Researchers at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine have teamed with engineers to design and build a robotic lift system to help rehabilitate horses suffering from acute injuries and other musculoskeletal problems.
Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization offered a tantalizing glimpse into the future of 3D printing technology by making titanium horseshoes for a racehorse in 2013.
It’s natural for hoof-care professionals to focus primarily on a horse’s lower limbs as they work, but a general knowledge of equine anatomy and conformation is also important. This knowledge becomes more critical for those who work on performance horses. The higher the level of performance, the more critical that knowledge becomes.
The United States Department of Agriculture is proposing a rule to update the Horse Protection Act that signals “its readiness to end the cruel practice of soring,” according to The Humane Society of the United States.
Lameness is a common reason horses present to equine practitioners. Federal researchers note that lameness has the highest annual incident density of all medical problems in horses — half of all horse operations with five or more horses experience one or more cases of lameness annually. Another report estimates lameness incidence at 7.5% to 13.7% annually.
The reason the risk of laminitis increases in the spring is that as the days get longer, the extra sunlight increases photosynthesis, which results in starch, sugar and, in some plants, fructan production. We also tend to have cooler temperatures at night, which prevents the plants from using these sugars, and they accumulate.
When encountering acute or chronic laminitic cases, the best possible outcome relies on a team consisting of the horse owner, husbandry staff, veterinarian and farrier. Every case is different, yet the principles remain the same.
As a tool in a farrier’s arsenal for addressing hoof-care issues, hospital plates are like fire extinguishers — they are seldom used, but you are glad to have them as an option when needed. Also like fire extinguishers, incorrect or ineffective application of hospital plates could lead to disastrous outcomes.
In this episode, Mark Ellis, a Wisconsin farrier who learned the ropes with Renchin, recalls Red’s relationships with area veterinarians, his legacy and the second career as American Farriers Journal’s technical editor.
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Kawell develops and produces copper alloy horseshoes and inserts, giving horses the care that they need to fight issues associated with white line disease, seedy toe and thrush.
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