Dear G,
You left out one important component of your horse’s diet: his forage, whether grass or hay. If you are going to spend the time and money to analyze what your horse is getting from his feed and supplements, you have to include what he is getting from his forage as well, since that is the bulk of his diet.

Also, ration analysis can tell you the levels of protein, various carbohydrates, fat, macro and microminerals, and vitamins that are in the feedstuffs your horse eats. However, they typically do not analyze for herbs, so you will have to look elsewhere for that information. If you are working with a holistic veterinarian to design your horse’s health and nutrition program, he or she may be able to point you in the right direction.

After you receive the results of your ration analysis, you may want to consult with a veterinarian or nutritionist to help make sense of all the numbers. If you have a veterinary or agriculture school in your state, I suggest starting there. Sometimes county extension offices can be very helpful. Depending on the brand of grain you feed and how many horses at your barn are on it, local sales representatives may be able to analyze your forage and work with you to balance the entire ration. Here are some websites to get you started:

www.equi-analytical.com A excellent resource for feed analysis and ration formulation
www.uckele.com Uckele Health and Nutrition offers hay analysis and computerized ration balancing
www.ker.com Kentucky Equine Research is the official equine nutritionist of the USEF
www.acvn.org is the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, veterinarians board-certified in nutrition
www.aavn.org is the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition, an association of veterinarians and animal scientists with a special interest in nutrition

Dear GR,
First, let me praise you for your hard work in providing a complete and balanced diet for your horse! Next, let me encourage you to turn your horse out as much as possible. Unless there is a medical reason against it or your boarding situation prevents it, the more your horse can exercise at will in fresh air with other horses the better! I say this because in researching answers to your two questions, I was unable to provide you with evidence proving he needs more than the four hours of turnout daily he gets now.

The short answer to your first question is: yes, the amount of sunlight your horse is exposed to through fours hours of turnout per day is probably enough to meet his minimum Vitamin D requirement. While the sixth edition of Nutrient Requirements of Horses only said “There are no reports of Vitamin D deficiency to date in horses maintained in practical settings with some exposure to sunlight,” several other sources said “a few hours of sunlight a day” and even “as little as one hour of sunlight a day” would probably be sufficient. If you choose to supplement to ensure healthy calcium metabolism (the primary role of Vitamin D), 300IU/100lb BW is the recommended amount, or about 3000IU for a 1000lb horse.

Now to your second question! Circadian rhythm is the roughly 24-hour cycle in physiological processes of living beings, both plants and animals. Some of these physiological processes include: sleep/wake, body temperature, thirst, appetite, brain wave activity, hormone production and cell regeneration. Circadian rhythm is generated from within the animal itself, but it can be altered by external cues such as daylight, temperature, feeding/fasting periods, and other stimuli. As long as your horse receives some light each day, he should have a healthy Circadian rhythym.

Answer 1:
Dear JS,

I’m going to assume your horse has upward fixation of the patella, not patellar luxation, as this condition is uncommon in adult horses and usually only seen in foals (especially miniature foals) at birth.

It is generally accepted that horses who “lock” their patellas, that is, whose medial patellar ligament gets hooked over the medial trochlea of the femur, improve with conditioning or fitness training. Since it is the quadriceps, or the muscles on the front of the horse’s legs that most need to be strengthened, hill work is particularly recommended, as is driving, or pulling.

If your horse improves with additional, controlled exercise, then no more treatment may be necessary. However, if there is little to no improvement, your veterinarian may suggest other treatments to help your horse. These include corrective shoeing, estrogen therapy, infusion of a counterirritant or “blister,” or, as a last resort, medial patellar desmotomy surgery, where the ligament that gets hooked over the femur is cut.

I have been asked before if a supplement containing silica and collagen would be appropriate for a horse with upward fixation of the patella and my answer is: I don’t know. On the one hand, part of the conditioning or fitness training is to develop stronger tissues, and having the building blocks of strong ligaments available during this time would make sense. On the other hand, if the ligament develops without corresponding muscle development, would the problem get worse? I do think that supplementing with anti-inflammatories may be indicated, but ask your veterinarian before starting your horse on one.

Dear SS,

Congratulations on your success in eventing and on having such a happy, healthy partner! You sound like an intelligent, caring horsewoman, so I took the time to actually look up some research papers for you to read yourself and make an intelligent, informed decision about the benefits of oral joint supplements.

The following papers have all been presented at the American Association of Equine Practitioners Annual Convention, meaning they have been peer-reviewed by other veterinarians and scientists for quality of research:

Effects of an Oral Nutraceutical on Clinical Aspects of Joint Disease in a Blinded, Controlled Clinical Trial: 39 Horses (2007)
Keegan and others from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri concluded that oral administration of a product containing cetyl myristoleate, glucosamine HCl, MSM, hydrolyzed collagen and other ingredients had beneficial clinical effects on horses with naturally occurring osteoarthritis.

Review of Glucosamine-Containing Oral Joint Supplements: Are They Effective in the Horse? (2006)
In this paper, Weese reports on a number of studies in both humans and horses that conflict regarding the efficacy of glucosamine (some say they work, some say they don’t). He concludes that veterinarians and horse owners who would like to give glucosamine joint supplements should familiarize themselves with nutraceutical products with proven quality and give therapeutic doses (10g orally per day) by carefully reading the label guidelines and ingredients.

Effect of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate on Mediators of Osteoarthritis (2006)
A study by Neil and others showed that glucosamine significantly reduced a number of mediators of osteoarthritis but chondroitin sulfate did not (at the concentration tested). They mention other studies that showed glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate in combination seem to be more effective than either compound alone.

Double-Blind Study of the Effects of an Oral Supplement Intended to Support Joint Health in Horses with Tarsal Degenerative Joint Disease (2002)
Dr. Hilary Clayton’s group at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University demonstrated that horses with hock arthritis showed a significant reduction in gait asymmetry after receiving an oral joint supplement for just two weeks as compared with placebo.

Evidence of the Oral Absorption of Chondroitin Sulfate as Determined by Total Disaccharide Content After Oral and Intravenous Administration to Horses (2001)
Eddington and her co-authors provided the first proof of the bioavailability of chondroitin sulfate in this paper. Their work suggests that the molecule is absorbed after oral administration.

The conclusion I draw from these and other research papers is that there is some evidence that some ingredients in some joint supplements are effective. I recommend working with your veterinarian to develop an overall wellness plan to maintain your horse’s health and soundness as long as possible. This may include FDA-approved pharmaceuticals like the Adequan that you mentioned, and it may also include over-the-counter nutraceuticals as you see fit.

Known as an “innovator and messenger of equine well-being,” Dr. Merriam owns Massachusetts Equine Clinic in Uxbridge, Mass., a state-of-the-art referral clinic specializing in sports medicine and equine podiatry. In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Merriam served as the first chairman of the American Association of Equine Practitioners Equine Welfare Committee, and co-founded an international non-profit organization Project Samana to assist equines in need.

Congratulations Dr. Merriam, from everyone here at SmartPak!

Dear LW,

Well, I don’t know anything about how music affects a horse’s heart rate or brain waves, but I do know how to take the heart rate, as well as the respiratory rate and temperature, three vital signs all horse owners should know how to measure.  Let’s start with the heart rate, or pulse.

As you have found out first-hand, trying to find a horse’s pulse can be frustrating!  Fortunately, there are some tools that can help you.  For the serious competitor, a heart monitor is a must-have.  In addition to models that include a wristwatch receiver so you can see the rate while still in the saddle, some models even monitor and store the heart rate over an entire exercise session!  Then there’s your basic stethoscope.  No horse owner should be without one.  Place the buds in your ears so they point forward, slide the head forward underneath your horse’s elbow on the left side until you hear the heart beat, and count only one of the sounds (so lub-DUB is one beat).  The normal range for a horse is 28 – 42 heartbeats per minute.

Even if you have a heart rate monitor or stethoscope, you should still know where and how to feel your horse’s pulse, as sometimes changes in the pulse itself can be a useful diagnostic tool.  For example, if you’re concerned that your horse might be developing laminitis, you should check to see if the digital pulses at his ankles are “bounding” or throbbing.  Personally, I find the digital pulse the easiest to detect:

• Have someone hold your horse
• Squat next to his left front leg
• With your palm touching the back of his leg, thumb to the outside and fingers to the inside, start at the knee and run your hand down his leg until you reach the ankle, or fetlock
• Very lightly press your thumb and middle finger against his leg, at the level of the fetlock
• Now begin to slowly slide your entire hand backward, until your thumb and middle finger nearly come off the back of the leg
• Experiment with light, moderate and heavy pressure inward until you feel the pulse
• Tip:  Don’t use the tip of your thumb/finger, where the nail is.  Press on the leg just past the last joint in your thumb/finger

There are other places to check your horse’s pulse, such as the inside of the jaw, the inside of the front leg above the knee, the outside of the hind leg, and underneath the tail.  But in my opinion, these are all harder to find than the digital pulse.

While you’re measuring your horse’s heart rate, take the time to measure his respiratory rate (8 – 12 breaths per minute is normal) and his temperature (99.5 – 100.5 degrees F is normal).  Take these measurements over several days and at different times of day, and record them in your horse’s journal.  Then when he’s not acting right, you can compare his heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature to his normal values and help your veterinarian figure out what might be wrong!

Dear LF,

I love this question! Chestnuts are one of those things that no one ever talks about, and if you weren’t born into a horsey family, you may not know anything about them. I’ve always heard that chestnuts are the remnants of toes that horses lost during evolution. My anatomy book specifically says chestnuts are versions of footpads, the cushions on which animals walk. Foot pads are quite pronounced in some animals, such as bears, and less pronounced in other animals, such as dogs and cats. In horses, the foot pad is incorporated into the hoof as the frog. The chestnuts are described as “vestigial” knee and hock foot pads, meaning the structures have atrophied and become nonfunctional.

But that doesn’t solve your problem, because the darn things still exist and continue to grow. I have one horse whose chestnuts remain flush with his skin and hair. They don’t ever seem to grow. Then there’s my other horse. His chestnuts can become long and sharp, almost like the spurs on a rooster, if I don’t keep them under control! I used to peel them off after I gave him a bath, because they were softer then. But as he’s gotten older, the chestnuts seem to have grown more sensitive, and he doesn’t even like me to touch them. Luckily, I stumbled upon an excellent way of encouraging them to fall off with hardly any effort on my part: put a little petroleum jelly on them. After a day or two—if they didn’t come off on their own—they’ll easily fall off if I “accidentally” hit them with a brush during grooming.

Although I’ve never heard of using clippers on them as you suggest, I have had farriers trim them regularly (with a hoof knife, not nippers). And I did just read that some people prefer to sand or rasp them down. You’ll just have to experiment with what works best in your horse, because in some horses they’re quite hard and flaky while in others they’re soft and pliable (I will admit to having twisted them off, although my horse didn’t seem to appreciate this method). As long as you work within the chestnut’s layers, I don’t think you are going to hurt your horse or “quick” him, as you can with dogs when cutting toenails.

I have a filly that is 3 years old that I have started riding for about 20-30 minutes a day, not too harsh riding, She is HYPP N/H symptomatic. She has turnout everyday and I exercise her also. My question is she is such a hard keeper I worm her regularly and she gets 2lbs of Equi fuel with 2 scoops of water along with beet pulp and water and she doesn't seem to be gaining weight. She is on the lean side but not showing her ribs. Since she is HYPP I have her on a strict diet since her potassium can not exceed 2%. Can you recommend something? SW, California

Dear TC and SW,

Lucky for you guys I recently attended the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, Florida, and spent a whole day in lectures about muscle conditions in horses! In order to devote more time to specific nutritional and management recommendations, I recommend that anyone not familiar with HYPP, or, Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis, first read my article: www.smartpakequine.com/hypp.aspx.

At the end of the article, there are specific recommendations from Dr. Sharon Spier, the premier researcher of the disorder:

I’d like to make one more recommendation to you, TC. If you are struggling to prevent episodes even while she’s on the diuretic Acetazolamide, you may want to switch from oats and hay—which can vary in potassium content with each batch—to a commercial feed with a guaranteed analysis. That way, you always know how much potassium your horse is getting.

Another tip for both of you: while electrolytes must be avoided because of their high potassium content, your horse still needs plain, loose salt, and you can easily provide this in SmartPaks during the summer to replace sweat losses and during the winter to stimulate drinking.

Now for the question from SW: how to put weight on her HYPP filly. One trick to encourage horses to eat more and therefore gain weight is to feed them multiple small meals throughout the day. This works especially well for horses with HYPP, because no one meal should exceed 33grams of potassium (the entire diet should contain between 0.6 – 1.5% total potassium). Pasture also works well for horses with HYPP, because its high water content makes it unlikely horses will consume large amounts of potassium in a short time. And pasture is great for putting weight on horses! Fat (or oil) is another excellent method of getting calories into horses, just be sure to avoid soybeans, canola and flax as sources.

SW, you say you deworm your filly regularly. Have you considered a daily dewormer? When these products first came out, there were claims of 40% increased feed utilization (and therefore weight gain) because worms were killed before they had a chance to penetrate the GI wall and cause inflammation and damage.

I hope these suggestions help. For more information, go to the University of California-Davis website and read articles by Dr. Spier herself: www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php.

Dear AV:
"Clicking of the joints" is one of the more common questions we get and is a frequent cause for horses to visit our clinic. In most cases it is related to immaturity, lack of conditioning and sometimes size. It is also (rarely) associated with OCD, but not usually. The mechanism of the sounds is the subject of a lot of speculation and some research. Think of the people you know who can crack their knuckles! It's the same thing. If you cause a closed hydraulic system to suddenly expand by stretching the membrane, there isn't enough fluid to fill the space, so oxygen will actually form bubbles and come out of solution and form an air interface with the joint. This is the sound you hear in most cases. It is harmless. One of the other sounds you hear is the cartilages slipping over each other and then falling back into place.

So what to do? Usually, after we've ascertained that there is no cartilage damage, lameness or inflammation, we recommend lots of turn out, conditioning and steady regular work. Any lameness should be explored, but the sounds themselves almost never correlate with injury. Most horses grow out of it, but many continue to click their entire lives.

Jay Merriam DVM
Massachusetts Equine Clinic

I have a horse that had a severe infection in his left hind leg (hock to hoof) back in May, it was doubled in size, we thought we where going to have to put him down, but he pulled out of it. My issue that I have is his leg is still really big (hock to hoof), it does go down some when he is ridden, but it usually stays pretty big must of the time. My vet says it is because the skin stretched so much when it was swollen, so it will always be big from now on. I am just concerned that this is going to cause some issues latter on. Right now my horse is having the winter off, to have some down time, and it is bigger than ever. I was wondering if you have any suggestions or if you think I should have someone else look at it. EC, Vermont

Dear EC,
This sort of injury is a constant source of discomfort to the animal and must be managed in the early stages to prevent long term lameness. There are a lot of things you can do still, depending on a specific diagnosis and treatment plan.

First, think of exercise as "physical therapy" and set out a plan. I think that we need to minimize the scarring and increase the circulation to the area. The best way is a combination of regular exercise (other than turn out which is also good), therapeutic wrapping and support and, if available, Dynamic Compression. We often use and prescribe a Game Ready unit which is a therapeutic wrap with a compression/cold therapy bandage that operates with a pump and bandage system that has been adapted from human athletic therapy. We also in some cases use Regional Limb Perfusion to shrink the swelling and couple that with anti-inflammatories. Every case is different, but we encourage aggressive intervention early on to minimize long term scarring. Good Luck,

Jay Merriam, DVM
Massachusetts Equine Clinic