Indice dei contenuti per October 2016 in Equus

A new option for treating arthritic joint pain and infl ammation in horses will soon be available. This summer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a tablet form of the COX-2 selective fi rocoxib, sold under the name Equioxx. The tablets are expected to be available by prescription only through veterinarians by early October. COX-2 selectives are nonsteroidal anti-infl ammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that block enzymes that lead to infl ammation while sparing others that support normal body functions. This selective action reduces the risk of certain side effects associated with other NSAIDs, such as gastric ulcers and compromised kidney function. Equioxx was the first—-and remains the only—-COX-2 selective available for horses. The paste form was approved in 2005 and the injectable in 2010. Equioxx tablets, which contain 57 milligrams…

Laminitis is typically associated with lush spring pasture, but the risk of this devastating hoof condition rises again in the fall when pastures rebound from heat and drought. This means that any horses you may have been concerned about in the springtime—those who are overweight, have a history of laminitis or have pituitary 0 pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID, also called Cushing's)— warrant the same attention in the fall. You may need to outfit those horses with grazing muzzles again or return them to dry lots until grass goes dormant for the winter months. If you think your horse might have PPID, this is a good time to test for it. Equine hormone levels fluctuate seasonally, which can confound some tests of pituitary function. However, advances in the understanding of normal…

Many of Figure's male get were gelded or, if not gelded, did not produce many descendants. Almost all Morgans today descend from three of his sons: Sherman Morgan, foaled 1808; Bulrush Morgan, foaled 1812; and Woodbury Morgan, foaled 1816. Several other Figure sons did, however, leave progeny and their names thus occasionally appear in old pedigrees, as you will see below. From the second generation onward, Morgan horses were frequently crossed with Thoroughbreds. The get of Morgans crossed with the Thoroughbred Rysdyk's Hambletonian 1849 are often considered to be American Standardbreds. Thus from almost the beginning we can discern two physical types of Morgans—a smaller, "punchier" horse with no more Thoroughbred ancestry than that deriving directly from Figure; and a taller, leggier, somewhat more angular type with additional crosses to…

Have a question about your horse's health, care or training? Our experts offer solutions for a range of equine-management problems. Write to EQUUS Consultants, 656 Quince Orchard Road, #600, Gaithersburg, MD 20878; email: EQLetters@aimmedia.com. Send photos when helpful. Q: In "Exercise and Arthritis" (Consultants, EQUUS 464) a letter from a reader so- licited advice for managing her arthritic horse; the letter writer stated that the horse in question was also prone to laminitis. The horse was already receiv- ing an MSM/glucosamine supplement, and Roland Thaler, VMD, the consulting veterinarian who answered the question, also referenced glucosamine-containing supplements, among others, to help horses with arthritis. Because this reader's question pertained to an older, laminitis-prone horse, it's likely that he could be insulin resistant. I was under the impression that supplementation with glucosamine should be avoided since it could exac- erbate the laminitis. Glucosamine is a sugar and has been used…

T The number of fatal injuries sustained by Thoroughbreds at American racetracks continues to decline, according to The Jockey Club. The latest statistics from the organization's Equine Injury Database (EID) show a 14 percent drop in fatal injuries to Thoroughbred racehorses from 2014 to 2015. Fatal injuries are defi ned as those that cause the death of a horse within 72 hours of a race. Data from more than 90 racetracks across the country shows that the fatal injury rate among racehorses in 2015 was 1.62 per 1,000, down from a ratio of 1.89 per 1,000 starts recorded in 2014. This marks the lowest overall fatal injury rate since 2009, the first year the statistics were collected. Decreases in fatal injuries were seen regardless of track surface, distance raced and…

A study from Belgium suggests that feeding practices alone may aid the healing of minor developmental bone lesions in young horses. Researchers at the Equine Research Center of Mont-leSoie tracked 204 foals enrolled in a routine screening program for orthopedic disease. Each youngster was radiographed twice: once at 6 months old and again at 18 months old. At the beginning of the study, each horse's caretaker completed a questionnaire about management practices, including housing and feeding routines. At the first screening, 132 foals had no detectable bone troubles and 72 had signs of osteochondrosis (OCD), a growth-related disruption of the conversion of cartilage to bone in joints. OCD leads to swelling and lameness and, if unaddressed, can result in long-term soundness problems. When the second set of radiographs was taken…

A weepy, grossly swollen eye is a sure sign that something is amiss, but ocular problems in horses are not always so obvious. In fact, some of the more serious eye conditions, such as uveitis 0 , may produce only subtle signs that are easy to miss. Any of the following are cause for further investigation: · Aversion to light. Bright light can be painful for a horse with an inflammatory eye condition such as uveitis. A horse who prefers to stay in the shadows, especially at times of year when he wouldn't be seeking cooling shade, may be doing so protect a painful eye. · Eyelashes that point downward. Equine lashes are typically oriented parallel to the ground or turned slightly upward. If you notice the lashes on…

A variety of medications and therapies can benefi t horses with signifi cant coughs, with the specifi c treatment depending on the source and severity of the problem. Bacterial infections will be treated with appropriate antibiotics, for example, plus "if the horse is coughing a lot and breathing is compromised, he may also need steroids to damp down the infl ammation," says Amy Johnson, DVM, DACVIM, of the University of Pennsylvania. Antiinfl ammatory drugs may also be needed to make the horse feel better and keep eating. "Banamine (fl unixin meglumine) or bute (phenylbutazone) are often used for this purpose," she adds. But the common denominator for horses with respiratory ailments is the need for rest and supportive care. And that means that the ill horse needs to be kept…

No breed on record has a more unique history than the Morgan. Nor is there another breed whose origins are so fraught with passionate adherents to different theories of its early history. The origin of the Morgan horse is "theoretical" because crucial information has been irretrievably lost. "Almost half a century passed away," wrote breed historian Daniel Chipman Linsley as early as 1852, "before any serious effort was made to determine the origin of an animal, whose value was daily more and more appreciated.... when at length serious inquiry was awakened on the subject, it was found that Mr. [Justin] Morgan had left no written pedigree of his horse, and different reports of what he said of it got into circulation. It is not now probable that the blood [ancestry]…

Contemporary portrait of the Godolphin "Arabian" shows the short back, long pelvis, muscular loins, cresty neck, and long "slashing" shoulder which also characterize the Morgan horse. The Banker ponies that live on islands off the Carolinas give a good idea of the conformation of the Narragansett Pacers of 18th-century New England. Their ancestors are horses that swam ashore from shipwrecks and of those deliberately placed on the islands by Colonial-era farmers. Ships carrying horses were engaged in the Triangular Trade (see "Horses of the American Colonies," EQUUS 468), which traveled between New England, Caribbean islands and Surinam on the northeastern coast of South America. Of mostly Narragansett Pacer descent, these horses still show the angular form, long neck, long shoulders, straight clean legs and tendency to amble so valued by…

Ethan Allen 2nd (1877), was one of the most important and influential horses in the Morgan breed. This son of the Peters Morgan came out of a mare owned by Stephen Dow tracing to Black Hawk and Sherman Morgan, with another line to Woodbury. This snapshot of the horse is a far better likeness of him than other attributed portraits, and it shows his size, which was less than 14:2 hands. Nonetheless this is a powerful and smoothly conformed animal, similar to his sire, showing snappy trot action even as an older horse (he was at least 18 years old when this photo was taken). One cannot help but be impressed by the short back, beautiful coupling, deep shoulder, arched neck and perfectly formed hindquarters. Big things sometimes come in…

In the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, a simple saliva test can now be used to identify tapeworm infections in horses. Fairly common in horses, tapeworm infestation can cause unthriftiness, diarrhea and colic. But unlike most other internal parasites, tapeworms are diffi cult to detect using fecal egg counts. Previously, the only reliable method for identifying tapeworms in horses was a blood test measuring antibodies specifi c to the parasite. Recently, however, Austin Davis Biologics in England developed a method for identifying tapeworm-specifi c antibodies in saliva. To investigate the effi cacy of the new test, researchers used it to analyze saliva from 104 horses at a United Kingdom abattoir, then compared the fi ndings to the results of blood tests of the same horses. They also performed a…

A number of illnesses and conditions can cause horses to cough. Here are a few of the more common ones: · aspiration pneumonia—type of pneumonia that develops when foreign material is drawn into the lungs. · infl ammatory airway disease (IAD)—a little-understood condition commonly found in young racehorses and performance horses who periodically perform poorly, with or without coughing. Excess mucus and infl ammatory cells are usually found during endoscopic examinations of such horses; also called "small airway disease" (SAD). · infl uenza—very contagious, acute viral infection involving the respiratory tract. Marked by infl ammation of the nasal mucosa, the pharynx, the conjunctiva, the lungs and sometimes the heart muscle, equine infl uenza is often associated with high fever, lack of appetite and the development of limb edema (stocking up).…

I never planned on owning an "only" horse. My husband and I always envisioned keeping two horses on our small farm and for a long time we did; for a while, we even owned three. But my daughter outgrew her pony so we found him another home. Then my old gelding passed away. As I struggled to cope with his loss, I worried about how my mare, Sally, would react to being alone. After all, everything I knew about horses told me that she needed the company of at least one other horse to feel safe and happy. I started to think about hurrying up and repopulating my herd to protect her emotional well-being. But I couldn't help but notice that Sally seemed to be doing just fi ne. In…

While True Briton Jr. was Figure's sire, his dam was a Canadian mare. Contemporary descriptions make her a horse of 14 to 15 hands, fully 1,100 pounds., heavy-limbed, thickmaned and lightly feathered. It is certainly germane that Justin Morgan's parents resided in Quebec, so that there can be no doubt that he knew the merits of the Canadian horse and had easy access to them. Recent DNA studies confi rm the close affi nities of the Morgan to the Canadian horse. The resemblance of the Morgan to the Canadian (sometimes called the "Old Canadian") is striking. Note the thick mane and tail with wavy or curly hairs, shapely and somewhat cresty neck, long shoulder, prominent breastbone and excellent feet. They carry a little feather about the fetlocks and on the…

1. Barn dogs are at a fairly high risk for acquiring parasites. Unlike many urban and suburban pets, a barn dog gets to run around in open fi elds, press his nose into a wide range of smelly things and, possibly, socialize with all the other dogs who visit the stables. The downside of the barn life is that your dog may also be exposed to more intestinal parasites than the average suburban dog—-especially if the "smelly things" he often encounters include dead animals or the droppings of other dogs or wild canines. "The transmission risk is mainly from other dogs or wild canines like coyotes or wolves," says parasitologist Lindsay Starkey, DVM, PhD, of Oklahoma State University. "Parasites do sometimes cross over from wildlife, so if you live in…

T he best Christmas present ever came to us in 1966, when I was 9. At the time, my family was living in a small town called Cheam, in Surrey, England, just south of London. I still remember that morning, rushing down with my two sisters to find our stockings filled with hoof picks and horse brushes. Wait ... didn't our parents understand that we didn't need any of this if we didn't have our own pony? And then the realization sank in: They got us a pony! His name was Corky, and he was a 12.2-hand skewbald Welsh pony with bright blue eyes and the most magnificent mane and tail. He was flashy, fast and fun—-everything a little girl dreams of! My sisters and I learned how to ride…