Technology out in Front in Healing Horse WoundsJanuary 23, 2014 When it comes to healing wounds in horses, Dean A. Hendrickson, DVM, steers clear at first from topicals and ointments. For Dr. Hendrickson, the associate dean for professional veterinary medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University, it’s all about the dressings. “The most important thing in current wound healing is to minimize the amount of stuff you put on the wound that delays healing and apply the things that will improve healing,” Hendrickson said. “In general, I stay away from ointments and other topicals, and focus on advanced dressings that are designed for the specific stage of the wound healing process. Moist wounds heal faster than dry wounds. The dressings need to be chosen based upon what is happening with the wound.” And Hendrickson isn’t hesitant to seek the latest developments in dressings for his patients. “Advanced wound care dressings are fantastic,” he said. “They take a little while to learn, but the results are amazing.” Based on the characteristics of the wound, Hendrickson advises other vets treating equine wounds to consider foam dressings, alginate dressings, gel dressings …
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First Step in Floating: a Thorough Oral ExamJanuary 23, 2014 Jack Easley, DVM, MS, Dipl. ABVP, owner of Equine Veterinary Practice LLC in Shelbyville, Ky., takes a stern view of skipping steps and getting right down to running a float in a horse’s mouth to address equine dental problems. Dr. Easley and other authorities on the practice of floating say a common problem is that some dentists are not doing a thorough examination first, and in their books that’s a huge mistake. “The most important thing about dentistry is not the floating. It’s the oral exam,” said Easley, who recommends a complete oral exam at least once a year. Easley, who has been practicing dentistry on horses for more than 30 years, said too many dentists start to grind away on teeth before a thorough exam. Easley likes to follow several steps before he gets to a point where he feels the need to float a horse’s teeth. Most horses must be sedated, and once that’s done Easley picks up his mouth speculum, a good headlight and then he rinses out the mouth and conducts a thorough visual examination as he palpates inside the mouth, …
Uses of Equine Ultrasound are Many—and GrowingJanuary 23, 2014 Anthony Pease, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVR, sees virtually no limitations in the field of equine ultrasound. “The sky is the limit. From looking at the throat to imaging the limbs, lungs and abdomen, everything can be imaged with ultrasound,” said Dr. Pease, an assistant professor of radiology in the departments of Small and Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Other uses, said Pease, who will begin a one-year term as president of the American College of Veterinary Radiology beginning in 2014, include a technique he created at MSU to sample spinal fluid in the standing horse using ultrasound guidance to look for neurologic disease. Pease and other practitioners spoke enthusiastically about the numerous possibilities for ultrasound in equine medicine. “Ultrasound can evaluate soft tissue and even look for fractures that cannot be imaged with radiographs, such as pelvic fractures,” Pease said. “You can even perform internal ultrasound transrectally to look at the sacroiliac joints, intestines, uterus, ovaries, kidneys and spleen. You can look for fluid in the abdomen to help with diagnosis of abdominal or thoracic disease. “I guess in short, I cannot …
Trauma Is Leading Cause Of Equine Eye ProblemsSeptember 30, 2013 Equine eyes endure many challenges to stay healthy: low-hanging branches, exposed nails in stalls, disease-carrying flies as well as fungal and bacterial infections. Unfortunately, eye injuries or illnesses in horses usually are not caught as early as eye cases affecting dogs and cats, say leading veterinary ophthalmologists. "Dog and cat owners tend to look closely at their pets’ eyes every day, but owners of horses might not have contact with their horses out in the field for a week or so, or merely glance at their eyes from a distance,” says Steven Hollingsworth, DVM, Dipl. AVCO. He is chief of ophthalmology services at the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California, Davis, and treats the eyes of small and large animals. "As a result, the horse eye cases that come to us for treatment tend to be much worse than cases involving dogs and cats.” A horse that is blinking or tearing excessively, has reddened or swollen eyes or is rubbing the eye against his foreleg or a post must be seen immediately. The top five eye conditions affecting horses are * Traumatic injuries …
Rainfall May Foretell Bad Year For Equine EncephalitisSeptember 30, 2013 Michael Porter, DVM, owner of PHD Veterinary Services of Alachua, Fla., says this year's record rainfall in parts of Florida and Georgia may have awakened a "sleeping monster-equine encephalitis." Depending on which virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, these horses can be infected with arboviruses West Nile or Eastern, Western or Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis. Encephalitides are transmitted between mosquitoes and avian hosts, with secondary transmission to the dead-end hosts horses and humans. If a horse is bitten by an infected mosquito, the viruses can multiply in the blood system, cross the blood brain barrier, and cause inflammation of the brain and interfere with central nervous system functions. "Due to the excessive rain in Florida," Dr. Porter says, "there are many areas with flooding or sitting water—ideal conditions for the mosquito population. Here in Alachua County, we've had a sentinel chicken already test positive for EEE." In Florida, he says, EEE has been documented in every month of the year, while West Nile tends to have outbreaks primarily in the late summer or early fall. In 2000, he was involved in a study at the University of …
Improved Technology Is Revolutionizing Equine DiagnosticsSeptember 30, 2013 Cutting-edge technological advances for diagnostic equipment are giving equine practitioners new ways to diagnose disease and injury. Take magnetic resonance imaging, for example. "The horse that needs an MRI is already injured,” notes Dan Brown, BVSc, ACIM, MRCVS. "Using a standing MRI removes the risk of worsening that injury as the horse comes out of general anesthesia.” Dr. Brown says the accuracy of standing MRI and traditional "down” MRI scans are nearly the same at about a 90 percent diagnostic rate. Brown is the business development director of Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging Ltd., manufacturer of the world’s only standing MRI. Hallmarq’s factory and main office are in Guilford, United Kingdom; its U.S. sales and service office is based in Acton, Mass. First developed in the UK and used throughout Europe, standing MRI is rapidly gaining acceptance among American veterinarians and is a "really useful tool in making a quality diagnosis” for injured horses, says Brown. For Karen Blake, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, all MRI and computed tomography scans are the new standard in diagnostic equipment. She is an equine lameness expert as well as a board-certified equine surgeon and owner …
Stem Cells Might Help Intestinal HealingApril 4, 2013 One of the latest developments in equine colic and gastrointestinal research, according to Anthony Blikslager, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVS, is his lab's study of isolating stem cells in the intestine, with the idea of ultimately using them to repair injured tissue after colic surgery. Dr. Blikslager is a professor of surgery and gastroenterology at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He and his lead researcher, veterinary surgeon Liara Gonzalez, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, a Ph.D. candidate, are studying stem cells from normal intestine and intestine that has been resected to understand what happens during intestinal ischemia. Ultimately, the goal is to take stem cells from resected intestine and return them to the anastomosed section of intestine to hasten mucosal recovery. Although resected intestine is likely to be severely injured, stem cells are relatively protected deep within the mucosal crypts and may therefore be available for use. “No one has done this before in horses,” Blikslager says, “Perhaps not in any other species. It's entirely new research.” The intestine is “highly organized,” he says, “so we know where to look for the stem cells.” Promoting Self-renewal Blikslager is hoping that the normal stem …
First Woman Equine Veterinarian Reflects On Her CareerMarch 20, 2013 From her first paid operation to deodorize a pet skunk to becoming the first woman to build an equine surgical hospital, this world-famous “horse doctor” has done more in her lifetime than many. M. Phyllis Lose, VMD, may no longer be practicing, but she is far from retired. This active, energetic woman, who graduated from University of Pennsylvania veterinary school in 1957 and became the first woman equine veterinarian, has stayed right up with developments in veterinary medicine. Her dog, Oscar, stars in a movie being filmed at Universal Studios Orlando. “Bowed tendons used to be a two-year sentence for a horse,” said Dr. Lose, whose name rhymes with “dose.” “The developments they’ve made with stem cells almost make me want to go back into practice.” After about 50 years in practice, Lose closed her Berwyn, Penn., hospital several years ago to pursue her dog Oscar’s movie career in Orlando, Fla. More about that later. She admits she only recently developed a love for dogs—her first passion is taking care of horses. When she graduated from Penn, Lose was one of two women in a class of 50. At the …
AAEP Kicks Off Laminitis Research ProjectFebruary 25, 2013 Laminitis remains one of the most complex conditions equine veterinarians confront. The American Association of Equine Practitioners Foundation is leading the charge against laminitis through its $1 million Laminitis Research Project, an extended series of research studies to be funded through the foundation, sponsors in private industry, members, and public and private donations. With the help of AAEP-member practitioners and horse owners, researchers hope critical information will be revealed to help more veterinarians with diagnosis, pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of new cases of laminitis. Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. of St. Joseph, Mo., has provided $200,000 to help fund the project. Getting Started The first study is under way. “A Case-Control Study of Pasture- and Endocrinopathy-Associated Laminitis in Horses” is supported by the AAEP Foundation and Prascend (pergolide mesylate), manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim. Equine practitioners in the United States and Canada are invited to submit laminitis cases and control cases for study. “Our goal is to identify risk factors associated with the development of pasture- and endocrinopathy-associated laminitis,” says Michelle Coleman, DVM, the project’s study coordinator. “We will use the information we gather to identify strategies for treatment and prevention, as well as identify …
How One Of Our Colleagues Changed The Bovine WorldFebruary 6, 2013After stumbling upon the excellent movie “Secretariat,” I came across another amazing movie: “Temple Grandin.” Here are some highlights. In 1966, Temple spent the summer of her aunt’s farm in Arizona. She was rather distraught by the way cows were being guided toward a chute: they were beaten, yelled at, poked at. This obviously led to mightily stressed cows. But the second they were squeezed in a chute, they seemed to relax. “It gentles them," as a wrangler told Temple. So she built a "squeeze machine," also called a “hug machine.” It is believed that pressure soothes nervousness by releasing molecules, such as endorphins. Interestingly, swaddling babies, using pressure vests in kids with special needs or putting a Thundershirt on a pet, all stem from the same concept: constant, gentle pressure seems to have a calming effect. In 1970, when Temple Grandin observed cattle being treated for parasites in a “dip” at a feedlot in Arizona, she was horrified that one to two drowned out of every 300 animals treated. After researching the topic, she invented a new design with …
