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Category: EQUINE

Equine News Archive :
Our services range from routine through to preventative healthcare. Oakhill host a range of events within the equine sector to increase your knowledge and to also offer you a wide range of free services.

Foaling season

Exciting times if your mare is about to foal this season!

A couple of days before parturition the udder of the mare will develop wax tips on the end of the teats.

A normal birth usually takes about 30 minutes without any help. Directly after the foal is born the umbilicus is still attached. It is important to leave the mare and foal attached for as long as possible. The umbilicus will break at the right time and place, there is no need to cut it. The first couple of hours are important for the foal to drink enough colostrum. Colostrum is full of antibodies necessary for the immunity of the foal.

Within 8 hours the foals should drink approximately 2-3 litres of colostrum to get a sufficient enough antibodies.

The foal is only able to take up any antibodies in the first 24hours. If there are any concerns about the uptake of colostrum, a blood sample can be taken to test for IgG levels.

The placenta should be detached from the mare within 4 hours after parturition, it is important to check if the placenta is complete (needs to look like a pair of trousers). If the placenta has not come out within 4 hours, or is not complete it is important to contact the vet.

Did you know that a healthy foal should:

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  • Lift its head < 5 min

  • Stand < 2 hours

  • Drink < 2 hours

  • Urinate < 6-10 hours

  • Pass yellow feces < 24 hours (after dark meconium)

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It is advisable to have your mare and foal checked 24 hours after foaling, even if everything went smoothly. Foals are very good at fooling us! If the foal is a bit dull and quiet, not drinking enough or any other concerns you should ring your vet immediately. In these cases the earlier the foal is seen the better.

Diastemata

The 24 cheek teeth are designed to grind forage for up to 16 hours a day. These teeth erupt and are ground down continuously and those in each quadrant of the mouth act as a single grinding surface without spaces.

A diastema (plural, diastemata) is defined as a gap between teeth. Diastemata in the normally tightly fitting cheek teeth results in food entrapment. The stagnant food leads to painful periodontal disease (inflammation of the gums). If left untreated this can lead to the loosening of teeth, tooth root infections, sinusitis or food tracking up into the nose.

40-50% of horses suffer from diastemata. They are most common in older horses. It’s our most commonly treated dental disease.

Diastemata can result for many reasons:DIASTEMA

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  • With older age, teeth have erupted to the level of the slightly narrower root portion of the tooth.
  • Displaced (out of line) or rotated teeth- both are developmental defects, more common in breeds with small or dished faces e.g. miniatures.
  • Teeth drifting apart, towards the space remaining following a tooth extraction.
  • The teeth have erupted with diastemata between them, perhaps because the horse had grown bigger than the relative size of its teeth or erupted with out angulation.
  • Caries (decay) of the teeth which rots tooth away creating diastemata between them.

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Periodontal disease is very painful and horses often present with quidding (dropping of balls of hay). Some horses ‘pull faces’. Subtle signs e.g. eating less or weight loss are often attributed to old age. Symptoms are commonly seen during winter as long forage is more likely to become trapped between teeth than grass.

Diastemata are diagnosed at a routine oral exam, recommended every 6-12 months. To perform a thorough examination, a headtorch and mirror is essential; diastemata can be easily missed. Sedation is useful for fidgeting horses.

Treatment is carried out using sedation, pain relief and local anaesthetic in our clinic and involves removal of trapped food with the guidance of the oral endoscope camera that can view into the deepest pockets. Widening of diastemata is sometimes required to release entrapped food. The cleaned deeper pockets are sometimes packed with a protective putty whilst the gum heals beneath. Tooth overgrowths are floated (reduced) using powertools in order to balance the pressures on the teeth, reducing tooth drift. Severe cases may require tooth extractions.

Following a course of thoroughly performed treatment, the prognosis for resolution is very good especially with early diagnosis and action.

Lenny’s Tongue injury

Back in November, Lenny, a charismatic young dressage horse, was found hyper-salivating, unable to eat or open his mouth and very quiet when his owners did a routine late night check.

The emergency vet was called and Hattie attended to find a very unusual injury to Lenny’s tongue. The tongue had an almost full thickness jagged laceration to the top surface with a complete tear of the frenulum on the underside (the bit that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth).

Injury on Hattie’s arrival

Torn frenulum (underside)

 

During the repair

Lenny underwent a general anaesthetic first thing in the morning to have the wound cleaned and repaired. Hattie was able to pull the wound together on the surface but left the underside to heal on its own due to the difficulty keeping the stitches in a mobile tongue.

3 days after repair

Lenny recovering

4 weeks after repair

Lenny made an excellent recovery thanks to his very caring owners and is now back in full work with no long term effects from his traumatic autumn evening!

Lenny during dressage

Eyelid lacerations

Oakhill Vet Stuart was called promptly when Sully caught his eye on a wall. 

Sully’s eye was checked for an ulcer and the eyelid was sutured under sedation and local anaesthetic. Prompt suturing and great care from his owner, preventing him from disrupting the stitches, has lead to a great cosmetic result!

However, eyelid laceration can have many complications:

  • Failing to get the  edges of the wound meeting nicely when stitching together can cause the eyelid or lashes to scratch the outer covering of the eye, the cornea.

  • If the eyelids can’t move as normal then tears can’t spread across the eye.

  • There are glands in the margin of the eyelid that secrete a component of the tears. If these are damaged there is an alteration the tear consistency.

The above three complications leads to corneal ulceration and pain.

Tears drain via the nasolacrimal duct in the inner corner of the eye. If obstructed or damaged, tears accumulate and then tear down the face which can cause skin irritation. Stagnant tears can attract bacteria and lead to conjunctivitis

To give the best chance of eyelid lacerations healing well and preventing the above mentioned side effects, veterinary assessment and suturing of wounds needs to occur promptly.

Equine Influenza – what’s the current situation?

There have been separate cases of Equine Influenza confirmed in the UK. Horses in Essex, Cheshire and Derbyshire have been affected this month with further reports of outbreaks in Belgium, France and Germany. With all three outbreaks it has been unvaccinated horses that have tested positive.

Currently the number of outbreaks is small but they have occurred within a short duration; to put things into perspective a similar number of cases were reported during the whole of 2018.

It is currently unknown which strain of the virus has caused these outbreaks, but research is being conducted to find out. While there are several signs of flu in horses, those affected may only show one or two of them.

What are the signs of infection?

Unvaccinated horses

  • In unvaccinated horses the virus targets the upper respiratory tract, this leads to a very dry, harsh or hacking cough.
  • They usually have a raised temperature which can last around 7-10 days. The fever often makes them dull, off their food and lethargic
  • A clear or white nasal discharge is often seen with enlargement of the submandibular lymph nodes (under their chin/throat area).

Vaccinated horses

  • Horses that have been regularly vaccinated often show no clinical signs, but they may still shed enough virus to infect other horses. This is how the outbreak in Australia in 2007 started.
  • Horses that have been vaccinated but only have partial protection, e.g. because they haven’t been vaccinated frequently enough or because the vaccine type used was not updated, may show varied signs of mild non specific respiratory disease. This can include mild lethargy, nasal discharge and possibly a cough.

What to do if you think there is a possible infected horse?

Owners should seek veterinary advice if they suspect there is flu on the yard and carry out the following precautions:

  • Isolate the possibly infected horses. Infected horses will spread the virus in respiratory droplets, through coughing, and can spread the virus for up to 10 days. They must be isolated until the vet advises they are no longer infected.
  • All horse movements on and off the yard should be stopped.
  • Monitor all horses on the yard for clinical signs and record their rectal temperature daily, it should be less than 38.0˚C. A rise in temperature can be an early sign of an infection.
  • Booster vaccinating all in-contact horses, even if they are not yet due their annual booster, has been shown to provide horses with even more protection against flu.

How to prevent it

Horse Flu is endemic in the UK, which means that most horses will come into regular contact with the virus during their lifetime. The control of horse flu in the UK is based on limiting the signs of infection in horses that have been exposed to the virus, rather than trying to prevent exposure itself. This is primarily achieved through regular vaccination which is given either once or twice a year.

If you have any questions about your horse’s vaccinations, please call our Equine Team on 01772 861300

Free* ACTH tests are back for 2019

Testing for PPID in your horse or pony

A few years ago PPID or Equine Cushing’s Disease was considered a rare hormonal disease in horses. Now it is thought to affect over 20% of horses over the age of 15 and is a condition recognised almost daily in equine veterinary practice.

Past ‘Talk about Laminitis’ test results show that you should look out for any of these clinical signs in your horse:

  • Laminitis
  • Abnormal or delayed moulting
  • Muscle wastage
  • Periorbital fat (fat round the eyes)
  • Increased drinking and urinating

In 2017, thousands of laminitic patients benefitted from PPID being ruled in or out of their condition during the Talk About Laminitis campaign, as a result, the Talk About Laminitis campaign will continue offering FREE* ACTH lab testing during 2019

You can claim your complimentary testing voucher code by visiting www.careaboutcushings.co.uk

If your horse is already on Prascend, you may be eligible for a free monitoring test (lab fees only). You can generate your voucher code for this by visiting the link above.

Terms & Conditions:

  • This free ACTH test voucher code is for the laboratory fees for a blood ACTH test only.
  • Each voucher is only redeemable against an ACTH blood test where the patient has not been previously diagnosed with PPID
  • Full T&Cs can be found below at www.careaboutcushings.co.uk
  • Oakhill blood sampling fee, visit fee and postage still apply.

What lurks beneath – equine lice

As our horses grow a thicker and longer coat over winter to keep themselves insulated it becomes an ideal breeding ground for lice, especially when we then cover this in a warm rug.

The life cycle of the louse is complete within 4 weeks and eggs hatch 10 days after being laid. Eggs or nits are small (1mm), yellowy-white in colour and glued tightly to the base of hairs.

Damalinia

Haematopinus Lice

Haematopinus

All horses can become infected with lice and those kept in large groups indoors, the elderly and young and those with immunosupressive conditions such as malnourishment and PPID (Cushings) are at an increased risk.

There are two types of lice affecting horses, a biting louse called Damalinia equi and a sucking louse called Haematopinus Asini.

Biting lice feed on skin scales and are found where the coat is finer (neck & body) whereas sucking lice feed on blood and are found where the hairs are longer in the mane and tail.

The feeding nature of the lice causes skin irritation with horses becoming extremely itchy. This can lead to patchy hair loss and a scurfy coat. In severe infestations the horse or pony can become anaemic.

Diagnosis is based on evidence and appearance of lice or their eggs.

Removal of the winter coat will help ensure treatment reaches the skin and has the best effect. Lice powders are available over the counter however anecdotally they don’t seem to work. Treatment needs to involve a permethrin or cypermethrin product applied every two weeks for a few treatments to ensure all life stages of the lice are killed. In addition if there is an underlying cause this needs to be identified and treated to prevent reoccurrence.

The lice affecting horses can’t affect humans however sharing rugs/ numnahs/ grooming kits can spread it horse to horse.

If you have any questions regarding lice on your horse, please contact us.

Think twice before breeding

We currently have a horse crisis, whereby the number of horses far outweighs the number of good homes available.

 

Whilst we would all love to rescue every horse or pony that needs a home it simply isn’t possible with the numbers out there. Unfortunately for every horse that is born it means one that is currently alive is pushed out of a potential home.

But why do we have this crisis? The blame can’t be pointed at any one group.

 

In fact, collectively, twice as many foals are produced by people who will only breed 1 to 5 foals than by people who will breed over 100 each.

 

This shows that, everybody reading this, whether you be a dealer, breeder, or pleasure horse owner, has a role in stopping this crisis from worsening. 

 

Why horse owners breed from their mares:

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  • Injury: If she is having to be rested for a prolonged period it seems a good idea to get a ‘use’ out of her. In fact, her recovery could be jeopardised due to the excess weight of the foal, energy being diverted from healing to producing the foal and her body being stressed.
  • Preserve desirable traits: If this is your aim then you need to ensure the stallion is just as good. Even then you aren’t guaranteed the foal won’t have problems.
  • Prevent laminitis: this is no longer thought to help and is most probably detrimental.
  • You can make money: Producing a foal to the age of 4 is now more expensive than buying a 4-year-old. Consider the cost if the mare doesn’t conceive first time, vaccinations, microchip, passport, worming, livery and extra food. Worse even more if the mare or foal become ill or are accident prone.

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Whilst I can appreciate breeding your mare, raising the foal and then riding it is a lovely experience it also can attract a great deal of stress. So, if you have deeply considered the above and still want to breed from your mare then keep a look out for another instalment to try help you prepare her for breeding.

 

Equine Client Evening – 14th November 2018

FREE EQUINE CLIENT EVENING

Wednesday 14th November 2018

Barton Grange Hotel,  746-768 Garstang Rd, Barton, Preston PR3 5AA

7pm for 7.30pm start

Join the Oakhill Equine Team and our guest speaker Fernando Malalana on to explore the topics of:

Horse eyes:  What’s normal, what can go wrong and what can be fixed?

Fernando Malalana, DVM GPCert(EqP) DipECEIM MRCVS, Senior Lecturer in Equine Internal Medicine, University of Liverpool

My horse is on three legs: What to do with a really lame horse.

Guy Hinnigan, Oakhill Equine Director and RCVS recognised Specialist.

In aid of SPANA

To book your place call 01772 861300 or email equine@oakhill-vets.com