 😅 (Why is everyone so confused by our texts?! 😆)

Happy Monday, everyone! Stay warm!

11/27/2024

Pre-Thanksgiving update!

1. Black Friday Wellness promotion: Lock in your Wellness plans for next year at this year's pricing! Prepayment for 2025 Wellness is now open, and will remain open through 12/20/24. If you pre-pay during this period (in full) you get 2024 pricing for the 2025 plans. The plans are staying the same for next year except the pricing will be adjusted due to cost increases, so lock in now for the best deal.

https://twinpinesequine.com/forms-and-brochures/2024-wellness-program/

(There is no updated form yet, so if you want to take advantage just call or email our office and we'll get you set up!)

2. Holiday hours: Our office is open this morning from 8am-12pm and then we are closed for normal business Thursday/Friday. Emergency services for routine clients will be available as usual.

We hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holiday!

Our wellness program now includes 4 plans designed for horses with varying needs: Basic, Performance, Senior, and a new addition, Dental. In these bundled, discounted plans, we include thorough examinations, dentistry, essential vaccinations, and laboratory tests. These plans allow you to lock in a....

11/22/2024

Exciting news on the horizon -

Dr. Ashley is currently accepted into a Masters program for TCVM - (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) through the Chi University beginning in just a few months.

This is a 5 year program that will cover more advanced acupuncture as well as herbal and food therapies.

Look out for more updates but be sure to ask Dr. Ashley if TCVM can benefit your horse - it's one of her very favorite things to talk about!

☯️💚

11/12/2024

Happy (slightly belated) birthday to Hana! Hana is our Client Service Representative who is the voice on the other end of the phone for most of you. Hana’s birthday was actually yesterday but she was out of the office so we are celebrating today! If you call in be sure to wish her well!

Leave a little love here for Hana!

10/28/2024

We’re getting frosts so that can only mean: time to plan your fall deworming!

We strongly recommend f***l egg counts PRIOR to deworming so we can help advise you on what products to use. If you haven’t had a recent f***l done on your horse, drop off a sample at our office!

Here’s Emily with today’s haul of 💩! 😅

10/22/2024

Horses and humans are loving this beautiful fall weather!

10/18/2024

As we wrap up Vet Tech Week, we have to give a shout out to our awesome tech staff! Molly and Emily keep us organized, working smoothly, and most importantly, safe! We definitely could not do veterinary medicine without them and we sincerely appreciate their dedication, care, and hard work.

Leave some serious love for Molly and Emily!

10/04/2024

Morning rounds with the team including our friend “Pat”, a local neighborhood cat who likes to hang out at our office. He thinks he owns the place. 🤪

10/03/2024

Metabolic pony getting sneaky about her grass intake? Arts and crafts for the win!

It may seem like the grass is dying, but please remember that fall grasses are particularly “stressed” with cool nights and warm days, which means they are particularly sugary. Keep those grazing muzzles on your insulin resistant equines please!

Also, pay attention to how much grass your friend is able to eat through the slats of their grazing muzzle. Some are VERY efficient. You may have to cover over some of the openings to reduce their intake further.

This grazing muzzle is for a pony who is very sensitive to sugars in her diet, so she really can’t have any. But she still needs turnout, so her owner busted out the duct tape to make the situation more safe for her. Don’t worry, she can still breathe! 🤐

09/24/2024

Case Summary: Suspensory ligament tear in a young athletic mare.

Dr. Ashley here, sharing a case that we diagnosed and treated last year, which is coming along well.

This was a proximal-mid body suspensory tear in a 8 year old (at the time) warmblood mare. Initial presentation was in November 2023, for a swollen and painful right front limb causing a pronounced lameness (lame at the walk). Initial examination identified a fairly significant mid body (extending proximally) tear of the suspensory ligament. Conservative management such as icing, wrapping, stall rest and topical diclofenac was instituted immediately. Due to the extent of the injury, the mare's youth and potential, and her intended future use (ideally upper level dressage), we elected to be as aggressive as possible with her treatment. We elected to inject the lesion directly with Regenaflex-RT (an amnion-derived product by Hilltop Bio), followed by a regional limb perfusion of Regenaflex-RT and 3 shockwave treatments spaced 2 weeks apart.

For more information on Regenaflex-RT, Hilltop Bio's website has a good summary: https://hilltopbio.com/products/regenaflex-rt/

The direct injection of the lesion is done under ultrasound guidance, which was done on the farm with standing sedation and local anesthesia (nerve blocks). The regional limb perfusion two weeks later is an intravenous injection of the product in a local vein, with tourniquets placed above and below the lesion to "flood" the area with the growth factors and cytokines intended to promote healing. She tolerated both of these injections quite well and the ultrasound images began to improve quickly.

We then referred this mare to Veterinary Rehabilitation Services of Virginia, who took over her full rehab plan including incremental increases in hand walking, core exercises, and laser therapy three times weekly.

She returned to our care this spring for continued rehab, and is now up to walk/trot/canter and doing very well. The images attached here are from the initial diagnosis, followed by post-injection, then this past summer about 9 months out from her injury.

The take aways?

- Suspensory tears can heal with proper treatment and TIME. We can't rush these injuries, but we can add treatments to improve the strength of healing.
- We have so many more treatments now than we used to! Biologic injections, like Hilltop Bio's Regenaflex-RT, or platelet-rich plasma (PRP), Prostride or A*M in some cases... we can add a biological matrix to these tears, reduce inflammation locally, and more. Shockwave, laser therapy and/or PEMF can all be added as non-invasive ways to decrease inflammation and stimulate healing. Acupuncture and herbals can also be layered on as complementary therapies.
- A proper and careful rehabilitation schedule is critical. Gone are the days of just locking these horses in a stall for months and hoping for the best. We must be carefully stretching these tendon/ligament fibers as they are healing in order to have a lasting improvement.

Big thanks to both Hilltop Bio and Veterinary Rehabilitation Services of Virginia for helping get this mare back to work, comfortable and happy!

09/03/2024

If you see Emily today be sure to wish her a big Happy Birthday!

08/28/2024

This past weekend Molly attended an equine imaging event in Lexington Kentucky hosted by the AAEVT (American Association of Equine Veterinary Technicians and Assistants). During this event Molly was able to listen to lectures about imaging of the skull and the suspensory ligament as will as get hands on experience with taking radiographs of the skull, stifles, fetlocks, knees, feet, hocks and got instruction on radiographing the neck and back of the horse. She also got to get some experience with ultrasounding the distal limb.

In addition to all this hands on learning, the participants were treated to a tour of the Rehabilitation and Fitness Center at Spy Coast Farm and the equine hospital at Rood and Riddle.

Please enjoy these pictures that Molly took during her time in Lexington!

08/23/2024

Any idea why Molly is in Kentucky? Stay tuned to find out!

08/16/2024

We have the absolute best staff on the planet! This afternoon we took off for a little lake time to relax and unwind. (Dr. Matt was off seeing a sick horse - we appreciate you too Dr. Matt!) It was a perfect day for floating in the water.

Thanks to Dr. Ashley’s parents for hosting!

08/14/2024

Happy Birthday to Molly! We had a rare afternoon with most of us in the office today and got to share in this mermaid cake! 🧜‍♀️ Leave some birthday love here for Molly! 🎂🥳

07/23/2024

Be sure to stock up with our friends over at Flemings Feed!

Who’s showing Falls Creek Farm CT this weekend? Going to be a great show Tristate Horsemen's Association (TSHA) tristatehorsemen

Show this ad at either location to save on your supplies. Good luck!

07/22/2024

Just a reminder that Dr. Matt and Dr. Ashley are leaving for vacation on Thursday afternoon July 25th and returning on August 3rd. Our office will be open from 8am until 4pm Monday through Friday during that time. Please feel free to reach out to us at the office with any questions or concerns about your horse.

The following practices will be providing emergency coverage for this time:
Ocean State Equine Associates (Rhode Island): (401)766-6578
Eggleston Equine (Connecticut): (860)799-1634
Millington Equine (Connecticut): (860)615-9335