Veterinary Surg

Pass The Wine….

Today was one of those days. I wasn’t supposed to be on call but do to the weather and the call being fairly close to the farm I took it. What was supposed to be a straightforward call turned in to the call from hell.  The main thing was the critter was fine in the end, the bad thing I only brought one pair of overalls and I was COVERED in blood and offered no water to wash up.

It was a two and half hour call this afternoon in bad weather with an animal a lot worse off then stated in the call to start with. Hate when that happens!

On my way home my truck went in the ditch….. stupid weather…stupid truck.

Someone stopped to help me out… and freaked out when they saw me covered in blood.

No no no no I’m fine, I’m a vet, it’s not my blood honest”

 Truck was pulled out, home safe and sound, yay for hot showers, please pass the wine.

What.An.Afternoon. 

Can’t stand the wait?

Your mare is pregnant and everything is going well, now it’s just the wait. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid and bred my mare the wait drove me crazy.

I was only 8; I stared at her belly with a tilted head trying desperately to figure it out if it was a filly. I always remember our vet handing me steel nail… yes a steel nail.

The idea is a simple one you take a steel nail and tie a piece of your horses tail to it. If it swings your mare is pregnant, back and forth it’s a colt, in a circle it’s a filly.  I know, I know but the 8 yr old me was wide-eyed as I watched my vet try this trick.

I have to admit it’s stuck with me. When I have clients that don’t want to know but have little kids in the family, I always pull out the nail trick. Love seeing their wide-eyed expressions as we try and guess what it’s going to be.

For those clients who want to know, my ultrasound machine takes away the guesswork! Did you know that you can have your foal sexed and know exactly what you’re getting? Most people still don’t realize that we can provide this tidbit of information.

Fetal sexing is becoming more and more in demand these days. Owners want to know the sex for reasons such as insurance coverage, sale or purchase, appraisals or are like me and can’t stand not knowing!

It’s done via ultrasound ideally at around 5 to 6 months (59-68 days); it can be done later but then your looking at a Tran abdominal ultra sound (external).  The way we are able to tell filly vs. colt is by the location of genital tubercle. Closer to the rear means filly, closer to the umbilicus means colt.

So if you can’t handle the suspense (like me!), why not try an ultrasound? 

The Night Check….

After a day of turn out, you or a barn manager feed your horse and make sure they have hay and water. Does anyone go back that evening to check on them?

Half of my client’s night check, the other half look at me like I’m crazy for even suggesting it or don’t have that service offered at their boarding barn.

To me night check is a no brainer, a great way to improve your horse’s outcome if something in fact does show up wrong later on in the evening.

Most emergency calls that come through in the morning are usually for colic.  I know what your thinking……

“Well even if I do a night check they can still colic after I check”

Your right they can, however time is the big factor here. Usually I find that when a night check is done a few hours past turn in you can notice and catch issues with your horse early.  Noticing your horse is off say at 7pm is better then discovering issues 14 hours later. Catching a colic early is easier to treat, can mean life and death for your horse and not nearly as hard on your pocket book.

But it’s not only colic you could possibly catch in the nick of time, your horse could be cast, or even have cut its self.

It can be hard if you are in a boarding stable that doesn’t offer a check, but there are things you can do. I’ve actually had a client get the other boarders together and they themselves offered to take turns doing checks.

Hopefully you’ll never have an issue to find during a check, but if you do at least you’ll be able to catch it before it becomes an even bigger problem!

DVM LAC

Tis The Season…..

For the next few months you’ll find me sleeping in my clothes so I can fall out of bed, grab my boots and be out the door in less then 5 minutes.

Yes it’s foaling season people! It’s also the time of year when I feel overwhelmed and my family claims I get a twitch.

When a client comes to me and mentions they want to breed their mare, I always respond with the following…

“Is your mare really worth breeding?”

In response to that question I’ve been given the stink eye, the how dare expressions, gasps, sputtering and even shown the door once or twice. The thing is, it’s a valid question and if you can’t answer it you shouldn’t be breeding your mare…….period.

If your breeding your mare because she’s the love of your life, you want a piece of her and you plan on keeping this foal until it dies at a ripe old age……. then more power to you. You’ll still get my speech though, because if she has poor conformation, questionable temperament, prone to injury, and conditions like navicular disease it’s still not a great idea. If you still want to breed your mare even with all her issues, it’s ultimately your decision. But just don’t say I didn’t try and give you my honest opinion, especially when those not so great traits of your mare end up in your bouncing foal!

 Now if you’re breeding for profit and thought I was brutal above, you may need to go get yourself a drink. Here’s the thing if you have a $400 mare and breed it to your buddy down the roads stallion, chances of you getting a foal worth thousands of dollars is slim to none. To make real money in this industry you need to have a top class mare and find a stallion with qualities that will add to the ones your mare already processes. I’m talking conformation, performance record, pedigree, and offspring already on the ground from your chosen stallion. Even then with every advantage and angle covered in the economy we have now, there is no guaranty you’ll get the money your looking for. The next question would be if you’d be willing to hold on to this foal for as long as it took to find it a home?

I’m sure I sound completely jaded and bah humbug to foaling. In all honesty I am a little jaded and if you saw some of things I do I’m sure you would be too!

In this economy some people can’t afford the horses they have and a horribly high amount of horses are ending up in auctions, neglected, abused and left to starve. In our local auction you would be shocked by the amount of foals and yearlings that go through. “Good Idea’s” and “Wants” turn in to foals that can’t be sold and they are shipped off to the auction because the breeder can’t afford to care for them anymore.  Some of these foals and yearlings are selling for as low as $50. 

 With no limits in place regarding breeding, getting the equine population under control is a pretty hard task. What if there were limits to breeding? Licensing to be able to breed? Quality Control?  Licensing to even own a horse? If we set regulations regarding breeding and owning a horse do you think we’d solve some of these issues?

While I do have clients that give me a twitch during foaling season, I am very lucky for the most part have a bunch of responsible and quality driven breeders as clients. Even though I would love to see horses in need find homes before more equines are brought in to this world, I still roll out of bed at 2 am, grab my boots and fly out the door to help the newest four-legged critter enter this world.

DVM LAC