Man versus Horse

Or rather, 4 legs versus 6 and a leadrope.

But first, I must share in my misery. Because of the lack of home internet this won't post until later, thus unless I tell you, you won't KNOW that it is currently 3:07am (I'm not exaggerating) and I'm contemplating such things like "really, the amount of hours that I spend in bed should be sufficient to dry my short hair". Yes, I have a test this morning at 9. No, I haven't studied half as much as I should have for it (thus the early hour of the morning). And before you fear that I have suddenly become overzealous and am looking for some incremental points inconsequential in passing, never fear!!!!!!!! I truly do need to actually do some studying...after all I'm in VET school and am going to be a DOCTOR in 2 years (yes, it's appropriate to laugh or quake in fear - your choice).

It makes my posts less "finished" to have random thoughts like this in front of the content, but I've decided it's worth it in order to keep me writing - if I know I have to edit posts and that I can't share what I like because it doesn't match content, then I'm less likely to be motivated to write right now - after all I have lots of stuff that I have to do "well" right now and not a whole lot that can be done how I wish.

Thus, I introduce random-thouht-before-content-number-2! As part of my "one small change at a time" philosophy that I started this year with, I bought a pedometer. I've gained back almost all the weight that I lost over last sumer, and from tracking my food and exercise in myfittnesspal.com, I can blame much of it on increased calorie intake, BUT I wanted to make sure that some insidious reduction of movement wasn't to blame........With a goal of 10K steps (which is about 5 miles) I was pleasantly surprised Saturday and Sunday when, without any extra effort, I had 5K by noon and 10K by evening. Piece of cake! Then came Monday....wow. Even with extra walks and being conscious of trying to take extra steps that 10K did NOT come easily. Nor the next day. I skipped school on Wednesday, and combined with a rededication to Martin (my walking treaddesk) I managed to eek out 10k yesterday. (Runs and rides don't count towards the 10K). The conclusion? Going to school, (or probably any other traditional sitting activity) takes a HUGE hit on activity level. Until I have a job where I can be on my feet, I am going to have to be constantly viligant to make sure that I move enough during the week and don't have my spine molded into the shape of a chair, something Farley would be VERY unhappy with, come our first ride of the season (oh yes, there is a ride season "plan", one that isn't being published just yet so that the gremlins of ride seasons can be held off just a bit longer.

If you are a face book follower of mine, you probably have seen this route posted several times.

 

Notice 2 things. 1. I am so not making up the ridiculous time that I'm up writing this blog post. 2. I'm using "Map my run" app to log my running and riding routes. Really have been happy with this (free) app and recommend that you give it a try if you are looking for something similar. I like to use Maymyrun for routes that I do regularly so that I can check mileage, not necessarily for formal rides where I already know the mileage - using the GPS on my phone uses up too much battery.

I call this the "Short orchard loop". Said loop is 3.1 miles. There's a levee in the middle of it that I have to climb and then descend, but other than that, it is a flat, dirt and grass, packed but not hard, currently-with-wildflowers-oh-my-gosh-aren't-I-lucky loop.

Up until yesterday everytime this loop was posted in my feed it was a 4 or 8 legged loop. Meaning I was mounted, +/- Tess. People were amazed at my times until they realized it was on a *horse*.

Let's call Farley's PR here 22 minutes.

Farley: Actually......

Mel: Shut up.

Farley: Remember that one time? that I bucked you off?

Mel: Don't go there

Farley: I'm pretty sure that I did this under 22 minutes.

I attempted a 6 legged loop yesterday, which was Farley's first leadline run in FOREVER, between thunderstorms and logged a paltry 32 minutes.

Farley: I helped by stopping and eating grass.

Mel: that was NOT helping.

Farley: but then I let you grab my mane handle and bounce along beside me at an extended trot.

Mel: touché

My run strategy was similar to my ride and tie one, except less motivating because the horse was with me instead of tied somewhere ahead: Run at a tempo style pace until I felt like I was going to die of a heartattack, then walk. When snot was no longer leaking down my face and Farley stopped being concerned about my welfare, run again.

I'm pretty sure I can beat the Farley 22 min PR

Farley: it's not a PR!!!!!!

Mel: I'm going to explain why you don't get to gallop the whole thing and call it a PR if you'll just stand there quietly!

In contrast to me hitting the pavement literally at a run and then dashing through the orchards at top speed, finishing with a kick (that's what they call it when you are on the ground kicking yourself for getting this out of shape right?) back to the stable, Farley has "guidelines" for our rides.

Farley: more like dictator-like commandments

Mel: When horses decide to stop being so delicate, be sure to tell me. Alternatively, when you learn to communicate anywhere but here, and we can have a discussion about how everything feels, you let me know. Until that point, I call the shots and we can pretend this is a partnership.

1. We walk about a point about 10-15 minutes into the ride.

2. There shall be no cantering until the half way point.

3. Hand gallops are allowed, BUT the ride must be finished with Farley cooled down enough that within 1-2 minutes she's below 60.

 

I think I have a shot at beating 22 minutes and not having Farley substantially raise the bar as long as I

a. do this BEFORE she sheds her winter coat

b. don't ride this loop with her too often.

Will Man beat out Horse? Or is 4 legs supreme to 2?

Farley: snicker

Mel: Be quiet! Or you will be going up and down EVERY hill this season with me on your back!

It's 3: 44! Time to get to studying, packing for the convention (which involves a Tess bath), and compulsively checking the weather report. Truck or car? I don't own chains for either. The car would be cheaper if I did have to buy them, but it would make long term sense for the truck to have chains - not to mention the safety of a bigger vehicle (and the embarrassment I will have to face if someone climbs into my commuter car full of Tess hair), but my truck gets squirrely with no weight in the back end (thanks to it being a standard cab long bed 3/4 ton). mmmm.......Things to contemplate AFTER the test! Now off to contemplate vector borne diseases, mechanisms of CNS entry, and adverse vaccine reactions!

 

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Rabies!!!

Post vaccination - Farley has shown no signs of being foot sore!!!!!!! A little stiff in the hind for her trimming 2 days post vaccination but that's it! I'm really hoping that I've found a protocol that works for keeping her comfortable working barefoot and allows me to protect her from infection with vaccination. So far tetanus toxiod + west nile (innovator) = no problem. The next test will be a rabies vaccine, and a EHV/EEE/WEE/rhino combo (which I'm not sure Ill be able to get without the toxoid). I liked vaccinating in the thigh - I felt like she was less sore for a shorter period of time.

You may have noticed a change on the blog - I have now enabled comment moderation. It was either that or turn on the funky word verification, or not allowing anonymous commenting, both of which I felt like would be substantial hinderance to people who read and comment on my blog. The amount of spam comments on my blog has risen astronomically in the last month for some reason, and not just on the older posts. The last straw for me was when spam started showing up on a post that I had just posted within 24 hours. I usually get to my moderated comments within a couple of hours of someone submitting, so please don't let it stop you from voicing your opinion! I will not be editing who I allow to comment and who I won't - everyone who isn't a russion porno spammer will be approved. :)

In a turn-your-stomach-perhaps-not-read-this-paragraph-if-you-are-especially-squeamish sort of way I have another proof that 2 years is a wonderful number in dog years. Today at school Tess had diarrhea all over her kennel. Last year when this occured I came back to a pitiful, disgusting puppy, who in addition to smearing diarrhea over all surfaces had also tried to clean up by eating it - and then vomiting it back up. And then continued to vomit for several more hours the most disgusting fluid imaginable. Today, the situation was much the same except.....NO VOMITING AND NO ATTEMPT AT ORAL CLEAN UP. Instead she was standing in her kennel, drooling (a sign of nausea) while waiting to be rescued (and rescue her I did!). I do believe she learned an important lesson a year ago. Diarrhea in the the crate sucks, but any attempt to clean it up will only result in further misery.

So at present, I have one urine incontinent dog (the german shepherd), a diarrhea dog (Tess), and all I'm missing is a bit of vomit. Which, considering how close I was to that this morning to losing it, I think I have that covered.

As a friend pointed out, I have 2 outside dogs right now. I confirmed, while pointing out that my 2 "outside dogs" can't actually be out together or the German will eat the Brittany. Which would add yet another animal problem that I do NOT NEED. So I'm missing yet another afternoon of school since Tess isn't stable enough to put back into her crate. GREAT!!!!!!

I'd rather have 4 footed furry problems than 4-hoofed problems if I'm being completely honest.......

The one lecture I did manage to make so far this week was on rabies.

Most of the time I would be excited to bring you such an exciting, interesting, zoonotic vetmed topic, but if you are looking for the details of the disease in this post, I'm sorry to dissapoint. I will point you towards youtube and the internet. The disease is just awful (second only to tetanus in my childhood fears) and it's impossible for me to write a post for you guys without really getting into the subject and I just can't. The pictures and videos I saw in lecture today was bad enough. Every picture of dog reminded me of Tess and in all the human pictures you were looking at dead people. They weren't clinically dead yet, but it was just a matter of time. Instead I wanted to share with you some epidemiolgical facts about the disease and some other miscellaneous pieces of information I picked up in lecture that I thought were interesting, or I had wrong. My apologies to my non-CA readers - most of the stats I have here are from CA - however you should be able to look up these sorts of things for your state/locality, and hopefully function as a starting point for questions if you want to do some further research.

• Dogs shed the virus in their saliva a few days prior to developing clinical signs. This is why the 10 day incubation period (for animals with a current vaccination history) is used - if after 10 days the animal is healthy, than if it does have rabies it was not shedding virus in the saliva the 10 days prior when it bit. It isnt that the animal doesn't necessarily have the disease (the incubation is 7days to over 6 years with an average of 4-6 weeks), but that it didn't TRANSMIT the disease at the time of the bite. Surviving the incubation period is not synomonous with not having the disease, but it does mean that rabies wasn't transmitted in that dog bite 10 days earlier.
• Rabies can look like anything, especially in the first "prodromal phase". One of the biggest ways that people are exposed to rabies is through cattle - the cow might look like it's choking or that there is an obstruction in the air way and so a person puts their hands in the cow's throat/mouth to look for a foreign object. Rabies can be "furious" or "paralytic". In some species one form is more common than the other. Cows are often paralytic (especially with the bat form). Horses tend to present with the more aggressive (furious form). Dogs can be either, but seem especially driven to bite and roam with the disease - thus making very good carriers and transmitters!!!! Cats hide and die. Human exposure occurs most commonly in cats when a good samaritan finds a sick cat hiding somewhere and tries to help it.
• Not every species presents with the classic "hydrophobia" symptom. Humans do, dogs do not. Aerophobia occurs in dogs. Remember that rabies can look like ANYTHING! In cows it can look like ketosis, milk fever, listeriosis, botulism etc.
• Recovery from rabies is very very very rare. That's why it makes the news. We are talking about known survivors in the single digits. 2 years ago we were on survivor number 8. For some reason survivors tend to me female and either children or teenagers.
• Vectors in the US by prevalence shown in class are: skunk/raccoon, bat, dog/fox, other. However, in CA wildlifethe main reservoirs are the skunk and bat. Skunks used to be number 1, but have declined over the years to a very low level on par with the third major CA vector, the fox. The bat numbers have remained at an intermediate level and are currently number 1.
• 92% of rabies cases in the US are wild animals.
• Dogs used to exceed cats in number of rabies cases, but right now cats exceed dogs. Cats are less likely to be vaccinated and tend to be allowed more freedom. Total cases are declining (this bullet point refers to CA stats). Cats are the most common rabid domestic animal
• Let's talk about vampire bats. Especially because I said that bats were a major vector in CA. I am NOT referring to vampire bats!!!!!! They only exist in Mexico and S. America.
• Since 2002, 33 cases of human rabies in the US. 24 of those were acquired in the US. 21/24 cases were associated with bat strains. Since 2000, 8/36 national cases were reported in CA residents. Lucky California.....
• There IS a possibility for transmission to occur with non-bite exposure. This is RARE!!!!.
• In addition to the obvious "seek medical attention" if you are bit by something, wash with SOAP and water. SOAP not alcohol was specifically said in lecture.

 

Highlights of the CA Rabies Control program

• Epidemiologic surveillance - passive. It's possible to sign up for alerts in your area. Karen provided a GREAT link that is a website devoted to horse and people relavant outbreaks of westnile, rabies etc. and I signed up for email alerts when new cases are found in my area. So far most of the cases are bats, with a cat or two thrown in.
• K-9 mandatory immunization. Must be with a CA approved vaccine (killed vaccine) under the direct or indirect supervision of a DVM. Although not required, strongly recommend vaccination of cats, ferrets and livestock (I find it funny that even though ferrets are illegal here, at least from a disease control point of view, the government is realistic enough to know that they are here and conceding at least having them vaccinated so they don't contribute to a public health risk). In the rest of the US, vaccination laws differ - some require vaccination for dogs AND cats, others let local districts decide. CA is a 3 year booster state. Others are 1 year or 2 year booster states. I didn't know there was this much variation throughout the country on this. Note that wild animal species (including wolf hyprids) and other animal species not specifically listed above are NOT considered as vaccinated, even with a vaccination history and thus if they are exposed there is NO ISOLATION period and euthanasia is law (although there is an evaluation on case by case basis stipulation in there - probably if a zoo etc. gets exposed). Titers cannot substitute for vaccination - there is no excemptions for the mandaory canine rabies vaccine. That being said, apparently there is some legislation out there right now to try and put an exemption in. An interesting difference between CA and the rest of the US is that vaccination is given to dogs 4 months and older, while in the rest of the country it's 3 months and older.
• Stray animal control
• Human rabies prophylaxis
• Animal quarrantines. If an animal bites, it undergoes a 10 day isolation period. If signs develop the animal is euthanized and tested. If healthy at end of 10 days, no rabis was transmitted at time of bite. If animal is exposed: 30 d. isolation (CA) or 45 d. isolation (rest of US) if vaccinated (and immediate revaccination). 6 month isolation if no current vaccination (and immediate vaccination). Immediate vaccination = within 48 hours. As mentioned before, there is no isolation period for non-dog/cat/ferret/livestock species regardless of vaccination history. I'm not sure if this applies to just the exposure isolation, or in case of a bite or both.
• Commuity education.

 

Rabies IS relevant to horse owners. If a horse gets rabies, there tends to be lots of humans exposed as compared to a dog or cat case. I've never lived anywhere that I would be comfortable not vaccinating for rabies, but that's also because I've tended to live in rural areas of CA. My cats ARE vaccinated because when a rabies outbreak occurs and they start rounding up the cats in the area, I don't want my outdoor kitties to be included. The rabies vaccine is effective and assuming you can pay for the isolation in the event of exposure or bite, gives your animal a fighting chance if something happens. You as an owner gets very little say over the outcome if the vet determines that your animal most likely has rabies. I also never ever ever want one of my animals to be one of those in the pictures I saw. There is no hope. Zero. Zilch. I was traumatized enough by the thought of rabies (I believe my mother was one of those people who believed in using real life things to scare her children silly) that I'm SO GLAD I've never made an effort to research rabies in pictures and video before now (although I did read a medical history book on the subject a few months ago). For me one of the big differences about considering this disease and vaccination for it compared to the other lethal diseases that I could consider vaccination for is it's high zoonotic potential. Find out whether it's endemic in your area, and talk to your vet about whether it might be a good idea for your herd.

 

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Leg care

One good thing about an absence from the sport of endurance is that I'm revisiting some of my old protocols and evaluating whether they are really effective or not.

If you've been a reader on this blog for a couple of years, you have probably seen a discussion of what I do post-ride to care for Farley's legs and prevent filling as she stands at the trailer after a ride.

Filling isn't necessarily bad on it's own, but it can be a warning sign of an underlying injury. There is variation among individuals. Some horses may be more prone to filling from the beginning. In horses with previous injuries, the leg can be more likely to fill, even if there is no injury. As with anything else, filling is one piece of information to be considered in the entire picture of the animal when making decisions.

There's 2 schools of thought when it comes to leg care.

a. Treat aggressively every time to prevent the filling so it never occurs.

b. Treat minimally so that if there is a problem and the leg fills abnormally, than you know something is up and you can adjust.

I fall somewhere between the 2 (as do probably most people). I don't want to treat so aggressively that I miss something.....but I also know that because of splints and previous soft tissue injury, some filling is normal in Farley after an endurance ride and I want to prevent that if I can.

Let's talk about icing.

I do ice. 20 min on, 20 min off, repeat 2-3 times. The basic theory behind icing is that you are reducing/slowing down any inflammatory processes that are occurring in the leg, and thus hopefully minimizing damage that can occur with inflammation. HOWEVER, there's a thought out there that by icing, you may be preventing a normal physiological, healing response to the work. True, the inflammatory cytokines that are present have damaging effects on normal tissue, BUT there's some protective properties there too that you may be preventing by icing it.

Here's my middle of the road approach to icing. After a normal conditioning ride I don't ice unless there is an apparent injury. I monitor the legs closely if it was an especially hard ride but overall I depend on the body's normal physiological responses to do what is best. After endurance rides I do ice, again - assuming there is no apparent injury, but I don't go overboard, and I don't try to "super cool the legs". If there's an inflammatory response in the legs that I feel warrants that type of cooling, maybe there's a bigger problem that means I need to go back and evaluate my conditioning program and understand why I'm getting that type of response in the leg.........

After icing you can go straight to wrapping (or not), or "poulticing the legs".....or not.

Let's talk about wrapping first.

There are pros and cons of wrapping.

Pro: provide "support" to the leg to potentially reduce filling, especially in a horse standing at the trailer (even considering that it is getting hand walks).

Con: impossible to closely monitor the legs over a period of time.

Again, I historically chose a middle of the road approach.

I do wrap overnight, but not until I have decided whether there is not a problem in the leg. If I finish a ride and don't have any concerns about her legs at the finish, and everything continues to look good an hour or so after the finish (the time it takes me to untack, vet in, ice etc.), I wrap.

If I'm unsure - ie she's NQR (not quite right) but maybe I can't put my finger on it. Is there more filing or heat in one leg than than the other? Was the vet concerned about how she was moving? Was it a tough trail or did she take some funny steps? It's not until I have decided one way or the other (yes I have a problem, or no I probably don't) that I wrap. That way I can continue to monitor it for changes. This is how I caught the issue on the end of the 20MT in 2011 in Farley. She was pulled for tightness in the hind end at mile 96 and trailered back to camp. I waited to wrap until I was ready to go to bed because it was a sandy ride which is historically hard for Farley, and I wanted to make sure everything was good, especially with the left front. During my last check before wrapping there was SUBSTANTIALLY more filling in the left front than the right and I knew i had a problem. I may not have caught that problem if I had wrapped right away.

Let's go back a step. What about treating the leg with something prior to wrapping?

There's a couple of different options.

Surpass - a NSAID drug that is absorbed through the skin. I start with this one because it is the simplest and I know the mechanism. Think of it as bute - but bute that is absorbed directly to the site where it is needed. It's important to remember that this is an honest-to-goodness drug and is prohibited during competition. Additionally, I do not treat legs with this post ride unless there is an issue because I don't want to hide an issue that I should know about - Don't misunderstand me I have no problem slathering on the stuff if I think there is a hint of injury - but I don't fool myself into thinking that now I don't have an injury - by choosing to treat with the drug, it means there's an issue that needs to be addressed beyond just standard ride recovery. The ice-surpass-wrapping routine is the routine recommended by my veterinarian when Farley bowed her tendon. Minx was treated with a furacin sweat wrap (discussed later) the year before for a similar issue....but my veterinarian, having just returned from a conference suggested that we try this new drug, Surpass, based on the evidence he saw at the conference about its action on tendons. We were both really pleased with the results and it's my treatment of choice if there's an issue.

Clay poultice. There's some out there that have ingredients banned for competition by AERC, but I'm referring to the clay poultices that are legal. I see a lot of people using these (legal clay poultices) post ride and although I've never used it, I've been tempted, and I'm considering it for the future. When I asked my vet about it, his comment was that while he wasn't convinced that it did any substantial good, it wasn't likely to do harm, and (most importantly) if there was something wrong, wouldn't cover it up. Sounds pretty good to me, and I'm willing to try it. Like I mentioned above, Due to a variety of insults and injuries over the years, Farley's legs do have a tendency to have some filling after rides and adding something to my routine that minimizes this would be nice. My plan is to use a wet paper over the clay poultice and then put the wrap over that. I'm a very practical rider, and if I don't think it helps, I probably won't bother continuing the practice (my energy at rides could be used for something more valuable in that case), but I think it's worth a shot.

Furacin (nitrofurazone) +/- DMSO. I really struggle with this one. This is what people call a "sweat wrap" and I see it prescribed for lots of soft tissue stuff. After slathering the Furacin on, the wrap is applied directly (the advice I was given for Minx's bow), or is covered by wet paper (like the clay poultice) or covered by suran wrap, and then covered by the wrap. Here's my problem when the treatment. I can't find ANYWHERE definitive evidence that it works, or if it does HOW it works. And unlike the clay poultice, I'm not convinced it it totally benign. Furacin is an antimicrobial that in human medicine was applied topically to burns, that has since been discontinued. It is a potentially carcinogen. When using it, it is recommended that we apply it with gloves. Left too long on the horse it can cause scuffing and hair loss. DMSO is used as an industrial solvent, and has uses in vetmed, primarily as a carrier across the skin for other compounds, and some other uses that have very little relevance to endurance (cerebral edema?). So, what I'm left with, based on this information, is a potential carcinogen that is an antimicrobial that, if used in combination with DMSO may be carried into the skin (depending on how well it binds to DMSO) that some how helps heal soft tissue and/or reduce inflammation? I really have a hard time with this. I've been doing some research over the last 2 or 3 days on this topic, and still have no good idea of the how's and why's. So here is where I am with this therapy:

1. If it works, it falls into the same category as surpass - meaning it does substantially help, and thus could cover up something post ride (and just because you have prevented one clinical sign of an injury doesn't mean it doesn't still exist!!!!!!).

2. Although Surpass is by perscription only and more expensive than the Furacin sweat, at least I know how it works and what I'm dealing with, AND.....

3. Because of no clear anti-inflammatory effect and potential carcinogen status, I'm not sure that this falls into the harmless/benign category and so into the "why the hell not, what can it hurt" category.

I'm a believer that most of the "old" horseman traditions that persist usually have some kernal of truth that underlye them, just waiting for modern medicine to find. AND not everything I consider as helpful can necessarily be explained with science, SO, I'm not someone to immediately dismiss an "old tradition" such as this sweat wrap easily. But, in this case, I'm very uncomfortable doing this to my horse. After all, it's an "old" tradition that pin firing tendons encourages healing, which I can confidently say has been completely debunked. Is the Furacin wrap something that makes the horseperson feel good in the face of an injury where time and patience is the best healer? Is is benign or does it have the potential to do more harm than good?

Vets I respect have recommended this treatment, thus there may be something I'm missing. If you have something with a reference (not from a forum or word of mouth) of how this therapy helps, PLEASE let me know. I will be talking to several vets I know at the AERC convention next weekend to get more opinions.

It would be really nice to have something that REALLY works that is over the counter and cheap - I could buy a lot of furacin for what a tube of surpass costs me. I'm just not convinced, based on my current knowledge, that this therapy has a place in my bag of tricks.

In conclusion: here's a summary of my (revisited) leg care protocol at a ride:

1. evaluate legs.

2. Ice

3. evaluate legs. If everything looks OK, move onto the next step. If there's an issue, move onto the next step. If I'm unsure, STOP, wait. Re-evaluate.

4. If no issue, +/- clay poultice, standing wrap.

5. If issue, Surpass and standing wrap.

I'll let you know how I tweak it in the upcoming season!!!!

 

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Is this why running out a stress works?

Another tidbit from clas.

Way back, last year, I learned an interesting thing about stress and physiological response to stress. There may be a beneficial physiological consequence of a flight or flight stress response ending in actual flight or fight!!!!!

This is very relevant to our horses, since is seems like most of our interaction with them is about either not triggering that flight/fight response, or teaching the horse to NOT respond to a stressful situation in either flight or fight. Instead we ask them to chose a non-phyiscal ending (such as standing there) to the stressor, or (applying this concept to ourselves) perhaps we are dealing a stress that is triggering a flight/fight response in us, that we do not respond to in a physical way --> such as the stress of studying for an exam, and that stress culminating into taking the exam (which is NOT a physical conclusion).

I've noticed in both myself, my horses, and my dog that the best way to completely resolve stress, whether physical or mental, is to do something physical that causes me to get out of breath and my blood to start pumping. Farley is calmer after being allowed to explode (safely) after a stressful training session - perhaps in a good turnout session in the arena. Tess needs to go into zoomies around the property if I've pushed her in a shaping session. If I'm stressed I can try a lot of different techniques to try to forget and relax, but the most effective way to "reset" myself is something involving cardio.

It turns out there may be an actual physiological mechanism to this.

The flight and fight response causes activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system response. A quick refresher on the nervous system......the parasympathetic is the "rest and digest" control. Heart rate is relatively low, blood pressure low, blood flow is going to the gut to digest that big meal that was just eaten. Sympathetic is what kicks in when you see that bear. The eyes dilate, the heart rate increases, the peripheral blood vessels constrict which raises your blood pressure.

So......You've seen the metaphorical bear whether it's an actual carnivore, or something more insidious like an exam or a public speaking engagement. Your sympathetic system has been activated and you are poised to flight or flight.

Let's say you allow an actualy physical flight response and you are now pounding the pavement or urging your horse down the trail to escape the jaws of death.

The arterioles, tiny vessels containing oxygenated blood, usually moving towards a capillary bed, in the skeletal muscles dilate. Remember that initially these peripheral vessels constricted due to the sympathetic response! Why would they dilate? Exercising muscles accumulate byproducts/metabolites that (through a mechanism that I had to learn but I'm not going to make you learn......) cause a reflexive dilation of that vessel......

This "vasodilation" in the arterioles of the skeletal muscle, can actually reverse the effect of overall sympathetic vasoconstriction in other organs of the body.

Remember that the overall vasoconstriction due to the sympathetic response in the beginning of this scenerio means that you are pumping a constant amount of fluid (blood) through smaller "pipes" than usual so your blood pressure is up, blood is returning to the heart faster etc. Dilating the arterioles is going to cause the amount of blood returning to the heart to be less because the pipes just got bigger in one area.

This will cause your blood pressure to return toward normal despite the increase in cardiac output (cardiac output is the amount of blood your heart is pumping).

Thus, a flight or fight stimulous that ends in actual flight or flight/strenuous activity, actually causes the system to return to the non-stressed, normal state!!!!!!!!

What about situations that do not resolve in physical activity? Emotional stress often provoke a flight-or-fight response but don't always resolve in muscle exercise. Medical students taking an examination is an example. A stalled horse that doesn't like ballcaps who has ball-capped-clad humans passing in front of his stall all day. A horse in a small paddock that is being exposed to lots scary stimuli but can't respond by running. A horse at his first endurance ride tied to a trailer.

While my reading on the subject didn't give any definitive answers to this, it did state that "it seems likely that repeated elevations in blood pressure because of dissociation of the cardiovascular component of the flight-fight response from muscular exercise component are harmful".

Seems like an excellent hypothesis for why stress in humans can cause disease, why my horse seems calmer if allowed to run a bit after being good (ie not bolting) through a scary situation, and why a horse in a small paddock on a windy day is "high", even if they are technically getting enough exercise.

How do I use this information? I'll make sure that I'm resolving stress in my life through PHYSICAL release, and I'll make sure that I'm allowing my animals the opportunity to do so in a safe manner as well.

 

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Finishing up the lit search stuff

 

More pics from last Wednesday's ride just because - do you notice the difference between the mane shown here and the pics in the last post which are post-shaving? Long manes are beautiful, but they can make the horse look so bedraggled if they are muddy and tangled. I must admit I sort of miss her beautiful mane, but this is so much more functional.

Continung on our literature discussion:

3. Look at the figure next. This was a tip I picked up during an onco journal club last block. Look at the figures, decipher what they are saying and what they mean and decide what your conclusions would be based on the figures. You may need to refer to the method and results section to find out what the different definitions are that are represented in the graph.

4. Methods and Results section. And then the conclusions. Are their conclusions supported by their results? You may (like me) have your eyes glaze over in these sections, but if you've got in your head straight what they are trying to prove (from the abstract), what kind of study they are running and what their figures say, then you should be able to muddle through the jargon enough to figure out whether the research really is promising, or if someone's grant money was running out and they really needed another publication.

5. At some point browse the intro and conclusions. It's also useful to use these sections as references if you aren't sure what they are talking about or are using vocab that isn't familiar - however, remember that no matter how interesting and enteratining these sections are, they aren't the meat of the paper. They are telling you what other people found, and then telling you what they are going to prove.

Shall we apply this? Absolutely! Here's an annoucement that showed up in my inbox a couple of days ago "Golden retriever study suggests neutering affects dog health".

I haven't reviewed this yet, so we will go through this together. Here's the link: news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10498

1. This is a news release based on a study. Let's see what I can get from the news article first.

• Study examined health records of 759 golden retrievers.
• A single hospital database was used.
• Point of the study was to examine effects of neutering on the risks of several diseases (2 joint disorders and 3 cancers) in the same breed, distinguish between males and females and between early/late/non-neutering.
• Early/late neutering break point was 12 months.
• Dog ages in study ranged from 1-8 years
• Results: doubling of hip dysplasia among male dogs neutered before one year of age, increases in all five diseases significantly higher in both males and females that were neutered early or late when compared to not altered animals.

Besides confirming all the results/study design from the actual study, here are my inital thoughts/questions based on the news release: Could there be a bias because of a single database: a tertiary referral hospital who may see disproportionately higher numbers difficult cases, or unaltered "quality non-pet quality" animals because they are considered valuable and thus owners bring them to the university hospital? How have the authors controlled for this?

Some biases that I am aware of that I have going into this study are:

1. I believe that in most cases, assuming responsible ownership, dogs shouldn't be altered before they hit puberty and their growth plates close.

2. I believe in most cases, unless planning on breeding, adult dogs should be altered.

3. I believe that hormones are important and the lack of them, or presence of them, can be a signicant factor in disease formation. Nothing is done without consequence in biology, including removing hormones from the system. Growth is a critical time for hormones, thus I like to see altering wait until after the growth period, but I am open to the fact that removing hormones may influence other disease processes, while keeping in mind that hormone presence can exacerabe/increae the risk of other diseases........

Going on to the actual research!!!!!!

1. Read the abstract: Objective was to examine the variables of gender and age at time of neutering (versus leaving dogs in intact) on all disease occuring with sufficient frequency that they could be statistically evaluated. The abstract confirmed the information in the news release such as the sample size, breed and age range chosen etc. Hip (HD), cranial cruciate ligament tear (CCL), lymphosarcoma (LSA), hemangiosarcoma (HSA) and mast cell tumor (HCT) were the diseases that were chosen.

Results according to abstract:

Hip dysplasia and lymphosarcoma is more common in early neutered males as compared to intact males. (My bias from previous research, knowledge, and personal experience tells me to believe the hip dysplasia component of this. I know that hormones affect bone growth and those males neutered before 12 months would have had the hormones removed during their growth period. However, I also wonder whether those early neutered males were pet quality with perhaps contracts from the breeding requiring neutering and thus a higher number of poorer quality dogs are represented in the neutered group. Knowing the dog isn't breeding quality may have motivated advice by the breeder and the vet to neuter the dog early, which would skew the results. This argument could also be applied to the lymphosarcoma cases - If more lower quality animals are part of the early neutered category, and if lymphosarcoma has a genetic component associated with these types of backyard breeding programs - as compared to the guide dog organization for example - than it's possible that the trend has more to do with genetics than the neutering status).

There were cases of CCL in early neutered males and females, but none in the unaltered animals. (see my comments for hip dysplasia.)

Late neutered females: Had 4 times more HSA cases than the intact or early-neutered females. No MCT cases in intact females, but an occurance of nearly 6% in the late-neutered females. (This is interesting and I have no prior knowledge or experience that tells me whether there might be a confounding factor like in the early neutered male dog/lymphosarcoma link. Late spayed females covers a wide range of dogs - from those dogs like Tess that were neutered after their first heat at 14 months, to those retired breeding bitches who were neutered at 5 years of age after many heat cycles and/or pregnancies, because of the risk of pyometria etc. in an unbred intact bitch. Thus, I don't think that there is an inherent bias in dog quality in the late neutered females, like the early neutered dogs. I'm not sure what the mechanism would be for the increase in neoplasia, but I'm willing to consider this link as I know that hormones are powerful stuff and according to my experence so far, I don't see any obvious confounding factors with this link).

So what did I get out of the abstract? I'm still concerned about an inherent bias in the early neutered groups. The hip dysplasia/CCL link has been fairly well documented even though there's the confounding factor of dog quality, I think that previous research does a good job of linking hormones with bone development. I'm curious about the increased neoplasia in the late-neutered females and what the authors have to say about a potential mechanism, or if there's been other research that talks about this potential link.

 

2. Type of study and other general info......

The type of study is a retrospective review of records from a referral hospital at a vet school. As far as I can tell how the dogs were screened and chosen, it is in line with what is said in the news release and the abstract. I do wish that this study had taken related puppies/littermates and done a cohort study with them --> randomly neutering some early and late and leaving some intact. I feel that it would have been more valid. There is the argument that all golden retrievers are incredibly related thus genetics aren't a big deal and has actually been controlled for in this study by picking a single breed.....however being this is a referral hospital, I know they see quite a few very well bred Golden retrievers (out of the guide dog programs) that may or may not be altered, and I think it's unfair to compare them against golden retrievers that are almost a completely different breed - that of the backyard golden retriever (I have one, I know the difference!). Cohort studies are costly and take time, thus a retrospective is a viable alternative. I think another thing that would have made me more comfortable with the results in the expand the databases used - screen hospitals not considered referrals for the same breed/age range/diseases and add them to the results.

3. The figures!

Very nice graphs!!!!! that are actually self explanatory. Would have liked to see the confidence intervals/error bars so that it was more apparent what was statistically significant.

No CCL cases among intact males (and CCL cases occur in both early and late neutered males). Mean age of CCL onset in early neutered males is 3.6 years (the single late-neutered dog was diagnosed at 7.4 years). There is aboslutely no cases of lymphosarcoma in late neutered males (yet cases among both early neutered and intact males) - which is weird because if it's hormonally dependent I would have expected the late neutered dog to have some cases. According to the text in the actual paper, the age of onset for LSA in intact males and early neutered males is nearly identical (5.3 versus 5.8 years).

Bottom line: while the CCL condition seems to have some correlaton with neutering status for males, I'm not seeing it for LSA

In the female graph, there doesn't appear to be any difference between the 3 categories of dogs and hip dysplasia - why would presence/absence of gonadal hormones matter in the male but not the female? Weight is one factor thorugh to contribute to joint disease, and according to the text the BCS in the male dogs (ie how fat they were) was compared to the results and no difference was found between early-neutered dogs with and without HD when compared to their BCS scores (even though the early-neutered dogs were slighly fatter). Since female dogs tend to be smaller than their male counterparts, weight was one theory I had why HD would be significant in the male category and not here, but for there not to be a correlation between weight and HD among the males, makes me doubt that female dogs being smaller is the entire explanation.......something else is going on.

Another point in the female graph: Like in the intact male group NO cases of CCL in the unaltered group. However, there is also no CCL cases in the female neutered late group. Thus in terms of CCL, the late neutered female behaves like a unaltered female. Similarly in LSA the late neutered female is similar to the unaltered.

Bottom line for me: Assuming there is a link between the muscularskeletal system and neutering, it's a male problem and mostly related to early neutering, not late. LSA is much higher in early neutered dogs, but considering that there are ZERO cases in late neutered dogs (there are cases in intact dogs) I think it is valid to question whether this is a neutering related problem, or a genetic problem. There seems to be a stronger link between late female neutering and specific types of neoplasia (with the exception of LSA which seems to be relateded to early neutering, similar to the males). Neutering females late seems to eliminate any CCL risk related to neutering.

If I have a male dog.........wait to neuter until after 12 months to reduce hip dysplasia, while also reducing risk for CCL and LSA. Neutering late as opposed to not neutering at all seems to reduce the chances of LSA.

If I have a female dog......wait until after 12 months to reduce CCL risk (and LSA). Realize that by neutering late, there may be an creased risk of HSA and MCT as opposed to doing it early or keeping the bitch intact.

4. Methods section:

1. Besides the structure of the study already mentioned, another important point is that the neutering of animals occured PRIOR to the diagnosis of the condition. For example, there's a difference between a dog neutered at 8 months of age, then diagnosed with hip dysplasia at 18 months, and a dog that was diagnosed with hip dsyplasia at 18 months and then neutered at 20 months because he wasn't breeding quality due to the development of hip dysplasia. In the first case, an argument could be made that the neutering could affect the development of hip dysplasia, but in the second case, hip dysplasia was the cause of the neutering!

2. Only diseases with at least 15 cases found in the record database when screening based on the breed and age range were considered.

Bottom line: Overall seems sound. I think the inherent problem of there being a bias of lower quality animals in the early neutering group exists.

5. browsing other sections

In the second paragraph of the discussion section I run across this sentence: "for all five diseases analyzed in the present study, the disease rates in males and/or females were significantly increased when neutering was performed early and/or late. " Whoa whoa whoa!!!! Say what?

-- In male, the late neutered hip dysplasia rate was the same/less than the intact males. No difference in the females.

-- LSA risk is highest in early male neutered dogs, but there were NO cases in the late-neutered group, while there were a significant number of cases in the unaltered group.

--CCL numbers in female late neutered and unaltered females is the SAME. Same for LSA.

Thus I vementantly DISAGREE with that statement and do NOT believe that the authors have results that support that statement. If someone reads this and sees something I don't, please enlighten me

Reasons/mechanisms given for the musculoskeletal diseases described didn't introduce anything new. The authors give several suggestions for why the neoplasia numbers look like they do - mostly having to do with hormones sensitizing various cells, etc., all of which seem like valid working theories for future research.

How do I use this research?

I think that there is clear evidence for waiting to neuter males and females in regards to musculoskeletal conditions, keeping in mind that genetics may play a large factor is whether the animal actually develops the disease. However, I do NOT think that this study gave me a good reason to not neuter after 12 months and keep an animal intact as a way of avoiding disease, including neoplasia. A cohort study, or a retrospective that controlled for genetic pools of animals, and/or records pulled from a larger sampling of hospitals is needed for me to change my mind regarding not neutering for the health of an animal beyond 12 months of age.

Bottom line: Interesting, but I need to see further research before I start making animal health decisions based on this paper, especially in regards to the development of neoplasia. Definitely not a paper I would wave around as justification for not neutering my dog at any point.

As you can see, going through this process is a lot of work. It obviously is a lot more work and time to put it down on paper, and you aren't going to have to go through every point listed here for every paper. I do like this approach because it forces me to focus on the meat of the study and what they did or didn't do - not how well their introduction is written etc. By focusing on the claims, the method, and the figures/results, you can decide how far to take the reserach.

 

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Farley's mane

Yesterday (BTW - keep in mind that these posts are often scheduled, so "yesterday" is relative! thus, Farley go her vaccines on Sunday, not yesterday as the scheduled 6 am post this morning suggested) Farley got over her indignation long enough to take her front half out of the shadows so I could get a decent picture.

Farley says: I'm watching you.

Here's a view from the saddle.

We went on a 7 mile trail ride yesterday. We did it in under an hour, and Tess did more like 10 miles through brush and brumble and over hills and through ditches......Longest trail ride and certaintly the fastest for Tess and she was an ANGEL. She actually napped in my lap that night while I watched a movie. Endurance conditioning = best job EVER for a brittany! Tess and Farley are settling in well together on the trail. Farley has accepted the fact that the white bouncy dog streaks from behind at top speed and is a bit clueless about horses and Tess is now pretty sure that it's still me on that thing, even if I'm wearing a helmet and look weird.

 

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Vaccination

Yesterday I popped Farley with 2 vaccines.

I considered long and hard what I wanted to do with the vaccinations this year. Last year I wasn't pleased with the slight hoof sensitivity that occurred after vaccination that lasted about 3 months - where she was once sound at a canter/gallop on gravel, she now only wanted to trot.

AAEP publishes vaccination guidelines/recommendation and if you aren't familiar what is in your 4 or 5 way, or other vaccines, it might be helpful to take a moment to review.

WEE and EEE:

These are zoonotic diseases that are transmitted by the mosquito vector. They cause severe enchephalitis in horses and humans (humans have low levels of the virus in their blood if they are infected and do not transmit the disease to mosquitos). The eastern form can be found on the west coast and vice versa. The disease can be fatal and can pass to humans. These are considered "core" vaccines by the AAEP and is in most of your standard combo vaccines. Because of vaccination, WEE and EEE epidemics no longer regularly occur in the US (reference: CDC website). Here is the link to a summary of cases/distribution of cases over the last couple of years: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahss/equine/ee/

Did I vaccinate for this yesterday? No. My risk is low where I live, and during some years of competition, I was vaccinating for these 2 diseases as often as every 4 months based on AAEP recommendations for a performance horse. Because this is a core set of vaccinations that are given often, chances are if a vaccination was causing some increased inflammation/sensitivity, this is my prime suspect.

Tetanus toxid

I think everyone knows about tetanus. Horses are particularly sensitive. Tetanus vaccine is available by itself or in conjunction with lots of different combo vaccines.

Did I vaccinate for this yesterday? You betcha. Especially with that old wire injury that may or may not allow crud up in there and was causing problems....yep, she got popped with a tetanus toxoid vaccine in the right thigh.

 

West Nile

I spoke on this in an earlier post. Mosquito vector, zoonotic (but not passed between humans and horses). According to Aphis (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahss/equine/wnv/index.htm) there were cases very very near me last year, AND Farley boards on a river bank. AND mosquitos have already started showing up. 3 types of vaccine available. AAEP recommends 6-12 month vaccination.

Did I vaccinate for this yesterday? Yep. I consider "before the vector season" to be the end of February in this area (the fruit trees are already coming into bloom....) and that will give me good protection through September, the peak time for WNV infections.

 

Influenza? Rhino? Strangles?

She didn't get any of these yesterday. There's a couple of reasons. Strangles I don't give for a variety of reasons. Influenza, Rhino, EHV are all a concern, but I'll evaluate once I know my competition season. I'll vaccinate no less than 1 month within a competition date to give the inflammation time to die down if it is going to affect her feet, and she'll have protection during the time she needs it most - at competition where she's sharing water troughs and around lots of strange horses. These are more examples of vaccines that were in the combo that I gave up to every 4 months so another good candidate for already having increased titers.

Splitting up some of my vaccines based on vector season and others based on competitions is a way to spread the vaccinations out over time. I like doing this especially if I suspect there was a problem last time. WNV and tetanus are diseases I'm worried about NOW, these others I worry about more when I'm competing, this they will come around in a couple months.

A note on spreading vaccines out: I talked to a vet with a vaccine company and he suggested that if I spread vaccines out to do it over a MONTH, not a week or so - introducing another vaccine 1-2 weeks post vaccination means introducing that vaccine at the height of the vaccine response (and inflammation) from the previous vaccination. If you are going to spread them out, make sure to wait at least a month.

Also on the suggestion of the same vet, I gave everything in the thigh instead of the neck. The neck is easy, but residual soreness in the neck can be harder to pinpoint and attribute to transient hoof sensivity.

What about NSAIDs? I decided that at least for tetanus and WNV NOT to give banamine or bute. Reducing the inflammation can potentially decreased the vaccine response, and because I'm giving those 2 only and not the combo, I elected to give them without any additional medications and see what her response is.

There's one more vaccine that I didn't mention above that I do keep Farley current on: Rabies. I don't have my license so I can't give it. Rabies occurs in wild populations of animlas, and according to the state I live in, bats testing positive for rabies were found in both the county that Farley boards in and surrounding counties. The chance for interaction between Farely and a bat, oppossum, or skunk is fairly high and thus, I chose to keep that vaccine current. One thing to remember about rabies. There is NO test that can be done on a living animal in order to determine whether it has been infected with rabies. ONLY a post-mortem (after death) brain sample can be definitively tested for rabies. I was told in class that we aren't even allowed to test for rabies antibodies in a suspected animal - they need to be euthanized and the brain sample submitted.

I write this from a horse owner perspective, not as a vet or future vet. As a vet I would absolutely tell you to vaccinate with all the core vaccines (barring any issues such as past reaction etc. - this is a THEORTICAL CONVERSATION). Perhaps spacing them out at least a month for clients with my worries, and administering a concurrent NSAID with the vaccines for the older horse who has a strong vaccination history for certain diseases not necessarily edemic in the area the horse lives or travels in.

I absolutely believe in the efficacy of power of vaccines and believe they do more good than harm. However, I look back at the volume of vaccination I did based on recommendations and wonder whether for an older, well vaccinated horse if some of the core are really necessary, especially for the horse, which seems to be more prone to issues associated with inflammation. On the dog side, the most current recommendation is that the core (distemper, hepatitis, parvo etc.) be given every 3 years. Horses are a different species and thus we cannot extrapolate from dog core recommendations to horses, but I do wonder what the titers look like long term for an older horse with a strong vaccination history.

One last note about vaccines - Dr. Bigbie, the vet who spoke about west nile a couple of days ago at the lunch talk (see previous notes on west nile) told me that years ago he wrote an article about rhino/influenza/EHV called "A snotty horse is hard to love" and even though he's done a ton of WNV stuff etc over the years, that's the first thing that will pop up on a google search of his name. Sure enough, I found the article: http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0496rhino.shtml.

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A new hair do

Farley: what are those in your hand?

Me: Clippers.

Farley: ummmm.........

Me: it's either your hair or mine and you have the better bone structure to pull off the whole chopped look.

Farley: I'm pretty sure it's fine. See? you barely even notice the knots from here. No need to feel guilty that they represent you ignoring me during the whole "vet school thing".

Me: Hair grows back

Farley: No it doesn't - have you seen the horses around here? I'm pretty sure it's an outbreak (Farley is boarded at a polo barn).

Me: Think about how much cooler you will be! And no more braiding! Or me tugging at your mane!

Farley: OK. Fine.

Me: Oops.

Farley: WHAT??!?!!!

Me: I forgot to leave a handle next to your wither. Oh well, I'll just put it here.

Farley: I told you this was a HORRIBLE idea.

Me: I can totally fix this. Don't worry.

Farley: No. Stop. Just Stop.

Me: You know what would fix this? Clipping your jaw line. Then you won't look like a goat!!!!

Farley: Goat isn't bad

Me: Ummmm......you are fourteen years not days and thus "goat" looks a little bit more like this:

Farley: Mmmm....you have a point.

Me: Brrrrrr..............

Farley: Are you done yet?

Me: just a little more.....

Farley: I think it's time to stop. This is now way out of control and I will point out that you are no where near my mane anymore.

Me: just a little more.......

Farley: I'm done. I'm really really done.

Me: Fine. Ready to see yourself?

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Farley: NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! What have you done!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm standing over here until you FIX THIS!!!!!!! Immediately!!!!!!!!!

Here's what Farley actually looked like once I was done. I left her forelock for the summer flies. My clippers are old and didn't like the thick thick thick mane, so it wasn't totally roached down to the skin.

She has little fluffy hairs that emminate from the opposite side that the mane lays, so you can't even see the change from the left side! Especially with my handle flopped over.

Regarding the clipped jaw line - No whiskers where harmed during the making of the jaw line - just extra fuzzies from underneath. Not even clipped to the skin.

 

Farley prefers to stand in the shade will hopefully no one notices the travesty that just occurred.

 

 

 

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Vetmed subject: West nile

Zoetis talk at the vet school today - presenters Rocky Bigbie and Jeff Hall, both DVMs.

Below I'm going to summarize my notes from the talk, and insert some other learning points from my classes. Call it AERC convention practice.....

West Nile

Single stranded enveloped RNA virus (Flaviviridae, arbovirus). What does that mean? Typically enveloped viruses are not as hardy in the environment - viruses known as being especially persistent in the environment (polio, parvo) typically don't have an envelope......so just from this information, I know that WNV probably is a reservoir in a host somewhere NOT in the environment.

Transmitted primarily by mosquitos belonging to Culex sp. (this is important - sometimes the only reason there isn't a certain disease in a certain country is because the vector isn't present. )

First isolated in Uganda (West nile district) in 1937. Noted in Egypt and france in early 1960s. Entered the western hemisphere in 1999. First discovered at the Bronx zoo - lots of birds were dying. Public health and CDC officials running all over.......thought it was japenese encephalitis and the zoo vet is the one that confirmed west nile!!!!!!!! (that's because vets are the coolest... :))

Life cycle: mosquito to birds to mosquitos to birds. 99% of the virus on the planet is in the blood of birds --> There can be so much virus in the blood of birds that it can actually be like sludge.

Horses and humans are incidental infections and dead-end hosts - virus levels stay low enough that it cannot be passed on, even to pasturemates. Dogs and cats DO get west nile - however usually the disease is of no-consequence unless the animal is already sick.

WNV mutated when it came to north america. The new mutant has a shorter incubation period (by 2 to 4 days) in mosquitoes compared to the original strain - this allowed for more efficient transmission within the mosquito population and selection pressure for the newer strain. HOWEVER, unlike the influenza mutations you might be familiar with, this mutation did not affect the immunity any of us (or our vaccinated horses) have, even if we were infected with the "old strain" (because of where the mutation is in the virus). - The mutation affected how it amplified in mosquitos and is the reason why WNV spread so much faster than the experts initially predicted.

Clinical signs in horses - (BTW - mules/donkeys get WNV just like horses - the rumor that they didn't has turned out to be false)

1. muscle fasciculations (60%). A very unique feature of this disease - looks like nothing else.
2. Recumbency (35%)
3. Depression (51%)
4. Mortality rate (30-38% overall, 70% for those that become recumbent).
5. Weakness (100%)
6. Ataxia (100%)
7. Fever
*****Major rule out (alternative diagnosis) is EPM (which I'm also learning about in school, and that is a sucky disease too...)

*Remember that some horses won't present for any signs at all, get bit, get the virus, get over it and have titers and you won't even know they've had it. A bunch of us have west nile titers too --> got bit by a mosquito, got a headache, took care of it.

Treatment: nursing care, symptomatic. KEEP THEM UP, keep them hydrated, anti-inflammatory. Average cost over $1,000/day if recumbent. (about $2,200 per horse in one survey - $350-8,500 range)

Prevention: eliminate standing water - tires are the worst offenders. In a single tire, 10,000 mosquito larvae can be harvested. Get rid of the tire piles. This is probably NOT a good fencing alternative if you are concerned about west nile....

****4 days required for mosquito breeding!

Add fish to any tanks or ornamental pools.

Aerial spraying may be of limited value (even though the adults die there are TON of larvae and egg stages that aren't affected).

Topical insect control on the horse

Stalling horses from dusk to dawn with a fan is an excellent preventative.

Vaccinate: Disease kills, vaccine works, adverse reactions are rare (keeping in mind that this presentation was by a vaccine company). Case control study showed almost 97% vaccine efficacy. Vaccinated horse are 31x less likely to get the disease.

What about bird control? no vaccine labeled for use in birds (however there have been people who have given 1000's of doses to birds). Zoos are experimenting with using WNV vaccines in birds - response is species dependent and it's important individually test the efficacy in each species. Adverse reactions almost non-existant. (FYI - the California condors have been vaccinated.......I think the paper is on science direct if you want to google and read it).


Other random facts of interest

FYI September is the WORST month for west nile infections (for us horse owners that are vaccinating --> best to do so prior to the vector season and make sure that September is included if you are using a 6 month protocol.

2012 worst year for West Nile (human infections)--> just not talking about it anymore in the nightly news......The horses aren't falling over dead because the vaccination protocols have largely worked.

Important to remember that even though we don't get nightly updates from the news on the Risk from the virus is still out there!

Compared west nile to another disease - Parvo. Once epidemic, now endemic. Was shown some data that when states stopped vaccinating because the thought was the prevalence was low and perhaps it wasn't necessary to vaccinate any more, the disease rates shot up.

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Why yes, I DID ride this morning.

During my ride this morning Farley was a little perturbed.

"THAT is the dog you have chosen to go with us?"

Me: yes.

Farley: But it doesn't even ACT like a dog. Are you sure it isn't a rabbit?

Me: it's white, has a fluffy tail and bounces. It could be a rabbit. Pretend you are Alice.

Farley: (spooking) GEEZ!!!!!!!!! I didn't know dogs could MOVE and JUMP like that.

Me: It's called being athletic.

Farley: No, being athletic means completing Tevis and numerous other 100s. If I acted like that you would call me stupid and sell me.

Me: Probably.

 

I'm feeding for the next couple of days for my barn owner so made sure to get there early enough to go for a spin around the orchard.

I took Tess with me. This deserves a post all to its self, but because I have accepted the fact that if I wait to write important posts, they don't get written, this landmark gets squished into this post (although the trend is I *think* I'll be able to write about more than one thing, and I end up having to end early so I can do something like actually pass my classes!).

One of my reasons I chose a Brittany is to have a dog athletic enough to go on conditioning rides with me. Taking a dog along is good for my mind and my horse's mind. A year ago Tess went on her first trail ride. She was attached to a long leash and it went well, although she got stepped on and was generally completely clueless about horses, even after being boweled over by Farley. It was a promising outing and I've continued to work on Tess on being off leash, and the concept that the whole world isn't full of fuzzy loving things that adore white bouncy puppies.

Since then she's gone on daily off leash walks with me while I introduced the moving commands we would do from horseback, to endurance rides and horsey walks where she got time to really think the huge creature that walked beside me, and a better understanding of the world that not everything is puppy-safe.

Today, 2 weeks shy of her two year birthday the time was right. It was early enough that there shouldn't be a lot of people out and about in the fields, Farley had been out 2 days ago so shouldn't be entirely wild, and during our daily lunch walks we were no longer having to work on training.

I was happy to see she was keeping her distance from Farley, and instead of seeing her as a big dog, was giving her a healthy dose of space and respect. I mounted up.

Tess was really confused. Where was Melinda? The voice was coming from somewhere above the snorty thing but no where did she see the creature that she associated with ME. Apparently wearing a coat and helmet and sitting on a creature presents a slightly different picture. She conceded to come with me, but kept looking behind her at the ranch as if wondering whether she was making the right decision to go with this weird beast. She actually stopped a couple of times and when I called to her started to run back to the ranch, being VERY confused about where I actually was.

I knew she's a smart dog and it wouldn't take her long to figure out that the four legged, 2 headed creature was her person, so I was patient, talked to her and sure enough, 10 minutes later she was out and about like a normal walk.

Farley's pace and Tess's pace is PERFECT for eachother.

Tess lasted approximately 25 minutes before she lost her puppy mind all over the trail. At 2 years old she acts reasonable and adult like a majority of the time. The joy of racing through the river bottoms without interference from me (because I could keep up with her and see her!) was too much to handle and I had zoomy puppy with empty dumb eyes that required a 3 minute sit stay so that the pieces of her brain could sift back through her ears and into her skull near the end of the ride.

Once the glazed over look faded, I released her and we finished our ride.

Success!!!!!!! Tess is now perfect. She has fulfilled every wish I had when I was picking out a dog. I wanted a companion that could go on the trail with me off leash, who came when called, who was independent in a healthy way (no separation anxiety), and who was friendly towards strangers (both the people and dog kind). I didn't know that it was going to take 2 years --> but after understanding growth, maturity, and dog development better, it makes sense and I realize how unrealistic my expectation was to have an "adult" dog at 1 year, no matter what the size of dog.

Moving on to other thoughts

I swear I'm getting dumber. The smarter I get in school the dumber I am in real life. The whole absent minded professor thing is TOTALLY true. The more I know about medicine and animals and differentials that less easy it is for me to remember where I put my keys, or what day of the week it is, or what years I rode Tevis. I go around 90% of the time not knowing the date or calendar day.

I'm actually contemplating giving both me and Farley a "vet school" do and going super short on both of us. Her mane is a mess and mine isn't much better.


I am officially registered for the convention and have reserved my hotel room. Tess will most likely be going with me, so if you see a weird looking white Brittany, you have probably found me! Come over and say hi.

Gear recommendation: Looking for a GREAT jacket to ride in and do some barn stuff? Look for a snowboarding jacket on sale NOW and you won't be dissapointment. In a lapse of judgement I agree to learn out to snowboard with Matt as a "couples" activity. LOL --> we have both agreed that at 30 we are both too old and fat to learn to snow board, but both of us persevere on and have yet to actually break anything. Matt is heavily subsidizing this broke college student for the snowboarding experiencing but there has been a couple of pieces of gear that I am responsible for --> one of which was buying a jacket that didn't result with snow down my pants. (I know I know I know --> stop falling down and I probably won't have snow in my underwear....). I found one online that I bought based on price and when it came it was OK, but not "WOW". I was contemplating sending it back, but then I happened to ride in it on Wednesday and it has become a WOW.

1. 2 way zipper on front means that I can have it zipped it all the up to my chin, But have it unzipped from the bottom for ventilation or movement.

2. Generous cut sleeves and cuffs work well for gloves or non-gloved hands. I undo the cuffs and the sleeves cover my hands on the reins. Or the cuffs can be tightened to keep the weather out.

3. No fuzzy anywhere! I fed Wednesday evening after my ride and NO HAY STUCK TO IT!!!!!!!

4. Ventilation zippers. Strategically placed under the armpits, in the saddle I was super comfortable at all times because I could ventilate it many different ways beyond just the front zipper. Snowboard jackets are meant for an athletic event which is why they are better for riding than some of the other cold weather jackets I've tried.

5. Generous long cut. That doesn't bug me while I ride because of the 2 way zipper.

I'm bringing it to the convention if anyone wants to check it out.

Picking a vet - I'm finishing up my second year communication courses (most notably end of life and euthanasia scenerios) and it's been really interesting. I think it's important to realize that people who wear the vet "coat" are as varied and different as the rest of the general population and there are differences of opinion between vets that may or may not impact the experience you get at the vet office. I am of the opinion that when looking for a new vet, after getting recommendations from people you trust, you should interview the vet and talk about things that matter to you, and see how the vet stands compared to you. Don't know where to start? Go to the AVMA website and read some of their policies. Like or don't like some of them? There's your starting point for your "interview" with the new vet to see where they stand compared to you.

Call up, make an appointment, pay the exam fee, take or don't take an animal, and have a conversation with the vet.

Here's an example of where it might make a difference. When is the right time to put down an animal? Some vets might say as long as they are eating and drinking there is a quality of life present that euthanasia is not warrented. Some might say that is just the price of admission and that they should be able to get up on their own and defecate/urinate. There is a variety of opinions and you probably even have your own.

If I was moving to another area and needed to find a vet I would want to talk about quality of life and euthanasia, what they use for pain management (is it a one size fits all or do they have lots of animals and will individually assess animals?), how much face to face time does the vet/client get in a routine appointment, if I have to leave my animals overnight, where will they go to the bathroom and what precautions are taken to make sure my animal doesn't escape (double leashed? fenced property? runs?), what recent CE (continuing education) have the vets participated in, what are the special areas of interests of the vets, and what types of cases are typically referred and which ones are handled in house. Do they have electronic records? Or hand written?

I feel this information is well worth the exam fee I would pay to be able to sit in a room and talk with the vet without my animal in order to make a decision of where I am going to spend my vet dollars. I've had excellent luck finding quality care for Farley based on recommendations from horse people I trust, but finding a small animal vet that I like has proved to be a different story. My biggest pet peeve? Not giving my animal a complete physical exam, yet charging me $50+ dollars for doing so. The physical exam is extremely valuable --> and I think that how the physical exam is performed it indicative of the overall care I can expect from that hospital.

 

 

 

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Happy new years to me! First trail ride of 2013

Let's start with a Farley update.


I haven't ridden Farley on the trail since she bucked me off in October. October!!!!!!! It really has been that long. We've done some free lunging and turn out, and 2 rides in the arena at walk trot (dressage) since that time. Some of it was me --> illness, school, etc. Some of it was her --> lameness (that old wire injury aka "abscess" and some was neither --> an unfortunately wet Christmas break.

She's looked super super absolutely sound in the arena during turnout and lunging so a couple days ago (Monday) I jumped on for a couple of minutes and confirmed that she's really really perfectly sound in the saddle at a trot, even when asked to do some on the haunches, tight dressage moves. Time to take it out on the trail.

Yesterday was PERFECT weather if a bit windy. I joked with the high schooler as I mounted up that it was the first time that we had been out in 3 months and (hahahahaha......) she had bucked me off last time.

I kinda of regretted it when I saw the look of concern on his face and realized that it would be highly embarrassing to be "rescued" from my stupid fat short pony just because we were out a bit longer than usual because we were having fun.

Truthfully I wasn't worried.

Farley really is a good girl, even with time off. She's not mean or malicious or deliberately unkind. I wouldn't have kept her through vet school if I couldn't ride her sporadically. During out October "adventure" it was 100% my fault for coming off and was an example of pure stupidity on my part.

Which I made a pact with myself to avoid such mistakes on this ride.

1. I was in my saddle with seatbelts (ie the aussie).

2. I had no intention of cantering. In fact, I wasn't sure we would make it to a trot. She hadn't necessarily been BAD during those 2 arena sessions....BUT she also didn't give me ANY comfort level that she wasn't willing to do some airs above ground if given the right opportunity. I didn't plan on giving her that opportunity.

3. It may have been mostly flat, but since we ARE conditioning, I was planning on making her little butt WORK - ie travel correctly, stepping underneath of herself and plumping that hind end back up. Giving a smart talented horse something to think about as you ride along (be rounder, push harder, go lower) is a GOOD THING.

The picture at the top of this post was taken a few steps off the barn property and after attempting to sign up for a GPS tracking thing on my smart phone, and realizing that "signing up for a new program on the smart phone with one hand and not looking where I was going" went solidly into that "being stupid" category, I decided I didn't NEED to know how far and how fast and put the phone away.

40 minutes later it was safe enough to take the picture below -->; 40 minutes of some really nice trotting on a beautiful day, on a horse that was being "good enough". Who could ask for me?

Farley, apparently wanted more.

45 minutes into the ride we encountered the best footing so far. It was beautiful. I was riding on the edge of orchard land that had recently had the trees pulled out and the ground totally and beautifully disced and prepared for the next orchard crop to go in. It was better than any dressage footing I've ever been in --> neither too deep or too hard, even, flat and instead of sand the most perfect dirt you can imagine.

Farley wanted to canter.

The last time I conceded to her cantering wishes I got bucked off. And I'm miles from home. 

Uhhh....absolutely no way.

Farley promises to be good. She gives me a beautiful dressage trot with her head low, her back up, and with very little tension.

I relent. The next mile is some of the nicest 3 beat, balanced, non-fussy canter I have EVER had on this horse.

What a gift.

I'm more sore than I want to admit after that ride yesterday, but that's OK. Nearing home I reflected on the time off that we both had, unplanned as it was, and I decided that we both needed those 3 months. I thought we were ready to go back to work after our LD last fall, but now I truly believe that for some reason, a little more rest was needed. I'm not sure why, and I might never know --> but yesterday I realized that now, 2 years post injury (Farley, not me) I don't feel like I'm on the edge of doing too much.

I was talking with a fellow endurance rider and I joked that Farley and I were on the "vet school" training program, which looks a lot like the training plan that one of my very first endurance friend uses to get to Tevis each year --> lots of rest, rides when possible, and honest evaluation of the horse's readiness using just a few key rides during the year.

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