General Horse Health
Some horses really like to eat clover and in the summer, some clover can become infected with a type of fungus that produces a chemical called slaframine. This chemical stimulates the production of a tremendous amount of saliva. This fungus, rhizoctonia leguminicola, can also infect other types of legumes such as alfalfa and can be found on red and white clover. It thrives under conditions of high rainfall or high humidity.
While this condition is aesthetically unpleasant and messy, there are rarely any actual health concerns for the horse. Symptoms of slaframine consumption can begin as soon as one hour after ingestion of the contaminated plants and may last up to three days after the source is removed.
Yes. You can give your horse a dark beer like a stout served at room temperature. In theory this should help. If that doesn’t do the trick, there are medications that can be prescribed.
There are several signs of colic. They are:
- Not eating or finishing feed
- Depressed
- Lying down
- Not passing a normal amount of manure
- Decreased or absent GI sounds
- Looking at sides
- Curling of upper lip
- Pawing
- Kicking or pawing at belly
- Repeatedly rolling
- Stretching out
- Sweating
- Increased heart rate
- Rapid breathing or flaring of nostrils
- Appears bloated
- Tucked up in the abdomen
If your horse is presenting signs of colic, you should call your vet if:
- Heart rate is more than 60 beats per minute
- Feed material is coming from the nostrils (THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!)
- You have to walk your horse to keep if from going down and rolling for more than 15-20 minutes in a one hour period.
- Sweating
- Gums are anything other than pink and moist
- Your horse hasn’t been “right ” for more than 24 hours (not passing normal amount of manure, not eating or drinking normally, or unusually quiet or depressed)
Learn the Signs Of Colic
Yes. You can give injectable Banamine orally, though it will take a little longer to work than injecting Banamine into the muscle. However, you remove the risk of a Clostridial infection at the injection site.
Coggins testing diagnoses a horse with equine infectious anemia (EIA). EIA is a potentially fatal virus that only infects horses. The disease is highly contagious and many of the symptoms are often mistaken for other fever-related illnesses like anthrax, influenza, and equine encephalitis. Unlike these other diseases, EIA contaminates the DNA of red blood cells, potentially causing death within 2-3 weeks. In addition, some horses may not show any signs of having EIA if their contraction is “in-apparent,” but they are still contagious and a danger to other horses.