Author: Julie Nuttall

We are often asked ‘what is considered a veterinary emergency?’ Most people will automatically think colic, difficulties in breathing, severe lameness, bleeding, a wound located near a joint or in pregnant mares, dystocia (difficulties giving birth).

Problems with a horse’s eye often don’t feature, with a lot of owners opting to try an over-the counter product in the first instance prior to involving their vet. Whilst, for very minor ocular disease cases, this may be sufficient, if your horse has a more serious complaint such as corneal ulceration, incorrect treatment will not only delay healing but in severe cases, may be detrimental and result in the loss of an affected eye. Therefore, we advise that you contact your vet immediately should you notice any ocular abnormalities in your horse.

Impaction colic is a relatively common medical colic we diagnose during winter months. However, we can see cases throughout the year. Clinical signs consistent with an impaction include signs of colic, reduced gut sounds and reduced droppings. An impaction is confirmed on rectal examination by your vet.

The horses intestinal system, although very large, is not capable of coping with sudden changes to the diet. Alterations in feed type, quantity and hydration can all lead to signs of colic.

Poor weather conditions necessitating stabling are a common reason for impaction development, as horses are fed an increased amount of dry forage compared to the usual grass-based diet. In addition reduced movement will slow gut transit times. Freezing conditions also contribute to impaction development due to reduced water intake as a result of the water source being frozen or the water being cold and unappealing to drink. This leads to the ingesta within the gastrointestinal tract becoming dehydrated with resulting signs of colic and impaction development.

Prevention

• Add warm water to your horse’s water buckets when temperatures drop. This will encourage water intake and keep your horse’s colonic contents hydrated.
• Add warm water to bucket feeds.
• Supplement a second bucket of water with electrolytes or add salt to your horse’s feed – this will stimulate thirst and water intake. Ensure your horse is also offered plain water.
• Manage forage intake. Sudden changes in management are sometimes unavoidable. Feeding forage little and often is helpful in preventing impactions. Soaking forage can also be beneficial but remember not to do this if temperatures are below freezing!
• Maintain a level of exercise if possible and safe to do so. This can be difficult during freezing temperatures but movement, even turnout, will help to keep your horse’s guts moving and therefore reduce the risk of impaction colic.
• Regular dentistry is crucial year-round, but especially during winter months as an inability to properly chew hay could result in impaction colic due to an increased quantity of long fibre reaching the colon. All horses should receive at least one dental check per annum. It is often worth an additional pre-winter check in older horses and ponies.

At least once a year (as part of your horse’s annual health check), a thorough dental examination should be performed. This is particularly important for the winter months and for our older equine patients.

Dental disease can be very painful. Early detection and treatment of dental problems is vitally important in maintaining good oral health- we all know that prevention is better than cure! This will also enable is to advise with regards to feed types that will best suit your horse.

Common dental problems that we encounter when horses are struggling include:

• Diastemata: these are gaps between the teeth where food can get trapped resulting in painful gum disease. This is the most common cause of quidding during the winter months.
• Loose teeth: longer forage like hay requires more chewing therefore teeth which are slightly mobile can become problematic with these changes in feedstuffs.
• Sharp points: these sharp points can cause ulceration of the gums and mucosa resulting in pain when eating or when ridden.
• EOTRH (Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis): this is a disease of the incisors resulting in severe pain. Horses can use their lips to graze during the summer months however struggle to pull hay out of haynets with these painful teeth.

If you have any concerns regarding your horse’s dental health or would like to arrange an examination with one of our vets, please give the practice a ring to book an appointment.

This 6-year-old WB mare first presented to vet Nikki in May, with a short history of bucking, napping and increasing resistance to going forward.

On examination, severe pain and spasm was noted over the back. No lameness was observed, but there was no transfer of energy from the hind limbs through the back, which was lacking in flexion. The horse tended to strike off incorrectly into canter or become disunited in this gait.

Gastroscopy revealed mild ulceration. Radiography revealed the presence of significant impingement of the dorsal spinous processes (colloquially known as ‘kissing spines’) of the vertebrae in the region under the seat of the saddle.

Given the potential for both gastric ulcers and kissing spines to cause the symptoms exhibited, the gastric ulcers were initially treated with Omeprazole and confirmed to be resolved one month later. This meant that treatment of the kissing spines could commence.

The X-ray findings in this horse can be present in clinically normal horses and in horses where kissing spines have been found to be the cause of pain, treatment can unfortunately fail to resolve an established pattern of evasive behaviour. Therefore, to be certain that this was the cause of the performance issues in this particular horse and that resolving the pain did indeed result in the horse performing normally, medical management was initially opted for.

This involved injecting the affected region of the back with steroid followed by a rehabilitative exercise programme and physiotherapy. Sometimes, medical management alone is enough to return horse to – and maintain them in comfort for their intended use.

Conversely, as was the case with this mare, the improvement is only short lived, and the performance issues return as the effects of the steroid start to wear off. ECVS surgeon Rosie therefore proceeded to surgically reduce the dorsal spinous processes, so they were no longer in contact. This procedure is known as a dorsal wedge ostectomy – amazingly, it can be carried out under standing sedation!

Once surgery was completed, the mare returned home to allow time for the surgical site to heal before an intensive non-ridden rehabilitative exercise programme was instigated (promoting correct muscling over the back).