Maryland’s Senator Tydings & MHC back federal equine anti-soring bill

Courtesy of The Equiery: http://equiery.com/blog/?p=1739

A Primer on Strangles (Strep Equi)

This is a bacterial disease of horses and other equines.  The incidence has been low but may be increasing.  Traditionally young horses are at greatest risk but with less chance of exposure over the last generations, older horses may not have had the opportunity to develop immunity.  After a natural infection that runs its course, there is a long lasting but not lifetime immunity.   Horses may be chronic carriers.  It is a difficult and expensive procedure to prove that an individual horse is not a carrier.
Prevention: Vaccination may help reduce the frequency and severity of the disease but does not provide a solid immunity in some horses.  There are two types of vaccine, an intranasal modified live (Pinnacle) and  an intramuscular  M protein extract (Strepvaxx II).  Some veterinarians believe that the modified live vaccine can produce disease but that has not been my experience.  The M protein extract may cause swelling and soreness at the injection site.  The disease is primarily transmitted by contact, direct and indirect.  Compared to viral respiratory diseases, it is not transmitted easily by aerosol over distances.   Quarantine sick horses.   Quarantine of new horses in a barn for two to three weeks especially if they have come from a public sale or dealer  is a good idea.   At a show do not let your horse have direct contact with other horses, graze, or drink from a common trough.  At an overnight show stabling is a potential problem.  A true disinfection of the stall is not possible.  A hand garden sprayer with dilute chlorine applied to the inside of the stall might reduce the potential load of bacteria but not help your relationship with neighbors.
Treatment:  If you have a horse with a fever and a copious nasal discharge or enlarged, painful  lymph nodes, seek advice from your vet.
If you want the full story (and want be scared to death about potential but rare complications) here is a link to the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Consensus Statement on strangles .   Some of the recommendations may not be applicable to individual situations for financial or practical reasons. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2005.tb02671.x/pdf

Equine Vets and Controlled Substances

I recieved this from The American Association of Equine Practioners (AAEP).  If you believe that equine and other mobile vets should be able to carry controlled substances in their trucks please contact your congressman using the link below.  If we are unable to carry controlled substances we will be unable to address emergency situations requiring pain relief or euthanasia.

Dear Dr. Radue:
The AAEP Welfare and Public Policy Advisory Council is working with the AVMA and Congress to ensure that veterinarians can provide complete care to their animal patients.  With the recent introduction of the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1528) we have the opportunity to make an impact.
As large animal veterinarians, most of us have frequent need to use controlled substances to treat our patients at the stables, ranches, farms and other sites where they live.  However, the provisions of the existing Controlled Substances Act

 

 (CSA) make it illegal for any veterinarian to transport and/or use controlled substances outside of the DEA license location that is registered for that individual. This means that it is currently illegal for veterinarians to carry and use these vital medications for pain management, anesthesia or euthanasia on farms, at house calls, in veterinary mobile clinics, or in ambulatory response situations.

Veterinarians must be able to legally carry and use controlled substances for the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, to safeguard public safety and to protect the nation’s food supply.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which enforces the law, has informed organized veterinary medicine that without a statutory change, many veterinarians are in violation of the CSA and cannot legally administer controlled substances away from their registry site. The DEA has already notified some veterinarians in California and Washington State that they are in violation of this law.

We encourage you to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1528). This act would amend the CSA that currently prohibits veterinarians from transporting controlled substances to treat their animal patients outside of their registered locations.

Please join us in telling Congress that veterinarians need to be able to transport controlled substances to the locations of their animal patients, not only for the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, but for public safety.
The link below takes you to the AVMA Legislative Action Center where you can easily express your support of H.R. 1528.  Contact information for your representative(s) is generated  automatically by your zip code and a message which you may edit is provided. 
Take Action!

 

Thank you for your advocacy.
Sincerely,
Ann E, Dwyer, DVM
2013 AAEP President

Parasite Control Guidelines from AAEP

Here are the new guidelines for parasite control using a strategic deworming program rather than the traditional rotational program.  While I have been pleasantly surprised at how well this approach works, as you can see from reading this, its not as simple as deworming every two months with a variety of deworming products.
http://www.aaep.org/images/files/ParasiteControlGuidelinesFinal032413.pdf

Good article from the Chonicle on Veterinary Drugs and "Veterinary Devices"

https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/are-we-returning-wild-west-veterinary-medicine

Nobody likes to pay more than they have to to treat their horses but there is a difference in regulatory over-site between "veterinary devices" used as drugs (none) and FDA approved drugs (proven efficacy, quality control inspection).

New York Times article on (over)medication of show horses

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/28/us/ponys-death-draws-notice-to-drugs-in-show-ring.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=1
 (copy and paste to command line)

 The article speaks for itself quite well. There are a lot of subjects for discussion here, from how we treat our horses to the influence of money on the horse community. Some of us were a little smug when it was the race horse industry under the microscope. This hits a little closer to home. If you don't like the status quo and you are a member of the USEF, make your feelings known. The USEF (formerly AHSA) drug rule started out as a simple, useful regulation to allow reasonable and humane treatment of competition horses while banning drugs that would affect performance or hurt the health of the horse. Some owners, trainers, and unfortunately veterinarians continue to push the envelope in an effort to gain an "edge" resulting in a more and more complicated set of rules.

West Nile Encephalitis

From the Maryland One Health Bulletin: First Confirmed West Nile Virus in Maryland West Nile virus (WNV) infection has been detected in humans and mosquitoes in Maryland. To date, five human cases have been reported in multiple Maryland counties. One pool of mosquitoes from Worcester County collected by the MDA and two pools in Montgomery County collected by the U.S. Department of Defense tested positive for WNV infection. Positive mosquito pools have also been detected in neighboring Washington, DC and Virginia. Because WNV is endemic in Maryland wildlife, birds are no longer routinely tested for WNV in the State; however, sick or injured birds can be reported to a local wildlife rehabilitator, which can be found on the DNR web site. Instructions on what to do when you find a sick or dead bird can be found on the DHMH web site. Veterinarians are reminded that equine neurologic syndromes and any of the equine encephalitides are reportable to MDA Animal Health and that equine arboviral testing is available at the DHMH Laboratories Administration. Veterinarians are reminded to vaccinate horses against WNV, Eastern equine encephalitis and rabies. Nationally, 693 human cases have been reported from 32 states, the highest number reported through the 2nd week of August since WNV was first detected in the US in 1999. Over 80% of the cases have been reported from six states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and California) and almost half were from Texas. Comment: So far, touch wood, there have been no equine cases reported in Maryland. Owner compliance with vaccination has been good and I feel that this has made a big difference. At present I am recommending a yearly booster after the primary series.