Category Archives: horse health

What to do when your horse chokes

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in 1, Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with
Horses suffering from choke generally have a discharge coming from their nose.

Nasal discharge is the most common indicator of choke.

Choking, in horses, happens when their esophagus becomes blocked — usually from bolting their food or from eating very dry food without having access to water. Unlike when a human chokes, a horse can still breathe, but choking can be quite serious. Horses that choke can damage their esophagus and, if the backed up food, saliva or water gets into their longs, they can develop pneumonia.

While I have never seen a horse experience an episode of choke, one of the horses at our barn had a serious incident of choke this past fall. She’s a horse who loves her food and is always in a hurry to eat as much as she can. She got into the grain room and then also got into a tub of hay stretcher pellets. These pellets lodged in her through and got stuck.

What are the signs?

Horses that choke present in different ways.

  • They may get agitated.
  • They may extend their necks.
  • They may appear to be gagging (horses are unable to throw up).
  • Discharge will likely come out of their nose.
  • Sometimes you can feel the mass in their neck.

It’s pretty horrifying. And it makes you feel quite helpless.

What you should do when your horse chokes.

The most important thing to do is call the vet. Sometimes choke can clear on its own, in  few minutes, and sometimes it will be necessary for the vet to come and help the choke clear. Choke is easier and more successfully treated when it first occurs.

Once the vet is on the way, you should try to keep your horse quiet and calm. Don’t let it eat or drink and avoid exercise.

Sometimes you can help clear the blockage by massaging the neck gently.

Sometimes your vet might suggest dosing with Acepromazine. In some cases it can cause the esophagus to relax enough that the horse can swallow the mass. If that doesn’t work, the vet may try gently dislodging the mass with a tube.

If that doesn’t work, your vet may sedate with Xyline. Once your horse’s head is lowered (as the result of the sedation) they can use a warm water lavage to wash down the impacted feed.

After the impact is cleared, your vet may prescribe antibiotics in case any fluids have been aspirated.

Preventing future episodes of choke

Once a horse has experienced an episode of choke they are more likely to choke again because there may damage to their esophagus. To keep your horse safe from a another episode of choke there are some steps you can take:

  • Add large rocks to your horse’s grain to slow down their eating
  • Soak grain or any pelleted feeds before feeding
  • Don’t feed grass clippings
  • Avoid feeding dry beet pulp, especially to horses that bolt their feed.
  • Avoid feeding large chunks of apples or carrots.

As for Curly, our resident food bolter? She has made a full recovery without any serious complications. She gets only soaked feed and all pelleted feed is kept under double lock and key.

Certainly Curly’s experience with choke has changed my opinion about it. I’ve never had a horse that bolts their feed. Mine have all taken their time eating. But I no longer discount the risk of choke. I continue to soak Freedom’s feed and it’s something I plan to continue. It seems a very simple thing to do which can help prevent great distress to my horse.

Has your horse ever choked? What did you do?

Here’s a video that shows some of the symptoms of choke.

A study of one on the benefits of probiotics

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, horse health, nutrition, Supplements and tagged with ,
SmartDigest Ultra

One scoop a day of SmartDigest Ultra has helped Freedom gain weight.

Until Freedom was diagnosed with Lyme I hadn’t given much thought to probiotics as a supplement. But dosing him with Doxycyline for six weeks had the potential of causing ulcers . . . or colic. Antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in a horse’s gut and it’s important to replace them.

So, off I went to SmartPak to check the clearance section. It’s my favorite place to purchase any kind of supplement since I don’t care about damaged packaging or other small defects.

Sure enough, they had a large container of SmartDigest Ultra at 50% off. This was a supplement that normally costs $212 for 7.5 pounds! I read the description:

SmartDigest Ultra provides support for the entire gastrointestinal tract, from stomach to hindgut! Its unique formula includes probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, targeted herbs, L-Glutamine, soluble fiber, and Oat Beta Glucan. This innovative combination of ingredients was specially designed to support the health and function of the digestive tract. SmartDigest Ultra is an outstanding choice for any horse prone to digestive upset and those under stress from training, travel and competition.

It had to be the best way to protect Freedom’s delicate digestive system, so I bought it.

He came through his course of antibiotics without any problems and I still had a huge amount of the probiotic in the tub. So I’ve kept feeding it. You actually use only one small scoop per day, so 7.5 pounds lasts a long time.

A few weeks ago, I noticed an unexpected — and positive — side effect. Freedom has gained weight. In the late summer/early fall he had been looking ribby. Now, looking past his furry winter coat, he’s a really good weight! I’m feeding him a bit less that I usually do and he’s holding his weight very nicely, something that’s not always a given during the winter.

So, I guess the probiotics are actually helping his digestive system to get more nutrition from his rations. He’s looking really good too — shiny and healthy.

I wasn’t planning to purchase more when I used up the bucket, but I’m reconsidering. After all, if I find it on sale again, it’s not quite so expensive and I after all, I’m saving money on the rest of his feed.

Herd dynamics: Or, how Freedom got to be in charge

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, horse health, horses
Freedom giving the evil eye

Here's an example of Freedom guarding his hay. He's got the evil eye down pat.

When I first got Freedom he was a mild mannered horse who was completely dominated by Kroni, my Trakehener gelding.

It’s interesting to see how he has evolved — today he’s the alpha horse in our small herd and bosses around the three girls (amazing to me that he’s managed to do that). He’s a relatively benevolent dictator: he rarely does more than cock a leg or give them the evil eye. But it works — his space is sacrosanct and if he wants to eat from a specific pile of hay, everyone moves out of his way.

I suspect that when he raced, he didn’t have much experience socializing with other horses. Although he’d been off the track for awhile when I got him, I heard that he was terrorized by the other horse owned by the woman who first adopted him.

Certainly he gave Kroni a lot of respect. It took him several months before he tried to play with Kroni. He delighted in pulling at Kroni’s blanket and then darting away when Kroni kicked out. Soon after he started playing blanket tag I found the two of them playing in their paddock, rearing up, squealing and then running the length of the field together. He’d learned how to make friends.

After Kroni died, Freedom spent a few months turned out with another gelding, Van. They got along okay, but they mostly just co-existed.

It wasn’t until he was turned out with the girls that he really came into his own. I had some reservations about turning him out with just mares but there really wasn’t any choice. For awhile we had four mares and him. I’d never had him out with a mare before. I knew he didn’t want to be alone, so he had to go out in a mixed herd. He had already bonded with one of the mares: Fortune is is hunting buddy and the two are often trailered together. But Fortune was also the alpha mare who ruled her paddock with an iron hoof.

We introduced them slowly. First he went out with two mares, then eventually all four. Gradually, Freedom started to rule the roost. I’ve never seen him really go after another horse the way Fortune will (she will chase some of the other mares off food quite aggressively).  But in his own way, he’s managed to take control of the herd. It’s great to see them together because they all get along quite well.

Sometimes I wonder how he will react if we ever get another gelding at the barn and Freedom has to share “his” mares. But for now, I think I’ll just let him enjoy it while it lasts.

Slow hay feeders for your pasture

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with , ,
Curly feeding from a Nibblenet

I replaced our metal hay feeder with two Nibblenets. The bags have 1.5" openings which contain the hay quite well. They limit waste and keep the horses busy much longer.

I hate hay waste. It’s like throwing dollar bills onto the pasture and watching your horse crush them into the ground. Of course, there’s a lot about owning a horse that reminds me of that!

But hay waste is even worse because it also creates work. It’s bad enough that the paddocks need to be cleaned every day. When you add in racking up wasted hay, there goes my riding time!

For the past several years I’ve used a metal hay feeder in the paddock. It worked reasonably well at keeping the hay out of the mud but it had some issues. The most problematic was that it was increasingly unstable and I worried that at some point a horse would knock it over and get hurt. So when it finally broke I decided to look into some other options.

This time I wanted more than just a container for the hay, I wanted something that would slow down consumption, at least a little bit, so that the hay we fed would last a bit longer. Horses digestive systems are designed for continuous eating in small quantities. While I believe in getting at least close to free choice hay as a way of keeping their digestive systems happy, I don’t believe they have to eat large amounts continuously.

Slow Grazer feeder

The Slow Grazer Feeder is also available in a DIY kit

There are several designs for slow feeders on the internet. The Slow Grazer is a nice design and if you are marginally handy, they will even sell you a DIY kit. This is actually a great idea because shipping a feeder like these could cost almost as much as the feeder itself.

Lots of companies sell small hole haynets but I wanted something that didn’t have to be hung on a fence or attached to a tree.

I finally found a great comparison chart of hay nets.

Using this I narrowed down my selection and based on size, availability and durability ratings, chose a Nibblenet. You can read my whole review on Tack Guru, but let me say briefly, that they are a real success.

Read my Nibblenet Review on Tack Guru

You can read my Nibblenet review on Tack Guru.

Although I’ve read that some horses need to be transitioned to the small hole hay feeders, our horses figured it out in less than a minute. I did fluff the hay up the first time and pulled some out of the holes, but they were chowing down without any problems.

I’ve had them out now for about two weeks. They are easy to fill, hold a good amount of hay and are very well made.

I don’t miss the hay rack at all. In fact, I’m considering buying a smaller Nibblenet for my trailer.

Hard ground, abscesses, and no time to ride

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, hoof care, Horse care, horse health and tagged with

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy. Usually at this time of year my clients withdraw into a quiet hibernation and we start planning for the new year. This year, there’s been no stopping.

I’m not complaining — work is a good thing! Especially as it coincided with some freezing weather that left the ground rock hard and lumpy. Although I love where I board my horse, it’s weather like this that makes me long for an indoor that has soft, even footing.

Today, the sun came out and the temperatures are going to hit the low 50s. I had planned to wrap up my last proposal and go for a nice long ride. But, it’s never that simple. When I arrived at the barn to feed I found Freedom was three-legged lame. Based on the heat in his foot and the digital pulse, my best guess is that he’s brewing an abscess, brought on by bruising form the uber hard ground.

It has crossed my mind to put his hoof boots on him a few days ago. He looked a bit ouchy when he was navigating the paddock. Now I wish I had.

I’ll still spend my time at the barn. There’s lots of clean up that can be done now that the ground has thawed. And I can give Freedom a massage while I’m soaking his foot. But I can’t help but be a bit annoyed that my long anticipated ride will have to be deferred until he’s feeling better. I sure hope that the warm weather lasts until then!

Aortic rupture caused Hickstead’s death

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with ,
Hickstead's death was caused by a ruptured aorta.

Hickstead's death was caused by a ruptured aorta.

A necropsy revealed that an acute aortic rupture caused Hickstead’s death on November 6th. While this will end speculation, it still leaves questions because very little is known about what causes aortic ruptures.

An article in The Horse, quotes Janice Bright, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM (Specialty of Cardiology), associate professor of cardiology, Colorado State University who explains:

Aortic ruptures usually occur very close to the junction of the aorta with the heart. This may result in acute hemorrhage into the pericardial sac. Because there is such a large volume of blood that flows under very high pressure within the aorta, aortic ruptures close to the heart often result in very serious clinical consequences, including sudden collapse and sudden death.

Why it happens is far less understood. Some vets believe that a congenital aneurysm might be the cause; others believe that there is a gradual weakening caused by a degenerative disease. Another theory is that migrating parasites, such as strongyles, could weaken a horse’s heart which could cause structural weakness to the wall. Or that a deficiency in copper — copper is needed to make strong bond between elastin and collagen in blood vessel walls.

According to Eric Lamaze, Hickstead felt fine during the competition, even during his last jumping efforts. Right up until the moment when he collapsed. It could not have been prevented and there is nothing that could have been done to save him. I know that when Kroni died, I took a small amount of comfort from the fact that there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I hope that Hickstead’s connections are able to find some comfort, too, knowing that it was beyond their control.

 

Go natural with vitamin E

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, equine nutrition, Horse care, horse health and tagged with ,
Horses get vitamin E from green pasture

Horses get vitamin E from green pasture. I guess Freedom needs more grass!

When Freedom was tested for Lyme, my vet also suggested testing his vitamin E levels. Horses that are deficient in vitamin E can have muscle soreness and long-term deficiency can cause neurological dysfunction.

Horses get vitamin E from fresh, green pasture. Freedom is out on pasture but we don’t have that much, especially at this time of the year. He’s also on a high fat diet and there’s been some research that shows animals on high fat diets have an increased need for vitamin E.

Grains typically have some vitamin E added, but not all that much. For example, the ration balancer that I feed Freedom has 500 IU of vitamin E per pound; the recommended daily amount is 2000 IU per day to prevent neurological dysfunction.

Freedom’s blood work shows that he is slightly deficient, with a level of slightly under 1400.

So, while it’s not a huge deficiency, I’m now supplementing his vitamin E intake because this is a case where preventive measures work better than treatment. At least with vitamin E toxicity isn’t really an issue so if you feed a bit too much, it’s not a problem.

Here’s the catch: you need to feed vitamin E that’s derived from natural, rather than synthetic sources. Synthetic vitamin E has significantly lower biological activity than natural vitamin E. Other studies indicate that the body may at worse, just excrete synthetic E and at best, not retain it as long as natural E.

You can tell the difference between synthetic and natural E by the ingredients. The difference is subtle:

Natural = d alpha-tocopherol
Synthetic = dl alpha-tocopheryl

When I started to look at equine supplements I was actually quite surprised by how many of the E supplements use the synthetic version. The big giveaway is price: supplements with natural vitamin E are far more expensive than those made with the synthetic vitamin. In the end, I bought the supplements from Costco.

Vitamin E is also a vitamin that needs to be stored carefully in a dark, cool location. Exposure to heat and light can cause the potency of the vitamin to degrade.

There is very little vitamin E added to most bagged horse feeds. What little there is can be destroyed by storage, heat, age, and sunlight – and the same is true of the vitamin E in your supplement bottles. Fresh vitamin E supplements, properly stored (in a dark bottle in a cool place), may help your horse. Old or inappropriately-stored vitamin E supplements may have no effect whatsoever.

What about Selenium?

You will notice if you look through supplement catalogs that many Vitamin E supplements are co-packaged with selenium. Selenium is a trace mineral that helps with the absorption of vitamin E. In many parts of the US the soil has very low — or non existent — levels of Selenium so it must be provided via a supplement. The tricky thing about Selenium is that it is toxic in large doses (remember the polo ponies that died in Palm Beach? That was caused by an improperly compounded supplement that contained toxic levels of Selenium).

The dose for an adult horse is about 1-3% of body weight. There is still discussion in the scientific community as to whether horses in heavy work require more selenium than those in light work.

So, before feeding a vitamin E/Selenium supplement it’s a good idea to find out how much is provided in your feed and how much is present in your soil.

Thermal imaging as a diagnostic tool

Posted by Liz Goldsmith in Commentary, Horse care, horse health and tagged with , , ,
A thermal scan of Freedom's head

This is a thermal scan of Freedom's head. Lighter areas indicate "hotter" areas. You can see that the area where his cribbing strap goes is lighter.

Thermal imaging is a diagnostic tool that can help you find injuries or stressed areas on your horse –  sometimes weeks before you can see the problems with your own eyes.

Using a thermal imaging camera, a vet can measure the surface heat patterns on the body of your horse and identify “hot spots” (which appear lighter in the photo) by mapping skin surface temperature in response to changes in blood flow. Thermal imaging systems are incredibly sensitive: they can detect temperature differences of less than 0.05 degrees Centigrade

Thermal imaging can be used help find injuries or diseases that cause inflammation, such as damage from an ill-fitting saddle, suspensory injuries, tendon injuries, ringbone, kissing spine, hoof abscesses, etc.,  or lack of circulation, which can be an indicator of nerve damage or muscle atrophy. It’s a non-invasive tool — the images are taken from several feet away from your horse — you get instant feedback and it’s portable. It is one of the only cost effective ways to get whole body imaging.

The problem is finding a vet who has a thermal imaging camera. Although it’s been around for more than 40 years, it was initially used primarily for racehorses and other performance horses rather than for your average riding horse. At the 1996 Olympics, it was the most diagnostic tool most frequently requested by the equestrian teams.

I’ve never had a vet who offered the service before so I jumped at the chance to have Freedom used as a thermal model when my veterinarian friend, Carol, brought a colleague over to the barn with his camera. Much thanks to Ed Leonard, DVM, for letting us “see” Freedom in a whole new way!

Because Freedom has Lyme disease and has had some overall body soreness I wanted to see if there were any hot spots that might indicate an underlying problem. Specifically I wanted to see if the slight lameness I’ve felt is the result of a muscle problem.

Dr. Leonard explained that in a healthy horse you will see symmetry in the thermal images on both sides of the horse. He also mentioned that dirt and water show up as darker spots so starting with a clean horse, and preferably one without a heavy winter coat, gives you the best results.

Turning a thermal camera on your horse can give you pause. What if we found a problem that I didn’t know existed? I suppose it’s always good to know what’s bothering your horse even if it hasn’t become an active issue.

Luckily, in Freedom’s case, there was nothing unexpected that showed up. He had some “hot spots” where his cribbing collar sits and also where his girth goes. That wasn’t a big surprise because he’s always very sensitive there. His back, neck, shoulders and hind end were fine. That’s good news as it’s where he’s been the most sensitive since being diagnosed with Lyme. I forgot to ask for a thermal image of his right hind hoof — I would have liked to know if the slight lameness I felt was caused by bruising, but it completely slipped my mind.

Still, it’s nice to know what isn’t inflamed. When my vet had examined Freedom (prior to the Lyme diagnosis) she mentioned some of the other things that would cause the soreness that I was feeling: kissing spines and a muscle injury were two. Now I can rule those out.

Whole body thermal scan

Here you can see a whole body thermal scan of Willow. She showed no hot spots other than those created by a bit of mud.

We also took thermal scans of my friend Carol’s horse, Willow. Here you see a whole body scan. With an animal as large as a horse there are very few tools that give you this type of holistic view — this view, and the one of Freedom’s head, were also the only ones that were immediately recognizable as being a horse.

Willow’s “hot spots” were mostly due to mud. It happened to be a day when most of our pasture was under water.

In addition to the thermal camera, Dr. Leonard also brought a laser that can be used to stimulate acupuncture points. Another very interesting tool . . . but more on that another day.

Dr. Leonard has offered to answer any questions that you might have about thermal imaging so send ‘em my way!