Smokey Mountain Mobile Vet

04/28/2025

Having trouble with your horse “bolting” his food. Try this… feed hay first (I feed in old water tub) then feed grain in that. The combo is beneficial because slows eating. Additionally hay first starts the saliva flowing helping prevent ulcers. Additionally slowing eating help to prevent choke.

03/20/2025

New services from Smokey Mountain Vet -rehab services.

03/11/2025

Why does my horse cough? 🐴🫁

- Coughing is a very non-specific symptom that can be easy to ignore, especially if sporadic.

🌟Here are a few tips to help pinpoint the cause:

1. Does your horse have a fever? Any over the counter digital thermometer can be used to take your horses’ temperature re**ally. Re**al temperature is the most accurate. If the thermometer reads >101.5F, that would be considered a fever. Elevated re**al temperature is usually correlated with a viral or bacterial infection.

2. Does your horse have nasal discharge? Nasal discharge can range in color and consistency. White to yellow discharge is more consistent with infection. Clear discharge may be more consistent with irritation, like allergies. If discharge is coming out of both nostrils, this may indicate a lower airway issue (lungs). If it’s coming out of one nostril only, that is more consistent with an upper airway issue (like sinuses). Blood in the nostrils after exercise is consistent with exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH). This is most common in horses that perform at high speed (such as racehorses or barrel racers) but can occur in others. Just because no blood is seen, doesn’t mean it isn’t occurring. These horses may just cough or have increased respiratory effort.

3. Does your horse cough during certain times of day or during certain activities? Horses with asthma or inflammatory airway disease (IAD) tend to cough in dusty environments (like when ridden in a dirt or sand arena). They can also be triggered by allergens in the hay or in the barn. For instance, they may cough after getting a new flake of hay in the feeder or at the round bale. They may cough in the barn stall, but not when out on pasture.

4. Is the coughing seasonal? If your horse coughs during certain seasons, this may also point you more toward equine asthma or IAD.

🌟What can your vet do to help? 🩺

- A veterinarian can listen to the lungs and perform a “rebreathing exam” to make abnormal lung sounds easier to hear.

- Your vet can perform a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or transtracheal wash (TTW). These can be used to look at cells in your horses lungs to determine if there is inflammation, blood, bacteria, or fungi. A BAL can be used to classify your horses as having inflammatory airway disease if present. Blood cells can be seen in horses with exercised induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

- Radiographs (X-rays) can be taken of the skull to rule out sinus disease. Radiographs can be taken of the lungs, but this requires a high-powered machine at a referral hospital.

- Ultrasound of the lungs can be performed to look for fluid in the chest (as with pleuropneumonia) or irregularities on the surface of the lung (comet tails or b-lines).

🌟What can you do to help if suspicious of airway inflammation?

1. Wet down dirt arenas before riding or turnout.
2. Improve barn ventilation
3. Wet or steam the hay to reduce dust and allergens. Avoid round bales.
4. Use low-dust bedding such as pellets or shredded paper
5. Maximize pasture time when available
6. Follow your veterinarian’s recommendations regarding nebulization, bronchodilators, or corticosteroids

🌟What can you do naturally?🌱

- Consider supplements that decrease inflammation, open airways, thin mucus, and improve the immune system

- What could that include? Products with Mullein, Turmeric, Malabar Nut, Elecampane, Peppermint, Yarrow, and Omega 3 fatty acids (such as in flaxseed), among other natural ingredients.

You can view our raspatory supplement here: https://www.equineveterinaryessentials.com/equi-breeze-respiratory-supplement

- This is not a substitute for proper veterinary care. These can be used to help manage your horse long term and preserve lung health and function.

Hope you found this helpful! Tell us what other topics you’d like to hear!

03/06/2025

01/23/2025

A common misconception of people in the wintertime…. “My horse/cow/goat etc has water … there is a stream in the pasture or they have a water trough. Well if it’s frozen or even very cold the animal will not drink as well leading to illness.

Enter in bucket deicer. Does the trick. For those that do not have power to the pasture, search other ways to keep water unfrozen. For example putting 1/2 filled bottles in the water. The bouncing slows down the ice formation.

Do you have a unique solution? Post in comments.

01/17/2025

https://aaep.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=098934c9131c3fad1fa75df6c&id=3e058a72bf&e=94b702105a

Several diseases are have a resurgence as well as emergence in the US.
Eastern equine encephalitis
West Nile virus
Strangles

New world screw worm

Please click on link and read.

01/17/2025

Have a relationship with a vet

01/17/2025

I know this not what you wanted to read this morning but it is important to remain vigilant about reemergence of diseases. New World Screwworm needs to be kept at bay.
See links below for information.

01/15/2025

As I get lost in thought while drive down the road or while cleaning my stalls or as questions come in my appointments I find there are so many questions, misconceptions and cool ideas that need to be talked about. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts. You may agree or disagree but that’s fine. Do you have any cool hacks or burning questions that you want to get out there? Drop it in the comments. Doesn’t matter what it is. They may be questions or opinions about care or something else. There are only 2 rules… no criticism of others’ questions or comments and no misinformation.

01/14/2025

Why is in person vet exam necessary? Here is a call I had over the weekend…
Get a call about a 27 year old horse that didn’t eat breakfast, was pacing and circling, had been drinking less water. First thought is colic, right? Especially with the cold weather we had. Horse would not drink the molasses tea so I went out to treat what I thought was a likely colic.
Get there to find a very different situation…
Horse is circling and “walking around” but not “kicking at belly”. Horse can’t control right rear so continually “walks”. There is more to the story and just to say as of this writing the horse is doing better with treatment. So the next time you try to ”figure it out on your own “ and want the vet to diagnose over the phone, just get them out.
Pic of my pups for attention because I’m not going to put a picture of this horse or any other out there for everyone to criticize.

01/14/2025

Let’s talk water…
Most people give plenty of hay or fix a mash when weather turns cold. But don’t forget about water. Specifically CLEAN UNFROZEN TEPID water. A dirty water trough (trough should be emptied and scrubbed once a week) that is super cold or frozen can cause numerous problems. Problems such as colic, constipation, dehydration, injury due to trying to get to the water and general stress which can increase likelihood of ulcers which can lead to decreased water intake and colic. It’s a vicious circle that can be prevented with just a little bit of prevention. Now not everyone can use bucket deicers (which I recommend) but there are several ideas on creating an insulated water trough on Pinterest. I have one that I used on my smaller buckets. Bottom line clean your water buckets and troughs and add salt (a little) to encourage water consumption if necessary.

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas to all. 🎄