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Ask the Vet – Thrush, vet school tips, Fecal Water Syndrome, and more! – July 2020

Posted on: July 13, 2020 by SmartPak

Watch the Ask the Vet Success Story SmartPaker Dan mentions at the beginning of this video here.

You asked, we answered! In our latest episode of our monthly series, Ask the Vet, Dr. Lydia Gray and SmartPaker Dan welcome some special guests to help them answer YOUR questions! First, Danvers Child, Certified Journeyman Farrier and member of the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame joins to talk about why some horses seem to be prone to thrush. Later on, Dr. Cheyenne Sams and Dr. Meredith Frey share their secrets about how they recently got through vet school and lived to tell the tale! Dr. Gray and Dan also talk about how to help a young horse that is exhausted after working, whether or not you can (or should) feed honey to horses, Free Fecal Water Syndrome, and so much more!

If your question was answered in this video, reach out to us at CustomerCare@SmartPak.com and let us know! We’ll get your gift card out to you as soon as we can! Have some of your own questions? Ask away using #AsktheVetVideo! If your question gets selected to be in one of our Ask the Vet videos, you win a SmartPak gift card! How awesome is that!?

Additional reading/watching material mentioned in the video:
Horse Health Library Videos
Ask the Vet form
Ask the Vet – COVID-19 and equine coronavirus
Hoof Health Videos with Danvers Child
How to Pack a Hoof
Ask the Vet – What to track in your horse’s journal
Ask the Vet – Dapples on horses
Diarrhea and Fecal Water Syndrome in Horses
Research studies on Fecal Water Syndrome

Questions answered in this episode:
1. With all the spring rain & mud there is a concern for the development of conditions in the hoof such as Thrush. Besides picking the hoof & regular trims, is there any other treatment that one can use to prevent this? Also, it seems that when a horse develops thrush in a foot this hoof tends to get thrush more often than the others, even after treatment. Does it lay dormant or is there a change in the hoof that causes it to be more susceptible to thrush again? Thanks in advance for your answer!
2. I have a 3 year old mare that is a barrel horse and does heavier workouts. She will be laying down sleeping in the morning and is exhausted but won’t show it to me when we are riding because she wants to please me so badly. She is on light workouts for now until we get a supplement for her and shoes. No she is not colicking she is just so tired in the mornings and her muscles are sore. DO YOU HAVE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A SUPPLEMENT FOR HER?
3. Can you feed honey? If so, what nutrients does it provide to our horses? Thank you very much i love your videos.
4. Any tips for going through vet school? Thinking about making that my career path and want to be as knowledgeable about the process as possible. 🙂
5. Could you talk a bit about diarrhea in horses and your experiences about correlation with ad libitum hay or too much roughage in general? Especially horses that have normally shaped droppings but excess “water” apart from the droppings. I get the feeling that a lot of horse owners have this problem. Also, 15 years ago this was not so much a problem as it seems to be nowadays. I have also heard of studies that showed dappled horses in a herd are more susceptible to this, which I find very interesting.