The Horse Doctor

For those that don't understand the intricacies of single malt whiskys this probably won't make much sense, but the is a bottle of scotch that will go on auction this month that is 150 years old. This bottle is from the distillery " Glenavon " which closed in 1858 and is projected to sell for at least $20,000 ( thats about $600 a dram). " Bonhams is maintaining client confidentiality, but said the woman remembers the bottle being in her grandmother's home in the 1920s. The bottle is slightly smaller than the familiar 75cl and made from olive-green glass. The liquid appears to be pale gold and the level is surprisingly high for such an old bottle - almost to the neck - said Bonhams. The Glenavon Distillery was situated at Ballindalloch in Speyside where the River Avon meets the River Spey. It was recorded as operating in 1851 and licensed to a John G Smith in 1852. John Gordon Smith was the son of George Smith, founder of the nearby Glenlivet Distillery,...

This is one disease that causes a great deal of fear and confusion among horse owners and veterinarians. This Neurologic disease is causes by a protozoan parasite that migrates from the intestinal tract to the brain or spinal cord. It is normally found in the feces of possums and armadillos and when they defecate on pastures where horses graze ....they can become exposed. A very high number of horses are seropositive in the US (about 60% in Florida) but few develop clinical disease. EPM typically has three characteristics 1. Ataxia 2. Atrophy 3. Asymmetry. In other words 1.they stumble 2. have muscle wasting 3. uneven distribution. As the organism replicates in the neural tissue more nerve cells and fibers are damaged causing the neurologic signs. A complete neurologic exam by a skilled Internist is needed to arrive at a neuroanatomic diagnosis. Once the location of the injury is found then you can better determine the cause. Many neurologic diseases can look like EPM and vi...

I've had some response to a post about 3rd world medicine and Holistics. Leave it to me to torque everybody off. It appears that there are quite a few "believers" in Gallium as a treatment for navicular disease. Gallium and a related compound Tildren work be reducing blood calcium levels. With tildren there have been some nasty side effects discussed on the ACVIM (internal medicine) list serve. Hypercalcemia is a frequent complication associated with certain cancers and gallium has been shown to be an effective treatment for these patients, however, hypercalcemia has never been assciated with navicular syndrome. Why advise the use of a medication for a condition that does not occur. The main proponent for gallium use in the horse is Dr Eby who promotes through his website . He also is big on the use of zinc lozenges for treating colds and also thinks that the condition is brought on by aluminum toxicity. With the aluminum being absorbed through the foot from the shoe....

Well it appears that there are others that have actually seen "KMARTO" the fine aperitif brought to you by your local K-Mart vintner. I wrote some time ago about finding 2 bottles in a center isle display of a K-mart in Gainesville Fla. in the 1970's. My plan was to send them to Johnny Carson since he was hitting them pretty hard at the time. Lost to time, these valuable pieces of history were found stored in the attic of the old homestead ( just imagine the temperature variations, I'm sure it aged well.....NOT). So here is a photo of the one surviving bottle, the Lambrusco. The Bianco didn't fair so well. I wonder if Target has a vineyard.

I posted some time back about the potential for cloning in the Horse industry. I think there is alot of risk for abuse if we don't proceed with caution. There is now a report of another equine clone ....this one commercial. Barrel racer Charmayne James who became the first "million dollar" cowgirl riding "Scamper" to an unprecedented 10 world championships had him cloned. While equine cloning has been done successfully at Texas A&M this is the first done by a private corporation. She paid the Austin based ViaGen Inc. $150,000 to clone Scamper. In the cloning process genetic material is extracted from the donor cell and place in a recipient egg that has had it's genetic material removed. the egg is then implanted in a fertile mare which carries it to term. In this case , it took only four attempts to achieve conception. Having spent many years working with broodmares I find this remarkable. The foal was born Aug 8 th and was named "Clayton...

There was an unusual and tragic case in Indiana this month. A young girl bitten by a bat in "July" died from rabies 3 months later. While most of the animal cases of rabies are Raccoon rabies, most human cases are bat rabies . (there are 5 rabies variants, raccoon,bat, skunk, fox and dog) . In virtually all cases rabies is fatal with only a few patients surviving. I have personally been exposed to 2 rabies cases in horses while a resident and had to be re-vaccinated at that time. There was a serious outbreak of rabies in Iran of all places awhile back ( that would be a hard diagnosis....a rabid Iranian, how could you tell) Anyway...there was a bus where a rabid dog got on board and bit almost everybody. In that case they treated half of the people with gammaglobulin and vaccine and the other half with just wound washing. The result....nobody got rabies. Would I still get a booster if exposed again...you bet I would. It's just to bad a bug to take lightly. With the hor...