Horses & Equine Care - Featured Article

Examine Your Horse Before You Buy

Buying a horse is a serious investment. Before you make any decisions, it’s wise to have a veterinarian who specializes in horses perform a prepurchase evaluation on the horse you’re interested in. An equine prepurchase evaluation is essentially a comprehensive physical exam, the extent of which is usually determined by the sale price of the horse in question, and the intended use of that particular horse by the purchaser. A prepurchase examination is not a warranty on a particular animal. The evaluation is conducted to determine the health of the horse, and in most cases to offer some assurance the horse is not lame. Read more...

Azalea and Rhododendron Toxicity

The beautiful flowering shrub adjacent to your porch may have a sinister side to it. Don’t let those colorful blooms fool you.

Castor Bean Plants and Ricin Poisoning in Horses

The castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) or palma christi is a common ornamental houseplant with large, palmated, lobed leaves that may be found in almost any location in the United States. The plant is also grown for the manufacturing of castor oil.

Oleander Toxicosis

Oleander is an ornamental shrub that flowers in various colors including white, red, pink and violet. This plant is an evergreen perennial that flowers throughout the summer months.

Equine Colic: Abdominal Pain in Horses

The term colic, literally translated refers to abdominal pain in the horse. Colic in horses is responsible for more deaths than any other disease process other than old age.

Equine Sarcoids: Skin Tumors in Horses, Mules, and Donkeys

The most frequently occurring neoplasm in the horse is the sarcoid. In fact, sarcoids may account for up to 30% of all tumors in horses.

Vesicular Stomatitis in Horses, Cows, and Pigs

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is a viral disease of horses, cattle and swine that produces characteristic lesions known as vesicles and erosions. After a short incubation period of anywhere from 3 to 15 days, affected animals will have an elevated temperature, appear lethargic (depressed) and anorexic, and often exhibit drooling of saliva (ptyalism) and lameness.

Fescue Toxicosis in Horses

Is your mare having trouble with foaling? Think your foaling dates are almost a month off? Is your mare producing enough milk to care for her foal? Did you get what looks like a full term foal only to find it stillborn? This unfortunate situation may be a result of your pasture. Tall fescue (Festuca elatior or F.

Osteoarthritis or Degenerative Arthritis in Dogs, Cats, Horses, Birds, and Other Pets

Is your pet having more difficulty getting up in the morning? Does he or she walk around still legged for the first 10 to 15 minutes in the morning to get warmed up? Is your pet limping especially on those cold, wet, rainy mornings? Does your pet limp around following that Frisbee session? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then your pet is probably suffering from osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease (DJD) that is characterized by the wearing out of the articular cartilage (the cartilage located at joint surfaces), hypertrophy of the bone at the margins (enlargements of the end of the bones due to periostitis), and changes in the synovial membrane (the lining of the joints).

Laminitis, or Founder: Lameness in Horses

Laminitis, also known as Founder, is defined as inflammation of the sensitive laminae of the hoof. Laminitis is now thought to be a transient ischemia (loss of blood supply and therefore oxygen) associated with blood coagulation (clotting) and inflammation.

The Horse Slaughter Debate in the United States

The current dilemma facing horse owners is how to deal with unwanted horses. The practice of slaughtering horses for human or pet consumption has become increasingly controversial.

Main Page - Horses & Equine Care