Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 3: Management and Pain Relief with Catherine McGowan)

"Managing your laminitic and minimising his pain">Managing Your Laminitic (Horse) and Minimising His Pain" is the third in a series of feature presentations designed to help horse owners recognize the signs of laminitis in horses and to work toward preventing laminitis. In this video, laminitis researcher Catherine McGowan, currently at the University of Liverpool in Great Britain, talks about the tools that a farrier uses to help a horse and relief the physical foot pain caused by laminitis, as well as the pros and cons of medications like Bute for pain control.

The farrier who briefed McGowan is Ian Hughes, farrier at the University of Liverpool equine hospital. He's pretty shy about publicity, in spite of my best efforts.

Learn more about University of Liverpool farrier lecturer Ian Hughes and his role as chief farrier for the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong. This nice photo of Ian (left) at work with his Vettec gun is from the portfolio of Hot Shots Photography.

These videos were filmed at a laminitis awareness seminar organized by World Horse Welfare and British feed company Dodson and Horrell earlier this year. More videos from the series will be posted on the Hoof Blog in the next few days.

The conferences, which were held at leading UK veterinary universities, were organized by Dr Teresa Hollands, Senior Nutritionist at Dodson and Horrell. Featured specialists included Professor Derek Knottenbelt, Dr Cathy McGowan and Alex Dugdale from the University of Liverpool, David Catlow from Oakhill Veterinary Centre and Samantha Lewis from World Horse Welfare, among many others.

The videos in this series include “The Horse’s Foot and How it Goes Wrong” (Professor Knottenbelt,) “Managing your Laminitic and Minimizing his Pain” (Dr McGowan,) “Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis” (David Catlow,) “Using Ultrasound to show the Difference Between Fat and Muscle” (Alex Dugdale,) and “How to Fat Score a Horse” (Samantha Lewis.)

To learn more: Watch Part 1 of the series, "The Horse's Foot and How It Goes Wrong" and then go on to Part 2, "Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis”.

A partial list of Catherine McGowan's research is available on the National Library of Australia's scientific database website.

© 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 the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Friday, October 15, 2010

Friends (Not) At Work: Where's Mike Wildenstein?

Michael Wildenstein CJF, FWCF (Hons), Adjunct Associate Professor of Farrier Medicine and Surgery in The Department of Clinical Sciences of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has announced his plans to retire from his position and from the profession of farriery. For the past few weeks, Mike has been on an extended vacation that led straight into his retirement and he is enjoying some private time during the transition, he said today.

"Tell them that I am living the good life and enjoying my retirement!" was Mike's message.

Mike was offered an early retirement by Cornell and New York State, an offer that came one year earlier than Mike had planned to retire. He decided to take the offer and begin the next chapter of his life.

This announcement is a bit of a shock to the farrier and veterinary communities. Michael Wildenstein is one of the highest qualified farriers in the world and one of the most respected. He was the first farrier to gain a faculty position at a US veterinary college. He has been in great demand as a consulting educator and farrier. As an instructor, he shaped the professional lives of hundreds of farrier students in the Cornell farrier school program over the past 19 years.

Mike has left no stone unturned in his pursuit of absolute excellence in his own professional development but more importantly, made friends wherever he went without any regard to his position or skill.

Of course everyone in the horse world wishes Mike the very best and congratulates him on a job superbly and exquisitely well done. He's beaten a path that hopefully will be followed by others, if they have the strength of character to attempt to excel the way that Mike did.

Mike has simply retired from this phase of his professional life, and we can only wonder what he'll do next. He needs some privacy now to make that transition and thanks everyone for understanding that need, and for their good wishes.

Thanks, Mike.

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 2)

"Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis" is the second in a series of feature presentations designed to help horse owners recognize the signs of laminitis in horses and to work toward preventing laminitis. In this video, British veterinarian David Catlow shares his insight from working with horse owners, and explains what conditions can fool a horse owner into thinking that a horse is just routinely lame rather than suffering the onset of a serious, life-threatening disease.

These videos were filmed at a lamintiis awareness seminar organized by World Horse Welfare and British feed company Dodson and Horrell earlier this year. More videos from the series will be posted on the Hoof Blog in the next few days.

The conferences, which were held at leading UK veterinary universities, were organized by Dr Teresa Hollands, Senior Nutritionist at Dodson and Horrell. Featured specialists included Professor Derek Knottenbelt, Dr Cathy McGowan and Alex Dugdale from the University of Liverpool, David Catlow from Oakhill Veterinary Centre and Samantha Lewis from World Horse Welfare, among many others.

The videos in this series include “The Horse’s Foot and How it Goes Wrong” (Professor Knottenbelt,) “Managing your Laminitic and Minimizing his Pain” (Dr McGowan,) “Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis” (David Catlow,) “Using Ultrasound to show the Difference Between Fat and Muscle” (Alex Dugdale,) and “How to Fat Score a Horse” (Samantha Lewis.)

To learn more: Watch Part 1 of the series, "The Horse's Foot and How It Goes Wrong".

Follow the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Join the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Liverpool's Professor Derek Knottenbelt Speaker at Michigan State University Vet School

Each year, the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Division invites a visiting Freeman Scholar to visit MSU-CVM to provide seminars and informal instruction to the large animal faculty and residents. This year Professor Derek Knottenbelt from the Leahurst Equine Hospital at the University of Liverpool in England will be at the East Lansing campus from Wednesday October 20 through Friday October 22.

Professor Knottenbelt will be giving two seminars for faculty and students at the College of Veterinary Medicine and he will also be the speaker for the October 20 evening program of the Michigan Equine Practitioners Association.

The topics of Knottenbelt's lectures will be "Equine Sarcoids" and "Role of Working Equids Around the Globe – Why Should We Care?"

Biography: Professor Knottenbelt graducated from the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) Veterinary College in 1970. After a four-year spell in his native Zimbabwe working in the State Veterinary Service as a research officer, he moved into private practice in the UK where he stayed for 12 years. During this time he developed an interest in equine medicine and so, in 1985 he turned to the academic world, first in Zimbabwe and, after 1989, at Liverpool.

Professor Knottenbelt‘s expertise in equine internal medicine is recognized both nationally and internationally, particularly in equine oncology and dermatology. He is a Diplomate of the European College of Equine Internal Medicine and holds a personal Chair in Equine Medicine at the University of Liverpool. He has published widely in journals, authored 13 equine veterinary medicine textbooks and is frequently invited to speak at national and international meetings.

Knottenbelt received the Animal Health Trust Scientific Award in 2003, the BEVA (Blue Cross) Welfare Award in 2004 and the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors of 2005 for his services to Equine Medicine. He is actively involved in many domestic and international charities relating to equine welfare and works tirelessly to support these causes.

His most recent effort was organzing a mad motorcycle relay of ten senior academic and private-practice veterinarians around England and Scotland to present research education at vet schools. The "Horsepower CPD" vets delivered their lectures in their motorcycle leathers and then sped off to the next university. The purpose was to benefit the British Equine Veterinary Association's fund-raising efforts and to help establish a therapeutic riding program for handicapped children in Mali, where Knottenbelt volunteers for part of each year as an equine education outreach provider. The lectures were free but donations for the funds were requested and the tour was partially sponsored by Petplan. The volunteer lecturers visited seven vet colleges in six days and planned to raise 60,000 pounds for charity.

A special service provided by Professor Knottenbelt is a web site he created to help horse owners around the world who have horses affected by sarcoids. Sarcoids affect as many as seven percent of the horses in Great Britain; that is a higher per capita infection than other countries. Sarcoids seem to be a growing concern in the United States, as well.

Knottenbelt is particularly astute on subjects related to dermatology of the horse's foot; he also has a keen interest in laminitis and worked with World Horse Welfare and Dodson and Horrell on their Laminitis Road Show series to educate horse owners on how to recognize and prevent laminitis.

A video of Knottenbelt's lecture on the equine foot (and what can go wrong) from that series can be viewed on The Hoof Blog.

Photo courtesy of the University of Liverpool.

Follow the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Join the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 1)

Welcome to an amazing educational opportunity. World Horse Welfare and feed company Dodson and Horrell have created a series of videos from their recent "laminitis roadshow" conference in Great Britain and the Hoof Blog will be posting the videos here for you to watch at your leisure. This first brief video is the introduction and summary, featuring equine nutrition researcher Teresa Hollands of Dodson and Horrell.

In this first "feature-length" 24-minute video, you will meet Professor Derek Knottenbelt, who is no stranger to readers of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. His article on pemphigus (sometimes called coronary band dystrophy and the subject of more articles to come) is one of the most popular articles ever published by Hoofcare and his work on hoof diseases is extraordinary in the way he integrates research and treatment with other areas of medicine.

Professor Knottenbelt was recently a guest speaker at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and I highly recommend him as a speaker. You'll see why when you watch this video, which includes one of his clever improvisational dramatizations--he becomes the hoof's laminar bond! His simple explanation takes the mystery out of insulin resistance and how it is involved in the mechanical collapse of the foot in laminitis; this video also helps with explaining many other key concepts of laminitis and its prevention for horse owners.

More videos from the road show conference will be added to the blog in the next few days. Please watch them all, share them all, and refer back to them.

Many thanks to World Horse Welfare and Dodson and Horrell for their leadership in laminitis education for horse owners. This is critical information that needs to circle the world, wherever horses can be cared for in a way that helps prevent laminitis. It is, after all, a preventable condition in most cases and so much pain and suffering could be spared if horse owners can be educated about management practices.

Follow the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Join the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Hoofcare@WEG: What's Inside the French Farrier's Tool Bag?

Click on an arrow to start the slide show. You should also be able to navigate to the images' pages on Flickr.com to see them in a larger size.

It all started early in the evening. I guess it was meant to be French night. I strolled through the Normandy pavilion here at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Inside was a poster showing a shoe being forged on the face of an anvil. It was promoting the 2014 World Equestrian Games, which will be held in Normandy. It was just a nice photo until I looked closely at the shoe in the picture and saw how the toe had been creased.

It seems like a good omen that the 2014 Games would include a horseshoe image in their promotion. I was happy as I headed to the show jumping arena. And then I saw him.

He slipped through the barrier without making a disturbance but something made me look over at him. Hundreds of people were walking by. But only one carried a beautiful leather bag over this shoulder. The very same type of leather bag I'd seen used by farriers in France. Made of saddle leather with a long shoulder strap, these bags bounce on French farriers' hips as they walk. You wouldn't fill one with sandwiches or Lego pieces: this is a special bag, a part of a farrier's life.

I set off after him.

I had heard that France had sent a farrier, but he had been eluding me for two weeks. I couldn't let him get away.

I felt like a wide receiver on a football team. I zigged and zagged through the warmup arena. Took a left at Sapphire, circled the $8 million Saudi horse, zipped behind a couple of Brazilians. I could still see him up ahead. He was headed to the top warmup ring, tool bag bouncing along through the crowd.

When I caught up with him, I was out breath. And that's when I learned that he spoke no English so I had to interview him in French, which means that none of the information in this article may be what he meant to say. But he was very nice about everything.

David Le Corre lives near Toulouse in France and is his country's sole farrier at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. He has been busy these weeks in America, and tomorrow will be hard at work with all the farriers out on the marathon course. He dutifully posed with one of the French team horses and showed me its left front foot, which was shod with a plastic plad and a frog cutout, for what little frog the horse had.

And that is when things started to fall apart. I asked David about his tool bag, could I take a photo of it?

He obviously thought that I was asking if I could see what was in it, which I would never ask. I realize that the contents of a tool bag like that are personal, like the contents of a woman's purse. But in a split second, the beautiful leather flap was thrown open and shoes were spilling out onto the ground.

Shoes were taped together and clearly marked "droit" and "gauche" (left and right). Nearly every shoe in the bag had a pad attached to it. There were Luwex plastic mesh pads, full leather pads, leather rim pads, and impression material.

David obviously likes two things: leather pads and aluminum shoes. He even likes the two together. In the photo of the single rolled wide-web aluminum shoe, you can see what the studs will go. He has it set up with a leather pad, and if you look closely you can see where it has been scored for the frog to be cut out. The circles marked on the pad on either side of the frog will be punched out so that silicon or some other support material can be injected under the pad, while the frog stays open to the air and able to touch the ground and be functional, with luck.

I sheepishly helped David put all the shoes back in the bag and thanked him. He settled down to check rider Penelope LePrevost's horse's feet and adjusted the big black band over the heel bulbs.

Like all the farriers here, he had a lot of work to do. The groom chatted happily to him in French. I imagined she was saying, "David, that woman chased you across three warmup arenas, who IS that?" and David answered, "I have no idea."

Note: Be sure to read the comment about David, which is a blog story in itself, in which David's effort to glue a shoe on one of the French team horses is aided and abetted by Alan Orville Dryg, one of the AFA farriers! Just click on the comment link. Alan had a French farrier tool bag experience too!

© 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 the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Join the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page