Horse owners often associate electrolyte supplementation with warm weather, however, this actually has nothing to do with seasons. The provision of electrolytes depends entirely on the amount of work and sweat loss taking place, so for certain horses supplementation is important every season.

One of the most significant effects it can have on a horse is exerting too much pressure on its back muscles. This will cause an improper flow of blood to the muscle and cause pain. No muscle can develop and work properly without an adequate blood supply. Over time, that muscle will degenerate or atrophy.

Myth 1: PPID is only a condition of the geriatric horse. “This is probably one of the most common myths about PPID,” Dr. Grubbs says. “We have been tracking epidemiological information on horses diagnosed with PPID, and have found that PPID affects horses of all breeds, and all ages, even as young as 5 years old.”

“Some diagnoses may warrant IA injection, while IV therapy may be a better fit at other times including closer to competition where downtime isn’t an option.”

By the time Roses was 1 year old, the cyst had grown to the size of a softball and protruded from the right side of her throatlatch. It began to impede her movement, and she was unable to fully bend her neck and head to the right. The cyst was also compressing her trachea.

Urine from infected animals serves as the primary source of infection for equine leptospirosis. Spirochetes penetrate mucous membranes or exposed skin. Bacteria then enter the bloodstream, replicate and travel to the kidneys, eyes and reproductive tract.1 Infected or carrier horses can shed the bacteria in the urine.

If the total daily intake of protein is insufficient, muscle bulk will suffer. If the horse’s diet is possibly inadequate for protein it should be supplemented with a high quality protein from sources such as whey, soybean, potato or pea. A typical amount would be 100 to 200 grams of a 40% protein product.

Check your horse under his blanket for sweating; a blanket somewhat inhibits the hair coat’s natural ability to protect against cold[i], so a sweaty blanket that freezes makes it very difficult for the horse to stay warm.

Too many people ride “mindlessly,” that is, they don’t pay attention to their hands or hand movement, or what their horse is doing underneath them. I’ve told my amateur and youth riders, for years, that the best riders don’t ride along bumping their horse’s face and talking to their friends, unless they can talk and really pay attention to their hands and horse.

“Dividing antigens into concurrent, separate injections may help increase the horse’s immune response to West Nile.” said Kevin Hankins, DVM, senior veterinarian, Equine Technical Services, Zoetis. “While big one-shot combination vaccines may offer convenience, when developing vaccine programs for West Nile virus protection, veterinarians and horse owners should consider the implications of lower West Nile virus antibody responses in horses vaccinated with a West Nile virus combination vaccine. Though combination vaccines may provide some convenience, optimization of West Nile virus immune response could likely pose a substantial criterion for vaccine selection.”