veterinarian | Horse Racing Free Tips

Six Tips To Prevent And Treat Equine Herpesvirus From Hagyard’s Dr. Nathan Slovis

Equine Herpesvirus (EHV-1) can cause respiratory disease, abortions and neurological disease. Transmission occurs via the respiratory system, with droplets of the virus being spread by mucus via snorting, coughing and human contact.

If you are in a high-risk area where there's a greater incidence of EHV-1 cases, the following tips may help ensure the horses in your care are protected from infection. These precautionary strategies come directly from Dr. Nathan Slovis, DACVIM, at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. As an Internal Medicine Specialist and the Infectious Disease & Biosecurity Director, he has implemented the current Infectious Disease and Equine Emergency Response Programs at Hagyard.

Consider sharing these strategies with clients who have horses in high-risk areas.

Start monitoring your horse's temperature twice daily. Even if your horse has not been exposed, start recording their temperature now to understand what their normal baseline temperature is. A horse's temperature will usually spike prior to shedding significant amounts of the virus, and typically anything greater than 101.5°F should be considered a fever. If a fever is noted, you should isolate the horse to the best of your ability until a veterinarian can assess. It is recommended that any horse with a fever have both a whole blood sample and nasal swab submitted for PCR assessment for EHV-1 and EHV-4.
Limit exposure to any stressful situations that are not necessary. Examples include elective surgeries and other medical procedures. Minimizing stress will help protect the immune system so it can better fight off infection.
If your horse requires the use of corticosteroids, either systemically or intraarticularly, consult your veterinarian to see if it is feasible to stop administration. The continued use of corticosteroids can suppress the immune system and could hinder their ability to effectively fight off an infection.
Increase biosecurity measures since humans can inadvertently spread the infection on their hands, grooming equipment, etc. EHV-1 can survive on inanimate objects like halters, lead ropes, and tack, but is easy to kill on surfaces with disinfection. Therefore, these simple biosecurity measures can help stop the spread:

Wash or sanitize your hands between interacting with each horse.
Take care when filling water buckets and feed tubs – neither the hose nor the feed scoop should have contact with the bucket or tub.
Minimize the use of shared equipment, disinfecting tack (bits, bridles, etc.) between horses. Items like water buckets and feed tubs should not be shared.
There are a multitude of safe and effective disinfectants available. A few I recommend are a 1:4 ratio of bleach to water, or accelerated hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants (like Rescue™) since they are safe for both human and animal use.

Keep your horse up to date with their EHV vaccine schedule. If you horse has not been vaccinated against EHV three months prior to travelling into an area that has a high incidence of EHV, then I would recommend vaccinating your horse. If you are in a high-risk area, consult your veterinarian about the use of vaccines that have a high antigenic load for herpes virus so you can get a robust immune response. Remember, there is no vaccine on the market that can prevent the neurological form of EHV-1. The goal of vaccinating is to reduce the severity of clinical signs and reduce shedding of the EHV-1 virus if a horse does get sick.
Some inactivated vaccines with the highest number of antigens for virus neutralization include Calvenza®, Pneumabort-K® and Prodigy®. Other vaccines like Rhinomune® are a modified live vaccine, and also have a high virus neutralization response.

If your horse is exposed or gets sick, contact your veterinarian to see what course of action they recommend. As mentioned, diagnosis requires the detection of the virus from either whole blood or nasal swab samples via PCR testing. If you are in a barn with a horse that has EHV-1, the use of the antiviral drug valacyclovir may decrease virus shedding and may help your horse from acquiring the infection. Veterinarians have also discussed the use of lysine to theoretically reduce viral replication. Horses can be administered safely 12 grams orally once daily in their feed. This has not been proven to prevent neurological forms of EHV-1.

In the neurologic form of EHV-1, the virus interacts with the blood vessels that supply the spinal cord. This inflammation in the blood vessels can cause a stroke-like event (blood clot), resulting in decreased blood flow to that portion of the spinal cord. To potentially prevent this from happening, veterinarians may prescribe anticoagulants like aspirin and/or heparin to prevent this from happening if your horse becomes clinical.

To learn more about Equine Herpesvirus, Dr. Slovis recommends referring to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) website for accurate information and resources.

Outbreak of EHV1 Reported in Spain

An outbreak of the neurological form of equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1) has been reported in Valencia, Spain, the Irish Equine Centre (IEC) announced via a statement on Twitter Monday. The virus was discovered at an FEI competition, and the FEI Veterinary Department is collaborating with the Spanish authorities. Additional veterinarians have been brought in to assist with the 160 horses quarantined on site.

The IEC statement read in part, “Currently 84 horses are showing clinical signs, 11 are being treated in external clinics and four have died. Horses that left the venue before movement restrictions were implemented appear to have spread the virus to France, Germany and Belgium where additional cases have been reported.

“It is understood that to date, no Irish riders affected have travelled from the event in Valencia to Ireland. However, anyone receiving horses particularly competition horses, from the continent should seek veterinary advice concerning isolation and EHV1 testing by PCR. Similarly, competitors planning to travel with their horses to events in Spain should see veterinary advice.”

The post Outbreak of EHV1 Reported in Spain appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Dr. Gary Lavin Passes Away

Dr. Gary Lavin, one of the Thoroughbred industry's most respected and accomplished veterinarians, passed away Saturday morning at his home in Louisville, Kentucky after a long battle with cancer, according to his family. He was 83 years old.

Lavin is a past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, Steward of The Jockey Club, trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and the Breeders' Cup, director at Keeneland, and vice-chairman of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

Lavin was a 1962 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania veterinary college and was honored with the school's Bellweather Medal for Distinguished Leadership. He was recognized as an Honor Guest by the Thoroughbred Club of America in 2014.

The son of racing secretary Allan Lavin who started his career as an assistant trainer at Greentree in California before World War II, Lavin grew up in the sport. He worked for many years on the racetrack as an equine practitioner and surgeon, and was a member of the Keeneland inspection team for 16 years, retiring in 2010. His grandfather was a doctor, and though his family has Kentucky roots, he was born in New Orleans and raised in Arkansas.

Lavin was also an owner and breeder, and developed Longfield Farm in Goshen, Kentucky, a commercial breeding and boarding operation, which bred or raised notable horses such as Pine Bluff, Prairie Bayou, Eddington, Quality Road, Om, and Secret Circle.

“He was great, great, great man,” said Rogers Beasley, former Vice President of Racing at Keeneland and currently the Chief Strategy Officer at the Breeders' Cup. “He encompassed a whole range of our industry from racing to breeding, to being on many many boards that provided for the health and welfare of our horsemen. He was concerned for all involved in the industry, both horses, and on the backside.”

Lavin was the subject of the TDN and Keeneland's Life's Work Project in April, 2020, which may be read and viewed here.

One of the pioneers in early equine surgery, Lavin recalled Tim Tam's successful operation for a broken sesamoid in the wake of the 1958 Belmont Stakes as a turning point in equine surgery. “When I got to Churchill, surgery was in its very beginnings,” he told the TDN's Chris McGrath in 2019. “That was the summer Tim Tam broke down in the Belmont and went to the University of Pennsylvania for his surgery. I've always marked that as the time, when it made the front page of the Daily Racing Form for weeks after, that people knew it was possible.”

Lavin (front row, second from left) on the Keeneland inspections team

He and his colleague Dr. Robert Copelan were credited with saving Flip Sal, who broke down in the 1974 Kentucky Derby. “He had a good pulse in his pastern and we decided, well, we'll just see what happens,” he told McGrath. “We snugged him up in a tight bandage and, day by day by day, finally we put a cast on him. And he spent the entire summer there. And, of course, Dr. Copelan and I got all the credit for doing a wonderful job. All we did feed him, clean [his] stall and change the cast. That horse saved himself, is what happened.”

Shug McGaughey trained his first-ever stakes winner, Party School, for Lavin and his partner Henry Meyer's Mjaka Stable and said that Lavin was a transformational influence on his life.

“I don't think that anybody was a bigger influence on my career than Dr. Lavin was at an early age,” said McGaughey. “I don't think I'd be where I am today if it weren't for him. I knew he had been struggling a little bit, but I didn't expect this at this time. This one is hard. He was a wonderful man, he loved the game, he put a lot into the game through Grayson and being a surgeon in the old days, when they basically operated on horses with knives and forks. I remember him telling me when he retired that it wasn't because he was getting too old for it; he said, `I got tired of giving people bad news.' I repeated that story just the other day to a girl who works for me down in Florida. He was a great influence on me, we were great friends, not only on the racetrack, but off. He was a proud guy; proud of his accomplishments, though he would never say it. He was proud of his family, proud of his friends, and we had a lot of fun together and a lot of laughs. When they won a race, they celebrated and had a good time.”

Keeneland's Geoffrey Russell worked with Lavin for years on the inspection team and called him, “the most wonderful human being I think I've ever met. He never met a stranger. He had time for everybody. Sometimes, on inspections, it was difficult to get him off of the farms for all the chatting and catching up he did. That's what made him such a wonderful person. We had great trips across Kentucky, and up the East Coast, and the stories he would tell made those trips so much more enjoyable.”

Russell said that in 1998, Lavin was part of the group who told him that he had just seen the sales topper. “I said, `come on guys, it's the middle of March. It's the second day of inspections.'” That horse was Fusaichi Pegasus, who topped the Keeneland July Sale for $4 million and went on to win the Kentucky Derby. “`Dockie' always said about that horse, he had the skin of a seal.”

“He had all his priorities right. He loved what he did and he loved his family. He put everything in the right order.” –Dell Hancock

His experience, his eye and his willingness to share his knowledge made working with him on the inspection team “a blessing,” said Russell. “For anybody who worked with him, it was a blessing. Having worked 33, 34 years on the racetrack, he had seen every conformational flaw on a horse and would say, `I've seen that. That won't bother him.' He was a wonderful teacher, and so happy to share his information. He was in it for everybody.”

Dell Hancock, who worked closely with Dr. Lavin at Grayson, said she had known him since her early 20s, and said, “He was one of the kindest, most wonderful people I've ever met. He was obviously a great veterinarian, but his knowledge of horses went so much further than just this or that. He loved horses. He didn't just work on them, he loved them. That separated him from so many people.”

She called his work at Grayson “invaluable.”

“He always put the horse first,” she said. “His work for the horse at Grayson was invaluable and it's one of things that made Grayson what it is. He and Larry Bramlage are the ones who came up with an early look at all these projects and it's the backbone of Grayson, and each would say it wouldn't have happened without the other. I couldn't say enough good things about Doc Lavin. He's one of the few people who didn't have an enemy. Just a super, super person.

“He had all his priorities right,” said Hancock. “He loved what he did and he loved his family. He put everything in the right order.”

Lavin is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (Betsy), a former member of the Kentucky Racing Commission; his son Kevin and his wife, Amy; son Allan and his wife Susan; and grandchildren Catherine, Alexandra, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Lulu, and Hattie.

He will be buried Tuesday in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery in a service for family only. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, 821 Corporate Drive, Lexington, Ky., 40503.

The entire Life's Work interview with Dr. Lavin, recorded July 18, 2019, may be viewed here at the University of Kentucky's Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.

The post Dr. Gary Lavin Passes Away appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

‘Critter Fixers’ Stars Dedicated To Mentoring Black Veterinarians

Looking for a new show to watch while the cold weather drags on? Give Nat Geo WILD's Critter Fixers: Country Vets a try. Featuring rural veterinarians Drs. Terrence Ferguson and Vernard Hodges, the reality show follows the two Black practice owners as they treat everything from cats and dogs to camels, lizards, pigs, ducks, rabbits and more.

The two owners are drawing attention for more than their easy-going, kind attitudes: People magazine reports they're serving as role models for Black students who dream of a career in veterinary medicine. Black vets make up just 2 percent of practicing vets in the United States, but Drs. Hodges and Ferguson are working diligently to change that statistic.

The team has grown their influence as mentors by taking time to talk on the phone with students beyond their local area. The Critter Fixers also speak in schools and on Zoom calls for career and professional days.

The second season of Critter Fixers: Country Vets premieres Saturday, May 22, at 9 p.m. EST on Nat Geo Wild. Previous episodes are streaming on Disney+.