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Horse-Handling Skills Helps Keep Equine Vets Safe

Being a large-animal veterinarian is fraught with danger—vets are often placed in precarious positions where they can be kicked, bitten or worse by the patients they're trying to help. It's estimated that about 80 percent of equine vets have suffered injuries from a difficult horse and 37 percent of those injured have had ongoing pain or a disability from the injury.

It's difficult enough to entice vet students to consider large animal practices; the risk of injury is just another strike against the profession. Gemma Pearson, Melanie Connor, John Keen, Richard Reardon, and Natalie Waran, all students at the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, are working to create a program to teach vet students horse-handling methods that are based on equine learning theory. It's hoped that this program will reduce the number of vets who don't consider large-animal work or who leave the profession early.

The research team tested the effects of a single lecture that focused on practical learning theory tips for equine vets on pre-final-year vet students. The 45-minute lecture focused on how horses learned; videos were shown that demonstrated how to apply that theory to equine patients.

Examples shown included overshadowing, where the horse is asked to do a task it knows (like stepping backward) to draw attention away from the action the vet is performing, like administering a shot. Using negative reinforcement to get a horse to enter stocks by lightly tapping him with a whip, and stopping as soon as he took a step forward was also included in the lecture .

Students watched videos of “difficult” horses both before and after the lecture; they were also asked questions. After the lecture, the students were more likely to suggest learning theory-based solutions on how to hand the horse. The vet students also indicated that they had greater confidence in their horse-handling skills after the lecture.

The study group concluded that just one lecture had the potential to positively alter students' perception of how to handle “difficult” horses; it may also influence how they deal with difficult horses, thus creating a safer work environment.

The researchers went on to note that horse owners play a key role in keeping vets safe; by teaching their horses to stand still unless asked to move, and to respond to leadrope cues to go forward or backward, they can help veterinarians remain safe on the job.

Flying High: New Study To Develop Guidelines For Horses Traveling By Air

Horses are one of the most frequently transported domestic species in the world; they are frequently moved by vans, ships and planes. Horses that travel between locations are at risk for disease, injury and welfare issues. Many studies have been done on how to alleviate the stresses caused by traveling by road, but little is known on how horses handle traveling by air.

A new study funded by Morris Animal Foundation and spearheaded by Dr. Barbara Padalino, an associate professor of animal science at Italy's Università di Bologna, will investigate what factors increase or decrease the risk of health and behavior issues.

The findings of the study, which involves both stakeholders and researchers, will be used to develop protocols for flight associations like the International Air Transportation Association (IATA). Currently, protocols focus on air safety and cargo requirements, not on equine welfare issues; they are based on experience, with little scientific backing.

It is estimated that nearly 30,000 horses are flown each year. A recent study used 81 flights to Hong Kong and found that for every 100 horses flown, about 11 percent got pneumonia from the flight and 60 percent of flights had at least one horse affected; horses flown in the spring were particularly at risk. That study concluded that flight duration and time of year were risk factors for horses getting sick.

Padalino and her research team hope to use 2,000 horses in their study; these horses will be flying between the United States, Europe, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia and New. The study will involve asking questions regarding horse's welfare before, during and up to five days after the flight. This will include questions about heart rate, alertness and body condition scores, among others.

Padalino hypothesizes that horses with less transport experience and training will be more at risk of transport-related problems, as will those horses who have different temperaments. She is hopeful that the study will assist in the creation of protocol to increase the welfare of horses shipping by air, as well as provide an economic benefit to horse owners by reducing health complications.

Chill Out: How To Effectively Cool Out A Hot Horse

The most effective way to cool a hot horse has been almost as hotly debated as whether or not horses should be blanketed: Some people believe that a horse should be hosed and then immediately scraped so as much water leaves his coat as possible; others think you should hose and leave the water to dry on its own.

Cool water is an effective way to cool down a hot horse after it has exercised. Heat will move from the hot horse to the cool water until a similar temperature between body and water is reached. Research has shown that scraping the water off a horse once it has been hosed doesn't affect the horse's body temperature during or after hosing.

The key to successfully cooling the horse down is to provide a continuous flow of water over the horse's major blood vessels and back. Horses dissipate heat through their skin; the cool water flowing over them draws heat away from the horse and removes it, which is why water running over a hot horse will feel warm as it flows over his body. Water that travels over a completely cooled-out horse will be cool to the touch when it runs off his body.

Read more about caring for horses during warm weather at the University of Minnesota Extension.

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Even With Screening, Equine Cardiac Problems Prove Difficult To Catch

Regulatory veterinarians say it's not as easy as you'd think to pick up on heart problems in racehorses.

That was one of the takeaways from this year's Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, held this year through a series of online webinars due to COVID-19. In the conclusion of the series, veterinary epidemiologist Dr. Tim Parkin noted that while equine fatalities due to musculoskeletal injury have gone down in the decade he has tracked injuries, fatalities due to other causes have not improved. Musculoskeletal injuries make up 93 percent of fatal injuries, but on-track deaths can sometimes have other causes, like cardiac problems. Parkin said he believed the reason musculoskeletal injuries had gone down was because most of the health and welfare reforms initiated around the country thus far were focused on limbs and lameness.

The trouble is, cardiac problems aren't that easily detected in horses.

In 2016, we spoke to Dr. Sophy Jesty of the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center who is board certified in large animal internal medicine and cardiology. Jesty explained that horses do not have “heart attacks” the way humans do. A human heart attack is the result of a blocked artery which kills part of the heart muscle. Horses do not experience this, but they can experience things that look like heart attacks — including a ruptured aorta, which may be undetectable until the horse bleeds out internally and collapses, or an arrhythmia (abnormal beat).

At the time of that interview, regulatory veterinarians were growing more curious about the best way to screen horses for arrhythmias. In a separate session of the Welfare and Safety Summit this year, New York's equine medical director revealed he had done some informal screenings with an inexpensive handheld ECG device, but he didn't find much.

“One of the problems I encountered in our necropsy program we had a number of horses had experienced exercise-induced sudden death on our racetracks and nearly 70 percent of those horses were necropsy negative, meaning there was no obvious answer for what had happened,” said Dr. Scott Palmer. “This backs us in to the conclusion that cardiac arrhythmias could be the cause of death, and I thought, 'Gee, we probably ought to look at that a little bit.'

“Interestingly, I've examined more than 200 horses so far with this thing and have never found a cardiac arrhythmia where I'd say this horse can't race.”

In Maryland, veterinarians listen to horses with a stethoscope as part of the standard pre-race exam and have done so for the past four to five years, according to Mike Hopkins, executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission. Hopkins said the team of veterinarians estimate they have discovered fewer than ten cases of arrhythmias in that time. There were 3,883 starters in the state of Maryland last year.

Those familiar with arrhythmias in horses probably wouldn't find that surprising. Although the scientific community is still learning about cardiac problems in horses, many experts believe that some equine arrhythmias probably show up only when the horse is in work, and may be induced by the adrenaline rush a horse experiences in a race.

Palmer said that although he didn't find any rhythms of concern, that wouldn't discourage him from continuing to look.

“With that said, I believe that we should at least be looking at these horses for arrhythmias,” he continued. “I know horses have normal murmurs and I know they can have normal arrhythmias that disappear at exercise. I also know that horses do die of exercise-induced arrhythmias. I think the presence of atrial fibrillation or other significant arrhythmias, I think those horses should be scratched. And to be honest, if we don't look for it, we certainly never will find it.”

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