The Horse Doctor

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Australian Veterinarian Alistair Rodgers died after being infected with the Hendra virus he contracted after working on an infected filly. The Hendra virus, formally called Equine Morbillivirus is a parmyxovirus and is thought to be carried by flying foxes (bats of the genus Pteropus ) found in Australia.This has popped up several times in Austrailia and is a very bad bug to get. As with most viruses, we have few antiviral options and those (tamiflu) are not very effective. Heres what they said in the Australian QUEENSLAND vet Alister Rodgers lost his battle with the lethal Hendra virus overnight, dying after two weeks in a coma. Vet dies from Hendra virus Alister Rodgers fell ill after coming into contact with a horse that was carrying the deadly hendra virus. State Health Minister Paul Lucas today sent his deepest sympathies to Dr Rodgers' widow, Linda, and children Courtney and Duncan. “This is a terrible tragedy for his family and they are being supported b...

I just returned from a Vet School reunion cruise to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Mexico. Beth got me the Go Pro Surf Hero camera that mounts on the front of my board so I can shoot video of myself....thats right, it's all about me. I think she did it because I think I surf better than I might actually be doing and she wanted to bring me down a notch. The camera is really small and runs on 2 AAA batteries (1 hour) and holds 50-60 minutes of high quality video on a 2GB card. Oh....and it's waterproof to 100 feet. It's so small and light that you can stick it in your BCD vest pocket. I did have some goober moments where I couldn't tell when it was on or not. You have to look into the front and see if the small screen has a number on it...and whether it's flashing. There are no lights on the back of the camera. It worked great and never leaked. When you're back on the surface you just put the card in your laptop and view ...that simple. We dove Eagle Ray reef (non-eagl...

This is the first of what I plan to be a series of notes and perceptions from the ACVIM Forum in Montreal. This an annual meeting of Veterinary Internists and a lot of current research is presented. This is a synopsis of "Air Quality in Barns" presented by Melissa R.Mazan, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM. After listening to this I wasn't sure I wanted to go back into a barn again. Everyone knows that Barns are dusty places , this is no surprise. We don't design them for good airflow, in fact we build them more for protection and put walls up. Additionally, most barns are also used for hay and equipment storage. Not to be insulting but when was the last time you cleaned your barn? When an epidemiology study was done to evaluate respiratory disease among barn workers it was found that they had 50% more respiratory symptoms and grooms had a 3x incidence of asthma. Whereas significantly less symptoms were reported among Poultry, Swine and Dairy workers. In those environments ther...

I have no idea when this happened but it would be quite a shock if you were on the front elephant. Just look at the faces of all involved and you will see just about every emotion possible.

For years they have been trying to come up with software that would recognize how you were speaking to put that information directly on the screen. Several years ago I tried a product called Dragon naturally speaking and found it was very difficult to work with and frequently had more mistakes than it did correct ones. Since I produce a great deal of reports for all medical cases that I see I thought I would give the software a new shot and see if it was up to my expectations. The new software is called Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 . I thought about getting the Dragon medical version but the price of my prior experience made me shy away from it. I just finished dictating five of my ultrasound case reports in under 30 minutes with very few mistakes. In fact, I am dictating this post with Dragon 10, and it only had to correct one error. While this may not be perfect for most people and most usages, I find it will be a very good tool for me as I dictate my medical reports when I'm on ...

21 dead polo horses in Wellington. Reports are that these horse were administered an IV "jug" of Vitamins and minerals....for what. Theses substances take along time to take effect, why give them pre-performance. Now these horses are dead. There is plenty of blame to go around here and I'm sure that we will hear a lot about that as more becomes known. The current report is that there was a mistake in the compounding of this product by Franks Pharmacy in Ocala Florida. The big question should be ...why were they making it in the first place. There is a similar combination manufactured in France by Merial called Biodyl: B12, potassium aspartate, magnesium aspartate and selenium. It is not approved for use in the United States. Apparently 14 horses died on site while 7 others died at the hospital. All for some voodoo pseudoscience that is given IV to help win. How about something like training and a better polo player. Legally Veterinarian pre...

I came across a great post on Powerline today that is right in line with my thoughts on the Global warming religion by Matt Patterson . He says it perfectly..."it seems some grotesque combination of narcissism and self-loathing, a mentality that says at once "I am so important that my behavior is causing this" and "I am so inherently tainted that it must be bad." Here's the main thread- Make no mistake -- the earth has warmed. Unfortunately for the climate-change catastrophists, warming periods have occurred throughout recorded history, long before the Industrial Revolution and SUVs began spitting man-made carbon into the atmosphere. And as might be expected, these warm periods have invariably proven a blessing for humanity. Consider: Around the 3rd century B.C., the planet emerged from a long cold spell. The warm period which followed lasted about 700 years, and since it coincided with the rise of Pax Romana, it is known as the Roman Warming. ...

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I just saw this on Pat Dollards site and had to post it. It is a short video clip of a shark jumping out of the water at Hutchinson Island Fla while a surfer paddles out....close by. I dont know why the shark would breach like that unless after fish or birds and you cant see any in the clip. Spooky when you think one of those could pop up next to you. note....just found a note on this, they are called spinning sharks

I did this last year and thought I would give you a glimpse of the reality that is my life. It's long but funny and since Beth thought it was funny she included one of my previous posts (the Costa Rica story)... Merry Christmas Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! It's time to put on your reading glasses, pour yourself a glass of Christmas cheer & feel better about your life. First a disclaimer, my mind has finally failed & I can’t remember the stories I wanted to write for Polly & Mac (which were great but will now be mediocre). As a result of this, I have now acknowledged that I must write things down for next year & Alan was a large contributor this year so there are some “bodily function” & adult content stories. Consider yourselves forewarned! That said, Alan's folks & family are doing well as are mine except for my dad whose artificial hip got infected & had to be removed & can't be replaced until the diabetic ulcer on his foot heals...

Here is an interesting ....wrong word....idiotic article that was recently published called " There is no such thing as West Nile Virus " . The AAEP sage Dr David Ramey found this and posted it on the AAEP list serve. The author" Ramiel Nagel is an alternative medicine author devoting his time towards helping free the world of disease consciousness." It seems Mr Nagel is a full on member of the Tin foil hat society and black helicopter conspiracy group equating West Nile Virus with the easter bunny and santa Claus.....and all caused by evil drug/pesticide compa nies. " Pesticide manufacturers, pharmaceutical giants, the U.S. government, industry scientists, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), State and County government agencies believe in their own fairy tales. But they find those children's stories too boring and too happy. They wanted something dark and sinister. So they rewrote the fairytale and thought of some scary name that evokes fear of the unk...

I was listening to Bill Bennett this morning and he said he didn't think horses would just walk on the beach......YES they do on Cumberland Island Ga.

Treating horses for parasites has been a staple of barn management since...oh I guess, forever. People have put just about any toxic substance into their horse to "git rid of worms". Virtually all of my clients use some form of rotational system whereby they use different products every 4-8 weeks thinking they are preventing drug resistance. "Unfortunately , parasites have risen to the chemical challenge. Anthelmintic resistant cyathostomes (small strongles) now are highly prevalent and even where drugs still are effective , the egg reappearance rate ERP following treatment has become significantly shorter"." Today horse owners continue to follow recommendations that are based on knowledge that is 30-40 years old and frequently use anthelmintics that have become totally ineffective due to the presence of drug-resistant parasites" It has been know for a long time that most of the parasites on a farm are actually in the ground as eggs and larvae (about 90-...

My brother Doug must have way to much time on his hands. He put together a political video take off of Brother where art thou. I think it's really funny.....good voice to.

It appears that we have gotten much better at predicting when and where asteroids will impact on the Earth. A fairly large one just exploded over the Sudan recently and it was tracked and the impact was predicted by experts and several amateurs as well. From the Honolulu Star Bulletin " Asteroids routinely hit the Earth's atmosphere but the impact by one over northern Africa Monday was the first time astronomers saw one coming and accurately predicted the time and place it would hit, a University of Hawaii astronomer said yesterday. That successful prediction bodes well for a Maui-based system in development to warn against potentially hazardous space rocks, David Tholen said. The impact occurred at 4:46 p.m. Hawaii time Monday over northern Sudan. A colleague compared the asteroid, called 2008 TC3, with the size of a Volkswagen, he said." These hit the upper atmosphere all the time but the...

In the past, an injury to your horses suspensory ligament frequently meant the end to their athletic career. Treatment consisted of enforced rest and anti-inflammatory medications, sometimes for a year with inconsistent results. In the last few years several newer treatment modalities have been developed to treat tendon/ligament injuries in the horse. Extra corporeal shock wave treatment and Stem-cell implantation have been the most popular. Recently a newer treatment called PRP for Platelet Rich Plasma has been developed. PRP has been found to contain the following growth factors promoting tissue healing- transforming growth factor beta (TGF-b) platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) insulin-like growth factor (IGF) vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) epidermal growth factor (EGF) fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) Many of these factors have been shown to enhance one or more phases of osteogenesis. PDGF, EGF, and FGF-2 have been shown to stimulate proliferation of osteobl...

While I don't shy away from politic on this blog it is far from my primary focus as many blogs are. During an election year...and it seems every year is an election year, the venom spit out on the blogosphere gets worse with each passing day. Now political campaigns use the web and blogs like pamphlets and buttons of years gone by. I have been bothered by the incredibly sharp edge to these ads this year and by the focus of the mainstream press in particular. I saw a recent poll showing that a majority of Americans now view all Journalists as partisan and actually have to much influence in our political process...unfortunate. To be clear here I am good friends with John McCains son Andy and his family. They grew up in Jacksonville and we still see them even though they now live out of state. Yesterday the Obama campaign released an add attacking John McCain for being out of touch because he can't even send an email. Here is the add What I find amazing is that there is nobody at...

My kids did Capoeira in school . It is a type of Martial arts dancing that my boys thought was really fun. This video is hilarious and shows why you should never show off.

I was at the Zoo this morning to do an echocardiogram on a 16 year old Florida panther. This is the 1st that I've been able to work on up close and personal. They are really remarkable animals. It compares in size to the Jaguar I did last week. Big feet and really big teeth. While the panther has soon health issues it was still the highlight of the day.