The Horse Doctor

There is a new Respiratory disease that presents like "Heaves" in the horse. This condition may have been around for a while but not identified as a separate clinical entity until now. "Equine multi nodular pulmonary fibrosis is characterized by coalescing nodules (scaring) in the alveoli of the lungs. Clinical signs include a low-grade fever,weight loss and progressive respiratory disease that is often mistaken for heaves or bacterial pneumonia, but doesn't respond to therapy". Dr Kurt Williams DVM Dipl ACVP at Michigan State University connected the disease with EHV-5 when he found viral inclusion bodies in cells obtained of the affected tissue. As of now it is not known if this is a new variant of EHV-5 or the common strain. Corticosteroids are the treatment of choice but an accurate diagnosis is required since steroids could make bacterial or fungal pneumonia worse. The diagnosis is made via a bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL) and percutaneous lung biopsy....

About 250 camels have died in a 4 day period in Saudi Arabia in the Dawasir Valley. From an Epidemiology standpoint....that's a lot in a short amount of time. The Saudi Government is pointing towards contaminated feed whereas camel owners/traders ( mostly Bedouin herders) think it's something infectious. There has been concern in the Middle east about the H5N1 "bird Flu" and it has been found twice this year. I always look at mass deaths with concern as was the case of the recent Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in England. In that case it was a security breach from a local lab and may have even been deliberate. It is still under investigation. I doubt this outbreak in Saudi was FMD as the animals died so fast, this points to either poison,toxin or a very serious infectious agent(ie. Botulism, Viral (encephalitis, influenza) . They are asking for outside help and my guess is that the CDC already has samples in Atlanta. With the rapid transit of pathogens I watch for th...

Had a great weekend but even with small waves the kids (and myself) had a great time. Polly is really getting her new board wired. Since it was breaking in fairly shallow water she really had to work on her bottom turn so she didn't eat it. We did a mini-surf camp with most of my nieces and nephews there. It turned into a 4 hour surf session. Beth's brother Robert got some great photos of them...some were quite funny.

A long time ago....I won't elaborate, I made my own surfboard. I mentioned this to my kids and they said we should do it again. I've had two Clark long board blanks in my garage for over 2 years and each year I resolved to shape them and for 2 years I got boo's on New Years day for not doing it. This spring I started doing one of them and took my time. After about 2 weeks of on and off shaping I had finished a 8'0'' longboard for my youngest daughter Polly. I then went after the other blank with a vengeance. In one night I shaped a 9'0'' noserider for my oldest daughter Sarah. Since they really turned out well I took them down to Drew at Inspired Surfboards and had him fiberglass them with Epoxy for me. He did a superb job and even put down the Hawaiian print fabric for me. I picked them up last Friday and headed to the beach and naturally it was flat....no surf but we stayed thru the weekend. On Sunday just after lunch the surf started to break on t...

This year the historic running of the bulls in Pamplona Spain turned tragic for someone other than the bulls this time. While the running of the bulls takes place in many Spanish cities, the one in Pamplona is the most well known. The tradition dating back to 1591 follows the release of the bulls from holding pens on one side of town and the herding of them through the streets to the stadium where they will be killed that night during the bull fights. Historically young men and boys would jump down onto the street and run among the bulls to show their bravado. This year there were 9 injuries including 2 American brothers trying to do the same. "A bull that broke from the pack seriously gored two American brothers, catching one on each of its horns during the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, but both were recovering Friday in the hospital. Lawrence and Michael Lenahan were gored simultaneously by the bull, ( one in the leg and the other in the "buttocks") w...

There was a tragic accident this past Friday in California when a Tractor trailer carrying goats overturned and more than 240 died. Now that sounds bad enough but the circumstances surrounding it are much worse. Many of the animals, en route to clear vegetation in Mill Valley, suffocated when the rig overturned near Irene Street on "The Loop" traffic route, police said. The truck, owned by Orinda-based Goats R Us, was transporting about 400 animals from Milpitas to the Golden Gate Theological Seminary when the driver pulled off the freeway for a cup of coffee, police said. Dead goats were spread across the road about 10 deep beside the tipped vehicle as emergency service officials spent more than an hour digging through the piles of animals, many pinned under loose metal shelves. The animals were stacked four deep in tiered shelving units in the 13-foot-tall truck. The steel shelves separating the animals were strewn through the wreckage. Officials from the Marin Humane S...

Last week when Islamofascist's rammed a burning Jeep bomb into the Glasgow airport terminal there was an airport baggage handler there who is now something of a National hero. His name is John Smeaton, the blogosphere has dubbed him "Smeato" and his face is all over t-shirts with his face on Rocky, Superman, Shaft, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Braveheart. One even has a picture of Bin Laden saying " You didn't tell us John Smeaton worked on Saturdays" " He is the guy you saw giving interviews after the attack as he ran after the burning terrorist who was swinging at the cops and decked him with a kick. His message to terrorists is classic Scot " You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it, We'll just put aboot ye" (translation: We'll kick your ass). A programmer has set up a website www.johnsmeaton.com and people are donating money to "buy John a pint" . He now has enough to buy 1000 at the airport bar but has yet to show up "...

Saw this one today as I following the Muslim doctors and their terror plots in London and Scotland. Since I live in Jacksonville and surf within eyesight of the Mayport jetties......suffice it to say.....I was alarmed. My in-laws live just down the road for goodness sake. You don't like it when your home town shows up on some islamist website. UK Terror Investigations - News Roundup - July 5 By Jeffrey Imm July 5 news roundup of UK terror plot investigation activities and related news: -- 45 Muslim doctors planned US terror raids . Daily Telegraph reports that "45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site". Police found details of discussion on the British Jihadist web site run by Younis Tsouli ("Terrorist 007"). Jihadists stated "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.The firs...

In case anyone has forgotten, there are still a lot of Jihadists out there that want to kill people. There was a report/video several weeks ago of Terrorists "graduating" from terrorist school and were being sent to Europe and the United States......I don't think it was for post doc study. Now we have 2 car bombs found in London ( during Wimbledon) and today a car bomb driven into the terminal in Glasgow Scotland . Not long ago during the debates for the upcoming Presidential elections candidate John Edwards said " the War on Terrorism was just a bumper sticker slogan" yea-right. NEW YORK — Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards , in a major foreign policy speech Wednesday, minimized the Bush administration's War on Terror as nothing more than a "bumper sticker slogan" used to justify the war in Iraq and "bludgeon political opponents." Power-line is now reporting " Meanwhile, the Scotsman says the authorities are looking f...

It was just published that a group of scientists lead by Dr Craig Vintner ( the 1st to have his DNA read by the genome project) transfered the entire genome from one bacteria into another, making it the 1st species transplantation. He said it was like taking a Mac and turning it into a PC by inserting new software. The plan now is to take a new genome created in the lab and insert that into a cell. Since the 1970s, scientists have moved genes - instructions to make proteins - between different organisms. But this marks the first time that the entire instruction set, consisting of more than a million “letters” of DNA, has been transplanted, transforming one species of bacterium into another. They are attempting to build a microbe with the minimal set of genes needed for life, with the goal of then adding other useful genes, such as ones for making biofuels.The scientists want to create new kinds of bacterium to make new types of bugs which can be used as green fuels to replace oil and c...

Just when I was beginning to think everyone in Europe had lost their spine....along comes this gem. Salman Rushdie ( remember him) the Indian writer that wrote "the Satanic Verses" and had a Fatwa written by the Ayatollah calling upon all peace loving Muslims to , of course......kill him. Well it turns out that the Queen of England must clank when she walks because she just Knighted him. Talk about a finger in the eye of the Iranians. You don't think this could have anything to do with the recent capture and humiliation of British sailors, do you? This is classic British humor, seeing as how the hated crusaders were after all.....knights. The down side to this is that those same peace loving Muslims will no doubt start to riot like they did when they didn't like the Danish car toons. Setting fire to cars in France and marching with all of those wonderful loving signs.

This next week I will be going back to Washington DC with the Fishweir Elementary School Patrols. For those that don't know, the safety patrols are 5 th grade students that apply to work as leaders and crossing guards at the local schools. This is very popular in southern and western schools. Reports actually say that the first school patrols were started in Jacksonville at Fishweir Elementary almost 90 years ago and since at least the 1960's these school patrols make a summer trip to our nations capital. I was a safety patrol and made the trip by train in 1970 and have returned with each of my four children when they did the same....this year it's Mac's turn. I love the history found in DC and particularly the Smithsonian museums and each time I go I try to find something new to see. Two years ago when I was there with Polly I found " Rienzi " also known as "Winchester" that was Sheridans horse during the Civil War. ...

This past week the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine held their annual meeting, this year in Seattle Wash. Beth and I went and met up with some great friends from our days at Cornell. Eric and Patty Peterson and DL Step. It's hard to believe everyone is so respectable now. Many nights out, great food and way to many adult beverages. Thank God this is the home port for Starbucks coffee. This is a very unique meeting in that unlike most Veterinary meetings this one concentrates on recent advancements and ongoing research projects. There are some review sessions...but not many. What I find to be the most useful are the research abstracts that are presented every 15 minutes for several days. This year there was a focus on glucose and insulin interactions. While this may seem really dull.....let me point out how this may effect your horse. For years now we have been working on a condition in the horse called EMS-equine Metabolic Syndrome. This is the overweight horse tha...

The start of Hurricane season was this past Friday June 1st and not surprisingly our first tropical system crossed the state this weekend. For those living in the coastal areas it's time to start planning just in case a major storm heads this way. I have posted items of interest on this blog in the past and you can find a more detailed list of plans on our web site www.ja xequine.com . There is also a short worksheet that you can use to organize yourself. If you decide to stay in the path of a storm you should consider some important facts. Your horses are at a greater risk "inside" your barn than outside. Think about it for a minute, your barn was probably built by the lowest bidder, has minimal roof support and was designed to maximize airflow. Unlike your house which are usually built north and south to take advantage of the sun.....your barn was built east and west to take advantage of the breeze. Thats a bad thing in a hurricane. If you have a large open fiel...

The oldest pony " sugarpuff " has died at the age of.....get this....56 years old. The oldest I have ever seen was a 44 year old pony when I was working in Ocala Fl. I was always told there were 2 kinds of ponies, those that had foundered and those that were going to. That old one had foundered at 20 and was on 1 gram of bute daily for 24 years. (Sugar Puff, a 10hh Shetland-Exmoor gelding was put down at home in West Sussex on 25 May following "complicated problems" with his health. Owner Sally Botting told H&H: "His organs packed up. He had been fine in the morning but then just collapsed. The vet said no more could be done.") There was a report several years ago of a Florida cracker-horse that was 55, it was a search done by Purina for their Equine Senior diet. Either way it shows that horses and ponies can live a really long time if you keep up with good health management.

This seems to happen every few years, an outbreak of plague. If you can remember it's always out west...Colorado, Arizona . ect. The Plague, Black Death, Bubonic Plague, is caused by a bacteria called Yersina Pestis ( primarily transmitted by fleas, hence-"pestis") . The Plague that ravaged Europe in the 1300's originated in the East( probably Ch ina...all diseases come from China) and arrived in Spain ( probably on infected rats on ships) and spread rapidly across Europe. Here's the daily history lesson ( I used to teach History during the summers while in College). The great European famine occurred from 1314-1317, then the Hundred years war started in 1337, then "ta-dah"....the Black Plague arrives in1347. Europe was primed for this, famine and war mean a lot of dead bodies and loss of sanitation and you guessed it.....rats. The Plague killed an estimated 25 million people in just 5 years. In 2000 I had the privilege of attending the Passion Play in...

Yesterday was my birthday, after a great night away with my wife we returned for a short work day and my youngest boys performance at school. Fishweir Elementary is a small public school near our house where my Mother in Law went to school as well as my wife and all our children. They are a magnet school for the arts and do several performances a year. This year was their 90th anniversary and they celebrated each decade with music from that era. Mac represented the 90's doing Micheal Jacksons "Thriller". What a hambone. Here's the link to YouTube. It was classic. If you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a link to the video.

A mother bear and her cub were rescued from the wildfire in North Florida. It's burning around and thru Bugaboo island in the Okefenokee swamp. It jumped a major Highway yesterday and is closing in on Lake City. To make things worse there is a water shortage in the area. The bears were spotted in a burned out area and the cub was up a tree. The Florida Fish and Wildlife commission were called in and darted the pair. They were then transfered to the University of Florida College of Vet Med. The Sow has burns on her feet and some lung damage but appears to be doing well. As with any wild animal in captivity the stress can be a killer. Here's to UF....Go Gators.

I just received more photo's taken from the Waycross and Bugaboo fires. WOW....it sure looks bad.