Horses

High Ringbone

Owners of work horses know the name ´ringbone` well. High ringbone is the common name given to a progressive condition called osteoarthritis of the proximal interphalangeal joint – woah that is a big name! Good news is, it’s just a real long way of saying it’s a disease of the pastern joint.

Bad news is, it can cause severe lameness and might eliminate a horse from competing or from strenuous work life if not well managed. This condition can happen for several reasons, for instance overuse, a singular trauma episode or even just due to normal use.

The disease process of the osteoarthritis involves the loss of cartilage and the formation of new bone around the joint, a process that is very painful. In severe cases, it can even make a visible enlargement that encircles the joint which earned it the name “Ringbone”.

Unfortunately, this disease can be progressive and what starts out as a subtle lameness can become much more pronounced with time as there is greater and greater destruction of the normal joint. The loss of cartilage means that bones will be grinding against each other in each and every movement of that limb and if it sounds painful to you, you got it right, it really is. Added to that, there is creation of bone in tissues and spaces where bone should not be plus inflammation.

All of this will contribute to progressive loss of function and lameness due to severe pain. It’s sounding pretty gloomy but there are many therapeutic options available and the condition can be managed. Of course, much of the prognosis is tied up with whatever cause osteoarthritis to start in the first place but talk to your vet about all your options and they’ll help you make the right choice for your riding buddy.

Image: “Oregon’s Wild Horse Corral Facility” by BLMOregon was built upon is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Uncategorized

Clumsy but capable! Cerebellar Hypoplasia in cats


Cats and kittens come in many shapes, sizes and abilities! One particular set of our feline friends are cats that have a congenital dysfunction in the area of the brain responsible for balance and walking.

These kitties have a cerebellum that was not properly developed during pregnancy. Most of the time this happens because of an infection with Feline panleukopenia virus, the same virus that causes distemper in cats. If the queen gets infected with this virus during pregnancy, it will interfere with the normal development of the cerebellum in her kittens. Not all kittens are affected the same way, so what might happen is that a litter can have babies that are severely affected and kitties that don’t seem to have any issues.

The cerebellum is the area of the brain that helps animals walk and move correctly. Knowing this, it means that cats with this disease have issues getting around and doing more precise movements. You might see your kitty tremble a lot, have difficulty reaching the bowl to eat and look really clumsy walking but don’t worry because it doesn’t hurt!

The good news about cerebellar hypoplasia is that these purring partners can have great quality of life and a normal lifespan. This disease is not progressive, painful or contagious and with time, they can even learn to compensate for these issues.

Living with a cat with cerebellar hypoplasia might require some special attention, depending on the severity of the problem. They have a normal lifespan but are more prone to accidents, like not handling stairs well, falling from high places, requiring special litter boxes or hitting sharp corners on furniture.

We leave you with some top tips on how to make life for your lovely, clumsy cat a little easier: Carpeted floors help them get better traction, try putting soft bumpers on your furniture so they don’t get hurt when they fall or have a litter box with high sides so they have the extra support.

Keep an eye out for ways you can improve the life of your feline friend with cerebellar hypoplasia and they will surely save many purrs for you.

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Dogs

Canine pancreatitis – When your dog’s pancreatic enzimes run wild!


Pancreatitis is a common disease in middle-aged to old dogs that can be very painful and even life-threatening.

The pancreas is very important for dogs and humans alike. This is the organ directly responsible for the production of insulin, which plays a key role in the way the body handles sugar, and for the production of digestive enzimes that will help with food digestion. This organ is located within the abdomen, behind the stomach and the first portion of the small intestine.

Pancreatitis refers to inflammation of the pancreas and although it is still unclear exactly what triggers this condition, the process involved and some predisposing factors are known.

The pancreas produces digestive enzimes meant to become activated once they reach the small intestine so they can contribute to breaking down and digesting food. The body has natural safeguards that keep these enzimes from being activated anywhere other than the gut but it is possible for these mechanisms to fail. When this happens, pancreatic enzimes become prematurely activated and can start digesting the pancreas from within, causing inflammation and affecting other organs.

Pancreatitis can be acute or chronic and dogs with chronic pancreatitis display low grade, intermittent clinical signs. Clinical signs commonly related to pancreatitis include depression, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. It is typical for dogs in pain to raise their hindlimbs and extend their forelimbs assuming a “prayer” position. This position helps them alleviate pain.

Several risk factors have been recognised and associated with pancreatitis in dogs such as obesity, dietary mishaps normally associated with fatty foods, concurrent diseases such as endocrine conditions, and certain drugs. Canine pancreatitis is really just one more reason to help your dog reach and maintain a healthy weight.

An association between certain breeds and canine pancreatitis has also been observed. Yorkshire Terriers, Miniature Schnauzers, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, English Cocker Spaniels, Boxers and Collies are described as more likely to develop this condition.

If your dog is showing suspicious signs or if you could use some advice to help your pet lose weight consult with your veterinary surgeon.

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Cats

The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus or “Feline AIDS”

The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) is type of retrovirus (a lentivirus) that affects cats all over the world. It causes an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome which means it interferes with our cats’ immune system, lowering its defences, and causing them to be more vulnerable to opportunistic infections and other diseases.

The way this condition develops and its impact on the cat’s body is quite similar to the human acquired immunodeficiency virus (HIV). For this reason, this condition is often referred to (“feline AIDS”) and it serves as model for the study of infections with human immunodeficiency virus.  It is very important to highlight that despite the similarities between FIV and HIV, FIV only affects cats and cannot be transmitted to us humans.

After infection, the virus can be found in the affected cat’s blood and saliva. This virus is transmitted among cats mostly through bites and fight wounds. As a result, adult entire male cats that have access to the outdoors tend to be most commonly affected. The virus can also be transmitted from infected queens to their kittens.

The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus doesn’t cause very serious clinical signs initially. From the point of entry the virus goes to the nearby lymph nodes and starts reproducing, eventually spreading to other lymph nodes throughout the body. This leads to a generalised enlargement of their lymph nodes often accompanied by fever.

Some cats will deteriorate progressively after being infected, some cats may just present recurrent illness, needing veterinary care more often than non-infected cats, and for many cats the disease progresses to an asymptomatic phase, during which they don’t display any signs of disease. This stage can last for several years.

Eventually, infected cats suffer a decrease in their immune surveillance and they will become more predisposed to other conditions, as well as secondary infections resulting from bacterial, fungal, protozoal, or parasitic infections.

Clinical signs of infected cats include loss of appetite, fever, poor coat condition, diarrhoea, inflamed gums (gingivitis) or mouth (stomatitis), skin problems, respiratory problems, conjunctivitis, immune-mediated diseases, neurologic conditions, and tumours. The most common tumour in these cats is lymphoma and they are 5 times more likely to develop them.

With proper care most cats infected with FIV are able to live many years and even die from other causes, in no way related to their FIV infection.

All cats should be tested for FIV. It is recommended to keep an infected cat indoors to prevent spreading this virus to other cats. This also protects FIV-infected cats from any secondary disease which can be very beneficial, given their impaired immune system. Any new cat being brought into your household should be quarantined and tested before being introduced to the other house cats.

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Horses

Anaemia in Horses

Anaemia is one of the most important haematological signs in mammals and horses are no exception.

It’s not a disease but a signal that something might be really wrong with your animal. Anaemia manifests as a consequence of many diseases and problems that cause one or several of these:

  • Loss of blood
  • Destruction of red blood cells
  • Lesser red blood cell production

We can classify anaemia as regenerative or as non-regenerative. The difference between these two situations is that regenerative anaemia happens because of blood loss or destruction of red blood cells and there will be a response from the bone marrow to correct this while a non-regenerative anaemia is a product of an insufficient production from the marrow to respond to loss of red blood cells.

This is usually spotted when it becomes a big enough problem to impair tolerance to exercise, depression or reduced ingestion of food. Other signs that may indicate anaemia are high respiratory rate and heartbeat, yellow tinted sclera or mucous membranes, weight loss, increased urination or pale mucous membranes, among others depending on primary cause.

Of course, many of the problems that can cause anaemia may take a long time to develop and horses may be able to create mechanisms to compensate for the lowered capacity to transport oxygen.

This leads to a sort of subclinical yet chronic anaemia that only flares up during exercise and leads to reduced performance and a very high heartbeat.

As we’ve mentioned, anaemia is secondary to a whole host of other issues and they include everything from trauma that causes haemorrhage, iron deficiency, kidney disease, bacterial toxins like Clostridium, autoimmune haemolytic anaemia to parasites, cancer or various viral diseases.

The underlying cause of anaemia can be a very severe condition, as stated above, so if you think your horse might be suffering from it do not hesitate to contact your vet!

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Cats

Cat Colonies: Fascinating Social Environment

Most of us are aware that our rambunctious doggies just love to interact, with other dogs, with us, with other animals, with puddles… and cats, on the other hand, are a bit more reserved with their social lives.

Well, behaviour scientists say that the solitary cat, at least as far as our domestic felines go, is not quite their natural state. Cats will organise in groups called colonies quite often as long as food conditions allow them to, in fact, the only way for cats to choose to live solitary lives is if their environment has food so dispersed it cannot sustain more than one cat in a given location.

So! Cats are awesome colony buddies and of course, we want to know how those are organised. Colonies are generally centred around female cats and their kittens because we have found that, turns out, cats prefer contact with relatives over non-relatives and do recognise non-colony cats. Of course, unrelated cats without colonies may integrate a new colony but this is a very gradual process because colony cats may react with aggression if non-members approach their resources.

All of this proves that cats, even among relatives, have other cats they prefer to interact with and cats they may have a harder time cooperating (A bit like a family holiday gathering). This means that social structure in colonies is a complex issue and savvy cat owners know that its sometimes a bit hard to introduce a new cat to a household with other cats.

To make sure everything purrs along smoothly, make sure that you don’t just abruptly shove everyone in together. Let them realise there are new colony mates through smell and sight before letting them contact each other. A top tip as well is adopting more than one related cat at time for owners who wish to have multi-cat households. This ensures a greater chance for positive behaviours and cohesiveness of the group.

Our purring partners are pretty fascinating creatures with very well developed social behaviours and organisation, much more than what we give them credit for!

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Dogs

Whiskers – Not just for cats!

While whiskers on kittens may be a few of our favourite things, did you know that dogs also have whiskers?

Whiskers are called vibrissae, special hairs with tactile capacities found on several places of the body. So, what’s the difference between these vibrissae and normal fur or human hair? Generally speaking, normal hair or fur is much thinner and isn’t connected to any special motility (the exception being the smooth muscle that makes hair stand on end) or sensory organs.

Vibrissae, on the other hand, have several muscles associated to them that allow for an interesting range of motion and also nerves connected to them so they can actually feel when they are touched or moved. Most mammals have these amazingly talented hairs though we seem to be one of the few exceptions and they can be found on the face and above the eyebrows in dogs.

Their function and their histological components are still under investigation but we think that they serve as an extra sensory component to the facial structures like eyes and skin. For instance, touching an eyebrow vibrissae on a dog will make them blink and they will move away their whiskers before they are touched. Another proposed function is navigation, though dogs have much smaller vibrissae than cats or rats it’s still possible they use tactile hairs to ‘poke around’ their environment and avoid obstacles.

Care should be given to not trim these! They are not normal hair, they serve important tactile and navigation purposes so keep these fancy whiskers away from the shears, especially in dogs that might have visual difficulties.

All in all, vibrissae are definitely not just the domain of our feline friends and there’s a whole fascinating way these animals interact with the world we can only try to guess at.

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Horses

Equine Metabolic Syndrome The How and the Why

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is a disorder of several systems which has several similarities with a human variant.

There are several things that may be happening in a horse with Equine Metabolic Syndrome but predominantly we know that obese animals, animals with genetic predisposition for it, animals that are in young pastures or under exercised animals. They will generally have several issues with their fat metabolism, insulin resistance and an actual increase in circulating insulin.

One of the big consequences of EMS is laminitis and is usually when you are going to notice something might actually be wrong with your equine partner. So, what’s the connection between a metabolic syndrome and hoof issues? There are several proposed mechanisms but we know that consuming a higher than usual load of water soluble carbohydrates causes insulin to surge in concentration and also the excess of carbohydrates being fermented will create an inflammatory response that causes laminitis.

This situation often happens when animals are given access to rapid growth pastures where there is a lot of rain and then an abundance of sunlight or also excessive amount of concentrates in their diet. These pastures are both large sources of water soluble carbohydrates and of overfeeding that might lead to obesity, one of the most important predisposing factors for EMS.

Good news though, it’s quite the manageable condition if it can be adequately recognised by owners.

While laminitis is the chief complaint of horse owners with EMS, there are several other signs that might indicate they are suffering from a metabolic imbalance that needs to be corrected.

Don’t forget to check your horse for not only lameness but also: obesity, large fat deposits on the neck or chest, preputial or mammary gland swelling due to fat deposits and oedema and ill formed hooves with divergent rings that indicate past episodes of laminitis.

If you have a horse that keeps on weight well and doesn’t seem to require all that much feed, they might at be at risk of developing obesity and insulin disorders so it’s important to keep a close eye on these horses.

Is your horse looking like they might have EMS? Give a call to your vet and find out the best way to figure out for sure.

Remember the sooner the diagnosis the better this condition can be managed!

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Cats

Practical Tips to Enrich Your Indoors Cat’s Life

Environmental enrichment has a very important role in the lives of indoor cats.

These cats are often under stress for many different reasons and this is not always obvious to their owners. Many cats are unable to express their normal behaviour: playing, hunting, scratching, climbing to high spots and even simply hiding when they don’t want to be bothered. Some cats struggle to deal with their social environment by not getting along with other cats or humans in the household. The reasons are many and over time, all this causes damage.

Through the cooperation of vets, cat behaviourists and scientists it has been proven that indoor cats living in underenriched environments can suffer from chronic stress and anxiety, obesity, and feline idiopathic cystitis among other potentially serious medical conditions. It can also trigger behavioural changes such as urine marking, house soiling and even some types of aggression.

In order to improve your cat’s quality of life be sure to provide different types of resting areas and hiding spots to avoid unwanted interaction. Cats cope with unpleasant situations by retreating and hiding. You can use cat trees, shelves (so they have access to high places) and cardboard boxes in their favourite rooms of the house.

There should be at least one litterbox per cat but the ideal formula is to have one more litterbox than the number of cats in the household. Resting areas, feeding and drinking spots should increase in number depending on how many cats live in the same household.

Scratching vertical or horizontal surfaces (depending on your cat’s preference) are also recommended, and a wide variety of toys such as toys with the owner’s scent, toys on wands, egg cartons with treats hidden inside, and balled up pieces of paper.  It is also a good idea to rotate them so they always have “new” toys.

Cats enjoy the different stages of hunting so they will have a lot of fun if you divide your cat’s daily ration and put it on multiple places in your home, under furniture, rugs or even using food toys. This means cats can search for food/snacks around the house and get them from the toys which simulates hunting behaviour.

Environmental enrichment for cats is about finding and implementing ways to make their environment more interesting, complex, and engaging in a way that allows and even promotes their normal, natural behaviour.

These changes have a low cost, are easy to implement and will improve dramatically your cat’s health and welfare, reducing and even preventing the previously mentioned health disorders.

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Dogs

Cataracts

Let’s gaze into the eye today and look at one of the most common causes of blindness in our dogs.

Cataracts are defined as the opacification of the lens, which is to say that the part of the eye that acts as the focal point for light no longer lets light pass through it. The crystalline lens, as it is called in anatomical terminology, acts exactly like the lens on cameras, telescopes or glasses. It sits right behind the iris and is going to bounce light to the retina on the far back of the eye.

As it stands, it’s one of the pivotal structures involved in eyesight. Its transparency is given by fibres that are continuously produced which means that anything that might affect the fibres themselves or their replenishing and growth process will, most likely, lead to cataracts.

So, how can lens fibres be damaged in such a way that leads to visual impairment? Osmotic imbalances created in complications from Diabetes Mellitus due to high glucose in the blood stream, inflammation in the anterior chamber of the eye that causes deficient nutrition to the lens and hereditary factors that compromise lens fibre renewal are the leading causes of cataracts.

Many other issues may cause this condition like trauma, nutritional deficiencies, electric shocks, radiation therapy and even just old age.

What to look out for? If you look into your pets’ eyes you might notice they appear to be cloudy, this is quite indicative of cataracts but beyond it, your dog might have difficulties walking around the house, might be bumping into things more often, might be more easily startled by a sudden approach, might feel disoriented in unfamiliar environments which are all signs of progressive blindness.

This is a progressive condition, so it usually just gets worse. How much worse will depend on the underlying issue and the individual animal but don’t delay in consulting with your vet!

There are several treatment options and your vet will be more than glad to help you with any questions you might have about managing cataracts and what they can do to help. Remember, the sooner the better!

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