Nancy S. Loving DVM

While horses can tolerate short-term food restriction, there are important metabolic changes.

Researchers determined that fecal water syndrome (FWS) is likely a multifactorial disease, with differences in microbiota noticed between healthy and affected horses.

The authors conclude that development of asthma in horses is possibly linked to obesity.

The 2021 AAEP Convention health coverage contained an in-depth session on infectious diseases that is summarized in this article. Brought to you by American Regent

Horses in this study did not suffer from enough parasite-inflicted damage to significantly contribute to the development of colic.

A challenging equine health issue that equine veterinarians face is how to assist their clients in managing weight in obese horses.

Knowing the length of detection times can help clients avoid positive tests in competition.

While these research results should be “interpreted with a certain degree of caution,” it is important to realize the influences shoeing has on the equine foot.

Study authors concluded, “There is a significant association between desmotomy of the AL-DDFT and/or the underlying reason for performing the surgery and reduced career longevity in sport horses.”

While preliminary results showed promise of the plant Aerva javanica in resolution of excessive granulation tissue in horses, the researchers said more study is needed.

The researchers concluded that a booted or wrapped equine limb might reach damaging temperatures.

Dr. Tim Knott refers to equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) as a recurrent “acute on chronic” inflammatory disease that includes a “spectrum” of diseases.

At the 2020 AAEP Convention, Nathan Slovis, DVM, DACVIM, presented a thorough look at what’s new in neonatal diarrhea.

An overview of headshaking research results from this German study might help practitioners and owners target effective therapies.

“A 0.0005% CHD solution was safe for repeated short-term application in the equine upper respiratory tract based on clinical, endoscopic and histologic evaluations,” noted the authors.

Based on this study, it is concluded that sensorineural auditory loss is a potential risk with gentamicin treatment in horses.

The authors are recommending flunixin meglumine as a preferential treatment rather than phenylbutazone to manage corneal pain.

The authors report the results: “A reduction in tumor size or complete resolution of the tumor after treatment with Oncept IL-2 occurred in 50% of the injected and 68% of all sarcoids in the present clinical study.”

The study found owners were compliant with pergolide treatment of horses 48% of the time and non-compliant 52% of the time.

This study demonstrates that PEDs have the potential to become contaminated with harmful organisms.

Morris Animal Foundation is funding research at Texas A&M University to look at the potential link between obesity and equine asthma.

“While both exercise and diet were effective weight loss strategies for horses, only exercised horses showed improvements in glucose metabolism.”

In looking at the MMP and chemokine concentrations, the only biomarker evaluated in available assay kits that yielded good diagnostic value for sepsis and endotoxemia is MMP-9 in peritoneal fluid.

All stallions vaccinated with anti-GnRH vaccine in the study produced EAV-negative semen by month 22.

The research authors encouraged owner education about the “unhealthy” nature of such obese adipose tissue and how it affects the rest of the body.

Research studies on heel contraction looked at many factors, including barefoot vs shod horses.

Researchers found that in treatment of experimentally created wounds, topical application of ozonated sunflower seed oil was superior to treatment with pure sunflower seed oil and 0.9% sodium chloride.

Research from France and Switzerland showed that targeted deworming protocols can work on horse farms to reduce anthelmintic resistance.

As horses begin to circulate more to events and shows, veterinarians need to be aware of the potential of equine herpesvirus infections.

Equine pain management relies on owner recognition, and research shows owners aren't very good at recognizing pain and lameness in their horses.

There are alternatives to feeling boxed in with non-stop emergency work on top of long days.

Dr. Jacqueline Hill, of Littleton Equine Medical Center, presented practical information on how to determine synovial structure involvement of a wound in the field. Brought to you by Covetrus

“This surgical procedure allowed early rehabilitation and resulted in progressive healing of the lesions."

Immunization and herd immunity are critical parts of keeping horses healthy, but it takes knowledge to use them to their best effect.

Researchers found some horse breeds have a higher incidence of ocular squamous cell carcinoma.

Veterinarians can offer science-based guidance for horse owners regarding blanketing older horses during cold weather.

There was no statistical difference in incisional complications between stainless steel skin staple closure and n-butyl cyanoacrylate closure.

Researchers in Australia studied a novel in-feed, enteric-coated dry granule preparation of omeprazole on horses.

When using alcohol-based antisepsis in horses, apply the alcohol in a concentric wipe to a clipped site for a 90-second wet contact time.

Can corticosteroids used to treat eye problems show up in competition test results?

Sometimes usually well-behaved horses turn into monsters when girthed up, and clients ask vets why.

Local prophylactic treatment with medical grade honey gel in the abdominal incision during surgery is safe and may significantly decrease the prevalence of incisional infections in horses undergoing colic surgery.

“Overall, the use of MOX-OBZ combination treatment delayed the onset of resistance to MOX compared to when MOX single-active was used,” noted the researchers.

Researchers showed that calcium electroporation is considered safe for treatment of localized equine sarcoids, including those that are inoperable.

Using GnRH vaccination prior to castration reduced the size of the testes and their adnexa and had an apparently beneficial effect on both the incidence and degree of post-operative surgical complications.

Be proactive to prevent bullying in your workplace, and have a system in place where employees can easily report being bullied.

Future development of this R. equi vaccine holds promise for a number of intracellular bacterial pathogens.

The results demonstrate that a laminitic horse with a heel wedge has a shorter breakover period (2% of stance phase) than when barefoot (6% of stance phase).