Cancer isn’t as common for horses as it is for humans and dogs and cats. And because equine cancer symptoms — weight loss, nausea, lethargy, loss of appetite, lameness, skin and coat conditions, among others — often don’t start appearing until the cancer has advanced, it can be hard to reverse its progression. For years, chemotherapy has been veterinarians’ go-to treatment for fighting the disease.

Horses sometimes lick and chew during training and this has often been interpreted as a sign that the horse is learning or showing “submission” to the trainer. However, a new study suggests that this non-nutritive licking and chewing behaviour is a natural behaviour that is shown after a stressful situation.

Nowhere in Canada will you find a more unique, self-contained ecosystem than the one found on Sable Island. Nestled in the 42 km arc of sand, 300 kilometers southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is an array of beaches, dunes, marram grass, wildflowers, shrub-heath, and ponds – which 300 bird species five species of seals, and 500 Sable Island horses call home. These horses came to the island during the dark days of deportation of the Acadian people 250 years ago.

At Queensland University of Technology in Australia, Prof. Martin Sillence with the School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences has been researching laminitis for over a decade. He says that Velagliflozin, a new veterinary drug related to one used to treat human metabolic syndrome, has been found to prevent laminitis in ponies with high levels of insulin and the equine version of metabolic syndrome.