Littleton Equine Week 9

Hello Hello! The last few weeks have been amazing! It's been a whirlwind of activity, but we're in a bit of a lull today so I had time to write about what I've been up to.

Week 9

We had a draft gelding come into the clinic this week as “ADR”. He had 104 fever but was BAR on presentation. He was a colic patient a while ago. He also had a partially thrombosed jugular vein which was thick, but not warm on palpation. He was worked up with gastroscopy and ultrasound, as we weren’t sure exactly what was causing him discomfort. U/S indicated cellulitis just proximal to his left carpus. He responded well to therapy and was supposed to go home but had an episode of going down and struggling to get up. Post- struggle, he had acute preputial swelling- firm and cool to the touch. At this point he was acting extremely painful, very unlike him. Ultrasound and his continuous swelling indicated hemorrhage. He’s able to place his left hind, but was knuckling over. Possible for pelvic Fx of tuber ischii given the swelling location- could have happened when he lay down and tried to get up. Very difficult to image due to his large size and the significant swelling. Plan at the moment is to monitor.

Thursday was spent at horse park. I jogged for a couple of quick lameness exams and watched a jumper class in the international ring.

Friday I was with Dr. Toll. We saw a variety of cases, including a couple of wound evaluations, an emergency colic, and health certificates. Of particular interest was a middle-aged Peruvian Paso brood mare. She had severely overgrown hooves and was laminitic. She had a body condition score of maybe a 2/9. On her left front, she had a wound that extended from carpus to fetlock. It appeared to be from being chewed on by the horse (and then by flies.) The wound had been bandaged 5 days prior. The bandage was removed, the wound cleaned with nolvosan/water, and a new bandage was applied. The horse was given IM antibiotics and IM vitamin B12 to increase appetite. Dr. Toll is working with the owner to get the mare’s feet trimmed and resolve the laminitis, and also to de-worm the horse as she believes the wound is being affected by a heavy parasite load. The horse has never been de-wormed. This case emphasized the importance of client communication and education, and meeting clients “where they’re at” to work with them in the best interest of the animals.

We also went to an animal rescue that has recently had problems with respiratory disease. A few horses have come up strangles positive and given the nature of the facility management (waste removal and feeding practices), Dr. Toll believes that the disease may have been spread to several paddocks unintentionally. It was very interesting watching Dr. Toll and the barn/paddock manager work to come up with biosecurity measurements to contain the disease as best as possible. It was determined that healthy horses would be vaccinated and that all horses would need to be temped every day until the disease was under control. Potential adopters would need to be notified of the problem on the property as well.