Depending upon how experienced. competent and confident you are there are many minor problems that occur with horses that can be treated without veterinary attention. This will save you spending money unnecessarily and maintain your friendly vet’s sanity, as he is not continually having to drive up your driveway, opening all five gates on the way.
When I was working for Jack Laing at Bungendore Vet Surgery there was a property called ‘Lynton’ which we referred to as ‘Horse Heaven’ and we would literally fight to get there (as always the boss would win).
Many of you would know ‘Lynton’ as the home of the Goulburn ODE – such a lovely course in a very scenic setting, it was also the venue for the eventing squad prior to their medal haul at Sydney. The reason why it was referred to as horse and vet heaven is that the horses wanted for nothing, the owner always paid, and the staff were always prepared to listen, follow instructions to the letter and if there was any doubt or minor problems they would phone us and were able to carry out minor procedures without one of us having to make the 45 minute journey late on a Friday afternoon.
The added bonus was that on the beautiful one and a half kilometre driveway there was only one gate!
If you are going to play a more active role in the treatment of minor ailments of your ponies then it is important that you develop a good working relationship with your vet as well as building up a good first aid kit. The first aid kit should be kept in the same spot, regularly restocked and well organised.
Items that you may find useful include digital thermometer, stethoscope ($10 ones are fine), hooftesters, poultices (animalintex), eye ointment (such as orbenin), iodine or hibitane based disinfectants, wound applications (such as yellow lotion or lotagen), wound dressings, tetanus vaccination and antitoxin (keep these in your fridge) and a range of various bandage materials.
Depending upon how often you are likely to use them, how far out of town you are and how well you get on with your vet, then it may be worthwhile to have some penicillin and phenylbutazone available as well.
Another useful thing to keep in a known fixed location (such as in the first aid kit) is a pair of bolt cutters, these are very useful when trying to extract horses entangled in wire.
Sick horse
If you have a horse that is off its feed, flat looking, dull, depressed, maybe showing signs of mild colic i.e. restless, pawing the ground, wanting to lie down, curling the top lip, then more than likely your vet is going to have to make a visit. But before you ring him it would be worth your while to check a few vital signs.
- Mucous membranes (gums) should be pale pink to pink and slightly moist. I find the moisture of the gums is a far more reliable method for checking the dehydration status of a horse than pinching the skin on the neck.
- Heart rate can be checked using the stethoscope on the left hand side of the chest under the triceps muscle, which is just above the elbow. Late 30’s to early 40’s is normal. Remember that an excited horse will have a higher heart rate.
- Rectal temperature, anything above 38.5 in a grown horse and above 39.3 in a foal, is high.
Armed with these vitals you can talk to your vet and he will be able to decide whether or not he needs to interrupt his Sunday’s golf game (yeah as if a horse vet would have time to play golf on a Sunday!), or if it can be managed by the owner for a while.
When you are trying to decide how the horse looks, try and use a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is bright and chirpie and 10 is death warmed up. It happens quite a bit that the impression that we get over the phone is very different to what the horse actually looks like. Based on the information provided by the horse owner, we will drop everything and break land speed records to get to a horse that only a mother could tell is sick, while on the other hand we will put off some until Monday, something that when we do get there, we have to use our stethoscope to make sure is still alive!
Lame horse
If you have a horse with sudden (i.e. 24 hours) onset of severe lameness, i.e. lameness that is obvious at the walk, you should examine the leg from the sole of the foot up. If there is no signs of obvious swellings or heat, then check for the strength of the digital pulse. The digital arteries are about the size of insulated electrical wire and run over the back of the fetlock and the sides of the back of the pastern.
To feel the pulse, locate the artery, then press firmly to start with and gradually reduce the pressure until the pulse is felt. Remember that you will only feel one beat roughly every second and a half. Compare the intensity of the other foot. If the intensity is more in the lame foot it is highly likely that something is going on in that foot.
With your hoof testers gently squeeze in spots all the way around the sole. Start off gently because if there is a pocket of puss and you squeeze quite hard then your pony will more than likely go through the roof and not be too willing to let you near his foot again. If you localise the pain to one particular sore spot then it is probably a bruise or an abscess. If the pain is all the way around the sole then it would be best to call your vet as there is the possibility of a fractured pedal bone. Fractured pedal bones occur usually after fast work on hard ground or in the hind leg after kicking something solid such as the stable wall.
If you do not find any pain it may be necessary to remove the shoe to examine the nail holes and the area under the shoe.
If you suspect a bruise or an abscess and the lameness has been present for less than 24 hours then I will usually put a poultice on the foot for 48 hours. Young abscesses are often better left to brew for roughly 48 hours so that you can get a good response to drainage.
The best treatment for any abscess is drainage. I tend to stay away from penicillin unless there is evidence of swelling up the pastern. There is no blood supply into an abscess and the body actually tries to wall it off so that systemic penicillin will not find its way into the site of infection.
If you have never drained a foot abscess then it is advisable to get your vet or farrier to attend to it and show you how it is done. After you have been shown how it is done a couple of times then there is no reason why how cannot have a go yourself.
If after 48 hours of poulticing the lameness has improved then you are more than likely dealing with a bruise and I will give these horses anti inflammatories and poultices until the horse is no longer lame at the walk, on firm going (not gravel), it is then time to get your farrier to put the shoe back on and hopefully protect the sore spot.
Over-reach
Horses in work may occasionally over-reach and clip their front heels with their back feet. If the injury is minor and commonly leaves a small flap of skin then healing will be much quicker if this skin flap is bravely and boldly cut off using a bit of courage and a pair of very sharp scissors. Use a nose twitch if you think it will be necessary.
Do not be alarmed if you strike a little spurter, the bleeding will soon stop, usually within 20 minutes. As a top equine surgeon once said ‘it’s not horse surgery unless there is plenty of blood on the floor and your boots!’ After most of the bleeding has stopped, bandage the wound with a small swab and some antiseptic and elastoplast. Change this every couple of days or earlier if necessary.
Lameness may or may not be associated with an over-reach. If there is lameness it is usually due to bruising from the impact and should be iced for twenty minutes twice a day for 2 or 3 days. If significant lameness persists for more than 3 days you should talk to your vet.
As with any wound make sure that your horse’s tetanus vaccination is up to date. If he continues to over-reach talk to your farrier about maybe rolling the toes or some other form of corrective shoeing.
Snotty Nose
Coughs and colds occur commonly in young horses or stressed horses or at the changing of seasons, from hot to cold or vice versa. If I have a nasal discharge without an elevated temperature then I will not work the horse very hard for four or so days. This is because if we get the respiratory rate up then we are encouraging more of the gunk in the upper airways further down the respiratory tract towards the lungs. You can give the horse a whole range of vitamins and concoctions from colloidal silver to Echinacea to vitamin C but most of these horses get better in four to seven days whether treated or not. Just keep monitoring demeanor and rectal temperature.
If the rectal temperature is elevated then you need to phone your vet and talk about starting some systemic antibiotics. Penicillin is the first choice but if you are competing or racing in the near future you will return a positive swab to the procaine part of procaine penicillin, and will need an alternative antibiotic (such as trimethoprim sulphur) with or without a cough suppressant.
Sore eye
The horse’s eye is a delicate and unpredictable structure. If late on Friday afternoon, you discover your best horse has tears streaming down his face, his eye jammed shut and the occasional glimpse that you do get of the front of the eyeball (cornea) reveals a cloudy blue haze, like a fogged up window, then don’t wait till Monday to call your friendly vet. In these cases time is vital, the longer the eye is left in this state the higher the likelihood of losing some vision if not the whole eye.
On the other hand if there is some tearing of one or both eyes with reddening of the underside of the eyelids and the whole of the cornea is as clear as crystal, then you are dealing with conjunctivitis which can be treated bathing the eye in salty water and applying an appropriate eye ointment. Orbenin is an antibiotic eye ointment that is very practical, as it only needs to be applied once a day. If it is dusty and there are plenty of flies then the mask type fly veils are very useful, but make sure you still check both eyes once a day.
Occasionally a horse will bang his eye resulting in the equivalent of a black eye. The eyelids are swollen and there may be some tearing but hopefully the cornea is crystal clear. If this is the case apply cold compresses to the eye and give anti-inflammatories if available, cover eye if possible or put horse in a darkened box out of wind and sunlight. As soon as there is any clouding of the cornea or the eye is jammed shut then it is essential to speak to your vet.
Wounds
The time it takes for a wound to heal and the amount of scarring left when it does heal will depend on a few things. Firstly the location of the wound. The front of joints i.e hocks, fetlocks and knees, take ages to heal and usually have a decent old scar due to the lack of extra skin and all the extra movement found in these areas. You will rarely see an advertisement for a wound lotion or crystal potion with a before and after shot of a dirty great big hock wound. They always show areas with no or little movement and extra skin, such as the chest or head, they then attribute the little or no scarring to the salt water they’ve been pouring in the horse’s left ear, when in fact its got more to do with the location of the wound and the ability to keep it reasonably clean.
Extra skin and little movement also make it favourable for a stitch up job going well. If you think the wound is stitchable, let your vet know and then as best you can, you want to limit the amount of swelling and flush out as much of the dirt and bacteria from in the wound. The best way of doing this is by cold hosing. Lots and lots of cold water.
If the vet’s three hours away and you’re in the middle of a drought, hose for as long as you can and then apply a firm bandage over the wound, bringing the edges of the skin back to as normal a position as is possible. Make sure the wound is covered in something that won’t stick to it, such as gauze or gamgee. Remember, to give the stitches the best chance of holding, the vet should really be there within six hours of the wound happening.
Splints
Splints are a bony reaction or lump in the region of the splint bone caused by either trauma to the area or excessive loading to the splint bone. The excessive loading is usually contributed to by less than ideal conformation (i.e offset cannon bones or bench knees). Most splints do not cause lameness, or maybe just a slight lameness on hard going on a ten metre circle.
If there is significant or persistent lameness then you should really take an X-ray to make sure that the splint bone is not actually fractured.
Soundness wise old, inactive (non-painful) splints are only a cosmetic blemish, but they are a sign that there may be a conformational fault that I should be aware of. Competition wise there are plenty of horses who go on for ever with splints, some even look like they are growing an extra cannon bone. If the size of the splint is a worry then I will start significant anti-inflammatory therapy straight away. This includes icing twice a day, topical anti-inflammatories such as phenylzone or DOMSO ointments, oral anti-inflammatories and a pressure wrap. I continue this until the splint is no longer painful when I hold the leg off the ground and squeeze the splint.
The most important thing about limiting the size of the splint is how quickly you start the treatment. Once the bony lump is there it takes months for the body to slowly remodel the shape of the lump.
If you first notice a small softish splint and start treating it straight away then you stand a good chance of limiting its size. If you don’t notice it for three days, or you sit there watching it grow until it is the size of a golf ball then you are probably too late to make a difference to its eventual size.
About half of them gradually decrease in size over six to twelve months until they are barely noticeable. Some stay just as big or even sprout up a Siamese twin right next to them, these guys are usually the ones with the conformational fault. The thing to remember is that the horse can still jump as high and move as well as they did before their legs became lumpy.
Founder
Laminitis or founder is a complex disease that we do not yet totally understand. It can have several causes and can vary in severity.
Unless you are used to dealing with chronic low grade founder in your seventeen year old fat pony then founder should be regarded as an emergency. Don’t wait until the pedal bone starts appearing through the sole of the foot before you call the vet.
Signs of founder are lying down a lot, bounding digital pulses in the affected feet, difficulty walking and when the horse stands still he may rock from foot to foot or roll back onto his heels. While waiting for your vet to come do not walk the horse very far. Make him as comfortable as possible, by standing him in deep sand or shavings which allows him to take the pressure off his sore toes. If you are keen to become a complete horseman and play a more active role in the maintenance of your horse’s health, discuss it with your vet, set up your first aid kit, surf the net, ask people with more horse experience than you – and read lots. Don’t be afraid to ask dumb questions and get in and have a go. Make a list of questions to ask your vet next time you see him, this will be much better received than if you ring him twice a day every time a question pops into your head. But, if in doubt and your horse’s health is at risk, ask someone.