The Saddle Fit Guide
Here is some advice for fitting, using and maintaining your saddle, compiled by the Animal Health Trust, in collaboration with World Horse Welfare. Their research has highlighted some areas that should be carefully considered when fitting a new saddle, which will help...
Diagnosing Mild Equine Asthma
Diagnosing Mild Equine Asthma. Veterinarians and engineers at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a tool help diagnose mild forms of horse asthma. Behind lameness, respiratory issues are the second-leading cause of poor performance in...
Horses Get Asthma Too!
We all know that asthma is a common respiratory disorder in people but, did you know that horses get asthma too? “Equine asthma” is a broad term that has recently been used to describe a spectrum of non-infectious respiratory diseases in horses, previously known as...
Respiratory Conditions
Respiratory Conditions - Many horses are expected to perform like elite athletes, where peak performance demands an optimally functioning respiratory system. In this article, Dr Deryck Tan from Valley Equine Veterinary Centre gives an overview of the anatomy of the...
Upper Respiratory Disease and Equine Herpes Virus
Upper respiratory infections are a significant problem across all equine industries and within the racing industry, in particular. Studies have demonstrated considerable economic losses resulting from subclinical disease (when horses don’t look obviously sick, but are...
Exercise-induced Pulmonary Haemorrhage (Bleeding)
History and presenting complaint Exercise-induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage: Poor athletic performance or expistaxis (bleeding from the nose) are the most common presenting complaints for horses with exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage or EIPH. Epistaxis (bleeding from...
Equine Herpes Virus
Equine Herpes Virus (EHV) causes horse owners and breeders a large amount of concern due to its potentially devastating effects. The virus is ever-present in the horse population worldwide and cases of Herpes virus infection are seen sporadically across Australia. It...
Strangles
Strangles is a contagious disease of horses caused by the bacterium Streptococcus equi. Typical signs include fever, loss of appetite, soft cough, purulent nasal discharge and swollen lymph nodes of the face, which may often abscessate and burst. The swollen glands...
Ethmoid Haematomas
Ethmoid Haematomas When a horse presents with persistent or intermittent haemorrhagic nasal discharge (bleeding from the nostrils) your vet may investigate for an uncommon but problematic ethmoid haematoma. So what is it? what causes it? and how can it be treated?...
Targeting Your Horse’s Core Strength: Exercises
Before we start with neck stretch exercises, you can read Dr Lena Clifford's introduction here. Let’s start with the first stretches. If you practice these exercises on a regular basis you will get to know your horse’s body better, improve his/her core strength and...
Targeting Your Horse’s Core Strength: Introduction
Core Strength. As we learn more and more about the horse’s body and how things are connected, we try and find better ways of keeping our fur-kids safe, healthy and most importantly, happy. There are lots of new fads that promise quick cures for imbalances, whether...
Equine Pre-purchase Veterinary Exam
Pre-purchase veterinary exams: Hindsight is a wonderful thing and buying horses is a risky business. While there is no such thing as a perfect horse, a pre-purchase exam can answer many questions about the likely significance of an abnormality and likely long-term...
Horse Joints and Supplements
Horse Joints and Supplements: Joint issues are one of the major issues that all horse owners face. This article aims to provide a general understanding of basic concepts around joint health. Importantly, the take home message from this article is that, when it comes...
Joint Disease and Treatment
Joint Disease. Lameness is one of the top three areas of equine veterinary medicine, along with colic and reproduction. Joint disease is the most common cause of lameness and results from pain during movement. The onset of pain can be sudden or long-term, and may...
Laminitis: A New Age of Understanding
Laminitis... A condition that strikes fear into every horse owner. Long recognised as a cause of lameness, laminitis can have debilitating long-term effects on horses and ponies. It often becomes an insidious, chronic issue that requires careful management, including...
No Foot, No Horse!
No foot, no horse! The old saying still rings true today... The more we learn about horses’ feet and the connection between healthy feet and a healthy upper body, the more we realise how important it is to consider our horse’s feet in relation to their general health...
Plastic Shoes: Better Than Barefoot?
Plastic Horse Shoes: Better Than Barefoot? It’s an iconic sound alright; a metal-shod horse travelling on hard ground. Some would say it’s music to a horseman’s ears. But what you’re hearing is high-frequency vibration; the tiny portion of vibrating energy that...
3 Beneficial Stretches and Core Strengthening For Your Horse
3 beneficial stretches and core strengthening for your horse. As we learn more about the horse’s body and how things are connected, therapists are finding better ways of keeping our fur-kids safe, healthy and, most importantly, happy. There are many new fads that...
The Hype About The Hyoid
Hyoid Apparatus: Who would have thought that a small and fragile bony structure located at the ‘floor’ of the horse’s mouth between the two halves of the horse’s mandible (lower jaw) would be so important to a horse’s athletic performance? Much has been written about...
Pre-purchase Exams
HEALTH REPORT SPONSORED BY Fitton HorseInsure Why you should invest in a pre-purchase vet exam when buying your next horse Looking for a horse to buy? Whether you are buying your first horse or looking for another one to add to your collection, finding your ‘unicorn’...
Learn to Recognise the Early Signs of Laminitis
There is a lot still to learn about laminitis but, for the horse, extreme pain is the eventual result. The changes to the hoof capsule that happen after full-on laminitic event are well-known and easier to recognise. Lameness, in some cases severe and the angle...
Stifle Lameness
The stifle is the largest and most complex joint in the horse and, as such, it is an important cause of hindlimb lameness. Equivalent to the human knee, the stifle is controlled by some of the most powerful muscles in the horse’s hindquarters and is subject to...
The Role of Veterinary Specialists and Referral Equine Hospitals
Like specialists in human medicine, veterinary specialists have extensive experience and expertise in a relatively narrow aspect of veterinary medicine. As such, specialists in equine surgery or medicine are often able to provide services that might be beyond what is...
Racing Victoria’s ‘Medicare for Thoroughbreds’ Aims to Minimise Injury Risk
Racing Victoria (RV) has announced a new subsidy scheme for owners and trainers to offset the cost of advanced diagnostic imaging on Victorian thoroughbreds. The Diagnostic Imaging Subsidy Program is a proactive approach to injury prevention for thoroughbred...
Technology Solutions for Assessing Lameness Under Study
To better assess lameness in horses, researchers are using 3D motion capture technology. They want to quantify how a horse’s muscles and limb movements adjust to accommodate the lameness. The findings of their studies could provide a greater understanding of the...
Body Language a More Reliable Indicator of Mild Pain
General body language may be more reliable as an indicator of mild pain than the equine pain face. What if you could tell your horse were lame, even mildly, just by watching his behaviour at rest? According to Swedish researchers, it could be possible. At least in...
