It has been a very busy past couple weeks. The Summer Show Series is in full swing at the Colorado Horse Park, I spent my first weekend of 7 out there this past weekend, and we certainly had a full schedule! Littleton Equine is the official show vet there, so someone is basically always around. We saw a lot of the typical health certs, PPE's, joint injections, a lot of lameness exams and thus following with a million and one rads..! At least, it feels like it :D
I was out with one of the new interns, Dr. Katy Mayhew, and Dr. French was our main staff vet on hand. Dr. French does both acupuncture and chiropractic as well, so there were a lot of adjustments and needles, which was great because I have found a really strong interest in both of those areas.
There was a horse that developed a fever and some bilateral nasal discharge, so it was important to keep monitoring him closely. This also led to discussions and actions about creating some isolation areas out there at the park for when situations like this arise. So that's exciting and in the works to finally have a designated iso area.
There was also the fair share of fun as well, we had a couple opportunities to watch the Grand Prix show jumping Saturday night, where some of Littleton's clients got 1st and 3rd. Sunday was the Hunter and Jumper Derby's and thankfully no injuries, but they certainly push those horses hard. It was great to see some fantastic athletes at work.
As for my other days, for the most point I was back in the hospital, either in ICU or surgery days. We had a pretty busy week in ICU, some colic recoveries, one with a potential abdominal abscess that we were trying to get and stay in front of, another snake bite, and some mares with their foals, for various reasons. Thankfully it was a pretty clean bill of health for most of them.
On surgery, there was also quite the variation. Along with the normal arthroscopes, we had another arthrodesis, except this one was in the hock. Dr. Devine just went in to the TMT and DIT joints and removed some of the cartilage remaining, and predicts that within 4-6 months, ideally, the joint will be fused. He tells clients to give it a year though, just to really make sure. I was also surprised with the drastic differences within joints for arthrodesis. How much range of motion, the location, etc all of those factors that play into the intensity of the procedure.
We also had a mare come in with a broken mandible and numerous scratches and lacerations. The owners were unsure of what had happened, unfortunately, so it was kind of a mystery. Dr. Devine used 3 cerclage wires to realign and secure the mandible together. He said that they could come out after about 6-8 weeks, do some rechecks to make sure, but if there is the contact within the bone, then it should be successful. We were all very curious as to what had happened!
One interesting thing that I learned the other week that is somewhat unique to Colorado/high altitude areas is the use of isoxsuprine in the treatment of some navicular horses. The drug is mostly a cardiac drug for humans, but after speaking with Dr. Beeman out here, he says that it seems to have some affinity for horses as well. The problem with navicular cases here, is that at a higher altitude, liquids and gases expand, thus increasing pressures. This can cause more pain in a constricted area like the foot. Isoxsuprine has been shown to increase the venous return (not necessarily the volume), and acts as a vasodilator, so when given here, it has a relieving effect. Dr. Beeman also said that many people in lower elevations don't see the same results, due to differences in pressures. I found this really interesting! The altitude here and even higher into the mountains presents some really unique challenges to our animals and it's been intriguing learning some of these differences from the sea level of Michigan.
Again, as I said, this summer has not been without fun..! Dr. Devine, our surgeon, actually front lines a country band, so I was able to go up to a small town called Evergreen where Dustin Devine and the Real Deal had a gig at the Little Bear bar! It was really fun to see some people outside of the hospital, and he showed off many more sides of talent! Looking forward to another exciting week here, hope everyone's summers are going great too!
-Taylor Alton
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