Fran Jurga`s Hoofcare + Lameness

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Paynter Watch: Surgery at University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center Next Option for Ill Zayat Colt, Laminitis Under Control

Paulick Report flashed the news today that champion three-year-old Thoroughbred colt Paynter will be transferred tomorrow from Upstate Equine Medical Center in Schuylerville, New York to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, outside Philadelphia.

Owner Ahmed Zayat of Zayat Racing has been announcing his horse's medical condition on Twitter since the colt was admitted to the clinic near Saratoga over Labor Day Weekend. Zayat's tweets informed his fans that the colt was suffering from severe colitis and, later, laminitis.

Today Zayat turned over the responsibility of announcing his colt's next move to The Paulick Report, who released the story to the public.

Dr. Southwood (Penn Vet
web site photo)

Paynter's medical condition may require some form of surgery; colon surgery for colitis treatment is a specialty of Louise Southwood Parente, DVM, MS, PhD at New Bolton Center, according to The Paulick Report.

Background

As is so often the case, acute laminitis in three of the horse's four feet was diagnosed after a particularly severe extended period of fever and diarrhea. Dr. Bryan Fraley, a laminitis specialist farrier-veterinarian from Lexington, Kentucky applied foot casts and, from Zayat's reports, helped the colt avoid entering the chronic phase of the disease, during which coffin bone rotation or sinking would have compromised his athletic future.

The foot casts have been removed, according to Zayat's tweets, and the horse is wearing Soft-Ride boots for support and comfort.

Many horses do not survive colitis or the laminitis that follows. Paynter's story has been a great inspiration to people who follow racing and are concerned with horse health. The colt has been in the care of Laura H. Javsicas, VMD, DACVIM, of the Upstate Equine Medical Center.

To read much more about Paynter's medical condition, The Hoof Blog directs you to the Paulick Report's Paynter to New Bolton Center Special Report, published late this afternoon.

Thumbs up photo for title graphic provided by Kristian Niemi.

© 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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History: 1960s Racetrack Horseshoers Union Court Case May Have Inspired Propaganda Film

This video was a film buried in the Library of Congress and unearthed just this week.

How much has shoeing racehorses changed since 1960? Not much, but this film makes some good points about the role of horseshoers in a horse's life.

The International Union of Journeyman Horseshoers was part of the AFL-CIO until 2004; the IUJH is one of the oldest unions in the world. It was formed in 1873 and claims to be the oldest union retaining its original charter.

There is probably much more to this little film than meets the eye. It may even be what you call a "propaganda film", if you know anything about labor history in the United States and the pressure that was on unions in the 1960s.

No documentation is on this film footage as to the exact date of publication. It is labeled 1960, but that may be an approximate date. Maybe someone can date it by the models of the cars.

When this film was made, the union might have been under pressure to define the profession of farriery as a specialization, and to stress the importance of the union in keeping standard high within the trade. While the IUJH started out as representing the interests of the employee, or "journeymen", farriers against the Master Horseshoers Association whose members employed them, it survived at the racetrack in the second half of the 20th century and still exists today.

About the time this film was made, a controversy arose when three Canadian owners and trainers, while in Canada, used a nonunion farrier to shoe horses. To quote a summary of the case: "When they brought their horses to a racing meet at Bowie, Maryland, the International Union (of Journeyman Horseshoers) required its Local No. 7 to refuse service to the Canadians unless they would sign an agreement to use only union members, both in the United States and Canada...

"The other aspect of the case affecting all of the plaintiff owners and trainers sprang from the local union's setting of a minimum charge at Bowie of $16 for the shoeing of each race horse. The local enforced this policy by threatening to discipline or expel any union member who charged less than this minimum price."

Thus began an historic court case that came as close as the United States has ever come to defining the work relationship under which a horseshoer earns a living. The racehorse owner sued both the IUJH and the shoers themselves, and charged that they were acting in violation of the Sherman Act, that most famous of labor relations legislations that you haven't thought about since an American history class back in high school or college.

It all came down to a few questions: are farriers employees or independent contractors? And do they sell only their service or are they actually selling shoes, since they can, in theory, be considered "manufacturers" if they make their own shoes, in the eyes of the law. So were the unions actually a trust protecting a group of manufacturers? On which side of anti-trust laws did they truly fall?

The Sherman Act ("The Anti-Trust Law") had one of its most unusual tests right there in the blacksmith shops of Maryland racetracks. The horseshoers didn't strike, they kept on shoeing. They just didn't shoe for that one owner because he wouldn't agree to their terms.

Did this film just happen to be made in Maryland or was it intentionally made there, perhaps even to be shown in court, and to illustrate exactly what the horseshoer does and how important s/he is to the functioning of the racetrack? Was it made to gain the support of other unions and politicians who might be sympathetic to the horseshoers' union?

It appears to have been made to be shown on television or perhaps in movie theaters as a short feature, since the credits at the end mention that it is part of a series that will continue "next week".

There is probably no one left alive who can tell us, but finding this video was like finding another clue in that tumultuous time in American labor history and especially in the history and tradition of horseshoeing.

The horseshoers' unions operated under, or around, the terms of the Sherman Act, Taft-Hartley and the Clayton Act. Horseshoers didn't write the laws, but they tested them more than once and will always hold special footnotes in American labor and legal history in remembrance of cases like the Maryland one, which had the courts learning about the difference between machine-made and manufactured shoes, and what that meant--or might mean--under the law.

No matter how you look at the records, it seems that the horseshoers were able to use to their advantage their unique status as a small, necessary, but ill-defined and undocumented trade that defied being classified. To some extent, that same fuzzy focus survives today and, depending on who is doing the talking, either serves or paralyzes the advancement of the profession.

You can watch this film as a simple educational film or you can watch it as a classic example of labor propaganda. It's up to you but this is another example of the depth of history surrounding the farrier profession.

However, like so many other things, that history has not yet been written about from the point of view of the shoers and it is equally unclear whether this court case was a victory for the horseshoers' union, or a defeat.

The real issue--whether the shoers were breaking the law by refusing to shoe one owner's horses--was lost in the shuffle and the case is referenced forevermore in legal history annals because it is so hard to define what horseshoers do, not how they do it or for whom.

To learn more:

IJHU current web site and history

Labor Law: Union Not Exempt from Suit for Sherman Act Violation If Its Members Are Independent Contractors and No Employer-Employee Relationship Exists in Virginia Law Review, May 1966

Horseshoers Union May Be Tiny, But Members Stand Proud from the Chicago Tribune in 1987

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Friday, September 28, 2012

Farrier Video: High-Definition Passion for the Profession in the Words and Work of Bob and Branton Phalen

Before you hit play: Stop and expand this video to full-screen by clicking on the arrows between the letters "HD" and the word "vimeo" on the tool bar. This is a video that deserves to be seen on a bigger screen than your phone's.

The voice. I know that voice. The words of California farrier icon Bob Phalen filled the office. "It's not how much you know, it's how much you learn after you know everything that counts."

How often have I heard farriers say that? And how did Bob Phalen get on my monitor screen in such brilliant high definition?

Sparks flew in slow motion as the shoe hit the anvil. Hot shoes hissed into water buckets with droplets dancing inches into the air. Delicate curls of scale peeled from the ground surface of the shoe as it hunched under the hammer and over the anvil horn. The tap of the driving hammer looked like a powerful punch.

The high-definition vignettes of a horseshoer at work were eye-popping.

The credits hadn't even stopped rolling before I was dialing Bob's phone number.

Bob and Branton hadn't even seen the video yet, and now we're able to post it for all of you here, only 24 hours later.

This video is unscripted and, according to Bob, was created through the editor's ears and eyes, without any input from the Phalens. The film crew simply showed up and spent a day with Bob and Branton, and the editor wove together the vignettes of their comments with the spectacular work shots through editing, since there was no shooting script.

The story just emerged in an organic way.

It's nice that this video is about Bob Phalen, but everyone viewing knows that it's not about him at all. He just is speaking the minds of hundreds--maybe thousands--of farriers across the world who are reaching a certain age and looking back at what they've done with their hands and their minds and their skills over decades of helping horses or "slaying dragons" as the video suggests.

Farriery may be changing forever but for the men and women who have lived the life and done the job because their hearts were in it, there are few regrets. Aches and pains maybe, but few regrets.

If you're concerned that Bob is retiring, I can tell you that I saw him recently and he reassured me again on the phone that he is in good health, although the editing on the video makes it sound like he is hanging up his apron.

That'll be the day.

Cinematographer Bradley Stonesifer

It's appropriate that the film ends with the simple gesture of twirling a shoe around the hammer on the face on the anvil. It sums things up: farriery is part hard work, part skill, and it always helps if you can add in a little bit of magic, right at the end, because that is what they will remember.

I hope the farrier world embraces, shares and promotes this video.

Forget the words that sound like an ending and focus on what Bob says about getting up every day and doing what he wanted to be doing. Perhaps it is romantic and unrealistic to approach a profession as a "passion", to use his words, but it worked for him.

••••••••••••••••

About the making of this film: Farrier was shot to illustrate the capabilities of a high-tech new camera, Vision Research's Phantom Miro M320S. This will be the first in a series of short films about craftspeople reflecting on their careers and how they found their purpose in life through their everyday work.

Thanks to Bradley Stonesifer for allowing the video to be posted for farriers and horsepeople around the world to see.

CREDITS

A Hollywood Special Ops & Island Creek Pictures Production

Bob & Brant Phalen of Phalen Horseshoeing and Supply
Rider: Racheal Johnson
Black Stallion: Constant
Brown Horses: Nikoo & Lilly

Director: Emily Bloom
Producer: Drew Lauer
Field Producer: Jerry McNutt
Cinematographer: Bradley Stonesifer
Camera Operators: Tim Obeck, Jimmy Hammond, Nick Piatnik
Editor: Patrick Chapman
Colorist: Aaron Peak of Hollywood DI
Audio Mixer: Michel Tyabji

Thanks to:
Bell Canyon Equestrian Center

To learn more:

Hollywood Special Ops LLC web site about this film

Phalen Horseshoeing and Supply Inc.

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How Research Works: Sport Horse Suspensory Ligament Study Involves Real Dressage Horses and Riders

A call for dressage riders offered a free analysis of joint motion, rein tension and rider balance in exchange for riding a horse of a specific age and dressage level on two different arena surfaces. The researchers are gambling that dressage riders will want to be part of equine research that targets the function of the suspensory ligament, one of the most common sites of lameness in dressage horses. (AHT photo)

You read the research. You look at the data. You note the summary.

But did you ever want to know more?

Researchers often list their protocols, including the number of horses or cases evaluated. Some will give some data about the horses--sex, age, use--but that may not tell you much.

If you've ever been to a vet college, you know that they often have a herd of research horses. Some are more athletic looking than others. Some are more sound than others. Some are all one breed, while at others, the herd is made up of mixed breeds. At some schools, the horses in the "research herd" look like they are seen by a farrier about once a year.

When you read about sport-related research, you trust that the research was actually done on sport horses. Most researchers will now give much more background data on the horses used in the trials, because they know this is necessary for the credibility of their findings.

Unfortunately, the numbers of horses in studies is usually small because of the difficulty in obtaining horses to test and the labor-intensive aspect of equine research. Large retrospective studies of cases are possible for injuries, but what about when the subject is gait analysis or sports performance?

And even for studies that are data analysis of cases treated at a university or vet hospital for a certain condition, or treated by a certain procedure, a considerable number of cases are lost to follow up because they were sold, died or the owners didn't answer a researcher's questions.

So an announcement that was circulating on the internet seemed interesting. The Animal Health Trust (AHT) in Newmarket, England has done several studies on injuries to the suspensory ligament. In fact, the letters PSD--for proximal suspensory desmitis--are closely connected with the letters AHT.

The suspensory ligament (sometimes called the interosseous) is show in white; it is a common site of lameness in performance horses. Jumping horses commonly injure the branches of the ligament, shown at right, but the ligament can be injured at any point along its length and in either of its branches. (Illustrations are 3-D animations from Glass Horse: Elements of the Distal Limb)

The Animal Health Trust is known for taking a rider-centric view of equine lameness. The rider may be asked to school the horse as part of the lameness exam. That may not be enough to satisfy clinician Sue Dyson, who has trained horses at the elite level of eventing and ridden Badminton herself. She employs a professional rider to participate in the lameness evaluation so that the rider's balance, ability or mental state can be ruled out as influencing the horse's gait.

The first line of the announcement read:

"Would you like to get a free assessment of your horse’s gait, symmetry and exercise programme with your travel costs covered? And also help prevent suspensory ligament injury in dressage horses for the future?"

If you think like an equestrian, that sounds like a pretty good deal, with a feel-good factor thrown in for good measure.

But from someone who follows sport horse medicine, it could only get better when the study was outlined in this way:

"The Animal Health Trust is looking for horses and riders to be filmed at trot using high speed video on two different (but good quality) arena surfaces as part of an important investigation into suspensory ligament function in horses of different levels and with different types of movement.

"For the project we are looking for combinations which fit into the following groups and would be willing to travel to Keysoe, Bedfordshire (travel costs would be covered) on 8th, 9th, 12th or 13th November and can allow approximately two hours for the testing, from arrival until completion."

Remember the comment about some horses used in studies being sketchily described in the papers?
Consider this precise description of exactly what horses were being sought for this study:

1. Young horses (seven years old and under)
• Very extravagant moving (achieving scores of 7 or 8 and above for paces) or
• Less extravagant moving (achieving scores of 6 or less for paces)

2. Mature horses (10 years and above), training at advanced level (working Intermediate 1 and above)
• Very extravagant moving (achieving scores of 7 or 8 and above for paces)
• Less extravagant moving (achieving scores of 6 or less for paces)

The requirements don't just describe the qualities of the horses needed. It also describes what the rider needs to be prepared to do.

"Horses will need to be ridden by their normal riders in a straight line in collected/working, and medium/extended trot (and piaffe and passage for any horses trained to that level) on two different surfaces."

For their effort, the riders are to be reimbursed for their travel expenses (remember that British gas is at least twice what it costs here in the USA) and this promise of a report:

"Feedback for the rider will include information on the gait (including joint flexion angles) and symmetry of the horse, rein tension, and rider position, plus advice on exercise programmes and performance if the rider would like this information."

I can't think of any dressage riders who wouldn't like that information.

The closing message rolled out the feel-good factor:

"The results of this study would enable us to provide immediate and beneficial advice on training practices to dressage trainers, riders and owners, in order to reduce the risk of suspensory ligament injury.

"Based on the number of horses that suffer from suspensory ligament injuries, and the variable outcome of treatment/management, any work which improves prevention strategies would have a considerable positive effect on dressage horse welfare."

What the text doesn't mention is that the Animal Health Trust is a charitable organization that depends on donations. By inviting and potentially involving citizen dressage riders to participate in the study, the AHT is opening the door for future donations from the riders and also creating a culture of transparency and awareness of the dressage community's problems with suspensory lameness.

When the study is complete and the researchers publish their findings, the British dressage community will have a sense of knowing the horses and riders who participated and of having been part of some important research. Everyone reading the study will know exactly what level and type of horses were in the study.

If you live in England and would like to be part of the study, you can apply by sending an e-mail to vvicki.walker@aht.org.uk; telephone: 01638 751908 or 07825 005125.

Vicki noted that horses from the local area will be accepted first to try and minimise travel expenses.

To learn more:

All about suspensory ligament injuries by Sue Dyson FRCVS
Suspensory Ligament Injuries in Horses, a UC Davis Center for Equine Health special report (free PDF download).

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

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 laminitis go on to the chronic stage, which they describe as causing permanent lameness. (file photo, courtesy of Vetmoves)

A new paper from the world of laminitis research finds that the anti-inflammatory protein apolipoprotein A-IV (APOA-IV) is raised in chronic laminitis, which suggests that the chronic form of the disease is linked to a more general inflammation, especially of the digestive system, than was previously documented.

Most research into laminitis is conducted on horses suffering from acute laminitis, usually after the ingestion of a large doses of fructans or black walnut in a controlled setting. Chronic laminitis is usually studied because of links to insulin resistance and/or equine metabolic syndrome and Cushing's disease, with minimal testing of systemic findings in horses with lameness in their feet. The focus of most chronic laminitis research is on how the endocrine system's irregular function affects the laminar tissue of the foot.

According to research published this week in the open-access journal BMC Veterinary Research, Dr Samantha Steelman and Professor Bhanu Chowdhary from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University, found 16 proteins that have different levels in the blood of horses with chronic laminitis, but which are not reflected in normal horses. They compared nine foundered horses with 30 healthy control horses collected from horses residing at the private Hoof Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Clinic in Bryan, Texas, where horses are in treatment under the direction of David Hood PhD DVM.

Horses in both groups were in good health, apart from the laminitis. Eleven of the 16 proteins measured are involved in response to wounding, coagulation and inflammation. The remaining proteins included fetuin A and B, both of which are involved in acute immune response, immunoglobin, an indicator of increased antibody levels, and most importantly APOA-IV.

Dr Steelman explained, "APOA-IV is produced by the small intestine. One of its functions is to tell the animal when it is full. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which might explain the raised levels of APOA-IV."

At 2011's Sixth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida, Dr. Steelman presented a poster titled, "Characterization of laminar, gastrointestinal, and immune system dysregulation in chronic equine laminitis", which was related to the research detailed in today's paper.

In the abstract accompanying her poster, she wrote that it was her team's goal to study the immune system, the gastrointestinal system, and the integumentary system (laminar tissue) using a combination of proteomics, next-generation DNA sequencing, and real time PCR, rather than to focus solely on the foot.

Steelman and Chowdhary's comparative study found interesting variations in all three systems between the laminitic and normal horses. Ultimately, their results support their hypothesis that localized laminar inflammation may be linked to systemic alterations in immune regulation, particularly in the gastrointestinal system.

Research published in BMC Veterinary Research that laminitis is linked to general inflammation, especially of the digestive system, via elevated levels of an anti-inflammatory protein that was not present in horses that do not have laminitis. Proteomics is the study of protein's presence, type and activity level in a condition. (Image courtesy of BMC Veterinary Research)

In other words: Chronic laminitis may show up most in displacement of the coffin bone, prolonged or intermittent lameness and hoof capsule deformity, but the digestive and immune systems are also affected. Most treatment of chronic laminitis currently focuses on making the feet more comfortable.

"From these data we conclude that the pathology of chronic laminitis is not limited to the foot and that chronic laminitis should be considered as a multi-system disease," was Steelman's interesting conclusion in Palm Beach. She recommended that her data be used in developing a more directed therapeutic approach as an alternative to current treatment strategies.

To learn more: Increased Plasma proteomics shows an elevation of the anti-inflammatory protein APOA-IV in chronic equine laminitis by Samantha M Steelman and Bhanu P Chowdhary. (full paper, free download) in the journal BMC Veterinary Research, an open access, peer-reviewed journal.

Dr. Steelman is curator of the Equine Tissue Sharing Program at Texas A&M.

Dr Chowdhary is an expert on equine genetics and also collaborates on research at the Laminitis Institute at PennVet's New Bolton Center, where he collaborates with Drs. Hannah Galantino-Homer and Chris Pollitt.

Dr. David Hood Launches the Hoof Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Clinic in Texas

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Monday, September 24, 2012

AVMA Statement in Support of USDA's Efforts to End Soring

The following text is published as provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association in a press release:

Sole bruising (pink/red discoloration) from possible pressure shoeing. Courtesy of USDA

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. --The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued the following statement in support of the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) ongoing efforts to end the inhumane practice of soring.

"The American Veterinary Medical Association appreciates ongoing efforts by the United States Department of Agriculture's Horse Protection Program to keep its stakeholders informed regarding enforcement activities associated with the Horse Protection Act (HPA), including the recent posting of preliminary inspection results for the 2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.

"Inspection results, when compared over time, can be an important measure of progress in achieving the goal of eliminating the inhumane practices associated with soring of horses. Unfortunately, these statistics from the 2012 Celebration reaffirm that soring remains prevalent in the industry more than 40 years after passage of the HPA. A violation rate of close to 10% is symptomatic of an industry that continues, decade after decade, to fail in its responsibilities to protect the welfare of these horses.

"Representatives of the AVMA attended the 2012 Celebration and observed enforcement activities in the inspection area. They found the USDA veterinary medical officers conducting inspections to be skilled and professional in the conduct of their activities. And, in contrast to allegations of selective enforcement at this year's Celebration that have been levied by some of those in the industry, congruence between violation rates for 2011 (9.5%) and 2012 (9.0%) suggests the USDA's approach to enforcement is consistent. Consistency among results provides further evidence that abuse within the Walking Horse industry is a systemic problem, not an isolated one.

"The AVMA urges the USDA to actively and effectively enforce the HPA while the agency continues to search for improved detection methods. Ultimately, the AVMA believes that elimination of action devices and the so-called performance packages from the show ring would be the most timely and effective way to stop this inhumane practice."

For more information about the AVMA and its programs, please visit www.avma.org.

Soring: Unethical and Illegal (AVMA Fact Sheet) (download)

Click to go to ordering page for full details; 3-D hoof anatomy educational software

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