Meddleton Equine Hospital

After 20 years as a Veterinarian, I have seen many horses that were at death’s door that, by all medical considerations, should have died, but miraculously survived. In light of the Christmas Season, I would like to share one of these miraculous recoveries and ask you to share your story if you have experienced a miracle like this.

Meddleton Equine hosted our first Farrier Clinic on Saturday Dec 3rd with 20 participating farriers. We addressed a horse with Navicular Disease using the principles of the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization (E.L.P.O.).  We evaluated conformation, hoof balance, hoof distortion, and then mapped out the foot using E.L.P.O. guidelines and Leverage Testing using the Cross-Check System to determine shoeing protocol.

I remember my gelding and friend, Buddy. We came a long way. Bud was a big, Polish Arabian (13 yrs when I got him) and was starting to get a bad reputation as being "too hard to ride" when I bought him in 2002. I did not know about the reputation until well after I bought him. I liked the guy, He was going to be my gentle, older horse. His name was The Mischief Man, but I renamed him Buddy because that was what he was going to be.

It was a night like tonight will be. Middle of winter and very cold. My family was eating dinner and we heard the banging on the metal water tank. Not sure why that was our colic call but every time one of our horses were sick, our horse Circus, would bang away on that tank and alert us of the sick horse even if it wans't himself that was sick.

Back before Mark and I were married, I was running a riding stable with my sister. We had about 20 horses. But one saw the vet more than all of the other horses combined. He was a big, beautiful, dark bay thoroughbred named Fudge. You've heard the expression, "scared of his own shadow"; Fudge really was scared of his own shadow and everything else too. Strangely, the one thing he wasn't afraid of was his vet.

Blister beetle toxicosis can cause serious disease in horses that can lead to death. The causative agent, cantharidin, is a potent irritant found in the blister beetle. Alfalfa flowers attract the beetles and at harvest they may be incorporated into hay.

Equine Herpesvirus (EHV-1 or Rhinopneumonitis) infection in horses can cause respiratory disease, abortion in mares, neonatal foal death, and/or neurologic disease. The neurologic form of EHV-1 is called Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) and is a sporadic paralytic disease (myeloencephalopathy) secondary to vasculitis of the spinal cord and brain.

We are inviting farriers, horseshoers, and blacksmiths to join us on Saturday, December 3, 2011 starting at 8:00 AM and ending early afternoon for a Farrier Clinic with Brad Dirickson and Isaac Kerr. We will be addressing lameness in a horse using the principles of the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization (E.L.P.O.).

We are offering a Holiday Special EMERGENCY KIT complete with the kinds of items that you have to get from your Veterinarian like Bute, Banamine, antibiotics, etc. over $200 worth of medications and supplies for $150.

Please join us for a Horse Owners' Veterinary Symposium. We had so many Horse Owners wanting to attend the Symposium we held for Equine Veterinarians in February, that we have decided to do a Veterinary Symposium specifically for Horse Owners. Our Horse Owner's Veterinary Symposium will present much of the medical information that was presented at our February Vet Symposium. We will bring you the latest in areas of Equine Medicine that affect so many of our Equine Companions.