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Disturbance In Sleep Patterns May Indicate Equine Ill Health

Researchers in England are monitoring the nightly sleeping patterns of horses to try to determine if rest patterns may indicate that a horse is feeling unwell. The scientists, based at Nottingham Trent University, will take into account other factors like temperature, age, personality and exercise, which may influence rest. They hope that if they can discover what is “normal” for a particular horse, that deviation from this normal pattern will alert owners that something may be wrong.

Horses have two sleep phases: slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Horses that are sleeping while standing experience only slow-wave sleep; to enter REM sleep, the horse must lie down. REM sleep is very important for equine physical and mental well being.

Horses that can't lie down, whether because of illness, injury or environmental stress, will become sleep deprived. As owners generally don't see their horses sleep, sleep deprivation may go unnoticed until it become extreme.

To help them in their research, scientists will analyze videos of equine actions over multiple nights, recording the behavior of each horse. The horses will also be fit with an accelerometer that will record the horse's movement. The researchers plan to use two different populations of horses: riding school horses and racehorses to help them understand the different sleeping patterns.

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.

The post Chill Out: How To Effectively Cool Out A Hot Horse appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Antibiotics And Equine Gut Health

Antibiotics can be hard on the digestive and immune systems of horses, but there are some natural approaches that can assist in restoring the equine body back to a normal state after a course of antibiotics has been finished.

Horses, just like humans, have bacteria and microbes that live in their intestinal tract; antibiotics damage the microbiota and inflame the gut wall, creating a “leaky gut” that allows compounds that are normally blocked to pass into the body. Damage to the microbiome also damages the immune system. In the case of chronic infections like Lyme disease, for which a horse may be on repeated rounds of antibiotics, the immune system and gut may never fully recover.

Helping a horse repair his gut is essential after the course of antibiotics is completed. Quality feed, prebiotics and probiotics can assist in repairing the gut wall and the immune system. Horses that eat mainly hay and forage are generally healthier than horses fed lots of grain.

Prebiotics are short-chain fibers that microbiota grown on; common forms are inulin and beta-glucans, among others. Horses can get additional amounts of prebiotics by including items in their diets that contain them (like chicory, oats and barley) or by using a commercially available supplement. Herbs like marshmallow, aloe, dandelion and ginger can all help heal the gut wall and can be planted in pastures or gardens to be fed to horses.

Probiotics fed to the horse while he is taking antibiotics can help do some damage control, but they will assist even more once the course of antibiotics has finished. Other nutrients like glutamine and colostrum can help heal the gut wall and repair the immune system. It will take a minimum of three months for the horse's gut to heal after a short course of antibiotics and much longer for repeated antibiotic use for chronic disease.