 |
|
 |
2008
Laminitis West Conference |
The second bi-annual
Laminitis West Conference is slated for
September 17-18, 2010, in Monterey, California.
Veterinarians, farriers, and veterinary
students from all over the country will
be invited to attend and we expect 300-500
people to join us. In November of 2008 we
held a one-day Laminitis West Conference,
introducing the conference as a west coast
complement to the International Conference
on Laminitis and Diseases of the foot that
is held in Palm Beach, Florida every other
year. The premier of Laminitis West was
an absolute success. Laminitis West 2010
promises to be an extraordinary two day
conference with six presenters covering
the most up-to-date information and research
on laminitis, as well as a case presentation
panel on Saturday night. * Saturday, September
18th, we will hold a day of lectures on
laminitis and diseases of the foot for clients.
This will include lunch, time for questions
and discussion, and a cocktail hour with
the conference’s veterinary and farrier
attendees. More information will soon be
available at www.steinbeckequine.com. We
look forward to seeing you there!
|
|
 |
Dr.
Nora Grenager |
Congratulations to Nora Grenager for completing
her residency at SCEC in Internal Medicine
through the American College of Veterinary
Internal Medicine! Dr. Grenager is one of
two of the Central Coast’s only equine
veterinarians boarded in internal medicine
(Dr. Eric Davis is the other).
Congratulations to
Dr. Hirsch for completing the requirements
and being accepted by the USEF and FEI as
a FEI Veterinary Delegate for Dressage.
The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI)
is the international body governing equestrian
sport and is the sole controlling authority
for all international events in Dressage,
Jumping, Eventing, Driving, Vaulting and
Reining. The FEI establishes the regulations
and approves equestrian programs at Championships,
Continental and Regional Games, as well
as the Olympics. The primary mission of
the FEI is to advance the orderly growth
of equestrian sport worldwide by promoting,
regulating, and administering humane and
sportsmanlike international competition
in the traditional equestrian disciplines.
(Congratulations also on becoming a father!)
|
 |
Dr.
Murray at Horseman's Day 2010 |
Horseman’s
Day, held on February 20th, was a great
success. About 85 people attended this special
event held in Carmel Valley. After a Continental
Breakfast and welcoming by Dr. Durham, Dr.
Hirsch gave a presentation on stifle lameness.
Later in the morning, Dr. Grenager spoke
on new strategies in parasite control based
upon her on-going research. After a lunch
buffet, Dr. Mandy Murray from UC Davis shared
information from her studies of Silicate-Associated
Osteoporosis. During the day, Dr. McCormick
and Dr. McLaughlin also presented special
cases. Vendors had booths and Barbro Ask-Upmark
gave a demonstration on “Always a
Good Ride.”
|
|
 |
Dr.
Kristin McLaughlin |
by Kristin McLaughlin, DVM
On January 20th, 2010, Steinbeck Country
Equine Clinic hosted its first Ophthalmology
continuing education event for veterinarians.
Ophthalmology is the study of disorders
affecting the eye, those windows to the
soul that are particularly vulnerable and
difficult to treat in our equine companions—as
anyone whose horse has ever required eye
ointment can attest to. Three experts were
invited to speak; Dr. Ann Gratzick, a board-certified
ophthalmologist who practices on small and
large animals on the central coast, Dr.
Brad Graham, a board-certified ophthalmologist
who practices on small and large animals
in Colorado, and Dr. Ann Dwyer, an equine
practitioner in New York who has made extensive
study of equine eye disease. Roughly 45
veterinarians and veterinary students from
as far away as Southern California and Davis
were able to come to Salinas for the event.
Lectures throughout the day covered such
topics as equine uveitis, common findings
on pre-purchase examinations, as well as
anatomy and examination of the equine eye.
The experts led laboratories working on
local horses with interesting ocular conditions,
and all veterinarians were able to play
with the latest and greatest in ophthalmic
tools and technology. With this day dedicated
to the equine eye, very knowledgeable practitioners
and dedicated local veterinarians were able
to raise the level of practice and care
of your horses throughout the entire region.
|
|
|
After completing
her internship with SCEC, Dr. Kristin McLaughlin
joined the staff at Greenville Veterinary
Clinic in Greenville, PA as an equine veterinarian.
(We hope she will also continue her wonderful
artwork.) Dr. Justin McCormick is following
Dr. Tim Eastman’s path, starting a
surgery residency at Texas A&M. Our
new interns are Dr. Steven Loncosky from
Western University in California and Dr.
Sarah James from North Carolina State University.
|
|
 |
Tiffany
Durham |
 |
Giga
Cullen |
Tiffany Durham and Giga Cullen attended
a week-long training seminar in lab procedures
at Littleton Large Animal Clinic. They are
excited to offer an expanded lab with additional
services!
|
SCEC now provides
Game Ready to treat injured horses in the
hospital and for preventative therapy on
site at horse shows. Game Ready Equine is
an Accelerated Recovery System for horses
utilizing the same physical therapy used
by professional human athletes. It includes
ergonomic, flexible wraps that are secured
around the areas to be treated and a microprocessor-regulated
Control Unit that is filled with ice and
water.
To reduce swelling,
ice is only half of the solution. Active
Compression Units force tissue debris out
of the affected area and allow fresh blood
flow into that part of the body—unlike
static compression wraps. Dry cold therapy
offers deeper, more consistent cooling without
the danger of cracked heels or other damage
caused by excessive moisture from wet cold
therapies like ice boots. This dry cold
and active compression therapy accelerates
recovery of strained tendons, muscle tears,
soft tissue swelling and other injuries
that plague performance.
|
|
IRAP therapy is not
a music group, it is a somewhat new treatment
for arthritis in horses and in humans. A
chemical that is largely responsible for
the pain associated with arthritis is called
Interleukin 1. IRAP decreases joint pain
by interfering with the activity of Interleukin
1 and similar compounds.
For the procedure,
you obtain a large syringe of blood. The
syringe you pull the blood into has hundreds
of glass balls that have been exposed to
a certain gas that favors the “IRAP”
and helps amplify it. Once the blood is
obtained, it is incubated overnight and
then spun in a centrifuge to separate the
serum from the other components. This serum
is rich in IRAP and once passed through
a filter, is injected directly into the
desired joint. Extra serum is frozen for
subsequent treatments.
Typically,
a series of 3 injections are performed 1
week apart to treat 1 affected joint. Coffin
joints and stifles that don’t respond
well to steroid injections seem to be the
most popular condition to treat. Reactions
are uncommon largely due to the fact that
it is the patient’s own serum.
|
Tildren® is a
drug that has been available in Europe for
many years to treat navicular disease and
has recently become available in the United
States to veterinarians who go through special
licensure. It is similar to drugs used to
treat osteoporosis in people. The activity
of the cells that cause the destructive
changes we see on X-rays with navicular
disease is suppressed. Apparently the activity
of these cells is very painful and by reducing
their activity, many horses become much
more comfortable.
There are many different
treatment protocols being utilized with
Tildren but most involve placement of an
iv catheter and administration of a large
amount of the drug as an iv drip for about
an hour. Generally in 2-4 weeks the benefits
are beginning to be realized and the effect
lasts for approximately six months. Horses
may remain sound longer by giving monthly
boosters.
In addition to navicular
disease, many veterinarians use Tildren
to treat horses with hock pain. Many lameness
diagnosticians feel that Tildren has been
the first major breakthrough in the treatment
of navicular disease in horses.
|
Stem cells have been
injected into injured ligaments for many
years now and are becoming increasingly
popular as a treatment for joint disease
as well. The idea is that by providing a
large population of cells at the site of
injury that are not yet committed to becoming
any one tissue, you encourage them to become
what is needed for repair.
There are different
ways to obtain stem cells for use in horses.
One is to take bone marrow from the horse
and inject it directly into the damaged
tissue straight or after some modification.
Another is a commercially available product
called “A-cell” in which the
source of stem cells is fetal pig bladder.
A-cell comes in an injectable form used
for tendon injuries and as a sheet used
for treatment of wounds (A-cell is currently
off the market but reports say it will soon
be back). We have been using a 3rd source
for the past several years with very promising
success, a company called Vet-Stem. The
stem cells used are not of embryonic origin
but come from the patient’s own adipose
tissue. By using the patients own fat, rejection
becomes almost a non-issue.
Apparently fat is
a storage reservoir for stem cells which
is handy because it is readily accessible.
The fat is typically harvested through a
surgical incision made above and to the
side of the base of the tail. This fat is
stored in a special container and sent overnight
to a lab in southern California where the
stem cells are separated out, suspended
in saline, and sent back to the veterinarian
again by overnight mail. Ultrasound guidance
is then used to inject the stem cells directly
into a torn ligament or tendon. Alternatively,
the stem cells may be directly injected
into a badly damaged joint.
Initial research
with fat derived stem cells in horses has
been encouraging. Clinically, the ultrasound
scans of tendon or ligament injuries is
amazingly improved 60 days after injection
and we feel like more horses are going back
to their previous level of work with less
recurrences.
|
 |
click
on picture |
|
 |
 |
click
on images |
The 2006 year is
already underway, with RAVS teams working
in Northern Guatemala and on Easter Island.
Our Native nations and Appalachian season
of providing free Veterinary care to remote
Western reservation communities and mountain
hollows. It seems like 2005, the year of
the disaster, was eons ago instead of just
a few months. It is easy to quote the extraordinary
statistics and list the achievements: 1,160
RAVS volunteers treated 42,018 animals in
2005. The free services rendered are conservatively
valued at $1,475,583.00. Teams including
873 veterinary students from 25 different
schools in the USA, Europe and Latin America
worked in communities from North Dakota
to Easter Island, and from Sri Lanka to
Maine. This does not even include RAVS Katrina
and Wilma Hurricane relief efforts in which
RAVS normally deployed 131 Veterinarians,
258 Veterinary Technicians, 28 students,
and 40 other personnel. Hundreds of others,
who wanted to work in Mississippi, Louisiana,
or Mexico, were referred by RAVS to other
organizations not included in these figures.
RAVS personnel operated shelters, rescued
animals, treated injuries, reunited owners
and pets, and were recognized by everyone
from government officials to thankful guardians
for their effectiveness and dedication.
Then there are all the people, like the
dog owners in Sneedville, Tennessee, or
the Mayan farmers in Uaxactun, Guatemala,
or the children at Fort Apache, Arizona
who listened, and heard the message of humane
and responsible animal care. All the while
our volunteers learned from our clients
in the rural communities about their lives
and the lives of their animals, and how
they can help in the future.
For more information
on the most up to date news, RAVS is always
available at www.ruralareavet.org.
The website also includes information on
volunteering and the 2006 RAVS schedule.
|
The traveling veterinary
clinic opens at 8 a.m. on the Hoopa Valley
Indian Reservation northeast of Eureka.
By then customers have been in line since
6:30 on the cold banks of the Trinity River,
and are eager to get inside with their dogs
and cats.
The pets are not
as eager. Many have never been indoors,
and a fire station that has been converted
to a surgical ward is not a gentle introduction
to the sheltered life.
"It only takes
one dog to start the riot," says Jennifer
Scarlett of San Francisco, who is familiar
with an 8 a.m. cacophony in her position
as field veterinarian for Remote Area Veterinary
Services (RAVS) a program of the Humane
Society of the United States and the Fund
for Animals.
For six years, RAVS
has been taking veterinary students onto
reservations across the country to put them
through a MASH-style trial. For the annual
Hoopa outing in March, 35 students, including
20 from UC Davis, met the 27-foot horse
trailer that hauled supplies up from RAVS
headquarters in Salinas. It takes a day
to set up the station with exam and anesthesia
stations, six surgical tables, each staffed
by a licensed vet plus one or two students,
all of whom could probably think of easier
ways to spend spring break.
The free clinic runs
six days of 12 to 14 hours each. The vets
finish up at 9 or 10 p.m., walk down the
street to camp at the teen center, then
commute back to the clinic in the morning.
They will treat any animal, from on the
reservation and off, and will go into the
field to treat horses and donkeys. In March,
they treated 393 patients, the majority
for spaying and neutering. The estimated
value was $69,000.
"The RAVS animal
clinic changes our world," says Robin
Roberts, a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe,
who has lived on the reservation since 2001.
"When I first moved here, there were
roving packs of dogs and feral cats and
lots of runover animals. Now people's consciousness
level has been raised. They've actually
learned correct pet care."
More>>>
Also visit: www.sfgate.com/slideshows
|
 |
 |
click
on images |
Approximately
200 people attended our 2006 Horseman’s
Day. Topics included lectures on Strangles,
West Nile Virus, and Epm by Dr. William
Saville, Hoof Nutrition by Dr. Scott Gravlee,
Stem Cell Use in Equine Injuries by Dr.
Bobby Cowles. Dr. Matthew Durham did a presentation
on Silicosis in Horses. Paula Wittler spoke
about the Rotating Wormer Program.
The late Roy Forzani,
renowned horse trainer, was commemorated
with a touching speech by Dr. Tim Eastman
and a beautiful placard made by Dr. Gary
Deter.
We hope to educate
our clients so they can help us catch problems
as early as possible through careful observation
of medical symptoms.
|
|
Download the newsletter to print:
Spring 2009 (200KB–8
pages)
Summer 2007 (491KB-4
pages)
Summer 2004 (237KB–4
pages)
Summer 2003 (284KB–5
pages)
Free
Acrobat Reader download:
|
|
