[Steve Allday]

Honey, applesauce , molasses, Caro syrup. All of these are okay to add  meds.  Anything  that works to get it in them! Obviously there are exceptions but common sense rule takes over then! If you’re not 100% sure, the standard answer from me is: “Ask your vet!”

[Steve Allday]

Cardiac failure or cardiovascular collapse in horses is a very rare event. If it does occur it is mainly isolated to the racehorse population almost exclusively. Most of these acute, devastating events happens shortly after exuberant exercise workout. This brings the heart rate up over 200 beats/minute and the pressures within the vessels in and surrounding the heart are extreme. Typically an aneurysm that has been undetected will rupture under these pressures and the horse will bleed out rapidly and collapse shortly after. Other times the pulmonary pressure will rupture vessels in the chest cavity and the the horse can have profuse bleeding into the lungs. Either way this is devastating and an event in which the horse will immediately expire. Please try and remember that these are very rare events and do not occur very often.

[Steve Allday]

Electrolytes should be given to athletes that are exercised and worked routinely. If your horse is trained for a discipline that requires extreme speed or stress that causes profuse sweating, your horse needs electrolytes. Your are typically exceeding the amount of sodium, potassium, chloride and other ions that are necessary in regular body function. The profuse sweating is a good indicator that you need to supplement these ions in the form of a well balanced electrolyte additive to their feed.

[Steve Allday]

Fractures do occur on equine athletes somewhat frequently as they tend to occur in most mammals from time to time. When an compound or “open” fracture happens  the  bone is exposed to the environment and contamination occurs rapidly. These fractures can be reduced and internal fixation devices or pins, plates or screws can be applied to give the fracture stability. The complicated part of this equation is circulation to the area and maintaining  equal distribution of weight to all four limbs. When the affected limb is  unable to bear its share of the horse weight while recovering overloading the other limbs can lead to laminitis which is what many of these cases finally suffer from. The laminitis episode can become so severe that the horse has to be euthanized. Not to mention the incredible amount of antibiotics that the horse must be on for a very long time after it has an open fracture.

[Steve Allday]

Watering off horses as a point of reference depends on the amount of activity that the horse has been engaged in.  For instance if you have been riding your horse in a speed activity like making barrel runs, roping, reining or jumping you should readily assess the respiratory rate amount of heat coming from your horse and the relative amount of sweat and dehydration that has occurred. The temperature of the environment and amount of  humidity should also be considered. Your horse should be watered off with water that is NOT extremely cold. A large amount of cold water taken in too rapidly by an overheated horse can be a shock to the GI tract and can shut down motility and cause acute colic symptoms which could escalate quite rapidly into an emergency situation. I recommend that water be offered intermittently throughout the course of  activity. You might find that your horse will perform better and be less stressed during workouts and performances than doing without throughout the course of a exercise session. I also will fill a bucket of water up near the arena that I am riding in and allow that water to warm up to avoid being a shock to my horses system.

[Steve Allday]

First shoeing from this point on is key to keeping your horse sound and useful as an equine athlete. Determining you horses point of break over and backing up his toes are elements that your blacksmith must deal with first accomplishing this will take pressure off of his heels relieving some of the navicular discomfort and shortening of even squaring his toes will give relief from the ringbone. Understanding that these problems are relatively common as head horses age and start to give to the pressures of many hard runs for years is half the battle. Typically if you gradually adjust shoeing, foot balance and break over for your horse as he ages the quicker you can fine tune these very important details to allow your horse to get back to doing his job more comfortably. Maintaining and managing your head horse with supplements and medication will allow him to rope at the same level you have in the past. Anti inflammatory  medications can be utilized and are highly recommended before and after long hard days of practices or competitions. As far as supplements, I highly recommend LubriSyn to help maintain your performing athlete. I use it on my roping horses and I suggest you do the same for yours!

[Steve Allday]

There are some benefits to feeding black oil sunflower seeds as the oils are good for the coat. I do not know that it’s any better than other supplements available now. It certainly cannot hurt but you have to look at it cost-effectively and if you would like to do it, that is fine. Other supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids will work just as well and will probably be cheaper in the long run.

[Steve Allday]

Dear Rachel,
LubriSyn has concentration of 5mg per ml. There are 30 mls in an ounce. Thus 15 mls in 1/2 ounce. So that would end up delivering 75 mgs in every 1/2 ounce or daily dose.

[Steve Allday]

Yes, it is possible that if you place these calf roping horses on LubriSyn that they may need fewer or no more hock injections. A lot of this will depend on the amount of work you place on them and other factors like: the number of times they are run at ropings, the amount of practice runs they need at home, the amount of arthritis in their hocks and their conformation.
As far as the coffin joint is concerned, the fragment in the joint is of some concern. In addition the amount of changes in the joint associated with the chip fragment will also give an indication of just how well you should expect this joint to prove by adding LubriSyn. Furthermore, the number of times the joint has required injections will also help in making a good prognostic call on results that you should see. Please supply some more information and I will help any way that I can.

[Steve Allday]

It very well could be a build up of scar tissue. You could have scarring of the extensor tendon and this can create what they call string halt. There may not be a whole lot you can do about it. If you’re really interested in the diagnostics you should get a veterinarian to do a physical examination to determine what it is or if it’s something that she can live with or if it’s going to get worse or not.

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