Tom Schell

Stress; The Battery of Life and Impact on Health, Fatigue and Recovery

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Stress is something that we all encounter daily whether if we are animal or human.  Stressors are the reason as to why we adapt and hopefully overcome new challenges, whether if that is a new task at work, a new exercise routine or environmental changes.  It is what hopefully makes us stronger, more resilient. Those stressors create a stress response in our body, which then we hopefully adapt to over time.  The question is how much stress is our body supposed to handle, or that body of our equine companions or even pets, and how does prolonged stressor exposure impact health, recovery and even soundness or injury?

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A Tale of 3 Selenium Levels: Connection with health and lameness

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Selenium and vitamin E are often two of the most common supplemented antioxidants in horses, often attributed to poor soil conditions and likewise perceived deficiencies in the patient.  They are both important antioxidants and vital to cellular health, but all too often, we just supplement without justification or even more, we fail to see rationale for the need for supplementation.  Each horse is different and just because a region is perceived as deficient in selenium or a forage is low in vitamin E, does not always equate to the need for supplementation in every horse.  We need to look deeper, connect the dots and seek deeper, underlying problems which may be addressed adequately.

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Curcumin; Bioavailability, Absorption and Efficacy

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Curcumin is one of the most heavily researched herbs due to its potential to impact the inflammatory process in several models. One key concern, in some studies, is bioavailability or absorption, which has likewise raised concerns as to its true efficacy in regards to health conditions.  Are these concerns truly founded or is it all hype? Experience tells us that it is a little of both.

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When Alternative Medicine Is Not What It Appears

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Alternative medicine.  Holistic therapy.  These are terms tossed around quite frequently in the veterinary and human world of medicine and surgery.  To some, they are the only route to go, while to others, they are often seen as last resorts or even in some views ‘quackery’.  The truth is that we need to take a different look at these options, seeing them for what they are and if so, potentially benefit patients on a higher level.

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Cleaning Up the Equine Diet; Going Natural

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The equine diet has become quite complex over the past 10 or so years.  Specialty feeds, complex supplements and other regimens have become the ‘normal’ for most horses, especially those in the competition arena.  On the same side of the coin, we also have an apparent rise in equine health conditions ranging from injuries and joint disease, to metabolic concerns and laminitis.  Considering this, one would have to ask whether if our current approaches are helping or more so hindering our progress?

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The Equine Diet and Picky Eaters; Thoughts and Concerns

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One of my major concerns, as a veterinarian and researcher, is the inflammatory process and how it can dictate health and soundness.  This process is complex, involving many contributors, but diet is a major player.  As we investigate further the impact of gastrointestinal health on overall health and soundness, certain things begin to fall into place and become more obvious. The first item is diet, what we are feeding and how we define this. The second item of concern is the picky eater, which more than likely we have all encountered at one time or another.  Many owners feel this ‘pickiness’ is often ‘cute’ or a trait for a particular horse….but is there more to it?  Is this actually a symptom or sign of something larger?

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Equine Gastric Ulcers; A new approach for an old problem

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Stomach ulcers in horses are quite common, actually becoming more of a problem that in the past for our equine patients.  It has been estimated that upwards of 80% of all horses, including sedentary and those in training, exhibit gastric ulcers but not all are clinically evident.  In some studies, it has been demonstrated that just by moving a horse into a barn or training facility, the incidence of stomach ulcers increases beyond 80% and upwards to almost 100%.  Some cases of ulcers are obvious with typical clinical signs, while others are more ‘quiet’ in nature and often only diagnosed incidentally.  The sad part is that for many of these horses, they live a life on constant medications to control the clinical symptoms, which not only is not solving the problem but also costing the owner money and even, based on some studies, potentially inflicting harm.  We need to dig deeper to find better ways of managing this problem.

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To Breathe Or Not To Breathe; COPD & I.A.D.

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One of the most common equine health conditions impacting the performance horse involves the respiratory tract.  Inhalation of oxygen is vital for energy production and overall cellular health, but in manty equine athletes, they struggle to move air in and out, resulting in decreased performance and quality of life. As horse owners, we rely on pharmaceutical medications such as steroids and bronchodilators, but despite their use, we continue to struggle to gain results and improve life for our equine companions.

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Lyme, Anaplasmosis, EPM in the Horse: Relapses, Thoughts and Theories

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The opposite of health is disease and in the horse, we have many chronic and likewise frustrating health conditions.  Many include lameness as a result of direct joint or soft tissue damage, which continue to inflict pain and lameness on the patient as a normal course of the condition.  In other cases, we deal with the increasing incidence of Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis and EPM, which in an of themselves can be frustrating due to the often high recurrence rate in certain patient groups.  Given this group of chronic diseases, which often come with hefty ongoing medical costs and variable outcomes, we need to step back and really evaluate the conditions and how the patient is responding if we are to come up with better solutions.

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Top 5 Equine Conditions that Benefit from Cur-OST

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The horse is a complex creature, subject to many of the same constraints that we put on ourselves, which in the end impacts their health and performance. Each horse is unique in their personality and constitution, which plays a major role in the exact contributors to their particular health and lameness concerns.  Diet, environment, stress, conformation and other influences each play a part, but in most health conditions, we do have one common denominator, which is inflammation.  In most, the inflammatory response is over expressed and if efforts are put into the equation to balance that response, then health and soundness can be easier to obtain.

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