Belladonna - for early stages of collic
Calcarea Fluorica - reabsorbs calcification; good for bone spavins
Friday, July 16, 2010
Homeopathy
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Collitis X
On to Collitis X. Anybody know about this? If you don't, listen up! This one is important and happens VERY fast. It is a fatal disease in the intestines that does not have a cure if you're too late.
You're basic sign: severe diarrhea. (However, there has been cases where the horse has died before diarrhea has even occurred) Soreness in the abdomen area, severe loss of weight and black gums are also signs of this. A horse can go from good to dead in less the 24 hours, so watch out! If any of these signs are noticed, contact a vet IMMEDIATLY. Don't waste time trying to treat things yourself, its better to be safe then sorry, especially in this case!
Next question.. What part of the horse is similar to the human knee?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Hypothyroidism
Just recently I had a mare finally foal out. We had been waiting and waiting, partly because we didn't quite know when she was going to foal. But she finally did and to my disappointment she was not a perfect baby. I found her across the fence from her mom and as I tried to help her up, I quickly realized that there was something wrong with her legs, being she could not stand. In all my excitement it didn't bother me at that moment and I ran back to get help so that she could nurse. After things settled down, I thought more about how she looked and wondered what she had.
First Observation: Her legs were crooked. She looked like she was contracted in her knees and that her fetlocks were quite weak. Her hind end looked pretty regular, other then the fact that she was very weak and couldn't stand up for long.
Any ideas?
As I spent more time with her and talked to a few people, I started to see more things in her that I had missed in the beginning. For example, yes her knees couldn't straighten out, but it was actually her fetlocks that were contracted that were causing her knees to be crooked. As I watched her try to walk, I realized that she was walking on the tips of her toes. And the last thing that I noticed near the end, was that she had a bit of a monkey mouth(her bottom jaw stuck out farther)
Any guesses?
I didn't want to guess it at first, but realized that she was indeed a slightly hypothyroid baby. So I spent most of my day and the following keeping her eating, mainly from a bottle and sometimes from the mare. However, on the 3rd day, just when I thought she was going to be ok, things went downhill. She quit eating, wouldn't try to stand much and eventually died that afternoon. So apart from the fact that she was hypothyroid, it seemed like she must have had something else inside her that wasn't working quite right.
But back to hypothyroid babies... Foals that have this are usually contracted in the tendons all the way around. They have extreme monkey mouths and are usually missing hair in lots of areas. These are extreme hypothyroid babies.
So why do some mares foal these kinds of babies? Well there's lots of possibilities. A main one is if the mare is very overdue and if she lacked selenium during her pregnancy. Other reasons could be if she was eating something very green, or if there was uteral problems.
Treatment?
After 2 weeks if the legs are still crooked there are a couple things a vet can do like periostrium stripping or transphyseal bridging. Something you can do is continually stretching their legs, first wrapping their legs in warm water mixed with linament.
However some things just don't work out how you want them to, like my baby. In that case, try again and learn from the previous experience!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Neck Fractures
A fracture in the cervical(neck) vertebrae is most likely the answer to why your horse is uncoordinated(eg stumbling around) and has no tail pressure. By tail pressure I mean this: When you lift up your horses tail, there should be lots of pressure; like they're fighting to hold it down. When you get a fracture in the neck there is usually no tail pressure or very little.
A cervical fracture could happen from many things, but one good example is a curious horse sticking their head through the fence to smell another. The other one is a bit mean and jumps at the curious horse, who then has to quickly pull their head out of the fence. They might fall, or get it jammed and fracture a cervical vertebrae.
So what are the signs? Well we talked about tail pressure as well as uncoordination. Your horse could be stumbling around usually with their head lower to the ground. Also you might notice sweat marks or heat along the neck. All of these are signs to watch out for. The best thing is to get that horse to a vet and get it X-rayed!
Question 3: True or False: Alseythe clover is good for your horse.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The 'Stay Apparatus'
Have you ever wondered how a horse can sleep and stay on its feet? Well here's your answer, the stay apparatus. The stay apparatus is a group of muscles, tendons and ligaments in the front and the back end of a horse that 'lock' the lower leg joints. It takes very little muscular effort to do this which allows the horse to sleep soundly while standing up. Amazing eh?
Sometimes the stay apparatus gets fatigued. Why? Mainly because 60% of the horse's weight is on the forehand (in the front end). Thats a lot of weight and pressure to be put on the front legs. On top of that, if the horse's pelvis is badly misaligned, they refer even more weight to the front. Old age or old injuries that have caused some arthritis can also fatigue the stay apparatus. So how do you tell? Well there's a simple way to check. Set your horse up, and for a few seconds just watch at the knees. Are they shaking? Wobbling a little bit? Sometimes you can see this and know that their stay apparatus is tired. Another way to check, is with the palm of your fingers tap the back's of the kness. When the stay apparatus is fatigued, their knees will buckle forward and depending on how light or hard a tap, you'll know how bad it really is.
Question 2: What may be wrong with a horse that has started to stumble and has no tail pressure?
Feel free to send me your own questions and I can do my best to help you answer them!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Pelvis
Moving on to the pelvis. When I first learned about the pelvis adjustments I wondered how on earth was I going to put a pelvis back in place?! I'll never be strong enough! However, it was not as hard as I thought it would be and if you use your whole body, it's actually quite easy.
When assessing the pelvis, I look for a drop in the hindquarters as I watch the horse trot away from me. This indicates that, of course, the pelvis is dropping to that side. Another indication are the stress points. The stress points around the hip bone, when sore, indicate that there is misalignment in the pelvis and it's usually on the opposite side. The reason they're usually sore on the opposite side is from referral of weight. If their pelvis is dropped, or rotated to the left, then the horse tends to refer its weight to the right side to compensate. When they refer weight like that, it makes the areas on the right (opposite) side tight and sore because they are using that side more. Comprende?
Have you ever heard of 'dog tracking?' If any of you haven't, it's basically when a horse moves crookedly. So when you watch them trot away or towards you, you will notice that their hind end travels out to the side. This movement usually indicates that the pelvis is most likely rotated.
A little side 'safety' note: Always watch for kicking! I worked on a horse around Barriere that was old, calm and sweet.. until I got to his hind end. He let me check all the stress points and the drop in his pelvis, but as soon as I went to the side to adjust him, he threw his ears back and gave a small kick. In his case, I wasn't able to get anywhere near his hind end after that, so sadly, his pelvis did not get adjusted. Had I been more experienced and known about this habit I might have been able to get it shifted back before he realized what I was doing. So watch those hind legs!