E-Vet Clinic - Horse Health Care

Although the horse market is slow, there are still some good quality horses and ponies for sale. Prices may not be the best but for those really interested in their breed and furthering the development of it, breeding continues.  It will be interesting to see the numbers of this years foal crop - will they be down, will the lower prices of horses and the higher cost of care really affect how much breeding was being done? The problem - horse breeders would have had to know how bad the market was going to be a year ago, as it takes 11 months to cook a baby horse - (the length of pregnancy is 10 to 13 months in horses), so how much lower will the foal crop be his year? I am pretty sure that this years breeding season which is in full swing right now will be slower reducing the numbers for next year, but we shall see about this years number.

In the meantime check out this foal from The Pony Place USA - They are sure very cute. This one is 4 days old at the time of the pic…

If you are receiving this email -

I just called my feed store, and they confirmed that this was true, Purina
has recalled many of their feeds due to the potential aflatoxins as a
“precautionary measure” (his words).

From another list

Subject: PURINA RECALLS HORSEFEEDS

I think it is important for all horse owners to know that Purina has
issued two massive recalls this month affecting almost their entire horse
feed product line. This recall was not made available to the general
public. Notices went to the dealers directly. It is unconscionable that
they have made no effort contact the end users. On 4/9 they recalled 27
equine products, including senior and the platformline. On 4/21 they
recalled another 18 products. The problem is Aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are
toxic and one of the most carcinogenic substances known. They can cause
liver disfunction, immune suppression, and neurological difficulties.

Please share this information with your horse keepingfriends. It seems
that the only way this information is going to get out, is among
ourselves.

It actually is true. You can find the recall on Purina’s website —> Eastern U.S. Feed Product Retrieval

Remember when I wrote about feeding fat for horses - Feeding Fat in Horses not a fad

That diet was specifically formulated for EPSM or PSSM…well there is new research on that disease which shows that it has a genetic component, which is very exciting! It may be possible in the future to test for that genetic type and eliminate a disease that affects a large percentage of draft horses and a few Quarter Horses. What a way to improve horse health by breeding appropriately and removing a defect. It can be done with HYPP if there was not money involved in keeping that disease around…oops sorry did I say that.
Check out some of this information from the Horse - Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy: Blame It on the Genes 

And the actual paper of the research from PubMed -  Glycogen synthase (GYS1) mutation causes a novel skeletal muscle glycogenosis.