lameness

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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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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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Nutrition Implications: Fact or Myth

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As a veterinarian, I have to confess that after almost 20 years of clinical practice, I failed many of my patients due to lack of knowledge about proper nutrition. Being a student in veterinary school, honestly, there was not much focus on nutrition.  In some courses, there was mention of various nutrients, but not much pressure to use the diet as a tool to aid in disease management and recovery.  The good news is that after all of those years, I did ‘wake up’ and realize the importance and today, my approaches are much different for myself, our pets and those horses that I have contact with on a daily basis.   It wasn’t always this way and I discover more each day, which can be exciting!

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Soundness; A Broad Concept

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Soundness.  It is a word that all horse owners are familiar with, but really, what does it mean?  By definition, soundness infers free from defect, injury, disease and in good condition, healthy and robust.  Is it a reality?  Is it really possible?  I think that in order to understand this concept further, we have to look at the horse, like ourselves, from multiple different perspectives.

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Sport Horse Lameness: Raising More Questions than Answers

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Lameness and medical concerns in the sport horse have increased dramatically and likely are attributed to the increased use and performance level of these animals.  To keep up with medical demands, we have seen an increase in our diagnostic capabilities and technologies as veterinarians.  The concern that I have, as a clinician, is that the drive for these ever increasing technologies to aid in our diagnosis is rising, but it is not being counter driven by new therapies to manage the problems discovered.  We raise our capabilities, hopefully to detect problems earlier, but yet our intervention techniques have not changed, giving the same results in the end for the patient. I think at times, we are missing the obvious when it comes to assisting these patients.

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The Competitive Horse and Stress

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The equine athlete is no different from us, as a human species, whether we are an athlete or not in our daily lives.  As individuals and living beings, we are in-tuned, in most instances, as to how different stressers, diets and activities impact our health and general well being.  For instance, we may know that spicy food may upset our stomachs or create a sense of heat in our bodies.  Or we may understand that over-exertion, whether physically or mentally, drains us of vital energy.  Given these apparent observations, why is it that we can listen to our own bodies and heed warnings, but when it comes to our equine companions, often we do not?

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It’s About the Whole Horse

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In today’s equine world, there is so much focus on joint health and conditioning, that we tend to forget about the bigger picture.  As a veterinarian, I see so much over use, almost bordering on abuse, of various pharmaceutical medications and equine joint supplements.  So many people use them, that at times, I wonder if we are actually trying to manage a condition or more so if the increased use is more to follow what another is doing, almost making it a trend without purpose.  Now, I will be honest and say that many of these equine supplements and medications can prove useful in certain situations, but overall, I feel they are being overused at times, trying to accomplish things they were never intended to do.

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Equine Conformation and Impact on Soundness

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Proper conformation in the horse is vital to athletic performance, but it doesn’t always have to be a limiting factor.  In my years of practicing veterinary medicine and performing pre-purchase examinations, I have yet to encounter a ‘perfect’ horse in terms of conformation by book definition.  Every horse is an individual with conformation often based on genetics passed on from dam or sire.  We have to accept things for the way they are, understand that there will be some limitations but also that certain flaws will predispose more to injuries.  We can try to minimize these occurrences, but an understanding as to why they happen is important.

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