lameness

Have you ever had a horse that just doesn't show the same enthusiasm for work that he or she used to?

Maybe a jumper who didn't want to jump anymore?

Or barrel racer who backs out of the box?

There are many more examples of how horses show they're not comfortable.

On today's Horse Mysteries Solved podcast, let's chat about coffin joints. 

Coffin joints are one of those sneaky issues that cause horses problems, even lamenesses.

We'll talk about two items causing coffin joint problems that everyone thinks of....

and the two coffin joint issues that no one thinks about.


Links Mentioned:

• Shoulder Checkup
• Sacroiliac Checkup
• "Where Does My Horse Hurt" book

Transcript

Cheers to the truth getting out,

Renee Tucker, DVM

Tucker BioKinetic University

How many people do you know who’ve had some kind of pain or illness that the human medical professionals have not been able to get to the bottom of or provide relief from? Or where it’s taken some time and robust investigations, often driven by the person or their family to figure out what’s going on?

I know quite a few & have experienced this myself, and this is with the diagnostics available to human medicine.

Almost daily I see equine-owning humans asking for training help online with a horse that’s body language and behaviour is indicating likely pain. Sometimes this body language from the horse is fairly explicit and other times it’s more subtle. Some of the lovely humans asking for help have sought some veterinary intervention, but it can happen that their initial vet hasn’t been able to find anything wrong.

If you listened to Episode 8 in Season 1 of An Equine Conversation, Julia’s story with her horse Maddy, you’ll know that Maddy was exhibiting behaviour that indicated something was wrong and that Julia had to push past initial vet suggestions to get to the point of an actual diagnosis for what was wrong, and then how to treat and manage what was going on for him. It took some time and probing and pushing to figure it out.

And here’s the thing. Pain in horses is not always possible to rule out or resolve. It’s not a matter of just saying there’s nothing wrong – because there can be and the science and diagnostic equipment just isn’t there yet to figure absolutely everything out – but, the science, the technology and the research are making progress and there’s so much more available to us than 20 years ago.

I wanted to talk to an Equine Veterinarian about why it’s challenging to rule out pain in horses and what we can and should do about it as owners, so I asked my friend, Dr Lisa Walter, Equine Vet in South Australia, if she would join me for a chat. I always love speaking with Lisa as she has so much knowledge and a constant curiosity about how the horses body works – which has led her to working on a PhD in Sacroilliac dysfunction. I’m so pleased to bring this conversation to you and hope it helps expand your knowledge, awareness, understanding and ability to pursue niggles about any pain you are suspect of with your equines.

Dr Lisa Walter:

Lisa Walter is a veterinarian, researcher and educator with an interest in subtle lameness in sport horses, including the early identification and management of performance horses exhibiting low grade lameness, and locomotory dysfunctions. She completed her veterinary research training and veterinary degree at the University of Melbourne (1998, 2000) and has completed training in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture with the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society.

Her research includes the validation of a radiographic measurement technique used to identify early indicators of shinsoreness in Thoroughbred racehorses, clinical identification and management of sacroiliac dysfunction, and the effectiveness of different therapeutic modalities for musculoskeletal dysfunction in horses.

Lisa is based in Australia and has worked as a veterinarian in Australia and England in first opinion and referral equine practices. She currently runs her own integrative sport horse practice in the Adelaide Hills integrating veterinary medicine, acupuncture, physical therapy and therapeutic exercise to manage locomotory dysfunction in sport horses. She is a sessional lecturer for undergraduate and postgraduate veterinary courses across several universities, and is completing a PhD in sacroiliac dysfunction in horses at the University of Adelaide.

Outside of work, Lisa is a horse-owning tragic. She has trained and ridden horses across various disciplines including, showing, stockwork, eventing and showjumping. She loves working with the “project” horse and has an understanding and empathy for the challenges and rewards that this can bring.

In this episode we discuss:

2:26 - episode introduction

4:56 - introducing Dr Lisa Walter

6:41 - Lisa’s start & where she’s at now with her work and Equine Veterinary interests

9:16 - what brought Lisa to working on a PhD in sacroiliac dysfunction

12:08 - why is it so difficult to rule out pain in horses & the challenge of identifying indicators of pain in our horses

16:14 - the challenge of the Veterinary community of diagnosing more subtle conditions & the evolution of diagnostic/imaging equipment to better help diagnosis & having a non-verbal patient

18:00 - diagnostic imaging technology for equines

21:59 - Equine Veterinary Specialists

25:20 - why should we continue to try and rule out pain in our horses & not just a ‘naughty pony’

29:31 - the ‘cold backed’ horse

30:19 - pain versus dysfunction & the challenge for Veterinary medicine of understanding ‘normal variation’ with the developing imaging equipment

34:15 - how can individual owners contribute to further research in equine medicine?

37:00 - the evolution of physiological issues - awareness, diagnosis & changes in the equine population & equine management

39:55 - accessing Equine Specialists

43:56 - top tips for listeners - if you’re suspect your horse might be experiencing pain

45:51 - Vets who’ve done additional training in other physical modalities & the importance of having a trusted team of practitioners

48:46 - if you think there’s a problem - there generally is - trust your instinct

Link from this episode:

In this episode, Lisa mentions Dr Sue Dyson’s work on the ridden horse pain ethogram. If you haven’t yet watched already, check out:

‘The 24 Behaviors of the Ridden Horse in Pain: Shifting the Paradigm of How We See Lameness’ on YouTube to learn some about this research.

Our links mentioned this episode:  

Sign-up to our email list

Abbey's Run Equestrian website

Abbey's Run Equestrian on Facebook

Thank you to Matthew Bliss for podcast production & consultation. You can find out more about podcast support on offer via: Blissery.FM or email info@blissery.fm

So, I've noticed, you know, with everything going on in the planet, I mean, here on Maui, it's $400 for a horse shoeing every six to eight weeks. You're just like, oh my goodness, who can afford this? 

I don't know what it is back in the states, but I know steel is going to be going up. fuel going up again. You know, we're over $5.50 a gallon here if you don't have Costco. And so, it's, you know, how can we better take care of our horse’s hoof at home to make our dollar go farther? 

And a lot of people say, well, I'd love to go barefoot, but my horse is always ouchy and sore and just doesn't work.

When I was in France teaching and they had a cadaver hoof they had cut into,  the redness went higher and higher around the coffin bone.  When you actually cut into the hoof and see what's happening, you can see why the navicular groove, the navicular bone might be offset or uncomfortable.

So, I really like to start with the basics. The hoof soak recipe that I made up is just amazing. It's the Dynamite liquid trace minerals Epsom salt and warm water.

The soak recipe totally pulls out bruising, abscesses, anything that needs to come out and gravel, a hot nail, etc. If there are any cracks in your horse’s hooves, you have fungal and bacteria going in there as well.

I also have a miracle spray recipe that's made with DoTerra Essential Oils, and that recipe is on my Web site. You can get it. You can make up your own and we spray it on the frog, the white line, the sole we apply it to the coronary band and it's like daily acupressure treatment for horses.

If you combine the hoof soak and the miracle spray recipe, I guarantee you in two months you're going to see amazing hooves. You're going to be like, "Wow, this is actually saving me money." So, the spray recipes on my website, on my shop page, you can see YouTube videos of how to do the hoof soaks, how to do bomb sweats, how to use the miracle spray on my channel Holistic Horseworks.

To keep learning about horses:
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• Visit the HHW website: www.holistichorseworks.com

Thanks for listening!
#holistichorseworkstalks

Timestamps & Summary 

1:24

Dr. King, we would be interested to know what your research interests and projects are.

Dr. King

I have been working with different provinces, getting producer feedback on how I can assess what stresses them out. What is influencing their mental health and their physical health? How is this related to farm management? And I also want to look at connections to cow health, because everything on the farm is connected.

2:54

Mental health is so important in our world today. And not effectively investigated nor dealt with at the farm level. Therefore, we need to make that change.

Dr. King

I think it is up-and-coming. People are more willing to talk about it. I am hoping not just to look within dairy farming families, but we are going to do a study with beef producers, and hopefully go out to some other commodity groups as well.

3:25

Regarding the health and well-being of cows, a lot of your research has been looking at the impact of stressors on production, whether it is lameness, overcrowding or feed delivery. What have you discovered when you have looked at these stressors or how they can be identified using position technology?

Dr. King

Most of my studies were on farms with robotic milking systems. That does not mean that those are just specific to robotic herds. Many of the factors that go into making cows lame whether you have a robot or not, are the same. 

I can tell you that a lame cow will produce less milk. Even cows with a moderate limp will have reduced milk production by 1.6 kilos per day. Minimal limps are going to impact lameness cow by cow.

Farms that had a greater percentage of lame cows, at a herd level, whether it is measured per cow or per robot, were also producing less milk.

8:20

You said it is important to look at behaviour and not just production to single out sick cows. Does that data need to be strengthened along with some activity monitoring, combined with the rumination or some of these systems coming up with their own algorithms that have a scoring assessment could tell you which cow is healthy?

Dr. King

There are different activity monitors out there, so I cannot say for sure. The ones on the legs, that are more of a pedometer, might be better for looking at health status and heat status. Whereas I think the neck collars, they rather show certain illnesses, but they do not really show lameness. However, they certainly do work for heats.

10:00

Maybe some take-home messages for the audience of what you know of the negative impacts of stressors and how precision technology can help you monitor and pick them up.

Dr. King

My first take-home message would be whether it is lameness, ketosis, or maybe mastitis, just because it is not severe, does not mean it does not have negative effects on cows. So, whether it is subclinical ketosis or moderate lameness, it is definitely worth doing something about it.

My second take-home message is I think it is good to look at multiple sources of information. So, have rumination or activity information and look how it relates to production. Have a holistic picture of the barn to see how cows are doing in order to make the appropriate decisions.

In this episode, Emma Franklin chats with George Watson about why it is so important to fertility test bulls before mating. George outlines some of the reasons that bulls fail fertility testing and explains that almost half the bull-fertility issues can only be diagnosed by examining a semen sample under the microscope. The vets chat through the practicalities of testing and give a rundown of the facilities needed to carry out this quick and cost-effective procedure. As George puts it: “With reproduction failure, we are always looking in the rear-view mirror, so this is our one opportunity to pre-plan and gives us the best chance of not having to look in the rear-view mirror and see a car crash”.

For more information talk with your vet or check our Anexa's Repro resources here https://anexa.co.nz/farm/dairy/reproduction/

We are excited for this unique episode because it showcases two incredible assets to our equestrian industry here on the East Coast and because we believe it is a conversation that will be informative for all horse owners. 

In this episode we are speaking with Dr. Jordan Koivu and Aaron Steeves. Dr Koivu works as a equine veterinarian with Sunny Coast Vets and Aaron is one of the maritimes most well respected and educated farriers. 

Links Mentioned:

• https://www.pothiermotors.com
• https://sunnycoastvet.com
• https://www.horseandriderbooks.com

Follow Informed Equestrian online @:

• www.informedequestrian.com
• https://www.instagram.com/informedequestrian/
• https://www.facebook.com/informedequestrian

https://www.tiktok.com/@informedequestrian

Increased sow mortality rates have a serious impact on farm profitability and employee morale. Issues including lameness, feet and leg issues and prolapses are all significant aspects of rising sow mortality rates. 

Research published in 2018 from veterinarians at the Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minnesota, estimate that prolapses on a 2,500-sow farm cost roughly $34 per inventoried sow or $850 per prolapsed sow. Earlier research from the University of Minnesota found that reducing sow mortality from 10% to 6% would add $4,000/year in income for a 600-sow farm, or roughly 33 cents per weaned pig.

In this week’s episode, we talk with a veterinarian at Zoetis about her company’s effort to teach production managers the value of conducting health, welfare and performance assessments on every sow, from every breed group, every day.

This episode of Feedstuffs In Focus is sponsored by Hog Slat, and their new 54-inch Infinity fan. By utilizing advanced motor technology, this fan offers precise variable speed control with lower energy costs and reduced maintenance. Learn more at Hog Slat.com.  

At this week’s Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines, Zoetis introduced their Individual Sow Care program — a comprehensive, on-farm training program designed to get production managers and on-farm caregivers on board with daily health, welfare and performance assessments – for every sow. 

Veterinarian Eva Jablonski says sow mortality rates in the U.S. have increased dramatically in recent years and now average about 15 percent, leading Zoetis to create a training program focused on proactively assessing sow health, performance, body condition and environment as part of the quest to improve sow longevity and productivity.

For more information, visit Feedstuffs online.
Follow Feedstuffs on Twitter @Feedstuffs, or join the conversation via Facebook.