Fall 2018 News and Notes

High Desert Veterinary Service

Chrysann Collatos VMD,PhD,DipACVIMLA

775-969-3495 (Office)           742-2823 (Cell)

hidvet@gmail.com      HighDesertEquine.com

Building Healthy Partners

Summer’s end greetings to everyone,

     Our animals step up for us every day, sometimes in little ways, sometimes as champions.  They never expect anything in return. Our responsibility is to give back what they offer, to keep them safe and healthy.

Your Fall Clinic appointment is an important part of your horses’s preventive health care program.  See you soon!

Dr. Chrysann

Fall Clinic Schedule

Routine Fall exam includes flu/rhino vaccination, deworming or fecal examination, annual dentistry consult, and sheath cleaning.  Also consider Microchipping!

To reserve an appointment, call 775 969 3495 with:

• Your Name, Phone # and Clinic Date
• Number of Animals, and Services wanted

Your call won’t be returned until three days before your clinic when we will give an estimated time of arrival at your address.  Please be sure horses are caught and haltered 30 minutes beforehand!

Location                                                    Date

Rancho Haven/Sierra Ranchos1       Fri Sept 7 Rancho Haven/Sierra Ranchos2                    Sat Sept 15

Red Rock North/Silver Knolls 1         Fri Sept 7

Red Rock North/Silver Knolls 2         Sat Sept 15

Span Springs/Palomino Valley 1        Fri Sept 14

Span Springs/Palomino Valley 2        Sat Sept 22

Antelope/Golden/Lemmon Valley 1   Sat Sept 8

Antelope/Golden/Lemmon Valley 2   Fri Sept 21  

South & West Reno 1                        Fri Sept 21

South & West Reno                            Sat Sept 29

Discounted prices ONLY AVAILABLE Clinic Day

Farm Call (per location)              $11.00

Wellness Exam (mandatory)     $15.00

West Nile                                        $33.00

FluRhino                                          $30.00

Strangles Intranasal                     $34.00

Rabies                                              $23.00

Tetanus/ Encephalitis                 $19.00

Ivermectin Deworm                    $16.00

Coggins Test                                 $29.00

Sheath Clean w/sedation           $45.00

Fecal parasite exam                    $19.00

Pre-registered microchip            $39.00

COLIC –

What YOU Can Do

We all dread seeing a horse with colic. Despite my 30 years of veterinary experience, I can’t guarantee that your horse will recover uneventfully. But YOU can make a difference.

I looked back at the first 25 horses I treated for colic last year. Of the 25, 6 (24%) experienced complications that required repeated visits or hospitalization and 4 (16%) did not survive. The average cost for a single visit with uncomplicated recovery was $300.

Early, specific veterinary intervention is the key to successful treatment of colic.  Your ability to get temperature, pulse, respiration, and evaluate gut sounds and gum color at the onset of a colic episode can provide information critical

to your veterinarian’s treatment decision process. All you need is an inexpensive stethoscope and a thermometer. Here is a link to a good article in TheHorse.com https://thehorse.com/14385/the-basic-physical-examination/.  Ask me to review your physical exam skills at your fall clinic appointment. I am happy to help!

Signs of colic (in order of severity):

Ø  Poor appetite

Ø  Reduced manure production

Ø  Lying down more than normal

Ø  Stretching out as if trying to urinate

Ø  Pawing, looking at flank

Ø  Getting up and down, rolling

Understanding Equine Metabolic Syndrome & Laminitis

Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) has become a household word for many horse owners.  As we discuss this complicated syndrome, keep this KEY POINT in  mind:  horses with EMS do not handle sugar and carbohydrate normally.  Therefore, strict dietary management is essential for successful treatment. 

Horses with EMS tend to be overweight, with an abnormal distribution of body fat.  A cresty neck, soft fatty lumps at the tail base, and an enlarged sheath or mammary gland are hallmark signs.  All horses with EMS are at high risk of laminitis, and often are first presented to a veterinarian with the complaint of sore feet.

Our bodies use sugar (glucose), carbohydrate, and fat as fuel. The hormone insulin directs the flow of these various fuels depending on the body's demands and the composition of the diet.  Carbohydrates are long chains of sugar molecules, present both in hay and grain.  When your horse eats, his blood sugar rises, triggering the production of insulin.  Insulin drives glucose from the blood into the tissues where it provides energy to meet metabolic demands.

Horses with EMS are insulin resistant.  The receptors on cells which normally are activated by insulin to take up glucose do not respond. Horses with EMS keep making insulin until they have enough to overcome the low sensitivity of cell receptors.  The result is a horse with normal blood sugar, but high insulin

So why is high blood insulin a problem?  Because insulin does a lot more than just control blood sugar.  Insulin  also plays important roles in regulating blood vessel constriction and cellular inflammation.  When EMS horses eat carbohydrate rich foods, they experience surges in insulin which can cause severe inflammatory responses in other tissues in the body.  Specifically, high insulin can cause devestating changes in blood flow and cellular activity within the hoof.  Laminitis is a painful condition that can result in permanent damage to the mechanical structure of the hoof.  In severe laminitis cases, unmanageable pain and mechanical tissue destruction can be fatal.

Let’s try to understand the connection between EMS and  laminitis more completely. Laminitis, commonly called founder, is an inflammatory condition. The horse’s outer hoof wall is connected to the deeper, sensitive tissues of the foot like a tongue and groove floor, where each layer interlocks in a repeating pattern. However, unlike a floor, the horse's foot is alive and in motion.  The hoof utilizes glucose at an exceptionally fast rate compared to other tissues in the horse’s body, constantly remodelling in response to the tremendous dynamic forces of the horse’s weight, and the effects of the environment .

For the foot to remain healthy, glucose must be able to reach the tissues bonding the hoof layers together. But remember, the EMS horse is insulin resistant. This creates a double-whammy for the hoof:

First, glucose transport is compromised by a poor response to insulin, impairing the energy supply to the living tissues of the hoof, and

Second, insulin, which constricts blood vessels and triggers inflammation, becomes abnormally high in an effort to improve energy supply, triggering damaging mechanical effects within the tissues of the hoof which already are starved for critical energy.

Careful dietary management is the key to successful treatment of horses with EMS. Our goal is to feed a diet composed of high quality energy sources with low glycemic index, reducing insulin surges while meeting metabolic demands.

Call today to schedule your  

Fall Clinic appointment!

HighDesertEquine.com

Building Healthy Partners.