The seven most common horse health problems include Colic, Laminitis, Arthritis, Desmitis, Gastric Ulcer, Skin Infections and Insect Borne Viruses.
Could these end your horse’s happy days?
Not if you can help.
It’s about time you learn more about these common horse health problems and what you can do to steer your horse away from impending doom.
When death dare stares your horse right at the face, go stare back and say:
Not today.
Colic
Tummy ache sounds nothing serious at all.
In fact, one out of five infants will suffer from Colic during the first few weeks of life. But babies can vomit, horses can’t, not ever. So, you can’t play around with colic.
Any pain within the horse’s gut can become deadly that over a million cases of equine colic are reported annually. It’s also the leading cause of death in horses.
What are the Causes?
Over 80% of colic are Idiopathic, meaning no one knows for sure why it happens. However, several cases of colic can be blamed on:
- Eating sand
- Gas build up
- Impactions (blockages)
- Grain overload
- Torsions (twists)
- Foreign objects
- Parasites
- A serious symptom of diseases as cancer
What are the Symptoms?
Again, detecting colic in horses is like dealing with car engines—you won’t pinpoint anything wrong until the problem becomes really obvious. Watch out for these signs:
- Restlessness
- Absence or reduced amount of feces
- Anxiety or depression
- Turning to the belly
- Pawing at the ground
- Lack of appetite
- Rolling and lying down
- Excessive amount of Sweat
- Unusually fast pulse rate
- Lack of normal noises in the gut
- Frequent attempts to urinate
How to Prevent
Survey says about 10 to 15 percent of colic cases in horses require veterinary intervention. While only about 5 percent of horse colic end up in surgery.
Meanwhile, horse colic surgeries can range from $5000-$20,000 depending on where it’s done and the complexity of the surgery.
You can avoid all of these if you practice these prevention tips instead:
- Feed your horse small but frequent meals
- Make feeding regimes consistent
- Introduce new foods gradually
- Avoid a high-grain diet
- Hydrate your horse
- Adjust exercise routine on horse’s comfort level
- Keep a regular deworming schedule
- Avoid sand ingestion by keeping hay off sandy areas when feeding
- Some experts suggest adding liquid paraffin in feeds twice a week
Read more: What kind of food do horses eat?
Treatment
When colic doesn’t resolve on its own, about 70% of horses respond to medication.
If prevention fails in common horse health problems, timely treatment is your next life-saving option.
Even for horses who’ve undergone surgery, the prognosis is good. The key is giving the appropriate remedy as soon as possible.
If you suspect your horse has colic, take these steps:
- Call your vet immediately
- Distract your horse from the pain with gentle walks
- Provide water but hold any feed until the vet comes
- Don’t self or over medicate
- Contain your horse in a safe area
Laminitis
Laminitis is the inflammation of the soft tissues (laminae) in the hoof. There are three levels of severity in laminitis: chronic, recurrent and acute laminitis.
Regardless of the case, the damage caused by the inflammation can be extremely painful and debilitating, among many other common horse health problems.
Unfortunately, at least 35% of horse owners surveyed revealed their horse had at least one previous laminitis episode. More than half admitted their horses suffered from multiple episodes of laminitis.
What are the Causes?
Researchers believe inflammation occurs when blood flow to the laminae gets disrupted. This usually happens when a horse is overweight and overfed.
In Australia, the main cause of laminitis in horses is in fact, obesity.
Aside from the damage caused by excessive weight and a high carbohydrate diet, several factors and diseases are also likely to be the culprit for laminitis such as:
- Insulin resistance
- Metabolic syndrome
- Cushing’s disease
- Severe Colic
- Infection
- Cold weather
What are the Symptoms?
Common horse health problems like Laminitis can affect any horse or pony and present with the following symptoms:
- Lameness in the forelimbs
- Foot soreness after shoeing
- Visible bruising
- Difficulty in walking and turning
- Increased pulse rate (due to pain)
- Reluctance to walk
- Frequent lying down
- Hooves feel hot when touched
- Chronic symptoms
- By the time clinical symptoms appear, laminitis may have already progressed and can become chronic, even fatal. Watch out for these changes:
- Rings on the surface of the affected hoof
- Change in the hoof wall shape
- Bulge in the sole of the rotated bone
- Horse will take a laminitic stance and place more weight on unaffected legs
How to Prevent
When it comes to laminitis, there is no permanent cure, which makes prevention most important in laminitis among all common horse health problems. Follow these tips:
- Ensure the right, complete and balanced diet of your horse
- Don’t overfeed your horse to prevent obesity
- Practice regular hoof care
- Restrict access to lush pasture especially in spring
- Rule out Cushing’s disease with a blood test for horses 10 years above
- Avoid overworking your horse’s hooves on hard ground
Treatment
Laminitis may have no permanent cure but it should be managed, fast. No one deserves this enormous amount of suffering.
Among common health problems, it’s best to treat laminitis as a medical emergency so the vet can prescribe appropriate treatment plans which include:
- Total box rest
- Adjustment in the horse’s diet
- Frog support
- Painkillers or Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Phenylbutazone or Flunixin and opiates like Morphine and Pethidine.
- Other medication to regulate blood pressure
- Treatment of the underlying disease
Arthritis
Pain in the joint is surprisingly common among horses.
Sadly, for a joint problem, it’s among the common horse health problems why many horses have to be euthanized, regardless of age.
Other names include degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis or simply joint inflammation.
What are the Causes?
In humans, arthritis comes with age. But in horses, even young athletic horses are prone to arthritis due to the following reasons:
- Extra stress can result in trauma
- Injury and Wound
- Bacterial or viral Infection can lead to Septic arthritis
- Poor conformation
- Hoof deformities
- Shoe problems
The cartilage gets worn out with age too.
However, athletic horses competing in jumping, dressage, racing and other high-intensity workouts are more prone to the wear and tear of the cartilage resulting in irreparable damage and pain.
What are the Symptoms?
Normally, the horse has a strong defense mechanism against inflammation and can repair damage within the joints.
Over time, cumulative effects of day-to-day stressful work can result in degeneration. Acute injuries can become progressive with symptoms such as:
- Reduced performance
- Stiffness in the movements
- Swelling in the joints
- Lameness
How to Prevent
Experts say Arthritis in horses is inevitable and is the main reason for the early retirement of many sports horses.
Nevertheless, a research found that using anti-inflammatory aids mixed with feeds is the best prevention along with these tips:
- Don’t let your horse become overweight
- Strengthen the joints with the essential supply of vitamins and minerals (glucose, amino acids, chondroitin or hyaluronic acid)
- Practice regular hoof care
- Ensure balanced nutrition to avoid obesity
- Allow time for warmup and cooldown periods during workouts
Treatment
Arthritis isn’t a death sentence. But early detection is the key towards recovery.
In many cases, damage may be irreversible but reducing the pain and preventing further damage is the next best goal. Rest assured, you can ensure your horse’s comfort and longevity with these treatments:
- NSAIDs as Phenylbutazone or Bute may be prescribed for short-term relief to reduce inflammation
- Joint supplements with glucosamine and chondroitin may help
- Moderate exercise is recommended depending on the horse’s comfort zone
- Keep your horse as active as possible in a pasture
- Choose appropriate footwear
Desmitis
Ligaments have a big role: to connect.
They connect bones to each other, especially in the horse’s legs. The most important ligaments in the legs are suspensory, check and sesamoid ligaments.
Desmitis is an injury in the ligaments and is the leading cause of poor performance in horses.
If any ligament gets damaged, all else in the joints will suffer.
What are the Causes?
While any horse can get hurt, it’s an occupational hazard for horses that compete in dressage, eventing, and other demanding sports. These factors can make horses prone to Desmitis:
- High-intensity training beyond the fitness level of the horse
- Lack of fitness
- Poor foot balance due to wearing the wrong shoes that leads to missteps
- Too much stress on the ligaments from jumping and moving fast
What are the Symptoms?
They can be tricky to spot. Some signs of lameness are barely noticeable but these symptoms should not be taken for granted:
- Swelling and pain
- Warmth and tenderness in the area of pain
- Diminished overall performance
- Difficulty changing direction
If symptoms don’t tell much, an x-ray or ultrasound scan can help spot the exact location and extent of the damage.
How to Prevent
It starts by keeping your horse healthy and fit.
Next is to respect the limits of your horse. Give your horse a break after a strenuous exercise. Allow healing to progress. Follow these extra precautions too:
- Provide optimal surfaces for horses to train on
- Ensure the horse wears the correct shoes optimal for training
- Adopt a training regime that strengthens horse’s ligaments
Treatment
If there is swelling, cold therapy and bandaging can help for a week or two. For serious injuries to the ligaments, a vet can determine the proper course of action which may involve the following steps:
- Medication to reduce the swelling
- Training to strengthen the weaker areas
- Stall Rest
- Hydrotherapy can lead to faster recovery
- Regenerative medicine as shockwave therapy and therapeutic laser are promising
Rehabilitation usually takes 9 months to a year. After that, a horse can even return to the competition. However, your horse will be more prone to suffer the same injury after any case of Desmitis.
You may also like: Horse Care Tips and Tricks for Beginners
Gastric Ulcer
Compared with other large species, horses have a smaller stomach for their size.
This makes them prone to gastric ulcer. That’s the result of too much hydrochloric acid getting produced in the digestive tract.
Gastric ulcer can be found in as many as 80 to 100% of horses.
Thoroughbreds are more susceptible followed by endurance and then show horses.
What are the Causes?
Other than the sensitive anatomical structure of horses, many factors can make horses prone to gastric ulcer such as:
- Stress
- Diet filled with concentrate feeds
- Gestation
- Transportation
- Weaning
- Physical exertion
What are the Symptoms?
Majority of the horses won’t show obvious signs of an ulcer. So watch out for these subtle clues:
- Weight loss
- Frequent Colic
- Poor hair coat
- Decreased appetite
- Low energy
- Loose feces
- Poor performance
- Behavior changes
- Dullness
How to Prevent
Naturally, as with all common horse health problems, prevention is better than treatment. These practices can minimize the risk of ulcer in your horse:
- Feed small frequent meals as horses’ stomach are designed to eat this way in a pasture
- Reduce the grain in the diet
- Avoid the use of anti-inflammatory drugs
- Allow your horse to take a break from intense training
- Keep your horse well exercised and socialized
Treatment
Antacids won’t do. They need to be given several times a day to work. But they can help when combined with other treatments such as:
- Acid pump inhibitors (omeprazole and pantoprasole)
- Histamine type 2 receptor blockers (cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine)
Read more: The 4 Best Horse Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.
Skin Infections
It could start as a harmless bump, strange-looking spot or scruffy patch.
According to William H. Miller, VMD, professor of dermatology at Cornell University, most skin diseases aren’t skin deep.
They don’t pose serious health risks, unlike other common horse health problems. Sometimes, they are just a symptom of other illnesses.
But left untreated, they can spread, cause discomfort and can make your horse look anything than instagrammable.
Common horse health problems of the skin include ringworm, scald, warts, dandruff, mange, and lice.
What are the Causes?
It’s just a common hazard of going out and about.
The public enemy number one has always been the Staphylococcus bacteria. It’s opportunistic, thrives in a moist weather and communicable to horses with compromised immune systems.
Other causes include:
- Other Streptococcus species
- Viral infection
- Fungal infection
- Parasites
- Environmental Irritants
- Insect bite
- Sunburn
- Allergic reaction
- Abrasions
What are the Symptoms?
Depending on the skin infection, symptoms can range from mild to severe:
- Itching
- Swelling
- Inflammation
- Growths
- Lesions
- Lameness and increased heart rate (in severe cases)
How to Prevent
The best you can do is to prevent the spread and transmission of the bacteria, virus or fungi.
Ensure all equipment are clean and limit sharing and socializing of the infected horse to prevent transmission in:
- Feed
- Pasture
- Dirty environment
- Cuts, scrapes, bruises
Treatment
When the cause has been ruled out, treatments are meant to relieve symptoms and get rid of the source of infection. Several types of products and medications may be used such as:
- Powders and shampoos
- Antibiotic
- Antifungal
- Antiparasitic
Insect born Viruses
In Australia, the Ross River virus is the most common mosquito-borne disease.
Last January alone 1,174 people were infected nationwide.
Among horses, cases are common during the wet spring and summers, when mosquitoes pester in population.
There are two types: arboviruses and flaviviruses.
The Ross River Virus (RRV arbovirus), sporadically causes musculoskeletal disease in horses, even death.
Flaviviruses, on the other hand, include the Murray Valley Encephalitis, which can infect the brain and nervous system of horses. Beware, this can be passed from horses to humans.
What are the Symptoms?
Clinical signs of RRV can include:
- Fever
- Reduced appetite
- Stiffness and soreness
- Lethargy
- Lameness or loss of coordination
- Wobbliness or staggering when walking
The worst symptoms of flaviviruses are abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord. Clinical signs can include:
- Changes in behavior
- Facial paralysis
- Difficulty swallowing
- Ataxia (wobbliness)
- Blindness
- Inability to rise.
How to Prevent
Protection is the ultimate prevention.
Reduce or avoid mosquito-horse contact, especially if you live near wetlands, salt marshes, and coastal areas. There are measures you can take as:
- Install screens in stable areas
- Throw away stagnant water
- Rugging
- Fly masks
- Using insect repellants
- Ensure a strong immune system of your horse
Treatment
In humans, a virus treatment is on the horizon.
Clinical trials are ongoing for possible treatments in horses. To reduce the symptoms and pain, horses should be treated with:
- Antibiotics
- Anti-inflammatory agents
The good news is, along with your tender love and care, horses can make a complete recovery, usually from 15 to 18 months and will develop immunity against the virus.
Horses are Heroes
But even heroes have the right to bleed.
So when any of these common horse health problems strike, the least we can do is understand their weaknesses, and sustain their strength.
Sure, they’re not the first animal that comes to mind in terms of power.
But they should be.
After all, a horse can do 33,000 foot-pounds of work in one minute, and the only creature who has inspired a unit of measurement.
Horsepower.
Any animal who can drive ancient civilizations, industrial revolutions and sports is worthy of our respect.
As a loyal obedient companion, that goes for love and care too.