Fit or fat - the wider impact of excess weight on your horse

Рет қаралды 1,919

3 жыл бұрын

How does excess fat affect our horse’s joints and their performance? We are so delighted to have equine vet Dr Sue Dyson joining us to talk about ‘Obesity, performance and the risks of musculoskeletal problems’. Sue ran a clinical referral service for lameness and poor performance at the Animal Health Trust for 37 years and currently works as an independent consultant. She is a specialist in equine orthopaedics, veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation and has published over 300 papers in peer reviewed journals concerning lameness and diagnostic imaging.
We also play a pre-recorded interview with the leading equine endocrinologist Prof Cathy McGowan, head of the equine division of the University of Liverpool's Vet School, the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital. Cathy has published extensively on equine metabolic syndrome, laminitis, weight management, and all the practical things owners want to know about topics such as hay soaking times! Cathy will talk us through all you wanted to know about equine fat, equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) and laminitis, but were maybe too scared to ask.
The two talks are followed by a live Q&A discussion with Dr Sue Dyson.
For more information about what we do and for upcoming webinars, follow our CARE equine education page on Facebook: / carestudy

Пікірлер: 12

@ForestDunes 3 жыл бұрын

I'm so please I stumbled on your site. This is the best presentation I have seen on this general topic and helps me immensely in considering my off the track thoroughbred's comfort and quality of life. It confirms things I have felt intuitively without finding good support until now.

@drdeepollard9850 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Kalli, that's great to hear that you found the talk helpful. We actually have another webinar coming up on 14th October where we will specifically be talking about quality of life, so please do join us if you can!

@jizunsangpembelajar1246 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for the presentation. I am a PhD student at NC State University, currently conducting a dissertation project on Equine Adiposity. I found that this presentation is so enriching to me especially regarding the state of the art findings on the adverse impact of excessive adipose tissue in the horse body

@drdeepollard9850 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Jizun Sang. Best of luck with your project!

@sianlittledyke3221 3 жыл бұрын

I'm so pleased I watched this. My highland pony has just had x-rays on his feet this week due to front limb lameness. Only lame on a hard surface on the circle was slightly lame on the turn intermittently before. The xrays appear consistent with atypical laminitis from the untrained eye. Luckily we haven't put his shoes on post xrays as he suddenly went very lame and looked laminitic to me. Currently has padding on and have improved. I'll be discussing with my vet and farrier first thing in the morning and requesting some blood tests to check his insulin levels. Would there be any benefit to an MRI, would it help confirm the diagnosis? Thank you.

@drdeepollard9850 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Sian, sorry to hear your Highland pony is lame and I hope you get to the bottom of it. I think checking insulin levels is a good place to start and depending on your pony's age, if they are older, then a test for Cushing's disease (or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction) may be another option. Probably best to speak to your vet and farrier about usefulness of MRI and if it could give you any further information than you already have from the Xrays. Best of luck!

@sianlittledyke3221 3 жыл бұрын

@@drdeepollard9850 Will do, thank you x

@FurryToraChan 9 ай бұрын

More sugar content in most commercial horse feed, as well other pet companions foods... as well, less nutrition in vegetables an more sugar there too. Especially in fruits and berries. Something DEF wrong with the food we all eating, all of us, all living beings. Not blame the farmers... think it is overall what we doing with plant life as well our own ' INDUSTRY ' . . . Be kind to your equine friends and companion

@susancoombes 3 жыл бұрын

Just wondering if inhaled steroid via nebuliser can also cause laminitis as severe as injected steroid. Wish I had watched the seminar in real time and asked.

@drdeepollard9850 3 жыл бұрын

Hi Susan, I think I've replied to your other question via Facebook. I'm not aware if any of the studies that did compare different routes of steroid administration found any differences. I tried to do this in my study and although we did find an association between steroid administration and laminitis development it was quite a weak association as we only had a few horses that received steroids in the study so we couldn't divide it down further into types of steroids or routes of administration. As mentioned, there is some evidence that it may affect horses that already have other laminitis risk factors, such as having equine metabolic syndrome, a history of laminitis, equine Cushing's disease/PPID and/or are overweight but it shouldn't be a problem for a healthy adult horse.

@susancoombes 3 жыл бұрын

@@drdeepollard9850 yes she has EMS so I guess maybe. she was not overweight at that time having been off grass for I year and exercised regularly.

@drdeepollard9850 3 жыл бұрын

@@susancoombes it's a tough one and definitely a relationship that needs to be explored further. It is quite a controversial topic and some vets and researchers are adamant that there is no evidence that steroids contribute to laminitis, while others believe quite strongly that there is a link. Being a researcher but not a vet myself, I sit somewhere in the middle and from my understanding of current research and literature on the topic, I would personally err on the side of caution and consider carefully before giving any form of steroid treatment to a horse with already established laminitis risk factors (such as EMS), checking whether alternative treatment is possible and if not, weighing up the risk/benefit of treatment (pretty much as Sue mentioned in her talk).