Posted on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 - 8:47 am:

Well the big news is certainly the change in the site's appearance. Once a year we try to give the site a refurbishing and a fresh appearance while increasing functionality and this year is no different. We have a new color scheme, and have removed some of the borders to give the site a more open and integrated look. The update process was failrly painless though we had a few periods yesterday where posting was unavailabilie and logging in a problem. These should all be smoothed out by now. There usually is a few days of minor tweaks that require board regeneration. During these times posting will be briefly interruted as the board is put into maintenance mode.

Please let us know what you think of our new look. Is it attractive, is it easy to use, what do you think of the new font? Are there features you don't see that you would like? Post your thoughts at, http://www.horseadvice.com/cgi-bin/advisor/show.cgi?10/256658.

We have changed the focus or our newsletter...again. We will get this right one day. We are moving toward a shorter format that instead of highlighting large amounts of material, filters the new information down to what we consider the very best post or two of the day and can be read in the emailed newsletter. As always if you are interested in a complete listing of all new information and discussions in the site, you should come to the site and use the discussion search engine.

New Article: Listening to a Horses Heart and Murmurs
Auscultation is the art and science of listening through a stethoscope. The range of sounds heard when auscultating the horses heart is unusually large when compared to other species. Up to 6 different normal heart sounds plus a murmur and/or click per cycle can fall within the normal range. The character and position in the cycle are important characteristics to help derive a possible diagnostic and prognostic significance. Other sounds include squeaks, and adventitial sounds. This articles discusses general principles of using a stethoscope, auscultation, and interpretation of heart sounds with an emphasis on determining the possible significance or heart murmurs and sounds.
To access article http://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/4/240246.html .

Why do you think we see so many joint problems?
Posted by juliem
on Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008 - 8:00 pm:
I've wondered for years why we see so many joint problems--especially in young horses. I know some reining trainers feel the need to inject the hocks of every horse in training as a maintenance thing. Any opinions on whether it's training, nutrition, breeding, etc.? It seems to me that as an industry, we must be doing something wrong for this to be so common and widespread. I would love to find any research into this area. I know most opinions are speculative, but what do you think? Hope Dr. O will opine!

Posted by dro
on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 - 7:29 am:
Hello Julie,
My personal experience is that trainers often inject horses when there is no clear indication there is a joint problem other than the horse is not performing at the level they want. I often have horse owners call me out to inject their horse's hocks on the direction of their trainers. After doing a thorough lameness examine I will not find any evidence of lameness. Long ago I learned if I send the horse back to some trainers with no injection, they will have their own vet out to inject the horse usually at great expense to my client. So I instruct the client to tell these guys they were injected. Invariable we get back favorable reports from the treatment regimen not performed.

I know this sounds a bit underhanded but it is a very different thing to go in and treat a unhealthy joint from introducing a needle and foreign substance into a healthy joint. We know that simply introducing the needle causes a inflammatory reaction in the joint and all of the IA products, including the strongly antiinflammatory ones, can cause a inflammatory "flare". This can be severe enough to cause a prolonged problem, possibly being the start up of chronic osteoarthritis. Worse of all is the chance of causing infection and chronic arthritis. Yes the chances of serious deleterious effects from properly done IA injections is very small: but why take the chance when there is no indication for it. And how many small inflammatory events does it take before we introduce chronic inflammation in the joint leading to permanent osteoarthritis.

Julie I do not want to give the impression arthritis is uncommon in performance horses. These are horses that work their joints very hard so a high incidence or both acute synovitis and chronic osteoarthritis should not be surprising. Looking at human athletes, heck looking at my own self, I have osteoarthritis in several joints myself. However with the information available at this time we strongly recommend you resist the maintenance intra-articular injection of any substance and to only treat a joint following a complete lameness exam that indicates the joint is likely to be a problem. For more on what we consider proper preventive measures see Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Joint, Bone, Ligament Diseases » Overview of Arthritis.
DrO

Care Tips
By visiting our Care Tips section you might learn how to throw away that manure fork and replace it with a hammock! Maybe not, but if you post a great and original tip you can have time added to your membership and we will pick up the tab and that is almost as good.
http://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/3/667.html

Benadryl Strips (diphenhydramine)
Posted by mbchapma, Feb 29, 2008:
Good news! Benadryl is now avaliable in quick dissolve strips. Each strip is the same dosage (25 mg)as the tablets or capsules. I sandwiched 10 strips (they are very small) between two flat treat cookies and they were gobbled up! The strips are vanilla mint flavored, Stormy nodded his head and wanted more! What a time and hassle saver, beats "hiding" tablets or emptying 8-10 capsules!
Use this link to go directly to the discussion: http://www.horseadvice.com/cgi-bin/advisor/show.cgi?3/245597

Training Tips
Members, horses not cleaning their own stalls yet? Better yet a little training tip that has made your horses behavior or your riding much improved? Best training tips get published in the newsletter and if your tip is posted you get 3 months added to your membership and we pick up the tab.
http://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/7/668.html

HorseAdvice.com: Training, Behavior, & Conditioning Horses: Tips and Tricks: 2007 - 2008 Add New Training Tips Here:
Apple Spritzers
Posted by cp on Tuesday, Mar 4, 2008 - 4:04 pm:
Not sure if it's just me, but paste worming sure is messy and usually leaves my horses with a mouth full of goop. Well I happen to have a spray bottle of apple juice in the barn that I used to spray down some hay they weren't too enthused about. They know there's yummy stuff that comes out of the squirter and today after I de-wormed I gave a few spritzes in each of their mouths -- washed the paste right down their gullets! And they love it!
Use this link to go directly to the discussion: http://www.horseadvice.com/cgi-bin/advisor/show.cgi?7/245654