Implanted Prosthetic Limbs for Amputee Horses: Be Part of Research!

Six years ago, Molly the Pony turned the world upside down on by wearing a strap-on prosthetic on her amputated limb. If she read the newspaper this week, the peg-leg pony who survived Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans might think she needs to come out of retirement on behalf of her new prosthesis designer, Niki Marie Hansen. Hansen believes it's time for a new generation of artificial limbs

Triple Crown Hindsight: California Chrome's Hoof Bulb Injury in Pictures

The dream is over, and that's horse racing. The champion is just a horse, after all. But a special one.
We don't know what California Chrome's excuse was for losing Saturday's Belmont Stakes--and with it, the much-anticipated Triple Crown. There's a list, but the one that probably interests you is the injury that probably occurred in the split second when the starting gate opened.

Up to that

PPID: Equine endocrinology researchers revise guidelines for "Cushings" tests for horses

Equine Cushings Disease or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) has been easy to identify, with overt signs like a long coat. Underlying PPID is now being identified in younger horses and in horses that show none of the typical signs. Researchers say that an episode of otherwise-unexplained laminitis may be their first and only clue. 

Edited from press release

Equine pituitary pars

Anatomy Resource: Alex zur Linden's Clinical Equine Imaging Reference Site

What's new on your iPad?


Our reference systems are evolving as we become both more dependent on and more at ease with our digital tools. There was a time when we didn't want to take laptops, iPads and SmartPhones into barns or lug them along to consultation meetings, but new coatings and cases and diligent cleaning are making tools more resilient and horse-friendly, while our reference

Rats in the Stable? Check the Horses' Hooves and Your Grandfather's Stable Manual

This is the time of year when some nonpaying and unwanted boarders start moving into stables. The evidence isn't always as obvious as on this mule's foot. (Kurt Fisk photo)


There's a Spanish legend that tells us Noah had no intention of letting rats or mice onto the Ark. It was all a Devil's trick. He found a way to sneak them on board so they'd eat all the foodstores and gnaw the boat's

Goof-proof Hoofcare: “StayOns” Instant Hoof Poultice Wraps Simplify the Way You Wrap a Foot

This article is sponsored by Hamilton Biovet.

Here’s a product that is worth its weight in baby diapers.

If there was ever a contest that farriers, vet techs and veterinarians should run, it would be to see who has the fastest two hands in the world for making a duct tape bootie to attach over a hoof wrapped in a disposable baby diaper.





How many times have you wrapped a hoof in duct tape

Lost Shoes Solution: Shoe Secure Keeps Your Horse's Shoes On, World Champion Style

Whether it’s linked to conformation or a gait abnormality or a swampy pasture, the shoe loss problem may have met its match in an odd-looking product from Scotland called ShoeSecure. Designed by an equestrian entrepreneur with the help of a world champion farrier, and used by a world champion reiner, the new product launched in the USA this summer with a star-studded resume.

Equine Lameness: British Cavalry Horses Suffer Common Minor Hoof and Leg Problems Similar to Recreational Horses

British cavalry horses are large Irish-crossbred types and generally are selected because they have big enough feet, acceptable conformation and good bone. Their lameness problems tend to be less dramatic than you might think, and more in line with recreational horses than sport horses.




A study of lameness among the ceremonial cavalry horses of the British Army may ultimately benefit a much

Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital to Acquire Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service

via press release

The shareholders of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky and Dr. Bill and Diana Barnes of Saratoga Springs New York are pleased to announce that Rood and Riddle will purchase Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service in Saratoga Springs, New York.


“This is an exciting and unique opportunity for our practice and we look forward to providing outstanding care to

Video: Oklahoma Tornado Tragedy's Legacy is Both Tragedy and Inspiration for Veterinarians and Horsemen

Please allow time for videos to load.




You know things are bad when CNN dedicates a segment to injured horses in a natural disaster, but that's what happened on Friday when the global news network aired a story by newsman Gary Tuckman, who was on hand with Oklahoma's Joe Boecker, DVM to show in graphic detail what a tornado can do to a horse.

Hoof Blog readers around the world who think that

Lameness Evaluation: American Sensor System Tests Successfully in British Research

Flexion testing, using the sensor-based system, at the University of Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine




For many years, opinions on the value of flexion tests in assessing equine lameness have been divided. Now, however, new research looks set to turn what has always been regarded as a subjective process into a wholly objective one. 



A comprehensive study, published in a November

Medicinal Leeches: The Much-Maligned Traditional Healing Aid is Making a Comeback for Equine Lameness Therapy

In this photo from German rehabilitation therapist Martina Mäter of Kathmann Vital GbR in Vechta, you see three colorful medicinal leeches hard at work. Lower-limb lameness is a common callup for leeches in the horse world; they may soon be in wider use in the United States. (Photo © Martina Mater, used with permission)



You're in a veterinary lecture on laminitis at a major conference on

On the Case: Thorn-y Hoof Problems at Towcester Equine Clinic

Andrew Hayes BVetMed MRCVS of Towcester Vets Equine Centre in England made this video and writes some details:


The horse featured was a three year old that had been suffering form a fluctuating forelimb lameness for several days. The blood supply to the affected foot was increased (increased heat and bounding digital pulse). 




Squeezing the sole of the foot with hoof pinchers elicited a

Equine Lameness Education: Sue Dyson Will Be Milne State-of-the-Art Lecturer for 2013 AAEP Convention

Via AAEP News Room




World-renowned equine orthopaedics expert Dr. Sue Dyson will deliver the Frank J. Milne State-of-the-Art Lecture during the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ 2013 Annual Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, December 7 – 11.

Her lecture, “Equine Lameness: Clinical Judgment Meets Advanced Diagnostic Imaging”, will focus on three key areas: the recognition of

French Sterile Maggot Debridement Study Finds 93% Efficacy for Equine Wounds

The French study is illustrated with this photo of maggots at work on a wound.

A press release from the Equine Veterinary Journal arrived at The Hoof Blog this week. It heralds a French study that documented the successful use of sterile maggot debridement therapy in treating wounds in horses. 

It's great to see this study of more than 40 cases treated with maggots. 

Almost ten years ago,

Equine Hoof Research: Digital Cushion Response to Pressure Tested in Horses vs Elephants at Royal Veterinary College

Most of the digital cushion of the horse is housed inside a rigid outer hoof capsule and between the lateral cartilages of the coffin bone. Its function has been proposed by different researchers as having both passive and active roles in weightbearing and shock absorption in the equine foot. (© Christoph von Horst plastinated hoof tissue specimen, color enhanced)


Hoof science turns up in

Hallmarq Standing MRI: Hoof Conformation from the Inside Out

 



This sponsored blog post is the latest in a series produced in partnership with Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging. Thanks to Hallmarq for their support of The Hoof Blog. This video explains the process known as "Standing MRI" of the equine foot using a Hallmarq system. The units are in use around the world.


Which came first: the chicken or the egg? 


Forget everything you “know” or think

Equine Hoof Canker: Topical Chemotherapy Successful in European Trial

Hoof canker before treatment in the left front foot of one of the case horses in a study from the University of Vienna in Austria. Dr. Apprich documented her trial use of a chemotherapy drug in topical form to prevent recurrence of persistent canker. (© Veronika Apprich, used with permission)


Canker is the common name for what most horse owners describe as an “ugly, smelly growth” on the

Chronic Laminitis Research: Comparison of Normal vs Chronic Laminitis Horses Shows Difference in Immune, Digestive and Laminar Proteins

"Laminitis is not limited to the foot and chronic laminitis should be considered a multi-system disease" -- Steelman, Chowdhary, 2012



Chronic laminitis treatment usually focuses directly on the feet. The authors define chronic laminitis as the condition of horses who survive acute laminitis but are left with after-effects like coffin bone rotation. They state that 75% of horses with acute

Hoof Casting Tape: A Shoe By Another Name? Non-Farrier Hoofcare Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Illegal Farriery in Great Britain

A press release (see below) has been issued by the Farriers Registration Council in Great Britain. 

In that country, farriery is a tightly regulated profession with a definition provided by national law. The Farriers Registration Council is the national office charged with defending the law and protecting horses from "illegal" farriers.

In Britain, anyone who shoes a horse must complete a