Owning horses is not an inexpensive endeavor (yes that is a double negative statement). Today, horses are a costly hobby and just that a hobby for 99% of owners. As an equine veterinarian, I spend a lot of time treating them and most of these treatments are for preventable issues. A general rule of thumb prevention is about one third the cost of treatment for most conditions. Some preventable conditions also have grave prognosis.

              For those that do not know, prevention is the act of doing certain things to reduce or eliminate the rate at which a negative event occurs. While a lot of terrible conditions are not fully preventable, a number of them can significantly be reduced in severity or rate of occurrence. Prevention can be through the use of vaccines, feeding cycles, feeds, management techniques, and just general good husbandry techniques. We are the party responsible for their care, thus when a preventable condition occurs it is our fault at least in part.

              On the other hand, treatment is the process of addressing a condition or issue after it has occurred. Treatment is targeted at returning an abnormal animal condition back to normal. Very few abnormal conditions will return to 100% normal even with gold standard treatment. And for most issues, maintenance of function is the goal not reversal of damage. Some issues will require lifelong treatments and have long term costs.

              The most obvious preventive option available to owners are our vaccines. Our vaccines do an exceptionally good job of preventing illness. There are several diseases that we have vaccines for and some of these are regional. The most common vaccines are the equine encephalitis viruses, west Nile virus, tetanus, and rabies vaccine. Additional common vaccines include influenza, rhinopneumonitis, botulism, strangles, Potomac horse fever, and even snake bite envenomation. The vaccine for rabies is considered to be protective when given yearly for rabies prevention, while treatment for rabies once clinic signs present has a 0% success rate. In an example of something that has treatment options, botulism has the ability to be successfully treated if caught early with a plasma based antitoxin, the average cost of treatment a few years ago was $3000. Vaccination for botulism is likely to run less than $100 per year so it would take 30 years to balance the cost. My example though is a disease that is location and situation specific. Prevention goes beyond just vaccines, it has to include good husbandry and good nutrition as well. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

              We are going to go over some specific examples of situations where there is a treatment and prevention, please understand that this is generalized advice and you should always consult directly with your veterinarian about your specific animals.

 

              One of the most obvious prevention practices that I have been harping on for the past almost decade here in SE AZ is diet for reducing colic. The number one cause of colic that I saw for first 3 years in practice was sand issues. From years 5 and onward I see hardly a single case from my routine patients but continued to see cases in non-client patients. Why? The diet. Almost 100% of the sand colic cases I have seen over the past decade were horses fed primarily alfalfa based diets. This readily available and cheap feed source has been mainstay of feeding horses in area for decades. It also costs about $3/bale less than the next lowest cost alternative. That said, outside of older horses with dental issues I can count on one hand the number of sand colics I have seen in horses fed a predominantly grass based diet. Grass based diet  would be such options as Bermuda hay, timothy hay or orchard hay. $3/bale over a year is about $150 dollars in increased cost per year. Medical treatment of a colic often starts at about $500 and can easily climb to well over $2000, with surgical, which can be necessary for severe non responsive sand cases, being north of $15000. One colic episode is going to put you in a 4 year deficit. Another often touted preventative is psyllium(sand-aid, etc.) for sand issues, the additional cost of this supplement raises the diet cost of alfalfa above that of grass hay with still increased risk of sand colic. Over the years I have observed numerous sand colics on day3/4 of monthly 7 day regimen for these psyllium products. The reality is that within one year most clients are seeing positive financial return from the diet adjustment along with additional benefits.

              Diet is going to be a major theme here on preventative care. Beyond reducing risk of colics, horses maintained at a good body condition score have reduced risks for some diseases. Cushing’s is more likely to occur in horses that have been overweight at some point in life. While it is considered to be a disease of age, horses that have had body condition scores greater than 7 at some point in life are at a substantial increase in risk. Horses are scored from one to nine on body condition with scores of 5/6 being ideal. Horses that are above 7 for can also develop Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin dysregulation issues similar to diabetes. Cushing’s and Equine Metabolic Syndrome are related conditions in that diet and excess fat storage increase rates at which we see these conditions. While many owners worry about an animal being thin, there is no long term health conditions associated with an animal being under conditioned for a period in it’s life. Now let me be clear with that, an animal that for a period of time that was below ideal condition has no increased risk of health issues when fed back to healthy condition, not saying that being under conditioned is a healthy state. Animals that are over conditioned are at increased risks for Cushing’s, metabolic syndrome, insulin dysregulation issues, laminitis, osteoarthritis, soft tissue injuries among other things. Maintaining a horse at a good work condition can improve the longevity of the animal and reduce maintenance costs associated with owning a geriatric equine.

              Just hit on how body condition and weight can influence soundness in form of issues like laminitis and osteoarthritis but other husbandry factors also play role in lameness prevention. The absolute most critical lameness prevention owner responsibility is hoof care. Quality hoof care is key to reducing lameness. Let me be very clear, good hoof care does not eliminate soundness issues. Good hoof care reduces the risk of soundness issues. We do not maintain horses in natural environments so that they wear hooves well. And performance horses are often shod eliminating natural wear altogether from the hoof. Quality, routine hoof care is paramount for soundness. Hoof care should also be focused on prevention of lameness not just on what is present at this moment in time. We know that long toes increase strain on the tendons and ligaments of the leg, this additional strain raises risk of soft tissue injuries. We know that thin overly worn soles, reduce blood flow under and around the coffin bone resulting in remodeling of the bone, increased bruising and other issues. We suspect that increased leverage plays roles in conditions like side bone and ring bone. Even the risk of things like abscesses can be reduced with good hoof care. Taking the time to keep hooves cleaned reduces this risk by lowering the bacterial load in the hoof. Having barefoot horses routinely trimmed keeps tags and cervices to a minimum further reducing abscess risk. Roughly 80% of all fore limb lameness issues originate in the hoof, it is lower in hind limb but still substantial percentage. With the hoof being such a major factor in lameness, quality routine hoof care is effective preventive. Don’t be cheap on hoof care, full set around $150 is not uncommon currently but therapeutic work easily can soar above $500 per application.

              And we are going to end this off with laminitis prevention versus treatment. Roughly 80% of all laminitis cases are endocrine (metabolic) in nature and directly related to diet and insulin. Cushing’s and Metabolic horses have a significantly higher risk to develop laminitis compared to similar age healthy horse. As discussed above maintaining good body condition score will lower risk for both Cushing’s and Equine Metabolic syndrome, thus lowering the risk for laminitis as well. Routine hoof care helps to reduce the risk of issues like road “founder” which is a form of concussion laminitis. Other causes of laminitis are typically related to systemic illness and extreme events to the health of the animal, preventing changes to the laminae in those cases require prompt treatment of the health emergency. Horses that develop fevers do to infections are at risk of laminitis so maintaining reduced temperatures is critical to prevention. Gi upsets such as colic can be source. Injuries to other limbs as well are source of laminitic events. Not all causes of laminitis can be prevented. Only scientifically, supported method of reducing laminae damage during a systematic event is cooling the blood supply to the hooves by least 15degrees. The best other way to prevent laminitis is through prevention of these systemic events. Diet, weight management, quality hoof care, vaccinations, all these things support a healthier animal less likely to develop systemic health problems. The Cushing’s and metabolic horses can be maintained on good diets and medications to reduce risks of laminitis. Laminitis when it’s endocrine (metabolic) is not curable only manageable. Management is going to require special diet, more frequent and often specialized hoof care, monitoring of condition with repeat imaging by veterinarian. Stabilizing a laminitis case can easily cost 3-5k dollars in the first 60days which is more than cost to maintain a healthy horse for an entire year with quality hay, routine shoeing (not just trims) and moderate cost routine veterinary care. Even the cost to stabilize is higher than maintaining a Cushing’s horse on medication to reduce the risk of laminitis.  

 

Prevention of issues is more affordable than treatment of most conditions that horse owners are going to experience. None of this is intended to replace advice from your veterinarian and you should always consult with your veterinarian about the specifics of your situation. These are based off observations for a particular region and current local prices. Always consult with your veterinarian.