Crabtree's Equine Experience: LETS TALK ABOUT NITROFURAZONE!!!

Crabtree's Equine Experience: LETS TALK ABOUT NITROFURAZONE!!!: Nitrofurazone was my second best buddy when I was at the racetrack and training my thoroughbreds.  The sweats that utilized this neon yellow...

LETS TALK ABOUT NITROFURAZONE!!!

Nitrofurazone was my second best buddy when I was at the racetrack and training my thoroughbreds.  The sweats that utilized this neon yellow concoction, the mixes you could come up with were countless.  We have been utilizing furazone for many, many years and it has proven to be the top topical and tool that us racehorse trainers could get our hands on and the tack stores were always in great supply of the "yellow goo" that many of us know all too well.

Then a few years ago there came this news medial concern that this yellow friend of ours could possibly be a cancer causing material.  It was known to cause cancer in lab rats and that kind of blew my mind because as far as I was concerned, I had exposure that you couldn't even measure.  I never used gloves and if I had to...why in the world would I want to put that on my horses?  I have always felt guilty using things on my animals that were not safe for me to be in contact with....my horses were living breathing, God made creatures and I felt that they too since being so exposed have the risk of developing cancer. 

I still use this yellow ointment today, and I do not cover myself in a paper suit to be in contact with it.  I guess maybe I am not as smart as I could be given the evidence that they just released very recently  and  wanted the world of horses to know.... and I just had CANCER surgery..maybe this little yellow friend of mine is the culprit...who knows.

But at any rate...it is totally up to you to heed the warnings of whoever delivers such bad news after the fact.  I tend to use the spray avenue of this yellow common.  Less of me touches it and it tends to not drag up so much dirt and germs while the healing is taking place.  That's my advice...The spray furizone is my best bet nowadays..it works as far as I am concerned.

Now..here is the catch and something that you need to know...No ointment, spray or liquid should be expected to  prevent the growth of bacteria completely. So I guess it does not matter what you use...take your pic there are too many available products that make a claim and most do what is expected on a  reasonable level..

But....here is the most important issue.  If there is the presence of blood. plasma, or pus, using furizone or any of the similar products are counterproductive.  If  using the ointment, it produces a moist environment and therefore making a good place for bacteria to continue doing what it does best no matter what you use.....grow.  

The key to using products for wound treatment is to first make it clean by using other products more compatible for the situation...iodine spray, my other best friend, hell you have to realize they still use that brown crap in the operating rooms,...so in my book...still the ultimate best stuff to combat initial wound treatment.  After you have the wound in control and you don't see the pus, blood, excessive leakage, the application of the wound treatment of your choice is now advisable.

When horse products are used within their limits of application and understood how they work, you get results.  These products are useful and  need to be used. They have a place in  in every tack room of a horse establishment....

Cancer????hmmmm ....debatable but also...somewhat proven but under what conditions did the cancer develop??? 

Thanks for stopping in and I still use my "yellow buddy",  and it works.

Crabtree's Equine Experience: Protein, high, low...what do you know????

Crabtree's Equine Experience: Protein, high, low...what do you know????: It has always been explained to me that a high protein diet is only good for mares in foal, the mare after foaling for milk production, the ...

Protein, high, low...what do you know????

It has always been explained to me that a high protein diet is only good for mares in foal, the mare after foaling for milk production, the stud during breeding season and for growth during a young horse's life. 

Protein higher than 16% for any other situation is really not useful.  Horses burn protein during exercise, but it is not the main source of energy..carbohydrates and fats become the main source of food for energy.

For some it is the thought that protein is better in large quantities for the performance horse and this is simply not true.. Protein is a metabolically expensive source of energy for the horse, it takes longer to break down and be useful in this manner. Protein costs more energy to metabolize than any other food fuels available, then is also produces very little energy for working muscles.

If you are conditioning your horse for the best performance your horse  can give, it is easier to get much more energy and fuel to burn from carbohydrates from your good alfalfa and grass sources. Vegetable oil is a great fat source.  Fat and carbs provide and supply fuel for the muscle cell to produce energy for exercise.  When your horse's diet is tailored to the work that it is expected to do, your horse will condition easier and tire less if it is using the energy source that it needs for the work it is doing.

I see very little improvements from animals that are fed high protein diets and not adequate sources of other means of fuel needed for activity.  I am pretty sure that the idea of high protein diets will make a better, faster animal is the myth that a lot of horse people are living by and do not realize the unleashed potential that may be present in their horse if they are provided what they need for the work that is expected of them.

Higher fat feeds are helpful in creating the energy needed for performance.  A good quality alfalfa and or other rich hay source is your better bet than paying the extra bucks for a high protein feed.

Babies, pregnancy, breeding, lactating mares and some senior horses benefit most from the high protein diets. 

Fat is a working horse's best friend and if you are trying to supply a thinner animal a better chance at gaining some weight...remember fat makes fat..fat is also a very much needed ingredient in the winter months to keep the energy production for body temps.

Thanks for checking in and will enjoy any comments or questions you may have 

















































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Allergens are on the way and your horse could be affected.

Did you realize that your horse can suffer from allergies just like a human can?  Did you ever walk up on a horse that has runny eyes, clear nasal discharge and a cough or a sneeze?  How about seeing your horse with a bunch of bumps on the skin and your animal appears itchy and not in a very good comfort zone.?? All of these symptoms can measure up to your horse having allergies.  There is a simple, cost effective way to treat all of these symptoms and make your horse a whole lot more comfortable.  If your horse has no fever, is not off the feed, drinking water but just looking miserable to you with any of the above symptoms, you may want to treat for allergies. 

There is no need to call a vet unless the airway appears to obstructed from inflammation due to an allergic reaction, fever, and off feed.  Allergies are treated easily with the administration of an antihistamine in the feed.

This simple procedure is just like giving Benedryl to your children for allergy symptoms, just in a larger dose that is recommended for horses.  It is basically inexpensive and will do the trick if you horse is having a run-in with allergies. 

Take note of the weather man and let him tell you about the air quality and pay attention to your horse on those days and see if the symptoms are worse on the "bad air" days or not.

 A horse having hives is suffering from an allergic reaction and will benefit greatly from the administration of an antihistamine.  In no time you will see the bumps on the skin retreat and the horse begin to feel a bit more comfortable.  My advice is to stop administration of the antihistamine when you see that your horse has not had a relapse of the hives for a 24 hour period.  If the symptoms appear again, retreat the animal until you have no hives for a full 24 hour period. If you are suddenly experiencing hives and they seemed to have come out of no where, you may want to investigate and see what may be causing the problem.  It could be a change in feed, a change in hay or being pastured and eating a plant that caused the reaction.  Paying attention will help in the long run.

Some feed stores and tack stores are unaware of this product and will not have it in stock.   You can get in on- line very easily and very reasonable. 

It is best to have this in your medicine cabinet.  You just never know when you will need it and it is a whole lot more practical than crushing multiple Bendryl tablets which is your other alternative.

Thanks for stopping in..

THE WINTER BLUES FOR BOTH HORSE AND OWNER. its going to be all up to you to decide....

This post is for one of my readers..I had a request to comment on winter care and I have got a boat load of advice on that subject and I thank my reader for the request.

The winter months are more brutal on the horse owner than it is the horse..with a few...and I did say few exceptions.  Reason is..well horses actually like the cold weather.  I see my horses out in the rain cold and sleet without ever retreating to the barn and it bothers me like you would not believe.  I usually run back and forth to the window to check to see if they are actually out there in that type of weather. 

But..now there are some buts...and you have to make a decision based on your horse and what type of situation presents itself there. 

I have witnessed my horses live through the toughest parts of winter with the rain, getting wet then a super cold front hits and I can actually see them shivering.  Yes they are cold but it also their bodies response when they shiver to keep them warm just like humans.  I tend to lend a little help when they get to that point..but there are times I would not and I shall explain.

I have dealt with thoroughbreds a good portion of my career, so..in saying that... I have an animal that is different from the rest.. The metabolism, the thickness of their skin, the amount of nerve endings in their skin versus other horses and the way that they burn energy to keep themselves warm all add up to doing more for them than I would for lets say a quarter horse. 

Let us start off with this piece by piece..so what do you feed a horse in the colder winter months?  Well consider this, fat makes fat and the fat storage on your horse in winter will be the very thing that keeps him/her warm during the cold and this is the case without blanketing. but we will get to the blanketing later.  Horses have the greatest ability to maintain their body temperature.  Now the key is to feed a feed that is high in fat or an additional fat supplement and feed ample hay so that they are not going to lose fat during the cold months which means once the fat is gone then their body goes for the muscle to maintain the body temps and then you get a horse that is going to be out of condition and that leads to other problems all in themselves.  They have plenty of supplements that add quite a bit of fat to the diet if you don't want to change your feed to a higher fat content.  Corn oil added to feed, Fat Cat is great, any fat supplement is going to add more fat for what you need to accomplish.  Now the thing I like to do is add alfalfa to the diet as well...I do not feed alfalfa in the summer months, it is too hot of a feed and can cause many problems and they just don't need it in my opinion.  But a good supplementation of alfalfa is great in the winter time.  The key here is to give your horse enough nourishment to adequately supply him/her self with the warmth they need during the cold winter months.

Water is very important in the winter months and horses can go either way, they either drink a lot and then you have no worries or they back off of the water intake and that can lead to impaction, by not having enough water to work the bowels properly.  In this case it is going to be up to you to observe your horse's water intake and a quick fix for this would be to add electrolytes to the feed and not in the water.  Adding to the water may discourage water intake, but when you add it to the feed, it will do what it was meant to do if you put it in the suggested route of administration, the water. This is important stuff so pay attention.

Bran mash in the winter is something that people think is doing something for their horse.  Just the thought of giving a warm, steamy bran mash  is a warm fuzzy feeling carrying that bucket to give to your horse, I know all about that .  But...giving too much of a bran mash is detrimental... it can do more harm than good..I have previous post that discuss this.

Now blanketing..this is controversial but let me give you my feelings and that may allow you to make a decision one way or the other.  First off, horses have the ability to grow a fantastic coat that keeps them insulated and warm during the cold winter months.  Horses also have the ability to grow a heavier coat if they are experiencing more cold as the months go on.  So, horses have the ability to adapt to the conditions they live in.   We can greatly reduce this ability if we choose to blanket our horses for the winter.  Now, I do blanket, but in certain situations.   My feeling is this...if you impeded the growth by putting on a blanket, how do you know if you are able to keep that horse as warm as it should be?  I mean this when I say that.....you start blanketing early, you hinder the natural ability to accommodate cold weather by not allowing the coat to grow to meet what the horse is needing and you can get a cold snap with sub zero temps and that blanket that you put on too early is not enough to keep that animal warm adequately so now you got their furnace working on over drive.   More than likely, you didn't give any extra feed for this and so you start getting an animal that is going to use internally what it needs to stay warm when it had exactly what it needed externally if it was given the chance to maintain the proper growth of coat.  So it's gonna be up to you.

I do blanket my thinner skinned thoroughbreds, and if I see that they are not liking the blanket, I do not use a blanket at all.  They actually help me decide.  I will blanket in the winter on a day that has temps and wind chills that are hard for any animal to take.  I will blanket a horse that is not thriving in weight and needs some help to maintain his temp, otherwise I will be like a hamster on a wheel trying to get that horse to gain weight.  I will blanket a sick horse if necessary and I will blanket a horse that had come up from a warmer climate to a bitter cold one because they have not adapted to the climate and need assistance, but they will eventually grow the coat they need in a few seasons.

Never blanket a sweaty horse, and replace wet blankets with dry ones because you greatly reduce the insulating abilities to keep warm.

I once went to a barn where the manager lacked management skills so serious that I do not wonder why she is no longer in business.  She was a lazy manager and would let the  wired stabled horses out in an arena as a herd with the blankets on and the horses ran like fools and would get all worked up and sweaty.  One day I walked in and there was a smoke coming from the arena, I thought the place was on fire.  It was steam...all of those horses were soaked with sweat, and it being a frigid day, they all were steamed and the amount of horses involved, you couldn't see them in the arena because of the steam.   Now did she do anything for those horses as that time?  Just think of how miserable they must have felt carrying around a soaked blanket and then being thrown in a stall...needless to say I was nauseated.

Well folks I hope this helps you and thank you for stopping in...have questions or concerns, I am here to tell ya what I think... 

Soft hooves

Climate, bacteria and inner health all contribute to the condition of the horse's hooves.  I think the horse with the best hooves are the Mustangs.  They have the hardest, perfectly shaped and sized hooves of all the horses around and they rarely need a shoe.  I think once they are domesticated and put in certain situations they lose that perfect hoof. 

As of recent years, there is a lot of controversy as to weather to shoe or not to shoe and that has to be up to personal preference as far as I am concerned.  I go both ways, some I do and some I don't.  With the thoroughbreds, since the hoof is the extension of the skin and they are in fact "thin skinned animals, it usually means they have a thinner wall.  If you have a horse off the track the walls are thin and full of holes since racetrack practices usually require a horse to be shod every thirty days. 

The topic of today is the soft hoof.   Environment has a less to do with it than the inner hydration and absorption factors.  I can go into great detail as to why the hoof is in the condition that it is, but I want to focus on one circumstance at a time, without the possibility of overwhelming you.

The soft hoof can become that way due to many underlying issues but..if you are having trouble with tender foot, inability to maintain a shoe, and just a soft sole that you can actually flake off with your hoof pick as you clean, you have a soft soled, or hooved horse.  Sometimes no matter what, you have a problem with a soft soled horse, it just happens to be that way so dealing with it or trying to deal with it is all you can do..  '

The key is to harden the sole,  if possible with applications of one of two products..that I might add work very very well.  I can recommend them for this circumstance and I will expect  you would have some level of success. 

Turpentine is great for toughening up the sole. and the sole is where it is applied and the frog would be better left out of the application.  We need the frog pliable for blood pumping purposes.  All you do is clean the hoof, make sure it is dry, brush off all dirt and debris and apply with a tooth brush or other applicator of your choice.  Two or three times a week will be sufficient in a consistent manner and you will see that your horse is less tender footed and may hold a shoe longer than you thought it might. Over use is not going to make a the sole you are attempting..so two to three times per week will be all you need!

Pine tar is your next choice.  A good one too.  It has basically the same principals as the turpentine but there is a little added feature of pine tar, it is believed to have antiseptic purposes, which is helpful in some cases controlling thrush and or other bacteria that can be a nuisance.  Back in the day, I knew a few farriers that applied this under shoe pads to impede the growth of bacteria from shoeing to shoeing and it has been proven to be somewhat effective for this purpose.

Now if you want me to pick, I would have to say that either one is great, you decide and maybe it would be the odor of each that might lead you to one or the other.  They are both applied in the same manner and work just as well.  There is no leader here, although I would prefer to use pine tar if I am treating a stabled horse, since they are exposed to their own excrement's throughout the day.  But it is totally a personal preference and one that you can not really go wrong with no matter what you decide.

Thanks for stopping in and look forward to your comments if you have any please post.