Strangles is a highly infectious bacterial disease of horses that is highly prevalent in the UK. An outbreak of strangles can potentially involve all the horses on the yard, some may become very sick and the outbreak can cause a lot of disruption to your plans along with costs associated with treatment and testing. There is a vaccine that can help reduce the clinical signs in infected horses and reduce the rate of spread on yards. This article discusses the role of the vaccine.
Earlier in the year we sent all our clients a survey asking a few questions about our client service and your experience using us. The aim was to get some feedback so we can review what we do and either continue doing a great job or make some improvements to areas we could be doing better.
Many of you already perform regular faecal worm egg counts which is great, however these are not a reliable way of detecting tapeworm infections in horses. Historically many horses have been covered for tapeworm with combination wormers (like Equest Pramox or Equimax) either annually or biannually in Spring and Autumn (at the start and end of the grazing seasons) – however this should be replaced with testing which allows us to target treat only those who need it. In one of our previous blogs on worming we discussed the importance of only using wormers when they are indicated, usually by a positive test result, to help prevent resistance developing to the few products available to us.
Testing for tapeworm involves measuring tapeworm-specific antibodies – these antibodies are produced by the body in response to recognition of a tapeworm infection. There are two ways that we can measure antibodies – a simple blood test can be taken by the vet or a saliva test can be performed by horse owners. The saliva test is most commonly used and is simple to perform with a specially designed swab for collecting saliva.
We recommend testing for tapeworm in Autumn to allow us to make an educated decision on which wormer, if any, needs to be given in the Autumn-Winter period. Some horses which are higher risk may also need to repeat the testing in Spring. It is important not to test for tapeworm until four months after the last tapeworm treatment was given as testing too soon can affect the results.
The equine tapeworm’s (Anoplocephala perfoliata) body is made up of segments called proglottids, as these proglottids mature they are eventually passed into the faeces where they will rupture and release their eggs onto the pasture. The tapeworm eggs are then ingested by orbatid mites which live in the soil – these mites are what horses ingest whilst grazing leading to re-infection with tapeworm. A horse may be harbouring various life-stages of the tapeworm at once and the release of egg-containing proglottids into faeces is intermittent therefore faecal worm egg counts are not a reliable way of detecting tapeworm burden.
Tapeworm burdens can cause inflammation of the gut wall and are linked to various types of colic. The greater the tapeworm burden, the greater the likelihood of developing clinical signs. Tapeworm are commonly found in the caecum (a blind-ending sac at the beginning of the large intestine) and at the ileo-caecal junction (the junction between the end of the small intestine and the caecum) therefore these are the locations we commonly find disease. Clinical signs can range from mild colic to severe colic which may require surgical intervention!
Don’t forget about encysted redworm too – this time of year it is also important to consider your horses redworm risk. Your horse may still need treating for encysted redworm despite a negative tapeworm test, depending on your horses individual risk. Similarly to tapeworm we can measure redworm antibodies to assess redworm burden, there is currently only a blood test available for this. We strongly recommend only worming for encysted redworm if there is evidence to suggest your horse needs it - e.g. a positive test result or your horse falls into the high risk category. Risk assessment is based on clinical history, age, worming testing history and pasture/herd management - please contact us if you would like more information on this/want to discuss your horses individual risk.
As always if you have any questions about worming or want to know how to go about testing in your horse, please do get in touch!
Holly x
Equine gastric ulcer syndrome can be a cause of poor performance, behavioural problems, poor condition, recurrent colic and more. The term equine gastric ulcer syndrome is an umbrella term for two conditions – squamous disease and glandular disease.
The equine stomach can be divided into two parts:
Equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD) is well understood. Due to the nature of this mucosa and its limited defence mechanisms, ulceration in this area is caused by direct acid injury.
Risks for squamous ulceration include exercise, fasting and increased acidity in the stomach contents.
The risk factors for equine glandular gastric disease (EGGD) are not as well understood as squamous disease. The exact reasoning as to why we can see a failure in the stomach's natural defence mechanisms is unknown, however it is often highly influenced by external risk factors:
So with these risk factors in mind, what can you do to help reduce the risk of gastric ulceration?
Squamous ulcers
Glandular ulcers
It is that time of year again where many of us will be tirelessly digging out ragwort from our fields. But why do we need to do it?
Why is Ragwort poisonous?
Ragwort contains toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids which if ingested in sufficient quantities can cause poisoning in horses. Small amounts of ragwort eaten over a long period of time causes accumulation of the toxin in the liver which results in liver damage. Alternatively large amounts ingested in a short period of time will also cause liver damage. Although the mature plant is generally avoided by horses due to its bitter taste, the nature of this cumulative effect means even small amounts of ragwort in your horses field should be removed.
What are the symptoms of Ragwort poisoning?
The toxin causes liver damage therefore symptoms are consistent with liver disease or failure. It is important to remember that horses may not display symptoms until the condition is advanced.
Symptoms include:
Lethargy
Photosensitivity – inflammation of white-haired/pink-skinned areas when exposed to sunlight
Weight loss
Diarrhoea
Colic
Neurological signs – blindness, compulsive walking, head pressing
For those not displaying symptoms, we can assess liver damage through a simple blood test. This blood test can detect elevated liver enzymes however does not confirm a diagnosis of ragwort poisoning; a liver biopsy can tell us more information about cause of elevated liver enzymes.
Treatment of Ragwort poisoning
Treatment is based primarily on supportive care to aid liver regeneration. In severe cases, liver damage can be irreparable and prognosis is guarded even with treatment.
Supportive therapies may include milk thistle, vitamin E and selenium.
Prevention and control
It is not enough to assume your horse will choose not to eat ragwort so control is essential. Regular checks of your horses field will identify presence of any new plants so it is important to know what we are looking for throughout the year.
Seedlings can start to appear in autumn – they are about 1-1.5cm tall
Rosettes are generally seen from early spring onwards
Mature plants flower between May and October – these can reach up to 2m!
Ragwort removal
Spraying is an option for large affected areas however the dead plant is still poisonous so all traces need removing before anything is to graze on the area again.
Ragwort can be disguised into hay and is more palatable this way so may be accidentally ingested – look for thick fibrous stems, yellow flower heads, leaves with ragged edges and remove where possible.
If you have any concerns or would like some advice on Ragwort please remember to speak to your vet - we can be contacted on 07747 717474, please note we can only give opinions on horses in our area who are registered clients. Enjoy the sun! Holly x
Strangles awareness week has just passed and following on from this we thought it would be a good idea just to give a little refresher on Strangles!
Coming into spring with the grass starting to come through – and likely some warmer weather coming soon here is a reminder of what laminitis is and what we can do with laminitis.
We have already given a brief summary on facebook (click here) and Holly has written about feeding for a laminitis prone horse / pony – click here for more details.
If you want more details there is also a recent information leaflet by BOVA - here, and a weight management leaflet here.
Why is laminitis such a concern?
Laminitis is a very painful condition of the hooves in horses, ponies and donkeys, which in some cases can start without any warning. It is common and unfortunately once you have laminitis it is much more likely to have another episode in the future. Laminitis can also lead uncontrolled pain or a poor prognosis and is one of the more common reasons horses are euthanased.
Even with milder cases horses can be on rest and out of work for long periods of time.
What causes Laminitis?
In the vast majority of cases laminitis is caused by one of two hormonal diseases (endocrine):
Cushings disease (mostly in older horses) or Equine metabolic Syndrome (EMS – similar to type II diabetes in people) which is usually seen in overweight horses.
Both of these conditions can be diagnosed by blood tests and are managed with medication, weight management, diet and exercise – details of which are coming in a blog in June, or click here for an older article.
Other causes include:
Signs:
Acute sudden cases can show: severe pain, weight shifting, high heart rate, reluctant to move or recumbent (lying down) – and they can in some cases be difficult to distinguish from colic.
More chronic cases – often have more subtle signs, but have pain especially when walking on hard or uneven ground, difficulty turning and raised digital pulses.
Below is a short video of a horse with laminitis trying to move:
What to do if my horse has signs?
If out bring your horse in slowly and rest them in a box with a deep bed. Make sure there is fresh water available and keep them on a restricted diet – ideally on soaked hay, but making sure you avoid anything rich in carbohydrate or sugars – see Holly’s recent post for more details.
Most horses with laminitis will need a visit from your vet for a diagnosis, pain relief, blood tests and x-rays/treatment as recommended.
Treatment
Rest on a deep bed is an important part of treatment – this should reduce further damage to the laminae in the hoof and allow the hoof to start to repair. Hoof support from pads and when more comfortable remedial farriery to fit support shoes like heartbars may also help.
X-rays can be important as they allow us to see what is going on inside your horses hooves - and help assess severity and plan treatment / farriery. They can also help assess how long it will take for your horse to recover and make a plan going forward.
Pain relief – as above horses can be in a lot of pain and need courses of pain relief including bute or other NSAID drugs and in more severe cases other types of pain relief are likely to be included as well.
Weight management – overweight horses are more likely to have equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) which is a common cause of lamintis, but losing weight reduces this risk and can control it well in many horses. In the shorter term medication can help control this condition.
Recovery
Recovery can take weeks in milder cases and months in more severe cases – more than 60% of horses are back in work within 8 weeks.
How to prevent laminitis
Laminitis cannot be cured completely with many severe cases not returning to complete comfort, and recurrence being common. However steps to avoid recurrence and also the first episode of laminitis include:
If you have any concerns your horse may have laminitis please remember to speak to your vet - we can be contacted on 07747 717474, please note we can only give opinions on horses in our area who are registered clients.
FORAGE
Forage is an essential part of all horses and ponies diets to maintain a healthy gastrointestinal system so we need to find a balance when dieting.
To assist weight loss and reduce risk of laminitis and equine metabolic syndrome diet should be low in non-structural carbohydrates (simple starches and sugars) – ideally non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) content should be less than 10%.
Knowing the starch and sugar content of your hay can be tricky, generally later cut/coarser hay is lower in NSCs however it is not an exact science. There are now various companies offering forage analysis, these can be found easily with a google search.
As a general rule hay has a lower NSC content than haylage so is most often the forage of choice. Straw has the lowest NSC content - good quality straw can be used to replace a small percentage of the hay ration (no more than 30%) if needing to slow eating time.
How much?
1.5% bodyweight for weight loss – for a 500kg horse this equates to 7.5kg per 24 hour period, for a 250kg pony this equates to 3.75kg per 24 hour period
1.75% bodyweight for maintenance – for a 500kg horse this equates to 8.75kg, for a 250kg pony this equates to 4.4kg per 24 hour period
Soaking hay
Soaking hay is a sustainable approach to weight loss – by removing carbohydrates from the hay it allows us to feed adequate quantities of fibre in order to maintain welfare and gut health while minimizing starch and sugar intake.
We recommend soaking hay for 10-12 hours for EMS and laminitis.
Soaking also removes minerals so horses need to be supplemented for these – the easiest way to do this is by feeding a balancer – most balancers are below 10% NSCs and there are lots of low calorie balancers available that are aimed at good doers.
Soaking reduces palatability so it can be necessary to increase soaking time gradually.
Soak in cold water and ideally out of direct sunlight - soaking at higher temperatures might encourage bacterial growth.
Haylage cannot be soaked due to fermentation and bacterial growth.
Supplementary feeding
As mentioned earlier it is often a good idea to supplement your horse or pony with a light/low calorie balancer to ensure they are getting the vitamins and minerals they require, especially when on soaked hay and/or a grass-free diet.
These can be safely accompanied by a molasses-free chaff or mash to increase fibre intake.
The 10% rule applies to feeds too! So look out for those little numbers on the back of the bag – less than 10% starch and sugar!
Grazing
Time at grass needs to be managed carefully, consider one or more of the following options:
As many of you are aware, atypical myopathy is a deadly disease with devastating consequences for both the horse and the owner. Atypical myopathy in horses occurs when components, usually seeds or shoots, of the sycamore tree (Acer pseudoplatanus) are ingested. One of the features that makes atypical myopathy so fatal is the relatively tiny amount of toxin required to cause disease in horses. Sadly, once the toxin has been absorbed into the bloodstream, there isn’t much we can do. This post aims to explain the disease process behind sycamore toxicity and why we have seen an increase in cases in recent years.
Sycamore trees, Box Elder trees, and the unripe fruit of the Ackee tree all contain a naturally occurring protein called hypoglycin A. If a human ingests the unripe fruit of the Ackee tree, a clinical syndrome extremely similar to atypical myopathy called Jamaican vomiting sickness is caused. The Ackee tree is not indigenous to the UK, but there is a plant commonly found in this country that contains a very high concentration of this toxin – the sycamore tree.
When hypoglycin A enters the body, it is rapidly broken down to the active toxin methylene cyclopropyl acetic acid (MCPA). This toxin blocks one of the key enzymes involved in the conversion of fatty acids to usable cellular energy. This prevents cells from metabolising fatty acids and making new molecules of glucose. Think of fatty acids and glucose as petrol and diesel, and hypoglycin A as a blockage in the fuel tank. When the supply of fuel is cut off, cells must start using their “reserve fuel” called glycogen. Once this back up fuel is used up, the cells have no way of obtaining a fuel source and the cell’s engine begins to shut down. This is why there is a delay between toxin ingestion and the appearance of clinical signs.
Figure 1: Hypoglycin A
The cells that run out of fuel first are the ones with the highest energy demands. One of the cells that work the hardest in a horse’s body are the muscle cells (myocytes). These muscle cells are the first victim of hypoglycin A toxicity, hence the name atypical (not typical) myo- (muscle) -pathy (disease). When the muscle cells begin to starve, signs such as sweating, muscle lethargy, muscle weakness, muscle fasciculations and tremors, colic signs, and dark coloured urine are seen. As the disease progresses, more and more cells begin to run out of fuel, resulting in worsening clinical signs. The deadliest feature of atypical myopathy is that the actions of hypoglycin A are irreversible. Once MCPA has blocked the cell’s fuel tank, there is no going back. The only hope is that the amount of hypoglycin A ingested was small enough that only some of the cells have a blocked fuel tank, and enough have been unaffected.
Recently, we have seen an sharp increase in atypical myopathy cases caused by an increase in the amount of hypoglycin A in the environment. The term “mast year” is used when a tree produces an abnormally high number of seeds. These seeds will subsequently go on to produce an abnormally high number of shoots. It is this phenomenon that has caused the higher-than-average number of atypical myopathy cases in recent years. Although the concentration of hypoglycin A in seeds and shoots varies dramatically, only a very small amount is needed to cut off the fuel supply to all the cells in a horse’s body. The only way to stop this devastating disease is to prevent horses from ingesting seeds and shoots containing hypoglycin A.
For further information regarding atypical myopathy, please click here. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 07747 771 182.
Do you know your flu vaccination rules for competitions? Lots have changed recently, and different organisations have rules that do not match. In some cases some venues have different rules too!
I’ve put together a list of organisations and their current rules for vaccination - many of you will already know about these if you attend their events, but please check if you are not sure!
This is not a complete list but I’ve summarised Pony Club, Riding Club, BD, BSJA, BE and FEI below.
Sarcoids are types of tumour which occur in the skin. They are the most common type of equine skin tumour and have a wide range of appearances.
Common places which we see sarcoids include between the back and front legs, around the sheath, eyes or ears or on the chest or abdomen. They are common in younger to middle aged horses but can present at any age, a genetic predisposition has been noted so there may be horses that are more prone to getting them.
Melanomas are skin tumours that predominantly affect grey horses. Approximately 80% of grey horses will develop at least one melanoma in their lifetime so it is part of the course of owning a grey. Here we discuss what these tumours are, how they may develop and how to make decisions as an owner about what to do if your horse has them.
