The Horse Doctor

This kind of news just makes me laugh and blogging about it I'm sure will torque off all of those followers of the Church of Global Warming and the High Priest Al Gore. As I've stated many times....the weather is cyclical and it changes. Historically we have been coming out of the little ice age so naturally the climate has warmed. Now there is this startling news ....this past years showed the largest cooling trend since we started recording it. There have been many reports of cooler temps and more snow "But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS , UAH , RSS ) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here . The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. ...

NSAIDS (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) have been around for a long time. Many people know that these drugs by their common names, aspirin,Advil, bute Banamine, etc. Additionally most people realize that like all medications...to much can cause a problem. We see this toxicity several times a year, usually after someone has been treating a colic with many doses of Banamine. This last week Dr. Thomas saw one that had mistakenly been given Bute tablets when the owner thought they were antibiotic. They were giving the horse 10 tablets (10 grams) twice a day for 3 days. You can imagine the damage. Phenylbutazone can cause many problems at such high doses but the principle one is a condition called Right Dorsal Colitis. In this disease the colon becomes edematous and large ulcers form on the inner surface that are very difficult to treat. The horse frequently becomes colicky and loses protein as it oozes from the large ulcerated colon. Fluid replacement and Plasma replacement are ...

I just got back from our annual trip to Cumberland Island Georgia, and ohhhh did I need it. You can feel your blood pressure drop the moment you get off the boat. We've been very fortunate to rent Nancy's Fancy for a week each year since we were married over there. It is a house on pilings behind the dunes overlooking the beach......a deserted beach. The kids can run wild and like it was when I was a kid, you just have to be back before dark. One of the cool things about Cumberland Island are the wild horses....I know, I see horses everyday so whats the big deal. I don't usually see herds of them walking down the beach. There are those that want the horses removed and have their own agenda but for everyone else it really adds to the whole Cumberland experience.The National Park Service does a good job of keeping the environmental extremists at bay and follows the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 to protect them." The Wild Free Roaming Horses and B...

I received a good response and question from a reader and it touches on one of my favorite topics......medical scams, holistic treatments and other 3rd world treatments. This person researched the problem and applied some scientific rigor and has a highly likely diagnosis of Photic Head shaking. Here's the email.. "Hi I have a 17hh warmblood who was treated with steriods last yr and we changed all bedding soaked hay fly masks etc etc and it alll stopped so we put it down to allergy! Well he is off work now and the sun came out this w/e and I found him violently head shaking in the field and in the stable he goes to the back, after alot of research he is looking like a photic cause. I have come accross a product and was wandering if anyone has tried it or heard any feedback? Equiwinner performance patches they are formulated for a variety of things but seem to cure headshaking or so they say? " .....and even better, this scientist questions the claims of a product....

I don't know how this sort of thing happens, but my youngest boy Mac ended up on the cover of the School Magazine. A more suitable debut would be the poor disruptive youth articles in the local paper. You will notice that 1. his shirt is clean 2. his hair is combed 3. nothing is bleeding 4. he's wearing a tie and 5. nobody is screaming. This all makes me think that the school computer department has "photo-shopped" this picture. Beth did find out that the teacher brushed his hair and tucked in his shirt just before the photo....I knew it! He really does look like a nice boy in this picture doesn't he...but he can't fool me. I'm positive he was messin' with somebody as soon as the photographer said " thats a wrap". I guess he is his Fathers boy, what can I expect.

We seem to have had a run on laryngeal disease over the last month so I thought i would post a quick tutorial. Horses can get a variety of Laryngeal diseases, including arytenoid paralysis, ulcers, neoplasia, epiglottic displacement, epiglottic entrapment and sub-epiglottic cysts. Image 1- This is a normal view through a fiber optic endoscope. What you see is epiglottis in the foreground that looks like a pointed tongue. behind this are the arytenoids that work like curtains covering the opening to the trachea. Image 2- In this horse you can see the left arytenoid is hanging down into the airway. This is an example of Laryngeal paralysis. Frequently this is caused by damage to the left recurrent laryngeal nerve. It can also be related to damage to the arytenoid itself such as infection of the cartilage. This is what typically is known as roaring, when the horse makes a respiratory noise (usually on inspiration) while working. Image 3- This is a picture of an arytenoid ulcer. It is act...

While I confess to being a proud southerner with all rights and privileges thereto appertaining.....I really get aggravated by commercials or TV shows that make us look stupid. I also don't like those that make guys in general look stupid or those that make surfers look stupid. Now as a member of all three categories I have to complain about the antics of some of my fellow brethren...."Fellas this ain't helpin the cause" .....but it sure looks like fun.

I'm sure everyone knows that the price of keeping a horse has gone up substantially over the last year. If you look at rising fuel costs, increased feed costs and a poor hay harvest this year you can see the problem. Now you must add the increased cost of shavings. According to a report from " The Horse .com " the downturn in the housing market has caused a subsequent shortage in shavings and increased the cost. "The cost of shavings has increased by 70% in the past two years," noted halter horse trainer Ted Turner of Turner Ranch in Aubrey, Texas. He said he has been forced to pass the increased cost on to his clients. Since shavings are bulky they are expensive to ship so you need to live close to where the lumber industry is. Other things impacting the cost of keeping a horse are also going up. With the increased interest in ethanol fuel a lot of the corn production has been shifted to that use causing a large increase in feed costs. The rise in gas prices ...

American politics and our News Media have really turned me off as of late. To say they spend money like drunken sailors is an insult to drunken sailors. I read a great deal of history and I really wish we had statesmen like those that sacrificed everything in the founding of this country. With a Presidential campaign in full swing I can't tell the TV anchors from the candidates. That is why I was surprised to see this video on you tube. Is Fred just an actor or is he for real? He's definitely not great looking and how long has it been since we elected a bald President? (Not that theres anything wrong with that). It's a bit long, about 15 minutes but it was really refreshing, made me feel good about a politician...I can't believe I wrote that. How it all works out...I don't know, but I think I'll give him a close look. If you plan on voting or even if you can't stomach it any more......it might be worth you're time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VblJ...

I think I could really increase my "gross" income if I can get into this project. This from Purdue University " here ". "WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Some college students will do anything for extra cash, even if it means sniffing livestock excrement.Students at Purdue University in Indiana can earn $30 per session to inhale and then rate whiffs of air collected from barns filled with hogs, cows and chickens. It's a science experiment conducted by a professor of agricultural and biological engineering.He's searching for ways to improve methods for estimating a given livestock farm's odor emissions." They are going to sniff different barns trying to determine how far away you need to be so you don't smell it. It is supposed to help determine how far away you should build housing developments. I think I can lend some expertise here.....don't Mooooooove to where the cows are, simple enough. It's like the people that buy a house next to the...

This week the Dept of Health in Massachusetts reported that 4 human cases (including 2 deaths and 1 miscarriage) of Listeria infection over the last 6 mos. were linked by 'DNA fingerprinting' to retail milk samples obtained from a local dairy farm (Whittier Farms, Sutton MA). Listeria Monocytogenes is a gram positive bacteria that can cause septicemia GI disease and spread to the Nervous system. Listeria is a common soil organism that can cause disease when ingested, especially in pregnant women, children and people with weakened immune systems. I have seen several cases of menengitis/encephalitis in animals and I can only imagine how devastating this can be in people. From the Milford Daily News " The Department of Public Health (DPH) has issued a warning to consumers not to drink any milk products from Whittier Farms in Shrewsbury because of listeria bacteria contamination, which has contributed to the death of two people. Four cases of listeriosis infection have b...

Beth has for years written a Christmas letter that documents the ups and downs of the Weldon household. The mailing list has become quite large due to it's popularity so this year I thought I would post it for those that might think it was worth the read. It's a bit long but pretty funny. The Christmas Letter Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! All are well. Mom turned 75 and she and dad went on the QE2 for 16 days to celebrate. Dad still practices part-time and plays tennis on Monday nights occasionally. Both have some health issues but are still quite active. Alan’s family is doing well but his parents also have health issues. All 4 kids are at Episcopal and though the monthly tuition check is painful it is nice having them at the same school with many cousins and an aunt, as well as each other to keep me apprised of “relevant” (like Polly, who hates peas, donating every can of peas in the house to the food drive) developments. My boss of 16 years sold th...

We really don't get to do this very often but squeezed it in this year. When the kids finished their exams ( I should say I finished their exams, didn't think I would be doing Chemistry, History, Physics and Biology at this stage in my life) we bugged out for North Carolina . It's a 7 hour drive to Cataloochie and while not the best skiing it was great for the kids. All of their cousins went as well, Katie,Anna, Sally, Tucker and Meg as well as the Stiefels. We had 17 in all. What I learned. 1. Sarah is cautious 2. Murphy likes to get air 3. Polly hates wearing a helmet and 4. Mac is fearless and goes real fast. We got to ski 10-11 hours on Wednesday and nobody got hurt. we only did a 2 day trip and made it back for work on Friday. The bad thing is that since I'm such a last minute shopper it really cut into my Christmas shopping time......but it was worth it.

I didn't believe it when i saw this, but.......seeing is believing. A group of South Korean scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The plan is to be able to manipulate the genome so that certain genetic diseases can be eliminated. I suspect the fluorescent protein gene was added from fish that possess a similar gene but it didn't say in the report. "This technology can be applied to clone animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," the leading scientist, Kong, told AFP. "It will also help develop stemcell treatments," he said, noting that cats have some 250 kinds of genetic diseases that affect humans, too. The South Koreans were discredited several years ago when one of their scientists was found cheating on his cloning studies, he is now standing trial. The North Koreans tried to...

While it's been a while since the 9-11 attacks, it appears that the jihadists are still trying to penetrate our airline security. It doesn't receive a great deal of press but there have been repeated "dry-runs" that the TSA have reported and have been acknowledged by the White House. Number 177 is interesting and was recently published on PatDollard's website. I wonder why they have not gone after a less guarded set of targets and remain absessed with commercial airliners. Perhaps the spectacular nature of their prior success. Regardless.....they don't seem to have stopped trying. Suspicious Activity On board Flight to Milwaukee On 24 October 2007, crew members aboard a Reagan-Washington National to Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport flight reported to a Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) flying in non-mission status that they noticed suspicious behavior by four passengers. One of the subjects entered and exited the rear aircraft lavatory th...

Every year Jacksonville has a wonderful Veterans day parade and this years was today. We have made a point of taking our kids to each one since they were in strollers . Now I have to take them out of school....all schools were out today EXCEPT Jacksonville Episcopal High School. They get out for almost any possible holiday except for the one that guarantees the freedom to celebrate all of the others. I must say that all of their teachers were in favor of them going so good for them. Jacksonville is a big Navy town and was the birth place of the Blue Angles so there is always a huge Navy and Marine presence in the parade. I always look forward to the few Pearl Harbor survivors that march in their Hawaiian aloha shirts but the numbers get smaller each year. This year there was a Veteran Tuskegee airman and a USS Indianapolis survivor( the ship that carried the atomic bomb to the Pacific that was torpedoed afterwards and many of the sailors were killed by sharks). WWII veterans are dyin...

The Instapundit has a post up today about The Worlds Tallest Horse. The horse is named Tina and is a large English Shire......and get this .....she is 20 hands tall ( 4" per hand). Thats 6'6" at the withers and a long way to the ground from the saddle. From the Knoxville News- Tina, the large English Shire who recently became the tallest horse in the world, has now been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Owners Marge and Jim Williams have received the official papers from the organization after Tina was measured last summer for the record at 20 hands (80 inches) at her withers. I have worked on a lot of tall ones over the years but I bet that one would be a real bugger to pass a stomach tube on.

If horses could talk

I don't delve into politics on my blog, but this really pisses me off. I hate it when clients want to dump pets. I've seen it throughout my career where owners get tired of the responsibility of a pet. I hear " he/she will require to much effort or expense or the child is now gone to school "and get this ....they ask me to put the horse down, or who can I "donate" them to. To me it's the "you broke it-you bought it" thing. You ARE responsible for that pet. So when I read this article from " The Times Online" it got my blood boiling. I remember Socks the cat from the Clinton White House which was new....usually it's the White House dog. It now looks like that was just a political move as Socks was dumped on Betty Currie when they left the White House. We have 3 cats in the Weldon household....one of them was a "dump offs" at my wife's clinic that we took in. One found it's way to our house after my si...

I'm sure you have heard alot on the news about the new "super bug"( here ) . It is a drug resistant strain of Staph Aureus or a Staph infection. The bad thing about this one is that it's resistant to antibiotics. This really isn't new, it's been coming for some time now. There has been numerous reports of MRSA for years and we probably created it by our over use of antibiotics, in animal feeds, treating kids ear infections and allowing the over the counter sale of antibiotics to farmers and horse owners. Now we have a problem, it is quite likely that we will see more of these with other bacteria. The resistance can be transmitted between organisms via plasmids fro bacteriophages. These are viruses that attack bacteria and can transport the genetic component that is responsible for resistance.