Illness & Injury

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Grooming is an enjoyable way to bond with your horse, and most horses love to be fussed over, but cleaning a male horse’s sheath is an unpleasant chore that owners and riders tend to avoid. From potentially being kicked, to lack of knowledge or squeamishness, those with geldings and stallions often shirk the task altogether. However, veterinarians agree that cleaning and inspecting a horse’s sheath is a necessary and regular part of maintaining their health.

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There’s nothing like hearing a horse cough to set people scurrying around the barn to identify the culprit. After all, that cough could mean choke, or suggest that a respiratory virus has found its way into the barn. It could also indicate equine asthma. Yes, even those “everyday coughs” that we sometimes dismiss as “summer cough” or “hay cough” are a wake-up call to the potential for severe equine asthma.

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A Scratch for Every Itch - Horses scratch for many reasons. They scratch themselves on fences, rub up against posts (and sometimes people), roll on the ground, and groom each other. A natural behaviour usually linked to social bonding, comfort, and relaxation, it can be heightened seasonally by shedding, sweating, or the presence of insects. However, when scratching becomes frequent enough to result in hair loss, broken skin, scabs, or if it disrupts eating or sleeping, it is time to talk to a veterinarian to determine if a skin allergy is to blame so appropriate treatments can be pursued.

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Across Canada, non-veterinarians offer a potpourri of services, including massage, chiropractic, farrier work, homeopathy, and more. But these non-veterinarian service providers may be practicing veterinary medicine illegally under provincial veterinarian acts. Also, few regulatory organizations oversee non-veterinarian practitioner training, certify expertise, or offer recourse if horses suffer, and provincial veterinary organizations only pursue non-veterinarian service providers when horse owners complain.

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The large size of a horse means that their skin covers a large surface area, often making skin problems easy to see. However, although we can see them, we cannot always easily identify their cause. We teamed up with Dr. Stephen White, DACVD, UC Davis professor and chief of the veterinary hospital’s Dermatology Service, to bring to light some things you might not know about equine dermatology.

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If you’ve been involved with horses for even a little while, you know the following statements to be true: Horses hurt themselves. Riders hurt themselves. Horses hurt riders. And riders can hurt horses.

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Often times, horse owners feel their beloved equines are simply a magnet for injuries. Being accident prone just seems to be in their nature, most times brought on by their instinctive fight-or-flight response, their need to establish herd hierarchy, and in some cases, their sense of natural curiosity.

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Despite advances in anaesthesia and surgical techniques, there is still a significant risk associated with equine colic surgery. This major surgical procedure carries inherent risks such as anaesthetic complications, postoperative infections, and failure of the surgical site to heal properly.

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The first equine genetic tests became available in the 1990s, well before the equine genome sequence was completed in 2009. Technical advances have since led to a rapid expansion in available tests. Here are a few that can be utilized to inform breeding decisions and provide diagnostic information.

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Genetic diseases can cause significant emotional and financial stress, and the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) is committed to educating owners and breeders about inherited conditions so they can make informed breeding decisions. The American Quarter Horse Foundation (AQHF) provides funding for a wide range of research projects, having granted more than $12 million in support of equine research to date. Genetics research accounts for 20 percent of that total, with 53 projects funded at 12 universities.

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