December Dental Deal! Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center, Inc.

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1 Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center, Inc. Serving Placer County, Surrounding Communities, and the Foothills Fall/Winter 2014 Dear LBEMC clients, We are excited to be sending out our 2014 Fall newsletter with the latest updates on healthcare for your horse. We hope that you have been able over this past year to take advantage of the monthly free educational dinners. They are announced by and typically fill up within a few days. The topics have included vaccines, Cushing s disease, stomach ulcers, and podiatry. We will be repeating some of these and incorporating Back by Popular Demand! December Dental Deal! Half Price Power Dentals during December 2014 only! Must do two or more horses to receive discount Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center (916) Penryn Road, Penryn, CA new ones for 2015, so please watch for the updates and make sure you are on our list. A big addition for 2015 is our 24 hour veterinary supply store. Located in our front office, it will be stocked with over-thecounter veterinary supplies including bandage materials, cleaning solutions, ointments, and much more. The store will be open for browsing and have items for purchase during normal business hours, but you can call anytime to place an order for pick-up. Many of you have suggested this addition to our facility and we are happy to make it a reality. We remind you every year and hope that you participate in our December Dental Special. As in years past, the dental floats are all half price if you have two or more horses. If your horse is enrolled in the Dental For Life program (same dental price for the life of your horse), please indicate this when making your appointment. As something new this year, we are announcing a program to encourage new horses to participate in the December Dental Special. For each new horse that comes for the December Dental Special and you are mentioned as the referring person, you will receive a $25 gift certificate for future services at LBEMC. To qualify as new, the horse cannot have had a teeth float with LBEMC in the past. There is no limit to the number of certificates you can earn. For example, if you can find ten new horses in your barn to join with you, we will give you $250 in gift certificates at LBEMC. Gift certificates can be used at our new 24 hour veterinary supply store or for any other future services. Thank you for your continued support of LBEMC. We appreciate your input and welcome your ideas, as always. Jill Higgins Catherine Jacobs Langdon Fielding

2 Having an Emergency Kit on hand could help save your horse s life By Jennifer Mayer, VMD Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center has a 24-hour-a-day emergency service to provide care for your horses, as well as donkeys, goats, sheep, alpacas, and llamas either at our hospital or on your farm. In an emergency, we recommend that you call us first to discuss your horse s condition to help formulate the best possible treatment plan. That said, there is a lot that you can do to help your horse before we get there, and that may even save its life. There are several supplies to have on hand in an emergency kit for the more common situations that may arise. We have provided a list of recommended items below. These can be stored in a barn tote, or even a backpack for travel. It is also important that you check regularly to be sure none have expired. Antiseptic Solution: Wounds are a common emergency, and it is important to minimize their contamination. Dilution is the solution to pollution, is our saying which can apply to cleaning wounds and minimizing the dirt and bacterial load. Dilute betadine solution (weak tea color) and chlorhexidine solution are two options to use. Antibiotic Ointment: Once a wound is clean and has been gently patted dry with a clean towel, ointment can be applied. Although there are several options on the market, we recommend SSD (silver sulfadiazine), triple antibiotic ointment, or Nitrofurazone ointment (gloves must be worn when handling this formulation due to risk when contacting human skin). Hoof Pick: If your horse becomes lame and has no obvious wound, a good place to start is by picking out each foot to be sure that no rocks or foreign bodies are embedded. Call us immediately if your horse has stepped on a nail. It can be very helpful for us to examine your horse with the nail still in the foot to determine the depth and location of penetration of the important soft tissue structures of the foot. Hoof Boot: Feet are the most common source of lameness in the horse. If you are on a ride far from your home or trailer and your horse steps on a rock or suffers other trauma to the foot, a good quality boot can provide cushion and support to the affected foot when walking your horse back. It is important to have boots appropriately sized to fit both the front and back feet, as it can be dangerous to walk your horse in boots that are either too large or too small. EasyBoot and Renegade make a good quality product, as well as several other options on the market. Bandage materials, clean towel, duct tape, and pressure application: Even though everyone tries to provide a safe environment for his or her horse, horses can still find ways to hurt themselves. Wounds over large vessels can lead to a significant amount of bleeding. It is important to apply prolonged pressure over such wounds to control the bleeding. If the wound is on the body, or at any other difficult site to wrap, you can use a clean towel and apply pressure with your hand. If the location of injury can be wrapped (for instance, the lower part of a leg), clean bandage material can be used to apply pressure. Layers may include (from inner-most to outer-most) a non-adherent pad, rolled gauze, sheet cotton, brown gauze, vet wrap, and elastikon. It is important that vet wrap is never in direct contact with the horse s skin, as this material can become too tight and prevent appropriate circulation. If you are less familiar with bandaging, you can still help your horse in this type of situation by placing a clean dressing such as a non-adherent pad, combine surgical pad, or a clean baby diaper over the wound and securing it with elastikon or duct tape until a veterinarian arrives. Thermometer: A digital thermometer that gives a rapid, accurate rectal temperature will provide useful information in an emergency. Banamine Paste for pain and inflammation and triple antibiotic eye ointment can be helpful in an emergency. As both medications require a prescription, please contact your veterinarian if you are interested in including them in your kit. Since none of us can predict when an emergency will occur, the best thing you can do for your horse is to have an emergency kit readily accessible, access to a telephone, and your veterinarian s phone number on hand. LBEMC Fall/Winter 2014 Page 2

3 By Diane Rhodes, DVM, DACVIM Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (C. pseudotuberculosis) is a bacterium that lives in the soil and is the agent responsible for causing Pigeon Fever. C. pseudotuberculosis usually causes external abscesses which most commonly form over the pectoral region; thus, giving the disease its name. However, it may also cause internal abscesses and ulcerative lymphangitis (infection within the lymphatics of the leg). Clinical signs of external abscesses in- Pigeon Fever clude swelling, heat, pain, and lameness associated with abscess formation. Diagnosis typically consists of blood work, ultrasound, and culture of the organism from the abscess. Once the abscess is superficial, facilitated drainage of it may speed recovery. In general, most cases of external Pigeon Fever do not require antibiotic therapy. Fever, weight-loss, decreased appetite and lethargy are clinical signs associated with internal abscesses. Internal infections and ulcerative lymphangitis caused by C. pseudotuberculosis are more serious forms of the disease and may be more challenging to diagnose. Prolonged antibiotic therapy (up to several months) is required in these forms of the disease. While the disease has long been recognized in the Western states, the incidence is increasing throughout the United States, with cases being identified as far east as Kentucky. The organism may persist in the soil for long periods of time and can survive in a wide range of soil types and environmental conditions. Cases of Pigeon Fever are most commonly seen in the late summer and the fall. It is thought that flies serve as mechanical vectors for the bacterium, which then gains access to the body through microscopic abrasions within the skin. Prevention of Pigeon Fever starts with good fly control. The use of fly spray and appropriate manure management often help control the fly population. Unfortunately, as the organism naturally lives in the soil, it is difficult to eradicate from the environment. Be sure to consult with your veterinarian if you suspect that your horse may have Pigeon Fever. Habronemiasis: The Summer Sore By Elizabeth Howard, DVM Summer sores are a common problem for horses in our area during the warm summer and fall months. Habronemiasis, the scientific name for summer sores, is caused by fly larvae penetrating skin and open wounds. The life cycle begins in the stomach of the horse. Stomach worms pass eggs and larvae in manure where they are ingested by maggots of stable and house flies; the intermediate hosts. When these flies land on your horse s face, mouth, and legs, they deposit infectious habronema larvae. Although all horses are exposed to habronema larvae, not all horses get summer sores. First, the larvae have to be deposited in the right place (i.e. corner of the mouth and eyes) at the right time (when there is adequate moisture or an open wound). A true summer sore will only occur if your horse has a hypersensitivity reaction to the larvae deposited. Summer sores are not contagious and can commonly only affect one horse in a herd or barn. These pesky sores generally occur near mucocutaneous junctions such as around the mouth, in the corners of the eyes, and at the tip of the penis. In more severe cases the sores can also be continued on next page LBEMC Fall/Winter 2014 Page 3

4 Equine Allergies By Catherine Jacobs, DVM If your horse was rubbing his mane or tail, had sores on his underbelly or hairless spots or hives on his coat during the spring and summer months, chances are your horse had allergies. Horses with allergies are, for the most part, starting to look and feel better as winter rains move in, dust settles, and insects die off. The large majority of our allergic horse population, with a few exceptions, improves in the winter months. Most horses manifest their allergies through skin lesions or respiratory conditions. The average age when horses begin to develop allergic conditions is between 2 and 12 years of age. The first season they often have mild signs, which progress with each passing year. In this region, we commonly see horses with allergies to molds, dusts, and pollens of grasses, weeds and trees, as well as to insect bites. The individual hypersensitivity reaction can vary from horse to horse. Some horses allergies will manifest as hives with or without associated urticaria ( itchiness ). Others will respond by rubbing their mane and/or tail until the hair is broken or almost gone in these areas. Still others will develop scaly flaky skin with hair loss over the neck, shoulders, chest and face. Less commonly, we will see horses developing airway restriction secondary to hypersensitivity or allergies. tion and control of exposure to their bites. Inhaled allergens need to be identified through blood testing or skin testing. However, even though identified, the specific allergens affecting the allergic horse are often ubiquitous and difficult to remove from the environment. As a result, medicating the horse through its allergic season, or having allergen specific immunotherapy made for the horse are often the best approaches to treating these horses. Treatment of summer sores is a multistep process. Although most summer sores heal during the cooler winter months, they can become a chronic problem if not appropriately treated by your veterinarian when they first occur. The key to treating summer sores is with debridement of the sore in order to get rid of all of the sulfur granules. After debridement is complete, a steroid is injected into and under the sore to calm down the hypersensitivcontinued from previous page When it has been determined that a horse is suffering from an allergic condition the challenge becomes discovering what allergens are causing the allergic reaction. Insect hypersensitivities are often best treated with reduction of the insect populalocated in what is considered normal skin on the legs and face. Summer sores are usually round, may bleed intermittently, can have a foul odor, and consist of granulation tissue and small yellow sulfur granules. ity response. Next, a topical ointment containing antibiotics and steroids is applied to the sore. It is recommended that the summer sore is cleaned daily and ointment applied until the wound is healed. In many cases, summer sores have to be debrided and injected with steroids multiple times to resolve completely. If your horse gets summer sores on a yearly basis that don t heal easily with the protocol described above, we may put your horse on systemic steroids as a more aggressive treatment. Many owners ask if deworming their horses with Ivermectin will help with healing of summer sores. Deworming may help prevent summer sores in the long run, but usually does not encourage healing of active sores. It is important to remember that summer sores are a hypersensitivity reaction caused by the habronema larvae in the sores and Ivermectin only targets the adult stomach worms. Prevention of summer sores can be very difficult and they occur on horses in all types of environments. Fly control, manure removal, and early detection of habronemiasis are the best bets in keeping your horses summer sore free. LBEMC Fall/Winter 2014 Page 4

5 Temperature, pulse, respiration Brittney Strong, RVT These three words may be foreign to some of you, but it is important to your horse s well-being that you become comfortable with them. Just like humans, equines have normals that are associated with their species; however, these are not always the same for each horse. This is why it is so important to know what is normal for your horse. Equine normals are: rectal temperature 98.5 F F, pulse (heart rate) beats per minute, and respiration rate breaths per minute. How in the world do I even begin to figure out these parameters for my horse? Here is a simple step by step method. First, you need to invest in an inexpensive stethoscope and digital thermometer. These can be left in the trailer or in the barn (wherever you know you can access them quickly and easily). It would be a great idea to measure the parameters described above at two different times; first, while your horse is at rest and second, during activities that he is used to performing on a regular basis. To take a rectal temperature, stand to the side of the rear of your horse, move the tail to the side and insert thermometer (with lubricant) enough to cover the metal tip, then gently angle it towards the rectal wall so you are not measuring the temperature of feces! To measure the heart rate, utilize the point just off the elbow on the left side, and listen for the lub-dub of the heart beat. Each lub-dub counts as 1 beat. Count for 15 seconds and then multiply by 4. This will give you beats per minute. Finally, to check a respiration rate, visualize your horse s abdomen in the lower flank area and count either the inhalations (flank goes in) or exhalations (flank goes out), but not both. Again, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. This will give you breaths per minute. These procedures require practice and patience. You should do them on a regular basis not only so that you become comfortable with performing them, but also so that your horse gets used to them. Don t wait until there is a medical emergency to take your first set of vital signs as you will very likely not take them accurately. Practice them often. This helps us in the hospital because if your horse is ever admitted we check its vital signs 4 times a day! Please don t hesitate to stop by the clinic with your horse if you need a more hands on tutorial for checking these basic parameters that can be vital information given to your veterinarian in an emergency situation. Thank you and until next time! Oh, my! LBEMC Fall/Winter 2014 Page 5

6 Loomis Basin Equine Medical Center, Inc Penryn Road, Penryn, CA (916) PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID AUBURN,CA PERMIT NO. 128 LBEMC doctors providing personalized care: Langdon Fielding, DVM, DACVECC (Equine Critical Care) Catherine Jacobs, DVM Jill Higgins, DVM Bob Morgan, DVM Jason Errico, DVM, DACVS (Surgery) Diana Stolba, DVM Eduardo De La Cruz, DVM Jennifer Mayer, VMD Elizabeth Howard, DVM Emily Wilson, DVM Diane Rhodes, DVM, DACVIM (Internal Medicine) Newsletter Design: Printing: API- Marketing visit our website at: lbemc.com