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 …
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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 …
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 …
Establishing Nutraceutical Safety And EfficacyJanuary 24, 2013 Scientific evidence that supports or counters claims to beneficial effects from nutraceuticals is vital to veterinarians. Documenting that evidence and funding those studies is never simple. “Controlled efficacy studies are difficult to document,” says Robert J. Van Saun, DVM, MS, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Veterinary and Biological Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. “The reality is that finding two horses the same age, in the same physical condition, with exactly the same lameness issues creates its own difficulties. Then you give one a supplement and one a placebo. How can you be certain that the results are sound?” Determining which nutraceuticals benefit the horse’s health and which do not has long been an academic challenge, Van Saun says. Which Do As Promised? Products are marketed around specialized ingredients, specific horse activities, forage program and a plethora of other factors and anthropomorphized concepts, Van Saun says. An equine practitioner’s biggest challenge can be clarifying which nutraceuticals do what manufacturers say they will. “Most of these products have none to limited research validating their effect,” he says. “This is why they are marketed as ‘nutraceutical’ nutritional supplements. The manufacturer wants to sell the product, …
Laser Therapy Healed Equine Leg Wounds Faster In Oklahoma State StudyNovember 28, 2012 Proud flesh formation in equine distal limb wounds may finally have met its match in the form of low-level laser therapy, Oklahoma State University research veterinarians reported this year. In an eight-mare research study of full-thickness, mid-metacarpal leg wounds, those treated with the laser not only healed faster, but “A significant clinical observation was the absence of exuberant granulation tissue in the laser-treated wounds,” said its study published in the May issue of the journal Photonics & Lasers in Medicine. “This is potentially clinically relevant, because control of exuberant granulation tissue is a pivotal factor in management of equine wounds located in the distal limb,” states the paper written by Henry W. Jann, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, associate professor of equine surgery; Kenneth Bartels, DVM, MS, director of the Surgical Laser Laboratory; Jerry W. Ritchey, DVM, DACVP; et al. “Wound healing in the distal limbs of horses is an aspect of veterinary medicine that has made few advances, in spite of our expanding knowledge and technological progress,” the authors wrote. “In fact, treating distal leg wounds and the ensuing exuberant granulation tissue remains one of the most frustrating clinical …
Eye Scans For Spies...and Horses?November 28, 2012 Just as no two fingerprints are alike, no two irises of the eye are the same, not the right and left eye or even in a clone. The characteristics of connective tissue, cilia, contraction furrows, crypts, rings and corona are different enough to distinguish one iris from another, creating colors, textures and patterns that are never exactly alike in any human or animal. Calculating algorithms for the biometrics of the human iris first began in 1987. For dogs and horses, research began about 10 years ago, with equipment for iris scanning for identification purposes hitting the market starting about four years ago. Rochen C. Heers, DVM, believes that iris scanning will be the preferred form of equine identification in the near future. Dr. Heers will tell you: Iris recognition for biometric identification is not just speculative technology from spy films–it is being used now in horse barns, racetracks and veterinary hospitals across the country. As owner of Red Rock Equine Dentistry in Las Vegas, Nev., Heers encourages her clients to have their horses scanned for record-keeping and disaster preparation. She uses the eyeD, an equine identification system based on a digital infrared photo of …
Equine Vaccines Do Best When In Vets’ HandsNovember 28, 2012 Tom Judd, DVM, owner of Equine Veterinary Service in Freeport, Maine, says a small but growing portion of his client base insists on buying equine vaccines over the Internet. “Typically, we tell our clients that vaccinations not purchased though veterinarians can’t be assured of the quality and proper handling of the vaccine before the client gets it in his hand,” Dr. Judd says. “There are too many variables for quality and proper handling.” Judd continues to promote his “spring visits” as not only a farm call to vaccinate horses but also to build the valued relationship of veterinarian, client and patient. Veterinarians must convince equine owners that excising vaccines from their budgets can hurt, says Hoyt Cheramie, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS. Environmental pathogens—borne by mosquitoes, flies, rodents, air and feed sources—as well as infectious agents transmitted horse to horse can cause potentially fatal consequences. “Vaccinations are simple, cheap insurance relative to the potential consequences of having a horse get infected with the disease,” says Dr. Cheramie, a large animal veterinarian with Merial Ltd. of Duluth, Ga. “Discuss with owners and clients that it is possible to be financially prudent and still protect the horse.” …
