E-Vet Clinic - Horse Health Care

Horses today are living longer. An article from EquiSearch (www.equisearch.com) gives information in regards to five areas that you can help your horse live a long healthy life.

5 Ways to Help Your Horse Live Longer starts out by describing a study done by Tufts University which was a survey done of over 600 horses. What was discovered leads to these five areas that you need to manage in order to have a healthy long living horse.

Sounds familiar to what I have been saying for years, add a couple of other areas such as Tack Fit and Farriery and you have all the categories you need to improve movement in your horse as well.

Now I will have to say that this article is more inclined to the traditional veterinary medicine in the area of parasite control but other than that the article is a great review of what a whole health outlook can do for your horse.

Personally I would avoid deworming products unless necessary, however, you definitely need to check fecal samples many more times than 2 times a year. For the best care of your horse I would suggest monthly or every other month fecal checks. If your horse is positive for parasites then give a deworming product and recheck the fecal sample two weeks later. There are companies that specialize in fecal checks. You just send them the sample and they run the test at a very reasonable cost. Such as Horsemen’s Laboratory (horsemenslab.com)

OK exercise is actually good for the immune system in moderation. Excessive strenous activities such as racing or showing your horse in multiple classes in a horse show can have a dramatic negative effect on the immune system.

Here is an article found in The Horse about a study on the effects of strenous activity on the immune system. www.thehorse.com/viewarticle.aspx?ID=9910

To summarize what the researchers in Italy’s Sport Horse Research Center found is that genes are affected by intense activity. Four of the genes affected are related to the cell cycle and metabolism management. “If these genes are overexpressed or underexpressed, immunity is affected.”

Interesting study, which of course leads to more questions, but the common horseperson can understand that physical stress can lead to becoming ill…DUH!

Sugar Puff, a Shetland Pony, was put down on May 25th after “complicated health problems” made him collapse.

He was 56 years old owned by Sally Botting of West Sussex, UK. This definitely a testament on how good health care can really extend the life of your horse or in this case a pony.

Read the article about this news story in Horse and Hound

Thanks to Dr Alan Weldon for pointing out this story.