Horse Health Care

Cushing’s disease occurs in various animals (e.g. dogs, horses, people), although the symptoms in horses are different than the symptoms in other animals (e.g. in dogs it results in hair loss whereas in horses it results in greater hair growth). When the disease occurs in horses, it is known as Equine Cushings Disease (or ECD).

ECD is the result of excessive steroid production by the adrenal glands. This is caused by the pituitary gland producing too much hormones and thus over-stimulating the adrenals, which is usually the result of either tumor growth on the pituitary or age-related growth of the pituitary gland itself. Both changes of the pituitary are age-related, so ECD is most common in older horses (over 15 years) but has been found in horses as young as seven.

The nature and cause of the disease itself was first explained by Harvey Cushing, an American brain surgeon, in’21. Consequently, the disease is named after him.

The symptoms of cushings disease vary somewhat from horse to horse, with the more common symptoms including: – Changes to the coat. It may become longer and curly. It may not be shed in Spring. In some cases the color becomes lighter. – Increased sweating. This is often due to the coat become longer and thicker, and retention of the winter coat into summer. – Weight loss despite increased appetite and food consumption. Changes to the body shape, with loss of muscle in back and neck, and development of pendulous abdomen. – General depression, loss of coat shine, horse looks ill. – Development of diabetes and a resulting increase in water consumption. This can be difficult to detect with pastured horses, but with stabled horses one may notice an abnormal amount of urine (or soiled bedding) in its box. – Development of laminitis. The most common cause of normal laminitis is carbohydrate overload due to eating spring grass, whereas ECD-caused laminitis is more frequent in autumn and winter since ECD is worse when the days are shorter (this is because the pineal gland is light-sensitive and as daylight decreases it stimulates the pituitary gland). – Immune system declines, leaving the horse more prone to infections and slower to heal from external injuries. – The depressions above the eyes fill in. These depressions are most evident when a horse is chewing, but gradually fill in with fat in ECD horses.

Any of these symptoms can be caused by a variety of illnesses other than ECD. Consequently, blood and urine tests are normally used to confirm that the cause is ECD (e.g. by measuring hormone levels and hormone response levels) and to rule out other possible diseases. Studies have shown that many horses with ECD are either not diagnosed or incorrectly diagnosed (the symptoms are incorrectly attributed to a different disease), with the result that they do not receive appropriate treatment.

Unfortunately it is not possible to cure ECD. However, one can slow the disease by the use of medication to reduce hormone production to normal levels. Note that some of these medications have strong side effects, so appropriate testing and control is required to prevent secondary illnesses (e.g. liver disease).

Since ECD and produce other illnesses, such as diabetes and laminitis, one needs to watch for symptoms of these related problems and treat promptly before they become serious.

One should also maintain the horse’s quality of life by treating any symptoms which make it uncomfortable. For example, if the heavier coat results in the horse becoming too warm, one should clip the coat in spring or summer.

Dr. Douglas Stewart is the author of Cushings Disease in Horses and owner of Horses for Sale

categories: cushing,cushings,disease,horse,horses,equine,pets

The idea of feeding a horse may look simple but may horse owners are clueless about the basics. There is nothing called standard, when it concerns the nutritional necessities of a horse, as it would mostly be founded on the quantum of activity, its age and body size. Grass is the primary ingredient of any horse diet. Being one of the most essential components to keep its digestive system to function optimally, forage normally means natural grass and cut hay.

The amount of food a big horse needs per day is subject on its body size, which is 2 to two point five%, so if the horse weighs a 1,000 pound the measure of everyday food needed can be calculated to twenty to twenty five pounds. Horses need good nourishment so this means high quality feed, not low quality high fiber feed (which can intervene with correct digestion). In a perfect world, your horse should eat a minimum of 1 % of his body weight in hay/grass pasture daily. In case your horse is not employed in much activity, then the right feed is only forge without any grains. On the other hand, horses which are active, or at the growing or breeding stage, need additional supplementary feeds over and above the pasture like grains or concentrate supplements. Consider it this way, foraging should offer at least one half or more of the total size of the feed eaten everyday for optimum growth and development.

The nutrient content and the quality of the pasture are crucial considerations when you are planning to give your horse a stable diet. When you are aware of this, you can easily figure out the correct amounts of nutrients that would meet his specific needs. The best source, and the least expensive one for summer feed is your pasture and, in most cases good pasture by itself can provide all the nutritional requirements your horse requires. To know the correct amount of pasture that your horse needs, use this rough guideline, which uses the weight of 1000 to 1200 pounds. This means that a mare and foal 1.75 to 2 acres – yearlings 1.5 to 2 acre and weanling 0.5 to 1 acre.

During winter the feed could be cut hay, but mind the quality. Ensure that the hay is leafy and green in colored and cut in a systematic way, free of dust, molds, weeds or stubble. There is plenty of proteins, vitamins and minerals contained in this feed. Yes, you can use alfalfa hay, but be careful about the higher protein content if you are feeding to young growing horses, as it may contain an excessive amount of calcium in relationship to phosphorus. Overdose of calcium is not recommended for growing horses; so in case you have any doubts, get the hay quality analyzed.

Horses are very sturdy animals and have a great physical appearance; however, they often face health problems, which tend to make them weak. There are a large number of ways which are seen to be taken by horse owners to ensure that their horses maintain the natural horse health that are expected of them. However it is seldom seen that horses are able to have their natural horse health, as in spite of the tiring methods by the horse owners, the horses are deprived of many important things.

Horses are in general herd animals; they prefer staying with other horses rather than being left alone. This is why most horse owners try to keep horses in their stables with other horses. Staying with other horses, provide the horses with a sense of security, and also the feeling of staying in their natural habitat. This feeling provides them with a lot of satisfaction and happiness, and this gets reflected by the fine natural horse health that the horses are seen to exhibit.

Horse owners provide food to the horses in the form of grass and hay, and also are seen to provide them with supplements, which would enable them to maintain fine health. However their health is not found to be as good as, natural horse health that is seen in the horses that live in the wild. The best possible way by which horse owners can ensure fine health of their horses, is to provide them with enough land where they can roam about as they want, chewing on the grass, as and when they wish. All this would provide in them a feeling of being close to their roots.

Horses should be allowed to have enough exercises for them, and it also needs to be made sure that they are not burdened with work. Each horse has its own ability to do work within its limits. Whenever they are overburdened with work, they will have failing health. If horse owners want their horses to maintain their natural horse health, they should not be overstrained. The more comfortable one lets the horses feel, they will have increased chances of maintaining natural horse health.

Natural horse health is a much desired thing by horse owners the world over, for their horses, however, only some are able to realize it in their horses. It is not easy to ensure natural horse health, however one can always try. By ensuring the horses their desirable things, horse owners can ensure them to maintain a sound health.

Horses need to maintain fine health in order to perform the necessary works for which their owners keep them. In order to perform their works, horses need to be fit and healthy. They have their own shares of health problems, which are seen to greatly affect their performances. This is why horse health care is regarded to be an important field of study both for horse owners and the veterinarians, who need to update themselves about any new health problems found to affect horses.

If horse owners decide to provide horse health care, to their horses on their own, they need to find all the necessary information that would help them out. The best way to gain knowledge about ways to ensure fine health in horses is by asking the veterinarians, for the list of common health diseases. Most often the problem with treating horse diseases, is the failure to correctly determine them in time, this happens due to lack in knowledge about the symptoms of the various diseases affecting horses.

As horse owners seek to find complete knowledge on horse health care, they would need to make themselves aware about the various symptoms that are usually shown by horses, when they are affected by a disease. There are several medical journals and books that the horse owners can refer to, in order to find effective ways for horse health care. These journals can be found quite easily in the local library, or at bookstores that sell old books at throwaway prices. These bookstores are often seen to house fine collection of books with invaluable tips to help people in horse health care.

Important facts and tips on horse health care can also be found from the internet. Not only will the people be able to lay access to a lot of important information, they will also be able to hold discussions with other people, with similar interests on the discussion forums on the internet.

Discussing horse health care tips will enable people to find more useful information on ways to take proper care of their horses. The horse owners will get to know which food is best for their horses, and also the health products, which they can purchase to ensure fine health in their horses.

Knowing about horse health care is a very important thing for horse owners, and they should not mind taking the necessary pains, which would enable them to find useful ways to take care of their horses.

The most neglected part of the horse body is its hooves. Healthy hooves help in maintaining the strength and flexibility of your horse. Horse hoof health needs to be maintained by taking good care of the hooves, which is important for the horses as it helps them to give better performance and superb stability. Proper care of the hooves should be made a regular practice in your horse management. Proper maintenance of horse hoof health can reduce exhaustion, discomfort, lameness and a bunch of other diseases.

Horse hoof health can be assured by taking care of the hooves with the various procedures that should be applied from time to time. The different procedures are cleaning, trimming, hooves angling and treatment.

Cleaning

It is very important to clean the hooves regularly because some stone particles and small objects can be wedged in the hoof of the horse and can result in some disease. Thrush is a situation where some bacterial organism infiltrates into the frog. These organisms start some diseased reactions and this leads to lameness which tends to be a serious disease. So it is necessary to clean the hooves regularly using hoof pick or fine bristle brushes. Proper cleaning is an absolute necessity for ensuring proper horse hoof health in horses.

Trimming

Trimming is one of the important procedures that help to take proper care of horse hoof health. Trimming is not needed as repeatedly as cleaning, but it is equally important as cleaning. Hooves are like our nail which keeps on regenerating of its own, so trimming them can keep them in shape and proper length. Equal length should be maintained between inside and outside of the hoof walls. Nippers and rasper help in trimming. Trimming should be done carefully so that the hoofs can be prevented from developing cracks and suffering bad horse hoof health. Fragmenting and peeling of hooves can be prevented by rounding the hoof rim. The frog portions should also be trimmed to remove the dead and flaked skin.

Hooves angling

There is a particular angle that should be maintained between the hooves and ground and the process of doing this is known as hoof angling. Normally the hoof wall overlaps the shoe as the hoof grows bigger, so it is necessary to maintain their appropriate angle. Angling also prevents cracks and wear and tear of the hooves and thus ensures good horse hoof health.

Treatment

This is obvious that during nailing and some of these procedures, some severe injuries can take place, you have to treat these injuries medically to maintain fine horse hoof health. Usually during nailing attention is required or you can prick the nail too deep into the hooves, which can cause lameness. You should give suitable medical attention to your horse.

These are some of the procedures that can help in maintaining proper horse hoof health.

Horses are domesticated by many people around the world. While some people use horses for helping them in their works, many others prefer earning money from them, by making them run in races. Horses are often found to be affected by some problem or the other, which are seen to greatly affect their health. Horse owners often do not know much about horse health, and are often seen asking horse health questions to the people they know in order to increase their knowledge about the various problems that may be affecting their horses.

People can benefit a lot by asking fellow horse owners, who take a keen interest in ensuring fine health of their horses. By discussing with each other, the people will be able to find answers to all those horse health questions that were troubling them for too long. The discussions are sure to prove beneficial for horse owners, and will help them in looking after their horses in a much more efficient manner.

The best people to whom, horse owners can ask horse health questions, and expect to find good answers are the veterinarians. Having complete knowledge about the various ailments that may affect horses, these people know everything about the various problems that may affect horses. By consulting with veterinarians, horse owners will get answers to all the horse health questions that would enable them to take proper care of their horses.

With the rise of internet as a valuable source of information in recent times, it is the place that most people turn to in order to find answers to their questions. Horse owners too can take use of the internet to find answers to the horse health questions that trouble them the most. There are a large number of online websites that are dedicated fully towards horse care and horse health. By surfing these websites, horse owners would be able to find answers to most of their horse health questions.

Horse owners can also benefit a lot by checking on the various online forums that are created for people who own horses, horse lovers and horse health specialists. These forums are used as a sort of platform by the members in order to discuss with each other various topics related to horse care and horse health. These forums prove to be a very valuable source for finding the answers to some of the most intriguing horse health questions.

Getting answers to the most difficult horse health questions has become very much easier nowadays, and horse owners are now seen to be able to take care of their horses in a much more efficient manner than before.

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One of the most common and well spread diseases in horses is strangles. This horse disease has spread world wide and it is one of the most highly contagious and diagnosed diseases affecting horses. This disease is normally seen in young horses. It is rapidly spread by the direct touch with nasal discharge and excreted pus.

Strangle is a bacterial disease that infects the respiratory tract that finally results in swelling. The bacteria Streptococcus equi is responsible for this horse disease. This disease being a infectious horse disease spread like a fire with in a few days. Usually these bacteria come in contact with water tube, utensil, bedding and others and contaminate them. They generally settle in the lymph node or the tonsil area entering from the backside of the throat. And slowly they graduate to the head and neck region from the lymph node causing swelling and some characteristic disease. Recovery is very much possible and after recovery life long immunity can also develop.

Strangle has many symptoms, which include fever with poor appetite. Nasal discharge is one of the most important symptoms of this horse disease; this discharge starts as watery solutions and steadily turns to mucous. Enlargement of the lymph node under the lower jaw can also be seen. Head carriage tends to be stiffer, difficulty in swallowing food, and occasional coughs are also noticed. This horse disease can further result in pleuritis, aspiration pneumonia, and can even damage the brain.

The swollen lymph node below the jaw can point to many respiratory diseases so proper diagnosis should be conducted when you see the symptoms and then start the proper treatment to fight this horse disease. The treatment should include regular cleaning up of nostrils, padding the swellings with hot water, and providing soft food that can be swallowed easily. Since, the organism is easily transmitable so proper and strict hygiene measures should be taken. You can treat this horse disease by potassium penicillin and fluid. In strict cases, if the disease spreads to lungs or abdomen or lungs, antibiotics should be used.

Preventive measures are very important, as this horse disease is easily transmitted from the affected horses to the other horses. No new horses should be introduced in the herd or the area where this horse disease has been reported. The affected horses should be completely isolated to ensure that healthy horses are not affected with the disease. The other horses that are in contact should be quarantined and watched carefully. Proper vaccination should be maintained.

Injuries can affect any living being in this world. People can develop injuries while going about with their normal work schedules. The same way horses also often get injured, and develop horse injuries that are very severe and could affect a horse badly. Horse injuries can sometimes even result in the death of the horses. Horses being animals are incapable of knowing what or what not can harm them. You may pay a lot of attention in trying to bring up your horse, but in spit of all the attention you pay, they will develop injuries some how. All you can do is make sure that the injuries in your horses are kept minimal.

We should try and find out the various horse injuries and their after effects. Thus by knowing the after effects of several injuries, we can prevent the damage caused by them by lowering their intensity. Some of the common injuries that are often found to affect horses are lacerations, contusions, puncture wounds, general lameness, scrapes and abrasions. The most dangerous horse injuries among these are contusions and puncture wounds. A contusion is a horse injury that is caused when a horse is kicked by another horse. It can cause severe damage to the muscle in various parts of the body. Puncture wounds, which are caused by bacterial infection on the wounded areas, are not visible and are seen to infect the tissues.

There are various ways to prevent these horse injuries just by taking little care of horses. You should just inspect the grazing land or the pasture area time to time. You should remove different iron particles, plastic or metal trash from the pasture land. There could be innumerable particles on the grass which could intensely hurt them. You should inspect the stable area same as the pasture area, because unwanted metal trash can be anywhere and could cause horse injuries.

You should secure the horses within a protected area by maintaining a suitable fence around their stables. Take care that the fence should not be rounded with wire. The wire around the fence can lead to horse injuries like scars.

You must ensure that the horses that are kept together have a good bond among themselves; otherwise they would fight with each other causing horse injuries. This can cause them puncture wounds which can be quite severe for the horses. The horses should not be confined for long s they will try to move out and destroy the fences. This can also cause severe horse injuries.

You have to be alert that wild animals like snake or dogs should not enter the area fenced. Dogs often carry infection like rabies which can harm your horse. These are some of the horse injuries that may affect horses and may lead to serious trouble for them.

Horses are often seen by people in racecourses across the world. Many a times, people must have wondered at how energetic these horses are, and how healthy they must be. However, horses are not completely safe from diseases, and are in fact prone to many health problems. They need to be taken care of in the proper manner, to ensure that they remain in excellent health. Apart from the diseases that the horses are often affected with, there are many horse infections too that may create health hazards for them.

Horse infections may be affecting different parts of the body of the horse. The results of these infections may either be mild ones or can even be of a very serious nature. It is up to the horse owners to try and detect horse infections in their horses when there is enough time. Often it is noticed that people are late with their detection of infections in horses, and the poor animals have to suffer a lot of pain before they are finally relieved from the infections.

It has also been noticed that horses tend to develop wounds on their body. These wounds are a result of the tough training that is sometimes given to horses, or the ones that they developed after having an accident. If these wounds are not dressed up within time, horse infections may result due to the attacks of bacteria on the wounds. As soon a wound is noticed on the body of a horse it should be dressed properly after treating it with antibiotic ensures. Doing this would ensure that the horse do not suffer from some sort of horse infections.

Many horse infections that are seen to create health problems for the horses, find their way into the body of the horse through the respiratory tract. There will be no signs of any infection on the horses, until the infection becomes severe. However by vaccinating the horses against some of the well known horse infections would ensure that the horses are completely safe of being affected by any serious infection.

Whenever a horse becomes affected with any of the common horse infections they are found to develop some symptoms. These symptoms may often not be too pronounced, however if the horses are regularly checked it is possible to even detect the minor symptoms. Once any symptom is noticed the horse should be taken for a checkup by a veterinarian, to find the possible horse infections that may be affecting it.

By taking the horse for routine checkups, horse owners can stay updated about their health conditions, and will be able to know whether they are suffering from horse infections or not.

One of the toughest jobs for the horse owner is to take care of the overall health of the horse. Supervision of horses does not just constitute their health problems, as you also have to pay attention to the overall body of the horse. Horse feet are one of the important parts which have to be maintained by the horse owners. Lack of proper care of the horse feet can lead to lameness.

Horse feet care is an absolute necessity as it helps the horse in ensuring proper performance and better career. For proper care of the feet of the horses, you have to know and learn the basic formation and function of horse foot and all its parts. Normally horse feet are divided into external and internal foot structure. The external foot structure consists of four parts namely, coronet, hoof wall, frog and sole. And the internal foot structure also consists of four parts namely, plantar cushion, coffin bone, sensitive laminae and navicular bone.

Horse feet care consists of some of the important processes that have to be performed on a regular basis.

Routine care is a process where you have to maintain clean and clear feet in your horses. Normally some unwanted organisms capable of spreading diseases concentrate in the horse feet. The diseased bacteria accumulate in the frog region and produces stinking odor and this gradually results in lameness. In such cases hoof picks or fine wired brush is used to clean the area.

Moisture should be maintained in horse feet as it leads to sustain flexibility and avoid cracks in the hoof. Intense wet circumstances can lead to dryness and the natural oils and protective films present in the lower foot region can corrode from regular contact with exterior moisture. So you should dress the hoof applying animal fat or lanolin in the base.

Trimming is very important technique to hold proper shape and size of horse feet. It should be done frequently on regular intervals. Nippers and rasp are basically used for trimming. Trimming is done to keep the pressure on the hoof wall and to remove dead tissue from the sole.

You should also maintain proper angle between the hoof wall and the ground in order to prevent lameness of the horse feet.

When you are nailing the horse shoe be attentive and take care that the nail should not prick the horse feet as this will cause severe injuries and can result in lameness.

Cleanliness, promptness, frequency and utilize of correct remedial measures are some of the most important features of high-quality horse feet care