Dr. Alyssa Butters discusses first aid in horses (Part 2 of 2).

Dr. Alyssa Butters discusses first aid in horses (Part 1 of 2).

In our last post, we covered the signs to monitor in your mare that she is close to foaling.  Here we will cover how to prepare for your foal’s arrival.  These include the stages of labor, foaling kit essentials, and a few of the more common foaling problems.

Mares should have a clean and dry area on which to foal, that is free from too many disturbances.  They can foal inside or outside, depending on the time of year and the weather.  If your mare is to foal inside, straw is the recommended bedding.  Having a stocked foaling kit nearby with some basic supplies will also be helpful.  The foaling kit essentials include:

Click on this link to check out a pdf of the slides from Dr. Alyssa Butters' presentation at the First Aid Seminar on March 29, 2016! 

This is the first post in a series about foaling out your mare.

Foaling season is upon us and mare owners everywhere are left guessing as to when their mares are going to foal.  Watching your mare can be frustrating and confusing, but knowing some basics and being prepared can go along way to help bring a healthy foal into the world, or to help save a sick one.  This spring we will have a series of posts about foaling – what to watch for when your mare is close to foaling, how to be prepared, what to do once the foal is on the ground, and when to breed back your mare.  This first post in the series covers information on the signs that your mare is close to foaling.

Dr. Doug Myers from Boehringer Ingelheim speaks about the importance of vaccines and discusses vaccine reactions. (Fall Seminar, part 1 of 4).

Dr. Alyssa Butters gives an update on the prevalence and implications of Equine Infectious Anemia. (Fall Seminar, part 2 of 4).

Dr. Crystal Lee discusses scenarios in which the Lameness Locator has proven to be useful in lameness evaluation.  (Fall Seminar, part 3 of 4)

An enucleation is the surgical removal of a horse's eye. There are many indications for which this surgery would be performed, including trauma, neoplasia (cancer), extensive infection, or any condition causing pain in a blind eye. In Misty's case, the procedure was recommended due to an acute worsening of uveitis and ulceration along with equine recurrent uveitis flare-ups that had been occurring over the last four years.

Sarcoids are the most common tumour that occurs in horses. They are locally invasive, and difficult to deal with because recurrence is common even with aggressive therapy. One study showed that 14% of sarcoids occur exclusively in the periocular region (near the eye), and these tumours can be particularly tricky to deal with as it is difficult to get good margins to remove all tumour cells during surgical excision.

Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) is an endocrine disease that is thought to affect between 15-30% of aged horses. The most obvious clinical sign in more advanced cases is hypertrichosis (hair growth, abnormally long curly hair, and/or a failure to shed out normally in the summer). Other clinical signs can include increased drinking and urination, chronic infections, muscle wasting, weight loss, regional fat deposits, and an increased propensity to develop laminitis (founder). Because this disease occurs in older horses, it is often missed as the owner assumes that their horse isn't looking and feeling as well merely because they are getting older. The following is a report of one case in a horse used for competitive polo, written by her owner Connie:

Dr. Kirby Penttila dicusses diagnostic imaging as it relates to the lameness examination.