The end of summer

As the summer comes to an end and school starts I thought I would write one last post to sum up the summer. The last horse show we attended was Youth Nationals in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a tough show for the horses because they travel a long way to get there and they are ridden a lot at the show. At this show we did our usual work to help the horses remain sound during the show, but we also had several medical cases to treat. These consisted of colics and pneumonias. The colics that we had were treated by giving I.V. fluids and banamine if the horse was far enough away from showing. There are certain drug rules for horses that are showing to ensure that no horse has an unfair advantage. We had to be careful of this when treating the horses. The horses that had pneumonia were given antibiotics, and sent to a nearby clinic. This was because they need more extensive care than we could give; they require the antibiotics at certain time intervals that we were unable to continue to do. Other than the medical cases, there were a few interesting lameness cases.

In one case the horse was a grade 4 out of 5 lame with a swollen leg. We brought the swelling down, and watched the horse move again. Once the swelling was gone the horse was the same grade of lameness. This caused us to perform other diagnostics. Dr. Ocull thought there was a potential tendon injury so she began with an ultrasound which showed a potential foreign body. We then took a few x-rays of the horse's fetlock to try and see the foreign body. The x-rays showed nothing, which made us believe the substance was not metallic. Luckily Dr. Wallis was with us and he is a board certified surgeon. He removed the foreign body with the horse standing. It turned out to be a wood chip, and the horse went on to compete in his classes.

After the horse show we drove back to Michigan and our work load slowed down. We did our normal routine calls, looking at lameness cases at different farms. We also had one more surgery day, where Dr. Hill worked up some referred lameness cases. Overall, I had a really enjoyable summer with performance equine. I learned a lot and got to see some really cool cases. It was a very hands on experience and Dr. Hill was a great teacher. It made for an interesting and fun summer.

Dr. Wallis removing the wood chip

The wood chip from the horse's fetlock. 

The wood chip on ultrasound. 

Ultrasound image of a normal lung. 

Ultrasound image of a lung from a horse with pneumonia.