What a great treat we got yesterday from Madison, Virginia and Sophia! All girls are riders at Anakela Carmassi's beautiful barn "Eq Lete". Thank-you ladies, you made Dr. Robert's day!
Yea, Yea, Yea! Zenny is being such a good momma. The smaller twin has been absorbed leaving one big healthy developing embryo. Here is his/her strong 35 day heartbeat. Look toward the upper section to the right of the middle for the fluttering developing heart. Quite exciting!
Pigeon Fever: We are seeing multiple horses with swellings and abscesses on their bellies, sheaths and chests. Pigeon Fever is a disease caused by the bacteria corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. The bacteria enters the horse through traumatized skin usually on the belly (i.e. from bad fly strike) from the ground or by flies. It is believed that the horse has to have repeated exposure to it which is why we see it most commonly in the summer/fall. Effective fly control is the best prevention. Once a horse has a draining abscess, keep the horse sheltered in place and dispose of gauze or other material used to clean the draining site in a covered trash can,, not accessible to flies. Keep flies away from the draining abscess to reduce spread and it getting into the soil. If you see an abscess coming on, warm compress 15 minutes once or twice daily. Most of them start draining on their own. If so, keep it diligently clean with soap and water, towel dry and apply swat, ichamol or aluspray and flyspray. If your horse develops a fever 102 or above, goes off feed, is lethargic or you have an abscess that you are concerned about, please give us a call right away.
"Spring" Grass
Lush Spring grass is tempting for horse and owner And the last few winters we have had weather mimicking Spring (rain, then days of warm sunny weather) resulting in Spring grass while actually still Winter. But green grass must be approached with extreme caution because of the high levels of sugars (Non Structural Carbohydrates or NSC). Horses that have had or are prone to laminitis or suffer one of several kinds of metabolic disorders (Equine Metabolic Syndrome, PPID ("Cushings"), Insulin Resistance) may never be able to graze green grass safely. Always check with your veterinarian first. For those horses that can handle grass, some precautions and strategies are as follows:
1.)Restrict grazing time and start slowly. When introducing your horse to green grass limit time to only 10-15 minutes to start. You can increase grazing time by another 5-10 minutes daily. Starting slowly gives time for your horse's intestinal flora to adjust to the new levels of carbohydrate and food source.
2.)The safest time (lowest sugars) to graze is between 3 am and 10 am. (Unless it goes lower than 40 degrees farenheit at night then the stored carbohydrates are not used as rapidly and may still be high later than 3 am.)
What a fun morning at the clinic with wonderful Tonic showing us his awesome tricks!
We had a wonderful arrival this weekend. Meet 'Tag', a very handsome Holsteiner colt. We look forward to seeing this little guy grow up to do great things!
Enough of office work! Dr. Amber's 'puppy' Selah has been working on her moves to get outside more and play in the rain. 'Lets see... the people do it something like this...' She almost has it!
