A horse is a horse (of course, of course)

The acupuncturist came to the farm today. A broad shouldered, soft spoken fellow named John he has been treating the horses here for some time. Today he looked at Spaulding, an ex-eventer warmblood in his early 20’s with arthritis and a (healing) bowed tendon and Finn, a nine year old QH who, while not technically lame, is definitely “off” in every sense of the word.

I have met John before. I liked him then, and I like him now. I think some of what he says is bull shit, but I think a lot of it rings true. He is, above all else, a sensible man and that can be hard to find in the world of homeopathy and natural horsemanship. Trust me.

John started with Spaulding. He asked for a brief recent history of the horse, which I gave. Spaulding has been in slow work since his right front bowed tendon (which, while no longer sore or hot, has tons of yucky scar tissue) and has been showing some soreness in his left front, specifically the pastern area. John pushed against Spaulding’s shoulder. He lifted his legs and pulled. He put resistance into Spaulding and then let the horse use his body to figure out how to get out of it. Example: he pushed against Spaulding’s left shoulder. Spaulding moved his right front to get out of the way instead of his left front and almost made himself fall over in the process. BINGO! Spaulding must be sore in his left front. Upon further examination John discovered what I already knew was there: Spaulding is arthritic and has a bit of side bone setting in. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as I said Spaulding is in his early 20’s and was used very rigorously as an eventer in his younger years. John popped in a couple acupuncture needles (he talked about gall bladders and center meridians and blocked intestines and lost me completely) and moved on to Finn.

I could tell immediately Finnegan was more of a puzzle for John. He went into the stall, gave the big guy a pat, and went to work on rolling the loose skin around Finn’s shoulder and pushing into him to see where Finn’s natural weaknesses were. Finn slammed into the wall like a firecracker had exploded and almost crumpled to the ground. Not a normal reaction from a little bit of pressure on his shoulder. We talked a bit about how Finn moved naturally. He is a big horse, 16.1H, with long legs and a lanky upside neck and bad angles everywhere. He doesn’t have any heat or swelling anywhere. There isn’t any obvious soreness. He just doesn’t move… right.

John put it best:

“This horse,” he said, scratching his chin, “moves like he’s been in an accident. He’s forgotten how to use his own body. It’s your job to make him remember.”

John worked a little bit more on Finn, popped some needles in, and told me to start riding him daily. In John's opinion Finn needed to work. He needed to learn how to be a horse again. Somewhere, somehow, his body had forgotten. It made sense to me in a round about way. I nodded and said I would give it a try starting tomorrow. The owner came up and she and John talked about heavy metals in the water and supplements. It got a little heated at one point, so I just kept quiet and melted into the background. When you're a barn manager sometimes the best thing you can do is not have an opinion. Watch, learn, and observe. Remember that the horses you care for are not your horses. It will save you a lot of back tracking and foot eating. Before John left he told me to pull out the needles in about half an hour. I went up, had a cup of coffee, and went back down to do just that. I was surprised by how DEEP the needles were in there. They are just flimsy little things, easily bent, but long and sharp. Neither Finn or Spaulding flinched when I took them out. Come to think of it they didn't flinch when John put them in.

I don't know if acupuncture on horses works. I know that the owner believes it does, and that's all that matters. If I could afford $175 a pop I would get Darwin and Poppy done. I don't know what the needles did, but I know a lot of what John said made sense. At least to me. Because when it comes down to it, acupuncture or no acupuncture, supplements or no supplements, hock injections or no hock injections, wand waving or no wand waving, the most important thing to remember is that a horse is a horse.

Of course, of course.

When Bad Plants Happen to Good Horses

This morning I went out to feed my two wonderful horses and discovered that they were not where I had left them. They weren’t loose. They (and by they I of course mean Poppy) simply took down two of the top split rails and put them neatly on the other side of the fence before stepping over the remaining one into their dirt paddock. Once they were in their dirt paddock they must have discovered that a) there is no grass and b) getting back over the fence again would be too much work, so they settled for snacking on the enormous tomato plant that was growing outside the goat’s stall. This is all that remains of that unfortunate tomato plant, who has been minding his business all summer long until two idiots decided to come up and eat him.

All of this would be all fine and good and a little bit amusing, if the tomato plant wasn’t in the nightshade family. Nightshade, as some of you may or may not know, is deadly toxic to horses.

Obviously Darwin has gotten bored with the regular ways of trying to kill himself (colic, choke, colic, colic) and thought this would be a new, FUN way for his mom to spend even MORE money on him. Right now Darwin is resting comfortably in his stall. He’s opening and closing his mouth, banging his head on the wall, and rolling his eyes, but this is normal behavior for him, so at the moment (knock on wood, knock on wood!) I am hoping the tomato plant will just pass through his system. This does, however, bring up an interesting point: if I had not known that the tomato was a member of the nightshade family, and that nightshade is deadly to horses, I might not have been keeping such a close eye on Darwin and Poppy and they might, even now, be in the throes of a very uncomfortable colic (I just checked on them five minutes ago – they are both munching hay and have drank the regular amount of water; I’ll go back down in another thirty minutes to check again).

All of this raises one simple question: What plants can kill your horses?

NIGHTSHADE: All parts of this plant are deadly to people and pets (horses included). They are in the same family as the tomato, potato, and pepper. Symptoms of poisoning include colic like symptoms, disorientation, loss of muscle control, dilated pupils, and death.






BUTTERCUPS: No, this is not a typo. Buttercups are poisonous to horses. Under normal circumstances horses will not eat them, but if they have nothing else to eat they may get a little hungry and try them out. Buttercups cause irritation around the mouth, colic, and diarrhea.






BRACKERN FERN: While not commonly found in pastures, brackern fern is all through the woods and I’ve been on a horse who has snatched a mouthful of them up before. If it is baled into the hay and digested by a horse it can be toxic. Symptoms of poisoning include loss of coordination, decreased heart rate, weight loss, staggering, and death if not treated.





MILKWEED: Living and dry plants are toxic to horses and while a horse will rarely eat milkweed on their own, it is often found in hay. Signs of poisoning include disorientation, loss of muscle control, rapid or weak pulse, and respiratory paralysis. Milkweed is rarely causes death.







RED MAPLE: The wilted leaves of the red maple produce cyanide. These are one of the few poisonous plants that I have found horses will eat even when they have grass. Symptoms include lethargy, dark urine, dark gums, rapid pulse, and increased respiration.






Some other poisonous plants include: red oak, st. john's wart, meadow saffron, robinia, laburnum, water hemlock, lupin, foxglove, white snakeroot, buckwheat, tall fescue, sweat pea, oleander, rhubarb, and black locust. For a great comprehensive list of poisonous plants compiled by the ASPCA click HERE.

Diligent pasture maintenance will keep your horse from ever having to encounter these potentially deadly plants and it is always a good idea to check with your hay provider and to give your hay a good once over before chucking it in the stall. If you suspect your horse ingested something he or she shouldn't have, the best course of action is to simply call your vet.

My horse has a boo boo!

Ever horse owner, at some point or another, has had to deal with an injury. Being the proud owner of a gangly 17H thoroughbred who thinks a rusty nail is his best friend, I have had more than my fair share of them. Most injuries are easily dealt with at the barn. A scrape here, a scratch there. An occasional puncture wound or two. Every horse owner, every horse person, should be comfortable with diagnosing, cleaning, and treating these “minor” injuries. But what exactly should you be able to treat by yourself? When should you call the vet? And what is the best way to take care of that oozy, nasty looking cut?

When to send out an SOS

No one likes to have their vet out. It usually either means a) they are coming out for routine (aka expensive as hell) vaccines and checkups or b) there is something seriously wrong with your horse.

But what a lot of people forget is that a phone call is free and if you have a good working relationship with your vet (which every horse owner needs to have, I don’t care if you have to bribe them with presents on every major holiday) they can often tell you what is wrong with your horse AND tell you how to treat it without you having to spend $60 for them to drive up your driveway, look at your horse for all of five seconds, nod slowly, and say “Yep, that sure is a puncture wound. Cold hose it twice a day. Here’s some SMZs and a $200 bill.”

Now, there are several situations where you should have your vet out immediately (do not pass go, do not collect $200):

- You cannot stop the bleeding. I don’t mean a slow trickle of blood coming from a scrape, I mean a reasonable amount of blood coming from a wound that may or may not look serious, but will not stop bleeding. This includes large gashes and cuts, where it is obvious that stitches will need to given.

- An eye injury. I made the mistake three years ago of not calling the vet when my horse came in with a slightly runny, slightly puffy eye. I washed it out with saline solution and put on a cold compress. The next morning his eye was swollen up to the size of a golf ball and he spent two weeks at the vet clinic after undergoing emergency surgery to save his eye. Turns out a pony in the field had kicked him and sliced off the top layer of his cornea. Eye injuries need to be taken seriously. A lot of times a runny eye is just allergies, but sometimes it’s not.

- Any type of tendon, ligament, or bone injury. I know a lot of people like to deal with bowed tendons and splints themselves. I personally don’t. I consider a bowed tendon a serious injury and while I know how to treat one should it occur, I want to do so under the supervision of my vet. Generally an injury of this type will hurt your horse immensely and they will be very sore, if not three legged lame. There should be lots of heat and swelling. If you can, cold hose while you wait for your vet to arrive, but don’t make your horse walk any more than they absolutely have to if they are in a lot of pain. If you suspect a bone injury, don’t move them at all.

- The ever-so-fun mystery lameness. Your horse does not have any obvious wounds or injuries. There is no heat or swelling. You’ve tried cold hosing. You’ve tried bute. You’ve tried stall rest. You’ve tried hand walking. Nothing works, they are still mysteriously lame. Everyone has a different timeline on when to call the vet should this type of situation occur. Some people don’t call the vet for months and months. Some people call after the second day. I generally allow 5-6 days for this sort of lameness to clear itself up, and if it hasn’t by the 6th day I call. Or I call if I see it getting worse. Either way, if you’re horse is not sound and you have no idea what is wrong, you need to call the vet at some point.

I am not going to include colic or founder on this list, mainly because I am talking about wounds and injuries. However, if you feel your horse is colicing or foundering then please, be a good horse mom/dad, and call your vet ASAP.

Treat It Yourself

I’ll break down treating an injury/wound yourself into three easy to follow steps. I realize that this might not be what you do, but it’s what has worked for me over the years and since my TB (who injuries himself on a bi-weekly basis) isn’t dead or permanently lame yet, I’ll keep doing it this way.

1) Diagnose the wound/injury. Is it bleeding? How deep it is it? Is your horse lame? Are they in pain? Is it a puncture (which should be treated the most seriously, as it is very prone to infection)? And, most importantly, do you need to call the vet or can you treat it yourself? Depending on your answers to these questions, proceed to step two.

2) Clean the wound/injury. I love cold hosing. It has become my best friend since I got Darwin. If the wound is dirty, cold hose it until it looks fresh and clean and pink. If you’re not 100% certain you’ve gotten everything out, keep cold hosing until you are. Now, the water should never be sprayed directly into the wound. Your best bet is to take off the spray nozzle completely and hold the hose just above the wound, letting the water trickle into it and on down the leg. If you are treating swelling, cold hose for five minutes, hold off for three, cold hose for five minutes, hold off for three, and cold hose for five. When I am dealing with a soft tissue injury I generally repeat this 3-4x per day until the heat and swelling is completely gone.

3) Once the wound/injury is clean, assess how you are going to treat it. Most scrapes/cuts can be dealt with by applying antibiotic ointment. Everyone has their favorite, mine is furazone and NFZ. I also like corona, but sometimes it’s a little too gooey for my tastes. Use what works for you and your horse. If the wound is a puncture, I generally don’t apply any ointment. I want the puncture to breath, I don’t want to clog it up and risk infection. As I said before, punctures need to be watched very closely. If your horse gets a puncture and they are not UTD on their tetanus or botulism, call the vet and ask for their advice. Either way, I generally put my horse on SMZ’s during the course of treatment for any type of wound (including puncture) that looks like it is an infection risk. Once I have applied an antibiotic, I generally leave the wound alone. I very rarely wrap anything that isn’t a tendon/ligament injury. For the next week repeat steps Two and Three up to three times per day, and you should begin to see an improvement. If the wound/injury starts to look worse, smell worse, or isn’t getting better at all, call the vet. It could be getting infected, or is worse than you initially thought.

What wounds have you dealt with?

Vaccines Debunked, Part I

Disclaimer: I am not a veterinarian and while I hope you find my advice helpful, you need to always check with your vet before changing/adding something that could in anyway affect your horse’s health.

As some of you may have already been able to tell by the giant mud holes that used to be your horse’s pasture, spring is here! Cue winter blankets being stored away, horse hair coming off in tuffs (and going everywhere), show schedules being sent out, and a general sense of relief that winter is finally… FINALLY… over. Spring also means something else for many horse owners and barn managers around the world: time to call the vet out for spring shots.

When you get right down to it, vaccines are pretty complicated. Every horse owner has a different opinion on what to give their horse and when to give it. Some states require certain vaccines, while others could care less. Some vaccines are given in the nose, some in the neck. Some cause big reactions and come cause bigger reactions. So how the heck do you know what your horse should get and what they shouldn’t? And it’s not as if the vaccines themselves are helpful in understanding what they do. Here are the generic names of four different vaccines I pulled from www.unitedvetequine.com

V + WNV, EWT + WNV, TEK + EWT, Encevac TC-4 VEE.

Huh? Is this some complicated algebraic equation I never learned how to solve in high school?

Many of us solve the dilemma of what vaccines to give our horse by simply handing the problem over to our vet. “My horse is due for his vaccines. What does he need? Uh huh, uh huh… Again so soon? Didn’t he get that six months ago? OK, well if you’re sure… See you in a week!” Sound familiar? I thought so.

Does your horse need a tetanus shot every year? What about rabies? Coggins? Eastern and Western Encephalomyelitis? Rhinopneumonitis (EHV-1 and EHV-4)? Influenza (A2 and KY97)? West Nile Virus? Yikes, when it’s spelled out like that it does seem overwhelming. With technology these days seven of those vaccines can be given in ONE SHOT that’s simply called Fluvac Innovator 7-Way. What the heck are those vaccines protecting our horses against? I originally intended to only write one post on the subject of vaccines, but decided to break it into two parts because of that very reason. Before you even start thinking about what vaccines to give your horse, you should have a good understanding of what the vaccines are intended to protect your horse from in the first place.

WEST NILE VIRUS. The only known way a horse can be infected by the WNV is if they are bitten by an infected mosquito. WNV cannot be transmitted from horse to horse. Signs that a horse has been infected with WNV include stumbling, weakness in hind limbs, circling, ataxia, inability to stand, listlessness and head shaking. The rate of full recovery from WNV is very high. WNV has been found in nearly every state. This map shows the number of detected cases (note that these are NOT deaths) in 2010.



EASTERN ENCEPHALITIS. EEE (sleeping sickness) is a viral disease that is spread by infected mosquitoes. EEE cannot be transmitted from horse to horse. It effects the central nervous system and has a very high mortality rate. Symptoms include unsteadiness, erratic behavior, lethargy, and loss of coordination. There is no effective treatment and seizures resulting in death usually occur 48-72 hours after neurological symptoms have set in. The fatality rate is 90%. In 2010 there were 230 EEE cases reported in the United States.

WESTERN ENCEPHALITIS. WEE is transmitted via mosquitoes and is also commonly referred to as sleeping sickness. An infected horse will exhibit the same symptoms as EEE, but to a lesser degree. According to the US Department of the Interior’s website (which tracks diseases for human, animal, and mosquito) there were no reported WEE infections of horse or human in 2010 in the entire United States and there has not been a serious outbreak of the virus in twenty years.

EQUINE INFECTIOUS ANEMIA. Ever wonder why your horse needs to have a coggins? This virus is why. EIA is a highly infectious viral disease that has no treatment, vaccine, or cure. Symptoms include fever, weight loss, anemia, swelling in the limbs, and overall weakness. Because there is no treatment or vaccine for EIA, horses who become infected are often put down or forced into complete isolation for the rest of their lives. While EIA is not common (in 2009 only thirty one horses were infected across the entire United States) the Coggins test is. Most boarding barns and horse shows require a horse to have a negative Coggins (showing they do not have EIA) before letting them on the property. If you are crossing state lines you also need a Coggins. Most Coggins expire after two years, but it isn’t a bad idea to have your horse tested every year. It is a simple blood test and very inexpensive.

TETANUS. Tetanus is a bacterial disease that can affect animals and people. It is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetanii which can be found in soil and fecal matter just about everywhere. It enters the body through wounds, especially puncture wounds. Symptoms include muscular stiffness and spasms which become increasingly worse. Left untreated, tetanus is lethal and even when it is caught early it has a high mortality rate.

BOTULISM. Like tetanus, botulism is a bacterial disease caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulism. Botulism is similar to tetanus, but is even more lethal. Horses can become infected through an open wound (again, like tetanus) or by ingesting feed that has been contaminated with the bacteria (dead/decaying things such as a rat in a hay bale can carry it). Symptoms include muscle tremors, extreme weakness, tongue control loss (may hang from mouth), drooling, and walking stiffly. Botulism has a 90% mortality rate.

RHINOPNEUMONITIS. EHV 1 & EHV 4 is a respiratory disease caused by the herpes virus 1 and herpes virus 4. Because it can be passed from horse to horse, it is highly contagious and outbreaks need to be taken very seriously (any horse that is even suspected of having Rhino needs to be immediately quarantined and everything it came into contact with over the past seven days disinfected). Symptoms include fever, congestion, coughing, loss of appetite, swollen lymph nodes, and nasal/eye discharge. EHV 1 can also cause abortion and stillbirths in pregnant mares. Recovery in healthy adult horses is usually good, but complications can occasionally develop.

EQUINE INFLUENZA. Commonly known as the horse flu, EI is a common respiratory disease that is most often found in young horses (age one to five). It is highly contagious and is most often passed by coughing. Symptoms include a dry hacking cough, fever, runny nose, lethargy, and reluctance to eat/drink. Horses who get EI almost always recover after two to three weeks of rest and antibiotic support.



STRANGLES. Strangles is a highly contagious disease that spreads from horse to horse via direct contact. Once a horse is exposed the strangles bacteria they will normally begin to show symptoms within one to five days. Those symptoms include abscessed lymph nodes (which, if left untreated, will rupture and drain), fever, low appetite, and a thin, watery nasal discharge that will turn thick and yellow as the disease progresses. Strangles is most often found in young horses (age one to five) and while it does not have a high mortality rate, it is very dangerous because of how contagious it is.

RABIES. In horses, rabies is 100% fatal. A horse who tests positive for rabies will be (and should be) immediately euthanized. Rabies is passed through the saliva of an infected animal. Rabies is transferable to humans.

There you have it. The main diseases/infections/viruses your horse can be vaccinated against (or, in the case of EIA, tested for). What are you planning to vaccinate your horse for this spring?

When to Call the Vet, Part II

In my first ‘When to Call the Vet’ series I covered colic and went through the steps leading up to a possible vet call. Before I switch topics, I want to go over yet another colic related episode at the farm.

Last night I got a knock on the door around 8:30PM from my assistant barn manager. She told me she thought Tom (one of the older lesson horses) was a little colicky and asked me to take a look. We went out to his stall to find him standing (she said he had been laying down, but had gotten up on his own) quietly. He but had not touched his grain at suppertime and the ABM had removed it along with his hay. His gums were a little pale, but he gave a pretty frisky toss of his head when I tried to check them and did not seem unduly distressed. I went back out to check him around 11PM and he was sleeping standing up. The next morning he was whinnying enthusiastically for his hay. Was this even a colic? I would probably classify it more like gas pain, but it could have turned into colic if his grain and hay had been left in his stall and he had proceeded to eat all of it.

This is just one of the reasons it is so important to have staff that are not only observant, but know what to do. And if they don’t know what to do, they find someone (hopefully the barn manager) who does. And if the barn manager doesn’t know what to do, they call the vet. Here’s an example of how this system worked to save Darwin’s life when he coliced:

1) A young apprentice noticed Darwin was acting abnormally (laying down at feeding time). She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but she told a regular staff member.

2) The regular staff member suspected colic, withheld Darwin’s grain, and promptly called the barn manager (me).

3) I treated the colic to the best of my ability and when I saw that Darwin was not responding, I called the vet.

If the apprentice had not told the staff member, Darwin may have gotten back up to his feet and, not suspecting anything was wrong, the staff member would have given him his regular grain. Without the staff member telling me she suspected a colic, I wouldn’t have checked in on Darwin until night check (which would have been four hours later). Meanwhile, during those four hours, he would have been struggling to digest four flakes of hay and three and a half pounds of grain while suffering from a painful impaction colic.

Your staff doesn’t have to know everything, but they should know a) when something just isn’t right and b) who to tell when they suspect something is wrong. Luckily, I have a wonderful staff, from the apprentices to my ABM, who adhere to this unwritten policy without needing to be told or reminded.

So what are some common tip offs that a horse just isn’t feeling up to snuff?

• Off their feed. Horses should be enthusiastic about feeding time. Especially about the stuff that comes out of the grain bin. If they don’t touch their food or only nibble at it, something is up.

• Lying down. For some horses, this is the norm. But if a horse that usually never lies down is stretched out flat in their stall, they warrant a closer look.

• Abnormal behavior. This can be a little harder to pick up if you don’t know how the horse affected normally behaves and I would not necessarily expect an apprentice to pick up on a horse acting a little oddly, but I do want my staff to know just enough about each horse for them to notice if a normally high strung horse is being quiet and subdued or if a normally stoic horse is acting high strung.

• Lameness. This is an entire series unto itself, but anytime you notice head bobbing, limping, or swelling, you know something isn’t right.

In a perfect world the barn manager would catch everything that was wrong and I would say about 90% of the time a good barn manager will, but with horses timing is everything. The sooner an illness is discovered the sooner it can be diagnosed and treated. If no one notices something is wrong, who is going to call the vet?

When to Call the Vet... Part I

If you are a good, responsible horse owner than you probably have the veterinarian out to the farm to see your horse(s) at least once a year. This may be for a coggins test, routine vaccinations, or a general health checkup. Or it could be (unfortunately) because of an emergency. About a month ago I had my vet out for just such a case.

As I mentioned in my Winter Post, my horse Darwin coliced quite badly eight weeks ago. I was alerted to his condition by an apprentice staff member who, thankfully, told one of the senior staff members who then told me during one of my lessons. “Darwin is lying down. He won’t get up. We think he may be colicing.”

I handed my lesson over to the senior staff member and rushed up to the barn. There was my big 17H thoroughbred curled up in the corner of his stall, looking and acting absolutely miserable. His hay and water where untouched. The staff had known enough not to grain him once he started acting abnormal, but I doubt he would have eaten it anyway. I got him to his feet. He started kicking sideways at the stall wall and then promptly circled and went back down. It was then that I knew this could be a serious problem, but I didn’t call the vet quite yet. I have dealt with colics in the past and know there are several steps you can go through before having the veterinarian out. I proceeded to get Darwin back up to his feet and hand walked him in the indoor for about forty five minutes. Towards the end he was struggling to lay down in the ring and I brought him back to his stall. I gave him 3cc’s of banamine, pulled all the hay out of his stall, refilled his buckets with warm water, and waited. The banamine seemed to make him comfortable and he stayed on his feet. When I came back two hours later he was a little restless, but still up. At 11:00PM he was rolling and I called the vet.

To make a long, stressful story short Darwin was suffering from a very painful impaction colic. The vet gave him 10cc’s of banamine, a strong sedative, a rectal palpation, and a gallon of mineral oil that night and had to come back early the next morning to do the same thing because he was colicing again. Thankfully the second time seemed to do the trick and he had returned to his normal self by the end of the day.

That was an example of when (I believe, at least) you should call the vet. When your horse is suffering from what is obviously colic and you have tried everything to the best of your abilities (hand walking – check, small amount of banamine – check, take the feed away – check, warm water – check) and there is no improvement, you need to call your veterinarian.

But what other emergencies should you immediately call your vet out for? What, exactly, constitutes an emergency and what should you (or your barn manager) be able to treat yourself?

1) COLIC. This has already been discussed in detail, but I want to give you a different scenario. My assistant barn manager’s mare has displayed colic symptoms three times since she came to the barn. The first time I found her lying down in her stall looking crossly at her stomach, I immediately called her owner who left me with instructions to keep at an eye on her but unless she became very restless to just let her be and not call the vet. I’ll admit, I had my doubts at this approach (every time Darwin has coliced it started off as lying down but always rapidly progressed to the point where I had the vet on speed dial) but when I returned to do night check the mare was back to her feet demanding to be fed with a loud whinny. More recently she coliced again and this time it was worse. Her owner took the same wait and see approach, but this colic continued over the span of two days, not one night. This time there was hand walking and all food was stopped. Her owner gave her a small dose of banamine on the evening of the second day and said if this didn’t work, she would be calling the vet. Thankfully, the drug was just enough to help the mare out of the colic and she was peachy keen the next morning.

This is a fantastic example of the number one reason many vet calls can be averted. Know your horse. My assistant barn manager knows her mare to a T. She knows when she is feeling grumpy, upset, or in genuine pain. It also shows that not all horses are the same, nor can they be treated the same. Still, there are basic steps to treating any colic before calling your vet.

1) Diagnose the colic. Is your horse lying down? Are they biting at their stomach? Getting up and down repeatedly? Are there abnormal gut sounds? No gut sounds? Are they off their feed? If you said yes to two or more of the above symptoms, then there is a good chance your horse may be beginning to colic.

2) Take away all feed. This means hay and especially grain. Do not feed your horse until you are absolutely certain the colic has 100% passed.

3) Make sure there is fresh water available and monitor your horse’s water intake. When a horse is in the middle of a painful colic they will usually not drink at water, but once the colic has past they will normally guzzle it down. How much they do (or do not) drink is a good indicator of their pain level.

4) Walk your horse. Do not lounge them, do not turn them out in the field, hand walk them. Make sure the footing is nice and even. A barn aisle or a ring is best suited for hand walking. If you have a horse that is repeatedly trying to lay down, this is one of the best things you can do. There are several different theories on how long and often you should hand walk a colicy horse – my vet advised me to hand walk Darwin as long as he would allow it. Others will tell you to walk them no more than fifteen minutes, give them a break, then walk them again. If you are unsure of what to do, this would be the time to consult your veterinarian.

5) Give your horse banamine. If nothing else has worked, you can try to alleviate your horse’s symptoms with the common colic drug banamine. This is a muscle relaxant and pain killer. It can be injected IV, IM, and also comes in paste form like a wormer. If you have not given your horse banamine for colic before and/or are uncertain of how much to give them or how to give it to them, call your vet. When Darwin coliced last summer I called the vet at step number 4. I asked if I should give him banamine and she told me no, to wait until she got there. When he coliced the second time the vet left me with 10ccs of banamine and told me to inject it IM if he started to show colic symptoms again. When in doubt, especially about a drug, call your veterinarian. They don’t charge you for advice over the phone.

6) If nothing in steps 1 through 5 has worked for your horse, it is time to call your vet ASAP. Make sure to describe in detail everything you have done and to give a thorough history on your horse as it pertains to their current situation.

Once again, I cannot stress how important it is to know your horse. If I ever get to Step 4 with Darwin, I call the vet. I might not have them come out until I’ve tried Step 5, but I at least call them. If you have a horse that colics every few months on a smaller scale (one of the boarder’s has a horse this) you may skip right to step 5, give them 5cc’s of banamine, and they’ll be fine.

As always, I am not a veterinarian and the above is my opinion, not solid fact. Colic is scary, especially if you haven’t dealt with it a lot in the past. Keeping a cool and level head is very important. Monitoring your horse is also very important and when in doubt, even if you’re at step 1, your vet is only a phone call away.

The Cost of a Horse

Horses are expensive.

Lots of people get hung up on the cost of the horse. “But I can own a horse!” They marvel. “I just saw one on craigslist yesterday for $500! And it sounded really awesome!”

$500? Sorry friend, but I can do you one better than that. My horse was FREE. At least initially. Before the board bills added up, the farrier started coming out every six weeks, vaccinations became due and, oh yeah, there was that $3500 pasture accident.

Buying the horse is the least expensive part. Heck, I bet you could find at least five horses in your area that someone would pay YOU to take home.

But keeping the horse… that’s a different story.

Which raises the question: what does your horse really need to not only survive, but remain healthy and sound?

1) A place to live. Unless you have your own barn, chances are you will need to board your horse somewhere. Many places offer self care and pasture board for less money, but you really should splurge on the full care. This will run in the neighborhood of $300 - $600, depending on where you are and what you want. Per month, that is. Not quick in math? That’s between $3,600 and $7,200 PER YEAR.

2) The farrier. See my earlier post on the farrier to get my thoughts of shoes versus no shoes. Either way, your farrier must come out to do your horse’s feet every six to eight weeks. Depending on your horse, you may be able to stretch it out to nine in the winter, but just remember this: no hoof no horse. Let’s say you settle in the middle and decide to have your horse trimmed every seven weeks like a good responsible horse owner. That ends up being about seven weeks per year. Doesn’t sound like a lot, right? Come on, you know the answer to that! Take that seven and multiply it by $55. That’s the average to trim a horse WITHOUT SHOES. Hello, $385 per year. Need to add shoes? Well say goodbye to that vacation you really wanted to go on, cause you just ran yourself up an annual bill of at least $875.

3) The vet. Oh, my good friend the vet. A horse’s best friend and a horse owner’s arch nemesis. Who else can get away with charging you $60 just to drive in the driveway? No one else that I know of. If you are a conscientious horse owner then you will get your horse vaccinated every year. Because horses often have reactions to vaccines if they are given all at once, you will realize the wisdom (after a little sly urging from your vet) of not making one, but TWO annual vaccine appointments. They will probably run you in the neighborhood of $150 per visit, equaling roughly $300 per year. Cheaper than the farrier, I know. But vets have a tricky way of showing up at the most unexpected times… Let me give you a few examples.



Example A) Your horse has been lame for two weeks straight. You have no idea why. Finally, you call the vet. Two visits and a full set of x-rays later reveals nothing conclusive. Your horse miraculously recovers after one month of stall rest and hand walking. Cost of mysterious lameness: $600.

Example B) You get a phone call in the middle of the night from your distraught barn manager. Your horse is colicing. Should I call the vet? Your barn manager asks. Of course, you idiot! You reply. The vet comes out. Gives your horse a tube of banamine and some mineral oil. Takes his food away. The next day he is all better. Cost of midnight colic: $800.

Example C) Your horse comes in from the field with an eye that is swollen to the size of a tennis ball. In a panic, you call the vet. An eye dye reveals the cornea is ripped. You rush the horse to the vet clinic where he spends the next five days. Cost of eye being kicked by the shitty little pony you will never look at the same again: $3500.

I hope you get the idea. If you’re lucky, you won’t have to spend more than $300 a year on the vet. Except that horse owners are never, ever lucky. Expect to spend an average of $2500 on vet related costs per year.

Dentist: Yes, your horse needs to see the dentist. Yes, he/she needs to see them every year. Add $125 to your bill.

Feeling dizzy yet? Still think that $500 craigslist horse is such a bargain? And these, my friend, are just the BARE ESSENTIALS. For fun, let’s add up what we have so far.

Board $5000 per year average
Farrier $450 per year average
Vet $2500 per year average
Dentist $125 per year average

TOTAL $8,075 PER YEAR

So what’s the bottom line? It’s what I said in the beginning. Horses are expensive. Don’t buy one unless you have money saved up and your full time job is plenty secure.

Word of the Day

Darwin was quidding this morning! Guess a visit from you-know-who is in order. The first person who can tell me…

1) What quidding is
2) How it can be fixed

…gets the brownie points. I’ll also post a picture of you and your horse (or just your horse) on the blog for everyone to admire.

On a related note, I will soon be putting in a call to the vet to make an appointment for fall vaccinations. What shots are your horses getting before winter, if any? Do you only vaccinate in the spring? Why/why not? A more in depth post on vaccinations will follow after the vet visit, but for now I’m simply curious to see what other people give their horses.