Gulf Coast Equine Veterinary Services, Inc.

04/09/2025

MIDWEEK MYTHBUSTER! 📢

Many people think that horses can safely eat grass clippings (grass is grass, right?) but that is a pretty common misconception and grass clippings actually pose a number of dangers to our equine friends.

While grass is meant to be slowly picked, ripped and chewed by the horse, grass clippings can quickly clump and cause choke if the animal ingests too many too fast. Grass clippings are also prone to fermentation which can cause colic, stomach and intestinal impactions, founder and laminitis.

Take-home message: Keep your horse away from grass clippings and in general never feed horses any food without the owner’s permission.

Thank you to the Horse Owner Education Committee for providing this information.

04/07/2025

How’s everyone’s Monday going? Surely not as good as this guy!

03/31/2025

I’m always shocked when people don’t want to vaccinate their horses against rabies. They seem to think it’s not a big deal. Yes, your horse can get rabies. Yes, your horse will most likely die from rabies if they contract it. Yes, YOU can get rabies from your horse and you can die too. Please vaccinate your horses! 🐎 💉

An unvaccinated horse in Miami-Dade County, Florida, has died after contracting rabies.

03/30/2025

It’s an early morning here at TerraNova for the FEI cross country! Come on out and watch all these amazing horses! 🐎. Dr. Whitney will be at the start so come say hello.

03/29/2025

Consider these 4 behavior-science-based approaches to help make horse trailer loading safer for you and your horse.

03/18/2025

Unlike humans, horses don’t have collarbones. Their shoulders are held to the rest of their skeleton via a sling of muscles and ligaments instead, often referred to as the “thoracic sling.”

Why is this important? We often ask our equine athletes to perform complex movements that require tremendous strength and coordination, and horses carry the majority of their weight in their front end. Therefore, it is imperative that the bulk of the muscles that support the front end are kept healthy and conditioned, and the horse is trained to use their “motor” — that is, engaging the large hind end muscles as much as possible to avoid excessive weight bearing on the front end.

If the front end of the horse is consistently overweighted or not at an appropriate level of fitness, repetitive biomechanical stresses get transferred down the leg to the smaller ligaments and tendons that were not designed to bear this weight, which can then lead to injury.

Brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

03/13/2025

We’re getting there!

03/12/2025

Well, after the accident I had in October last year, I am finally getting the new vet box put on the new truck! I made the drive up to Stonewell in New York with a friend (and my dog 🐶 of course) and now we are waiting for installation before coming right back. We got to Ithaca last night just in time to enjoy a 25° morning with some frost on the truck. Thank goodness for heated seats! 🥶 I can’t wait to come home and get back to working like before. Thank you to all of my clients who stuck with me during the last few months where I was less than 100%. I assure you it was just as frustrating for me as it was for you.

03/05/2025

Six horses in Texas, located in Burleson, Johnson, Atascosa, and Ector counties, have tested positive for EIA.

02/23/2025

A look at recent research on autologous blood-based products and their effects on equine joints and metabolic parameters.

02/22/2025

Time for the answer to our question…sorry for the delay. The abnormality you see in this horse’s eye is a cataract.

A cataract is an opacity in the lens of the eye. The lens serves to focus light onto the cornea. Cataracts can be congenital (born with it) or acquired (develop during life).

Certain breeds are predisposed to congenital cataracts including Arabians, Morgans, Belgians and Thoroughbreds. The congenital cataracts in these breeds are inherited but in other breeds will occur spontaneously due to improper formation of the lens during gestation.

Acquired cataracts typically develop due to inflammation, usually equine recurrent uveitis (ERU or Moonblindness), but can also develop from trauma or simple aging and deterioration of the lens.

Many owners will not know their horses have cataracts until the horse is examined by a vet. Often no symptoms will be present, but you may notice head shaking, spookiness, or even your horse bumping into things.

As of now, the only treatment for cataracts is surgical removal of the affected lens.

If you think your horse may have a cataract, talk to your veterinarian about the best course of action to take for your horse’s situation.

02/19/2025

What’s going on with this horse’s eye? What do you see? 🐴 👀 Let us know what you think and we’ll be back tomorrow with the answer.

02/16/2025

Find out what causes watery f***s in horses and whether you should be concerned.

02/15/2025

An equine nutritionist offers advice for determining Miniature Horses' forage requirements.

02/14/2025

We hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day! ❤️ Did you kiss your horse today? 😘 💋

02/09/2025

Are you rooting for a particular team today? Chiefs or Eagles? Or are you just watching for the Clydesdales? 🏈

02/04/2025

To pick or not to pick, that is the question! The recent article published on this topic adamantly argued to never but never pick your horse’s scabs. But is that the right course of action? Well, never say never! This answer is really dependent on the situation.

If your horse has a healing wound that happens to have a scab, and that scab is at or below the level of the skin, by all means leave it alone. Scabs are the body’s own bandaid and they protect the tissue underneath from infection and damage. BUT…there are some conditions where we absolutely want you to pick (remove gently) your horse’s scabs. The most notable of these conditions is rain rot. Rain rot is a superficial skin infection caused by the bacteria, Dematophilus congolensis, which causes wide spread scabs over the horse’s topline but can also affect the face and limbs. The scabs should be removed to treat the skin underneath. Oftentimes topical treatment is all that’s required but don’t be surprised if your vet recommends systemic antibiotics.

In the end, before you pick a scab, ask your vet! We may tell you to remove it or leave it.

02/03/2025

There was a recent article in a well respected equine magazine that suggested to never pic your horse’s scabs. This was recommended for lacerations, wounds, scratches, rain rot etc. Basically NEVER pick scabs. So do you think this is true? Let us know your thoughts and we’ll be back with the answer tomorrow.