Equine Dentistry for the Mixed-Animal Practitioner: A GuideFebruary 16, 2016February is Equine Dental Awareness Month, and it’s a great time to remind clients to schedule their horse’s annual dental exam and float. If your veterinary practice is primarily small animal, you likely don’t spend much of your time peering into a horse’s mouth. Erika Wierman, DVM, received her veterinary degree at Ohio State University and took an internship with Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in central Kentucky, where she developed an interest in equine dentistry. Wierman ultimately opened an equine dentistry practice in Versailles, Ky, but spent some time working for mixed species clinics and says she knows that dealing with equine oral health can prove a challenge for veterinarians who spend most of their time with dogs and cats. Along with client input, a good oral exam can help veterinarians identify and treat problems early, before they begin to seriously impact the horse’s overall health. Horse Dental Care: What to Look For Start an exam by checking in with clients on their horse’s eating habits, riding frequency, bit type, odors or nasal discharge. Besides the obvious sharp …
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Stallion Won’t Breed?January 22, 2016Originally published in the January 2016 issue of Veterinary Practice News. Did you enjoy this article? Then subscribe today! It’s a new year, and for horse breeders it’s exciting. New foals are being born, and it’s almost time to start breeding mares. It’s also going to be time to identify and treat breeding problems. For mare owners, it’s soon going to be time to culture and ultrasound and biopsy, especially when breeding issues come up. Of course, it takes two to tango, and for stallion owners, it’s going to be time to identify and treat stallion problems; otherwise stated, it’s not always the mare’s fault when a mare doesn’t get in foal. Stallion problems fall into some broad categories. Here are some things to think about if you’re worried that a stallion might be the problem. Lack of Libido A lack of sexual desire is a frustratingly common problem in stallions. As natural as it may seem for a stallion to want to breed, many circumstances can conspire to make a stallion a reluctant breeder. These …
Innovative CT Scanner for Horses DebutsDecember 18, 2015Standing up for horses, a New York company has introduced a computed tomography (CT) system that permits whole-body scans of upright and moving equine patients. The Equimagine system uses two or four robotic arms to capture high-resolution, high-speed images from any direction within as little as five to 15 seconds. One of the first installations is planned at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center, where surgery chief Dean W. Richardson, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, said the system can be used to diagnose fractures. “We believe that the technology will allow early identification of horses with incomplete occult fractures in areas that can proceed to catastrophic failure,” Dr. Richardson said. Equimagine, manufactured by Four Dimensional Digital Imaging (4DDI), is designed to generate CT, fluoroscopic and bone-density images and conduct tomosynthesis, dynamic video radiography imaging and digital radiography. A major benefit, 4DDI President George Papaionannou said, is that equine patients are not anesthetized and may be scanned in load-bearing positions such as standing or walking and running on a treadmill. The system will save practitioners “hours and logistical nightmares” compared with the use of traditional equipment, he said. CT scanners often require the use of anesthesia so patients remain still, but …
Study: Equine Vets Lagging in Business SkillsDecember 17, 2015Keeping veterinary drugs locked up is a sensible idea. The same goes for sending client reminders and tracking payroll expenses. And maybe hiring a practice management consultant. But a survey conducted by two leading veterinary companies in cooperation with the American Association of Equine Practitioners found that inaction in many areas of business may be diluting the value and profits of horse practices nationwide. “With just a few small tweaks, equine practitioners can empower themselves with new management practices and business technologies that will greatly enhance the efficiency and profitability of their practice,” said researcher Edward J. Blach, DVM, MS, MBA. Merck Animal Health and Henry Schein Animal Health presented findings from the National Equine Veterinary Economic Study in December during the AAEP conference in Las Vegas. What the results showed was that equine practitioners don’t track revenue and expenses very well, and they tend to shun readily available management and communications tools. Of the nearly 500 AAEP members surveyed, 97 percent knew how much total revenue was coming in, but they couldn’t provide a breakdown in most instances. Only about one-third of the respondents could specify their laboratory, imaging, surgery and drug income. Just 1-in-5 could count …
What You Need to Know About Rabies in HorsesNovember 24, 2015Originally published in the November 2015 issue of Veterinary Practice News. Did you enjoy this article? Then subscribe today! One would think that pretty much everyone knows that rabies vaccinations are required for small animals in every state in the U.S. Rabies, of course, is a serious zoonotic disease, and with the number of dogs and cats in the country, the rationale for rabies vaccination is obvious. Perhaps less well known is that horses can get and transmit rabies, too. While rabies is certainly uncommon in horses, every year 30 to 60 are confirmed with rabies in the United States. Horses that contract rabies typically: Live in an endemic area. Have no history of vaccination. Live outside 24 hours a day. Can be of any age. Can be of any breed or gender. Are the only ones on the farm that contract the disease. Rabies in horses is not necessarily easy to diagnose clinically. Signs can be confusing and nonspecific, and misdiagnosis is not uncommon. Typical clinical signs include colic, obscure lameness, ataxia, paralysis, incontinence, tremors, fever, depression, aggressiveness, increased sensitivity to …
Zoetis Unveils New Drugs for Dogs, HorsesNovember 18, 2015Veterinary drug maker Zoetis Inc. is celebrating achievements on both sides of the Atlantic after winning European approval of a new flea and tick preventive and USDA endorsement of a canine flu vaccine. The Florham Park, N.J., company also announced the release of an equine leptospirosis vaccine. The flea and tick drug, Simparica (sarolaner), is a chewable tablet given monthly to dogs as young as 8 weeks. It also is indicated for the treatment of sarcoptic mange, a contagious skin disease. Zoetis described the active ingredient, sarolaner, as a new ectoparasiticide in the isoxazoline class. Simparica, approved by the European Commission, was tested on more than 800 dogs in seven countries, Zoetis reported. The drug was found “to provide efficacy for at least five weeks against ticks and fleas” and “demonstrated a rapid onset of action, killing fleas before they have a chance to lay eggs,” the company added. Simparica kills four common European ticks—Dermacentor reticulatus, Ixodes hexagonus, Ixodes ricinus and Rhipicephalus sanguineus—as well as the fleas Ctenocephalides felis and Ctenocephalides canis. The tablets are expected to be released in early 2016 in dosages of 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 milligrams. U.S. veterinarians could see Simparica on …
New Test Identifies Troublesome Equine FoodsOctober 30, 2015Veterinary diagnostics expert W. Jean Dodds, DVM, has released a version of the NutriScan food sensitivity test for the equine market. The saliva-based test requires a horse to chew on a cotton rope, which is then checked to detect the animal’s intolerance to different foods. They include alfalfa, apples, barley, Bermuda grass, brome grass, carrots, corn, cotton seed, fescue grass, flaxseed, Kentucky blue grass, meadow foxtail, molasses, oatmeal, orchard grass, red clover, rice, rye, rye grass, sugar beets, timothy grass and wheat. NutriScan, which also comes in canine and feline kits, “is simply another tool in a horse caregiver’s arsenal,” Dr. Dodds said. “Show, racing and recreational horses need to be in top condition at all times,” she said. “Horses do stop to pass stool. Several stops, though, are aggravating for the rider and may indicate that the horse is uncomfortable, distressed and in pain.” NutriScan for horses required two years of research, said Dodds, the founder of Hemopet, a Garden Grove, Calif., diagnostics laboratory and canine blood bank. NutriScan canine and feline saliva tests were released five and two years ago, respectively. The equine test is not the first on the market. Competing products examine the antibodies IgE …
How Equine Dental Care Can Give Your Business a BoostOctober 20, 2015Originally published in the October 2015 issue of Veterinary Practice News. Enjoyed this article? Then subscribe today! It’s funny how much perspective time and experience bring. If there’s anything constant about veterinary medicine, it’s that it’s always changing. One of the areas of greatest change is in veterinary dentistry, not only in small animal medicine but also in horses. Today, there seems to be a remarkable consensus that horses need occasional interventions in their mouths and frequent examination to make sure the teeth stay level, smooth, at precise occlusal angles and so forth. I say “today” because it has not always been so. In fact, history gives some interesting perspective on the care of the horse’s mouth. I believe two things. First, I don’t think people are smarter now than they ever were. They may know more, but they aren’t smarter. In fact, people who lived a long time ago were so smart that we keep talking about them: see Plato, Socrates, et al. Second, I think they were much more closely associated with their horses …
University of Florida Launches Equine Online CourseOctober 9, 2015The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine has launched an online, undergraduate equine course. It will include everything from common health issues and anatomy to history of the species and an understanding of equine-related business and research. “Because it’s online, we are able to offer this course to students at universities where they might not have a strong equine sciences department,” said Patrick Larkin, Ph.D., an adjunct lecturer in the college’s department of large animal clinical sciences who serves as course coordinator. “It’s also good exposure for students to decide whether or not they want to go into this field.” The course is aimed at sophomore or higher-level students and features pre-recorded lectures. Students must log in to the course website to watch lectures and complete assignments and may post questions in a discussion forum, Larkin said. About 30 students from across the country and the world are enrolled in the course this semester, according to the university. “This class offers students who are interested in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine or
How to Feed Horses With Metabolic ChallengesSeptember 28, 2015Originally published in the September 2015 issue of Veterinary Practice News Most horses’ nutritional requirements are satisfied by having enough good hay to fulfill their caloric needs, water and a salt block (probably). But it is increasingly recognized that certain equine metabolic conditions can benefit from special diets targeted toward specific aspects of the condition. Recognizing that a horse has a metabolic problem is usually not particularly difficult, as horses will often show stereotypical clinical signs. Here’s a brief overview of a few common conditions and nutritional strategies that may help address them. Insulin Resistance/Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) in Equines EMS is a problem in both horses and humans. Horses with EMS become less sensitive to insulin’s effects, and more insulin than normally required is needed to keep blood sugar concentrations within normal limits, especially after a meal high in starch or sugar. The cause of EMS is not known, but a genetic component may be involved. Since these horses usually require relatively little feed to maintain their weight, they are commonly referred to as “easy …
