American Farrier’s Association and Purina Animal Nutrition announce educational partnership

via press release

The American Farrier’s Association (AFA) and Purina Animal Nutrition, LLC ("Purina") have entered into an agreement that will lend support for the educational goals AFA stresses for its members. It will also offer Purina researchers an opportunity to share results of their considerable body of work in equine nutrition while engaging farriers in discussions about the impact that they observe nutrition having on hoof integrity.

Laminitis Trust's Eustace Welcomes Owner-Sourced Research Donation from Feed Company Spillers

Robert Eustace, founder of the Laminitis Trust, receives a cheque from Rachel Austin of SPILLERS®

The British feed company Spillers® has donated GB£12,000 (approximately US$20,000) to the Laminitis Trust, to help fund important research on the devastating condition of laminitis in horses.

The funds were raised as the result of a special campaign run by Spillers®, which involved the feed company donating 20p (about 30 cents in US currency) to the Laminitis Trust from every bag of Spillers Happy Hoof®, sold during the months of April and May 2012.

Happy Hoof is one of two high-fiber products Spillers makes for laminitis-risk horses.

The Laminitis Trust, founded in 1998, is the only registered charity in Great Britain dedicated exclusively to supporting research into equine laminitis.

Clare Barfoot, RNutr, the research and development manager at Spillers®, said: “The Laminitis Trust is at the forefront of essential work to discover the causes of this painful and debilitating condition and we are proud to be able to support their endeavors.”

Robert Eustace, founder of the Laminitis Trust continued: “We are extremely grateful to Spillers® for this generous donation. All the money will be used to help fund our laminitis research projects. Horse owners should select feeds carrying the Laminitis Trust Feed Approval Mark logo to help them keep their animals at the correct body weight and reduce the risk of laminitis.”

Information for this article was received in the form of a press release from Spillers.

Click for more info and easy online ordering via PayPal

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Clinic at Oakencroft 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium with Rood and Riddle's Scott Morrison DVM Announced for October 14-15, 2011 in New York

Who: Farriers and veterinarians

What: 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium

When: October 14-15, 2011 (Friday and Saturday)

Where: South Bethlehem/Selkirk, New York (near Albany)

Presented by The Clinic at Oakencroft / Greene County Horseshoe Supply

A Hoofcare + Lameness Annually Recommended Event

 The Conference:                                                                                                                                    

The Clinic at Oakencroft’s Farrier/Podiatry Symposium is a casual and friendly event in a beautiful location in rural New York near the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders. The Clinic hosts regular meetings with local farriers and they feel right at home there—you will, too.

The format of the conference is presentations, discussions, and occasional interruptions for great food. There are hotels nearby. Good directions are a must if you don't know your way around the area. If you are coming from far away, plan to arrive early or stay late. The clinic is in a beautiful area, and the fall foliage should be in full color around the time of the conference.

Full conference, hotel and registration information can be downloaded at this link:

http://www.oakencroft.org/Articles/6th_Annual_Podiatry.Farrier_announcement.pdf
Here's a rough schedule of what goes on and when:

Note: You may register by regular mail, by email to equineclinic@oakencroft.org, on line at www.oakencroft.org or by calling The Equine Clinic at OakenCroft at 518 767 2906. The Clinic is requesting that everyone register by October 1 in order to make sufficient plans for the right number of people.

 The Speaker:                                                                                                                                        

Scott Morrison is a familiar name in the world of equine podiatry. His full biography can be read on the conference link. In a nutshell, Scott Morrison is a partner in the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, where he launched the hospital's podiatry center in 1999. The center has now morphed into an internationally-recognized referral facility for all breeds and types of horses with every imaginable foot disorder, and of every age, from foals to aged horses with Cushings disease.

Dr. Morrison works with a staff of hoof-specialist veterinarians, farriers, and technicians, and he travels all over the world to consult on cases and speak at conferences. He personally consults to the racing and training program of Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien. He recently has been experimenting with the use of umbilical stem cells in severe laminitis cases, and has developed several horseshoe designs that are used all over the world.

While Dr. Morrison might be working on a world-class racehorse or stallion in the morning, his afternoon case might be a foundered pony or a draft horse with canker, so he's an ideal speaker for a conference with an audience that comes from different backgrounds and works on different types of horses. He grew up in New York, as well.

In addition to lectures and PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Morrison will be available to discuss the cases that attendees arrange in advance to make part of the conference (see conference details for "panel and case discussion" submissions, which should be done in advance). The relaxed atmosphere at OakenCroft will be ideal to give Dr. Morrison a chance to talk about hoof problems with the attendees.

There aren't too many sure things in life, but I think you can be quite sure that you'll enjoy this event, this  clinic, and the people you'll meet. See you there, I hope!

Contact information:
The Equine Clinic at OakenCroft
880 Bridge Street
Ravena, NY 12143
(518) 767-2906 - office
(518) 767-3503 - fax
Web address: www.oakencroft.org
Email: equineclinic@oakencroft.org

Amazing microscopic view of the landscape of the hoof wall from coffin bone to periople from Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Hoof Laboratory, courtesy of Drs. Bowker and Lancaster. Order yours today!

 TO LEARN MORE

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Hoof Balance Perspective: Duckett and Caldwell Speakers at Oakencroft’s October Podiatry Conference in New York

Do you know the difference between Duckett's Dot and The Bridge? For years, the Dot stuck in people's memories but the Bridge was probably where most people thought the Dot was. This is a useful illustration technique used in Dr Lisa Lancaster's book, The Sound Hoof, for her explanation of Duckett's system.

Who: Farriers and veterinarians

What: 5th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium

When: October 15-16, 2010

Where: South Bethlehem/Selkirk, New York (near Albany)

Presented by The Clinic at Oakencroft and Greene County Horseshoe Supply

A Hoofcare + Lameness Recommended Event

Sometimes I sit in the dark watching speaker’s slides at conferences and think like an Irish country matchmaker. I’d like to see her talk on the same program with him, or get this German together with this Australian, or whatever, and see what they come up with when a horse walks in to be evaluated.

When I heard British educator Mark Caldwell roll through the results of his research that had compared different hoof balance methods over a shoeing period, I wondered if Dave Duckett knew that someone had put his “Dot” (and Bridge and all the rest of his landmarks) to the test not just of measurement, but of time.

As it turned out, he didn’t know, but the news got his attention. Now it’s time for the two to present their versions of what hoof balance was, is or will be, side by side on the same program. It's a speaker-match made in hoofcare heaven.

Two years later, the man with all the hoof balance testing tools and the man with all the ideas in his head instead of on paper will present their views on hoof shape and balance together, and perhaps re-define or update their studies, or influence each other. Consider this: is the best trimming method for a foot the method that leaves the foot looking balanced when the farrier drives away, or is it the one that prepares the hoof to grow out evenly and maintain a balanced base and flat landing over the four or six or eight week shoeing period?

 A foot map to where, exactly? This exercise included mapping out the foot as it existed at the time of trimming. Caldwell sketched in the wider base of frog that is one of his goals for this foot to show his students where the foot would be going, if it was trimmed not for the moment but for the continuum until the next farrier visit. If you're trying to help the horse develop the frog, would you trim differently than someone who thought this foot was acceptable as is? Should you map the foot the horse has or the foot the horse is capable of having?

THE SPEAKERS:
David Duckett FWCF: The well-known and highly honored British farrier and farrier competitor now lives in Pennsylvania. By my math, this year should be roughly the 25th anniversary of his first major hoof balance lectures. Based on observation and a lot of dissections and anatomy studies, Duckett’s idea was to get farriers interested in hoof anatomy by giving clever names to landmarks. His hoof balance system strives to inspire farriers to focus on the points on the horse’s foot least likely to change rather than to dwell on shapes that can and do migrate or grow unevenly. In spite of his system’s simplicity, or perhaps because of it, it is very often misunderstood and the points are transposed.

Mark Caldwell FWCF instructs the farriery courses at Myerscough College in England. He trained as a farrier in the British Army and then became a specialist in shoeing horses for lameness problems at a veterinary hospital before turning to teaching. His research studies use gait analysis and weight-scanning mats; his quest is to define what he calls “evidence-based farriery”.

Mark is currently involved in a post-graduate PhD program studying "limb loading and the effects on hoof capsule morphometrics" at the University of Liverpool Department of Veterinary Clinical Science in Liverpool, England.

Together, these two speakers can explain where the ideas come from (Duckett) and what happens when you put the idea to a test that filters out the subjective tricks we play on ourselves when we evaluate horses’ feet (Caldwell). This clinic is a chance to hear “from the horses’ mouths” where in the world “Duckett’s Dot” came from…and perhaps where it is going in the future.

In other words: this will not be a shoemaking clinic. This clinic most likely will be about looking at feet and identifying/evaluating the matrix that dictates a foot’s shape and growth pattern.

THE CONFERENCE:
The Clinic at Oakencroft’s Podiatry Conference is a casual and friendly event in a beautiful location in rural New York near the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders, just south of Albany. The Clinic hosts monthly meetings with local farriers and they feel at home there—you will, too.

The format of the conference is presentations, discussions, and lots of great food. There are hotels nearby.

Full conference, hotel and registration information can be downloaded at this link:
http://www.oakencroft.org/Articles/5th_Annual_Podiatry.Farrier_announcement%5B1%5D.pdf

The clinic fee is $300 for both days, $200 for Friday only or $150 for Saturday only. Registration should be complete by October 1st. Late registration will be at the discretion of the Clinic, as space allows.

Registration can be done online, by mail, or by phone. If you have specific questions or wish to contact the clinic, you may call 518 767 2906 or send a fax to 518 767 3505.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

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CT Scans Added to Washington State University Vet School's Equine Imaging Options

A Quarter horse mare recently underwent a spiral
CT scan to examine a mass near one of the
carotid arteries leading to her head

Washington State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) has installed a new spiral computed tomography (CT) scanner for use in both small and large animals, with funds donated by a generous family. 

The VTH has had a CT scanner for more than two decades and a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) since 1996.  With the new Toshiba Aquilion 16-slice spiral CT unit operational, both MRI and CT in WSU's veterinary college are among the most advanced complementary tools for diagnostic imaging in the profession. 

 "Before the new CT, we only imaged a few horses a month  (using CT), but now I would expect to do 10 times that," said Professor John Mattoon, a board certified veterinary radiologist and chief of WSU's diagnostic imaging section.  "There were limitations with the old technology that hampered its everyday use, but the new CT is truly state-of-the-art, with brand new software that greatly improves its capabilities.  Our goal is to examine 100 horses a year with the CT, and several small animals a day."

Speed is one of the new CT's main features.  It can scan 1750 millimeters (mm) or about 5.75 feet of a patient's body in 1 mm slices in 38 seconds.  Twelve images per second are displayed and all 1750 digital images are delivered within three minutes.  The machine's resolution can "see" details as small as 0.35mm; a little more than 13/100ths of an inch.  The imaging is produced in a variety of planes as well as in three-dimensional representations of anatomic structures. A small animal can often be imaged in the new CT scanner in seconds, in many cases without general anesthesia.

"A horse with a complex fracture was examined with the new CT in early June and it was completed in a couple of minutes," Mattoon said.  "The anesthesia and prep-work it takes to get the horse into the machine takes much longer than the actual exam.  By comparison, MRI may take an hour or more. Still, these two imaging modalities are complementary to each other, and one does not necessarily exclude the use of the other."

Horses are too large to fit entirely in the CT scanner, so only the head, upper neck, and lower limbs are imaged.  For smaller animals, the entire body can be scanned, and is especially useful for examining the lungs and abdomen.

"CT scans are the first choice in human medicine for imaging the lungs and abdomen, and I think it should become the standard of abdominal imaging in smaller animals as well," said Mattoon, who has practiced radiology for more than 25 years.    

As a result of the CT's speed, animals have to spend much less time under anesthesia, if at all.  "For horses, we can use a short-acting anesthetic, and some small animals can just be sedated without undergoing anesthesia," Mattoon said.  "This is an important advancement because there are always risks associated with anesthetizing an animal.

"Overall, CTs at WSU should be less expensive because exams take less time and anesthesia.  This particular new CT scanner should also open up a whole new area of research, including vascular imaging and shunt studies. I imagine that in the beginning we will do a lot of cases in which we use both CT and MRI."

This brief video showcases Washington State's new CT service, as illustrated by the Quarter horse with the cartoid artery mass that needed to be imaged.

Information and elements for this article are the property of Washington State University.

19 June 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing

Please, no use without permission. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

LAMINITIS: Proceedings Book and Disk Full of Valuable Research, Therapy, and Medicine for Reference

A montage of thermography images graces the cover of the laminitis proceedings book. The images represent 48 hours of the onset of laminitis; the colors register the relative heat of the foot. If you double-click on this image, you should be able to see it at a much larger size. Image © Dr. Chris Pollitt and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission.

Hoofcare and Lameness is happy to announce that a few more extra copies of the proceedings book and cd-rom from the 4th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot, held in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2007, have been added to our listings of books and new media for your library. These are probably the last copies that will ever be sold.

The Proceedings were published by Hoofcare and Lameness summarized in a 7 x 10", 122-page full-color illustrated book describing presentations and lectures with special essays written for the book by Drs James Orsini, Rustin Moore, and Chris Pollitt.

The book is sold alone, or as part of a two part book and cd-rom package.

The cd-rom contains 76 papers, plus many images and a few PowerPoint excerpts, as provided by the faculty and edited and formated by Hoofcare and Lameness. The accompanying book contains a summary of each speaker's presentation, and color photographs.

Included are the special treats of Dr. Pollitt's "48 Hours in Acute Laminitis", as shown on the cover, as well as his previously unpublished sequential CT scans of the blood supply to the foot.

Dr. Moore's essay addresses the significance of laminitis research and education in the aftermath of the Barbaro tragedy and publicity earlier in 2007.

A few other presenters and authors included Steve Adair, James Belknap, Robert Boswell, Thomas Divers, Berndt Driessen, Lisa Fortier, Bryan Fraley, Ray Geor, Aaron Gygax, Amanda House, John Hubbell, Philip Johnson, Fran Jurga, Bruce Lyle, Joseph Mankowski, Catherine McGowan, Scott Morrison, John Peroni, Patrick Reilly, Ron Renirie, Rob Sigafoos, Mark Silverman, Nathan Slovis, Ashley Stokes, Mitch Taylor, Andrew Van Eps, Don Walsh, Kathryn Watts, Mary Beth Whitcomb, Michael Wildenstein and Laura Zarucco.

The cd-rom represents the single largest collection of papers on laminitis and diseases of the foot ever published in one place.

A table of contents for the cd-rom is available on request. Please send an email to Fran Jurga if you would like the contents to be sent to you as an email attachment.

Ordering information: Order book only or book+cd-rom package. Summary book is 7x10, 122 pages, full color. CD-ROM is Mac or Windows compatible and contains all papers in PDF or PowerPoint formats. Papers vary in length and format. All orders must be pre-paid in US dollars, Visa or MasterCard accepted. Book only is $59; Book + cd-rom package is $125 per set. Add $8 postage per book or per set for USA orders; add US$15 per book or per set to other countries.

Click here for faxable order form. Fax to 978 283 8775 or mail with check drawn on USA bank to Hoofcare, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930. Email orders to Conferencebooks@hoofcare.com. Prices subject to change without notice; supplies are limited.

Conference books and cd-roms were sent to all attendees of the 2007 conference. These extra copies are being offered to libraries and interested individuals who did not attend.

The Proceedings book and cd-rom were sponsored by Intervet and created by Dr. Chris Pollitt and Fran Jurga.

The 5th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot is being planned for November 2009 and will again be held in West Palm Beach, Florida.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. This post originally appeared on September 17, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

Texas Clinic Partners with Palm Beach Equine; Podiatry Services to Expand

(edited from a longer press release)

The growing trend toward veterinary clinic networks and shared consultants continues. Along with that trend is the concept of podiatry services as a profit center or consultant service. How different clinics plan to incorporate this concept into their service offereings is always interesting: Veterinarians wearing shoeing aprons is a new fashion statement. This information was received today:

Katy Equine Clinic in Katy, Texas and Palm Beach Equine Clinic, headquartered in Wellington, Florida, have formed a strategic partnership. Katy Equine's clients will now have access to Palm Beach's state of the art resources, including 19 leading Florida-based veterinarians, streamlined digital medical records and advanced diagnostic and treatment options. These new resources augment the current services that the Katy Equine Clinic and its founder, James "Mike" Heitmann, D.V.M., M.S., have provided for more than 25 years.

Plans call for the Katy Equine Clinic to become a regional referral hospital specializing in surgery, lameness, podiatry and emergency / ICU care. On the immediate horizon will be the construction of a new surgical suite and the purchase of additional diagnostic tools. Already available are digital radiography, computed radiography, ultrasound, two surgical rooms, shockwave therapy and the ability to create platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of wounds and ligament and tendon injuries. The number of staff veterinarians has already doubled, with Michelle Dumas, D.V.M., and Josh Zacharias, D.V.M., M.S., joining Dr. Heitmann and Catherine Berry, D.V.M.

"Joining the Palm Beach Equine Clinic team is a great opportunity to work with experienced veterinarians and utilize state of the art technology," says Dr. Zacharias, who has a Master's Degree in Veterinary Clinical Sciences and was the Equine Emergency Surgeon at Iowa State University before the move to Texas.

In addition to his role as surgeon, Dr. Zacharias has a keen interest in the equine hoof and attended farrier school. "Equine podiatry is critical to maintaining the athlete's soundness. I look forward to working with the farriers in the Katy and Houston area and providing world-class equine hoof health," he explained in the press release.

© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This post was originally published on September 24, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

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