Northern Lights Veterinary Service

11/12/2025

We are attending the Marquette Holistic Health Fair this Saturday! I hope you can join us on November 15, 2025 from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm at the Northern Center at NMU in Marquette, MI! Hope to see you there.

11/03/2025

Already thinking about it the cold depths of winter? Check out these courses you can complete to educate yourself on multiple horse topics!

🍎🐴💻 We’re thrilled to announce that registration is NOW OPEN for our 2026 online Extension horse courses! 🎉 Whether you're a seasoned equestrian or just starting out, we’ve got something for everyone!

Returning Favorites Include:
🐴 Managing Overweight Horses
🌿 Poisonous Plants in the Midwest
🚜 Manure Management
♻️ Carcass Composting
🩺 Biosecurity
🪣 Horse Nutrition
🌾 Pasture Management

✨ NEW for 2026: Equine Ration Balancing! You'll want to keep your calculator handy for this one! We'll walk you step by step through the calculations to help match your feedstuffs to your horse's nutritional requirements.

🗓️ Course Dates: January 5 - February 15
💰 Cost: $75 per course
🔗 Register by January 4 to reserve your spot!

Don't miss this chance to enhance your skills and knowledge in equine care! Click the link to sign up today! 🐎💻 z.umn.edu/horseevents

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween! Do your pets have a costume for the day? Please share the cuteness with us!

10/31/2025

Check out this free webinar for you to learn about older horse care!

Just like people, the needs of horses change as they continue to age. Join members of the AAEP Horse Owner Education committee for a wide-ranging educational presentation on how to properly care for the elderly equine in your life. Register: https://aaep.org/event/horse-owner-education-committee-webinar-preparing-your-horse-for-aging/

10/30/2025

With the cold weather coming up, it’s a good idea to evaluate your blanket plan.

As winter approaches, it's time to revisit the topic of blanketing. Although blanketing tends to be a personal decision, blanketing a horse is necessary to reduce the effects of cold or inclement weather especially when:

🏡 Shelter access is not available during turnout periods and the temperatures or wind chill drop below 5°F. Be mindful of shelter size and herd dynamics.
🌧 There is a chance the horse will become wet from rain, ice, and/or freezing rain. Becoming wet is usually not a problem with snow.
✂️ The horse has had its natural coat clipped.
⏰ The horse is very young or very old.
🏝 The horse isn’t acclimated to the cold.
🐴 The horse has a body condition score of three or less.

If blanketing a horse, make sure the blanket fits properly. Poorly fitted blankets can cause sores and rub marks. Remove the blanket daily, inspect it for damage, and reposition it. Make sure the blanket stays dry and never put a blanket on a wet horse.

10/28/2025

We love the results we’ve been seeing with our dechrausequine ProVet APC joint injections! We have good responses in both horses and dogs for joint pain and inflammation. We can perform this orthobiologic injection on the farm for stall-side treatment.

10/25/2025

We found some new friends at a farm call this week!

10/21/2025

🍂 When Should You Pull Horses Off Pasture for the Season? 🐴

Timing depends on weather and pasture condition—but here are a few key things to watch:

🌱 Forage Availability: Stop grazing when grasses average 3 to 4 inches tall. Overgrazing weakens plants and can cause horses to nibble on potentially toxic weeds or wilted leaves (e.g., maple).

🌡️ Air Temperature: Cool-season grasses thrive in the fall but stop growing after a killing frost (temps below 28°F for several hours).

💧 Footing: Wet, muddy pastures can’t handle hoof traffic. This can damage plants, compact soil, and reduce spring growth.

⏰ Transition to Hay Gradually 🐴

Microbes in the horse's gut need time to adapt to a new forage type. Aside from moisture content, hay and pasture may also differ in species and maturity, which affects nutrient content and digestibility. When possible, slowly add hay to your horse's diet across a two-week transition period to help lower the risk of colic or digestive upset.

For example, a healthy 1000-pound horse will consume about 20 pounds of forage daily. On pasture, they will graze about 1.5 pounds of forage per hour. Thus, during a transition period, 1.5 pounds of hay can be added and 1 hour of grazing time removed each day until 20 pounds of hay is reached on day 14.

Monitoring forage availability and weather will be key to timing out your transition. If pastures become too sparse, you will need to provide additional hay.

✅ Keep monitoring pasture conditions and weather.
✅ Provide clean water and free-choice salt.
✅ Protect your pasture for a strong spring rebound!

10/19/2025

We ❤️ Mugsfilip and he loves his adjustments! He’s moving like a young man after his visit!

10/17/2025

Dr. Lara was honored to attend the fourth Equine Student Symposium held at Wisconsin Equine Clinic and Hospital last weekend. It’s a great event to share our love of horse medicine, teach veterinary students (she was in the radiology section this time), and support the next generation of horse doctors!

10/15/2025

Happy National Veterinary Technician Week! We appreciate every one of our staff for all of their hard work keeping us and your animals safe. Our doctors would be lost without them. Our veterinary assistants help schedule, answer questions, restrain animals, set up for procedures, administer medications, help with imaging, keep the work trucks and hospital clean and organized, and so much more! Tell them how much you appreciate them the next time you see them!
Thank you Erika, Jill, Kasey, Megan, and Toño!

10/13/2025

We love utilizing our gastroscope to identify stomach ulcers - this recent study shows that f***l occult blood tests are useless for diagnosis of stomach ulcers. The gastroscope allows us to identify what type of ulcers are present based on location and severity to guide treatment.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17W33pJnYK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Seeing Dr. Thibault Frippiat’s work on equine gastric ulcers published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine truly feels like a dream come true! 🌟

In this study, the usefulness of owner-reported clinical signs and f***l blood tests as screening tools for gastric ulcers in competing dressage horses was investigated. The results show that neither approach is truly reliable for the diagnosis (or screening), emphasizing that gastroscopy remains essential for both diagnosis and monitoring of the disorder.

This highlights the importance of bridging the gap between fundamental science and the clinical field, translating knowledge into practice, and practice into new research. As always, this is a team effort, and we sincerely thank Dr. Maelle Bonhomme, Dr. Sue Dyson, and Prof. Dominique Votion for their contribution to this publication.

🔗 https://lnkd.in/eh5itPrj