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07.22-24.2012
Registration Now Open for AAEP’s Hindlimb Lameness and Business Education Summer Meetings
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Start of Gaited Horse Show Season Heightens Commitment by AVMA, AAEP and USDA to End Abusive Practice of Soring
 SCHAUMBURG, Ill., April 11, 2012 -- Soring, illegal for more tha... More »
Applications for Funding through the AAEP Foundation Due May 1
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Follow AAEP Biosecurity Guidelines to Reduce Risk of Infectious Disease Transmission during Breeding Season
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AAEP Foundation Asks Veterinarians to Submit Cases for Laminitis Study
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AAEP Foundation/Markel Insurance Company Honor Top-Achieving Veterinary Students with Scholarships
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Veterinary Care of the RacehorseWhat are bucked shins?
A: Bucked shins is a condition seen almost exclusively in 2-year-old Thoroughbred horses in training. The clinical signs are a shortened, stiff gait; lameness; and swelling over the front of the mid-portion of the cannon bone.
Bucked shins is directly related to training. That is, untrained horses do not get bucked shins. Training is required for bone to be able to withstand race speeds. Bucked shins is a pathologic manifestation of the normal changes which occur in bone during normal training.
It is important to note that bucked shins is not necessarily the result of inappropriate training. During training, the bone changes to respond to the new activity. This process involves resumption of the present bone and production of new bone (remodeling) and changes in the geometry of the bone (modeling). This natural process can be overwhelmed during training periods as resorption occurs at a rate approximately 50 times faster to production.
In cases where continued exercise overwhelms the bone's ability to withstand loads, lameness occurs. During the modeling phase, new immature bone is placed on the front of the cannon bone to improve the geometric properties of the bone. This new bone is the physical manifestation of bucked shins.
There is no single accepted treatment for bucked shins. Opinions vary based on experience. Based on our present understanding of bucked shins, it appears that rest from enforced exercise is a necessary requirement in any method of treatment for bucked shins. During the period of rest, usually 60 to 120 days, modeling and remodeling of cannon bone is completed and lameness, pain and swelling diminish.
Controlled exercise programs are also effective to allow these processes to continue without giving the horse an extended period of time off. Counter-irritants such as blistering agents and pin-firing are still in use. The medical indications for these modalities is debatable. For specific recommendations regarding treatment of bucked shins in your horse, examination by an equine veterinarian is recommended.
Alan J. Ruggles, DVM
Diplomate – Rood and Do veterinarians have to submit records to racing officials about the medications that are administered to racehorses?
A. While a few states’ racing commissions require the reporting of all medication administrations, most requirements for disclosure of medication administration are directed at horses entered to race. Anti-bleeder medications must be reported. In addition, other permitted race day or pre-race day medications may need to be reported. The specifics of the reporting requirements vary from state to state.
With regard to other medications, treatments or procedures, veterinarians are required by law to maintain medical records for their patients--just as do human physicians. With few exceptions, the contents of these records are considered to be confidential. However, the racing commission or officiating body may require a veterinarian to present specific records for scrutiny during the course of an investigation. By and large, for horses not entered to race, the prescription and administration of medications is left to the discretion of the attending veterinarian whose responsibility it is to be familiar with standards of care and the rules of racing governing veterinary practice.
Mary Scollay, DVM
Equine Medical Director Lexington, KY Does a healthy racehorse receive regular checkups from a veterinarian or is the veterinarian called only when a medical situation arises?
As a general rule, regular checkups of racehorses are determined based upon need and trainer request. These checkups can be soundness evaluations; physical exams including regularly scheduled bloodwork; infectious disease problems; or as simple as evaluating the overall health of a horse. Some trainers request that their horses be examined on a daily basis. Though this is very time consuming and most veterinarians do not charge for this service, it does establish a good base of information regarding a horse’s health.
Other horses are examined usually at the request of the trainer when a problem such as lameness, infectious disease, or as simple as not training right presents itself. As time goes by, veterinarians get to know their patients very well, as they are communicating
with trainers on a daily basis and get to see their patients on a daily, if not a weekly, basis. Whenever a medical situation arises, it is the veterinarian who responds not only for the care and treatment of the injured or sick horse, but for accurate diagnostics and more importantly, solutions to the problem. The veterinarian is the identifiable expert in a medical situation, establishing the health and welfare of the horse as the primary objective. Fortunately, with the established relationships between the owner-trainer-veterinarian in the industry today, as well as advances in equine medicine and surgery, better treatment options often exist when a medical situation does arise.
Jeff Blea, DVM
Von Bluecher, Prida, Blea, Inc.
Equine Medicine and Surgery
Sierra Madre, Calif.
Bone Chips and Treatment
What are bone chips and how do they occur?
Bone chips or chip fractures of horses’ joints are properly termed “osteochondral fragments.” Osteo (Latin for bone) and chondral (Latin for cartilage) describe the make-up of the fragments that can cause irritation and lameness in a horse’s joint. In horses, the major component of the fragment is normally bone. In people, cartilage pieces are more common.
Fragments (chips) occur for two main reasons: 1) Defective development of the bone (sometimes called osteochondrosis) where the bone fragments under normal loads; or 2) Uneven loading or trauma to normal bone, where the bone fragments are under uneven pressure.
Chip fractures seldom totally separate or become free in the joint, but if they do, they usually lodge in one of the many cul-de-sacs in joints and are quickly trapped, isolated by scar tissue and rendered innocuous. If the chip fractures happen when a horse is still growing or during a period of rest, the joint will try and isolate the fragment by surrounding it with scar tissue, rendering it smooth and non-irritating, similar to how an oyster makes a pearl from a grain of sand. The chip fractures that cause problems are those that cause debris to be shed within a joint and irritate the joint. Debris causes acute painful inflammation. If the debris shedding stops, the joint can heal. If debris shedding is chronic, then arthritis results.
Chip fractures can range in size from miniscule to as large as the tip of a man’s finger. But size does not matter, as it is the amount of debris that is shed that matters. Chip fractures can happen in all joints, but are most common in the front fetlocks (ankles) and the carpus (knees). Estimates place the prevalence that a horse will have a chip fracture in one of its joints sometime in its life between 20% and 50%. About 15% of horses have some type of chip that occurs during adolescent play and spontaneous competition, even before they begin training.
How do bone chips affect a horse’s athletic ability?
Acute chip fractures in high motion areas shed a lot of debris because the two raw bone surfaces rub together like two rocks, shedding little bits of sand into the joint. This debris causes pain, lameness and poor performance. Because chip fractures seldom come totally free in the joint, but remain at their site of origin, this rubbing and debris shedding continues with the joint motion. The more strenuous the motion, the greater the lameness.
Chronic or old fractures surrounded by scar tissue in high motion areas can eventually become a problem if their protective scar wears through and the chip begins to rub on the joint surface, damaging it and shedding debris. This is how a previously innocuous chip fracture can become painful.
When a chip is isolated, surrounded by scar tissue, or in a very inactive area of the joint, it can be totally innocuous. Chips that are acute and still have raw bone surfaces to rub together, or that wear on very high motion areas of the joint, cause pain. The pain is not disabling, but it reduces performance, like trying to run with a small pebble in your shoe. It does not lead to further fracture, but can cause over-stress injuries such as tendonitis if it causes a horse to become unbalanced or to spend more than the normal time on the normal limb, to avoid the discomfort.
What are the treatment options?
Treatments are dictated by how much trouble the chip is causing the horse. Chips that cause lameness and reduced performance are removed by arthroscopic surgery accompanied by a short rest. Chips that are irritating to the joint causing increased watery fluid, but no lameness, can be controlled by joint fluid supplementation (with Hyaluronic Acid) and anti-inflammatories such as cortico-steroids or phenylbutazone. Chip fractures that are in innocuous locations, are surrounded by scar tissue and are not irritating to the joint are best left undisturbed.
Larry R. Bramlage,
What is the role of complementary therapies in racehorse health?
In recent years, the use of acupuncture and chiropractic has become increasingly more common to treat a variety of conditions, especially in the equine athlete.
Acupuncture According to ancient Chinese medical philosophy, disease is the result of an imbalance of energy in the body. Acupuncture is believed to balance this energy by affecting certain physiological changes with the insertion of needles at specific locations, and thereby assist the body to heal itself. Acupuncture has been used in veterinary practice in
Most equine veterinary acupuncturists use a combination of techniques to stimulate acupuncture points. Acupuncture is a safe medical procedure when administered by a qualified practitioner. Acupuncture has been used to treat many acute and chronic conditions including: musculoskeletal problems, such as muscle soreness and back pain, neurological disorders including laryngeal hemiplegia, gastrointestinal disorders such as diarrhea or impactions, and other chronic conditions such as anhidrosis, heaves, asthma, uveitis, and skin problems.
Chiropractic
The basis of chiropractic therapy is that proper function of the musculoskeletal system allows the rest of the body, particularly the nervous system, to function properly as well. When this happens, the body is able to heal itself, fight disease, and maintain optimal health.
A chiropractic adjustment is applied to a vertebral subluxation complex, where the joint between two vertebrae has lost its flexibility. The goal of the adjustment is to restore normal mobility to the joint, thereby stimulating normal neurological reflexes and reducing pain and muscle spasm. Chiropractic can be considered as a possible treatment for any horse that suffers from neck or back pain, joint stiffness, poor performance, or an altered gait that is not associated with overt lameness. Chiropractic care is appropriate in the maintenance of joint and spinal health which is important for the equine athlete.
If you think you horse might benefit from acupuncture and/or chiropractic, please contact your veterinarian. Complementary medicine should be considered as part of an overall management program that includes proper exercise, balanced nutrition, sports therapy, and treatment for injuries and disease performed under the guidance of a veterinarian. Your veterinarian can help you find a certified veterinary acupuncturist and/or a veterinarian that has been certified in animal chiropractic. For more information, you can go to the following Web sites: www.ivas.org, www.tcvm.com, and www.animalchiropractic.org. Jacqueline S. Shellow, Teigland Franklin Brokken DVMs Castration is normally performed on colts to make them more tractable and easier to handle. When the horse has minimal breeding value, the procedure normally takes place once the horse is skeletally mature. In horses with potential breeding value, the decision to castrate is delayed to determine if the horse has enough athletic ability to make it attractive as a future sire. If the horse is not a potential sire, castration increases the longevity of its race career by making the horse easier to train. The mature, intact male horse becomes progressively more difficult to train and more aggressive as it gets older. Many of the famous geldings of the past were totally ineffective racehorses as intact males and become stars once gelded.
In some horses, the timing of the castration procedure is accelerated because they will have one testicle or sometimes both testicles partially undescended, which leaves the testicle in the flank of the horse between the leg and the abdomen. Sometimes this causes discomfort during training. If the horse has one testicle normally descended and one retained or undescended, the proper medical term is “cryptorchid” or the horseman’s term is “ridgling.” Non-descended testicles have much-reduced fertility or are sterile, as their retention in the inguinal canal makes them ineffective at producing sperm because of the increased temperature exposure of being adjacent to the body wall. In horses with high breeding potential, the non-descended testicle may be removed and the normal testicle will be left in place. This horse is called a “monorchid.” Monorchids can be fertile stallions, such as A.P. Indy.
In horses whose pedigree does not indicate that they are likely to be a stallion, a unilateral cryptorchid is often castrated on both sides, normal and abnormal, during the same surgical procedure to facilitate the horse’s race career.
Larry R. Bramlage,
Quarter cracks and the equine athlete  angle toward the ground. Quarter cracks can be a common cause of foot lameness or decreased athletic performance in race and sport horses.What are the causes?
Causes of quarter cracks may include trauma to the coronary band; preexisting damage to the sensitive tissue under the hoof wall from infection; limb conformation; abnormal hoof conformation; short shoes; or an abnormal landing pattern when the foot strikes the ground. For example, many horses will contact the ground asymmetrically, impacting first on one side of the hoof and then loading the opposite side (this type of landing pattern is generally related to conformation). Disproportionate forces placed on one side of the hoof wall over time often result in the formation of a quarter crack due to the increased pressure. What are the treatment options? For a successful quarter crack repair, it is necessary to determine the underlying cause of the crack and to correct it with appropriate shoeing. After the cause is addressed, the defect should be stabilized. Providing stability and strength to the hoof wall defect allows the horse to perform without pain while the quarter crack heals. A full thickness hoof wall crack can be thought of as a fracture. Treatment includes inserting stainless steel wires to stabilizethe crack. An acrylic composite combined with fiberglass is applied to the outer hoof wall over the crack to further stabilize the defect and form the “patch” which can be seen on the horse’s foot. The type of shoes the horse wears plays a significant role in the successful treatment of a quarter crack. Bar shoes are effective in increasing the ground surface of the foot, providing support and decreasing the independent vertical movement at the heel bulb on the affected side. Aluminum shoes that are applied with glue also offer several advantages. Glue-on shoes allow the foot to be trimmed and shod to the most suitable foot conformation, there is no need for concern over nail placement in the hoof, and they provide increased support. Glue-on shoes are ideal in race horses. The importance of determining the underlying cause, trimming the feet properly, and applying the correct shoe cannot be overemphasized when repairing a quarter crack. Correcting any existing hoof abnormality along with improving the landing pattern of the horse is as important as the repair itself. Stephen O’Grady, BVSc
Northern Virginia Equine
Marshall, Va.
What is the importance of the pre- and post-race exams that are performed by the track (regulatory) veterinarian? The pre-race exam is performed on all horses entered to race on a specific race day. The track veterinarian exams each horse for soundness at a jog, including manipulation of limbs and joints, flexion of joints and palpation. The veterinarian may also detect a fever or other illness during the pre-race inspection. Any horses deemed unfit to perform that day are reported to the board of stewards who then will scratch the horse from that performance. This effectively protects the horse from further injury as well as the jockey, while also protecting the public who may have bet on an unfit, ill or unsound horse. The scratching of a horse with a medical concern also protects the owner’s investment so that the horse may hopefully recover or become sound enough to run another day. After each race has concluded, the track veterinarian examines each horse as it pulls up and returns to the unsaddling area. This visual inspection may detect lameness or injuries that have occurred during the race, heat stroke, exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage or other conditions that require either immediate or follow-up treatment. Horses deemed unfit or unsound to compete are placed on the “veterinary list” until a sufficient amount of time has elapsed for resolution of the problem or the horse has worked in front of the regulatory veterinarian to prove soundness and ability to compete safely. Close examination of horses both pre- and post race by trained regulatory veterinarians helps to ensure the safety and welfare for both the equine athlete and the human athlete that is carried on their back. While not all injuries can be prevented, a thorough pre-race exam can aid in detecting those horses that may need time off or further diagnostic workups before they continue competing. Keith Soring, DVM Director of Racing How do you know if a horse should be taken out of training or “layed up”? There are several reasons that a horse might need to be taken out of training for longer than a few days. It would be difficult to address all of them, but here are some of the more common ones:
Often, a lay up does not necessarily mean that the horse has to go to a farm. Many short-term rest periods can be effectively handled at the track. It is probably advisable that rest periods of significant length (upwards of 60 days) be dealt with on a farm as the horse will likely have fewer distractions. Commonly the decision to give a horse time off is made for us by the horse’s condition as there is no other choice. Other times the decision is made in a cooperative manner with input by the trainer, veterinarian and owner to decide what is best for the horse. It is not always absolutely clear cut whether to give a horse a break, so input from all parties is very important. Scott A. Hay, DVM Teigland, Franklin & Brokken DVMs |
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American Association of Equine Practitioners |
