More Good Home Remedies!

FLY REPELLENT RECIPE

* In a quart sprayer container:

1" white vinegar

1" blue Dawn liquid dish washing detergent

Fill with water and shake to mix.
Spray on horse.

1/2 cup to 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar mixed in with horse's feed once a day should also help prevent flies. It's also said this is used by some people to help calm a nervous horse, to help itchy skin, and to help with arthritis and joint pain.

Summer Weather Related to Some Disease Outbreaks

Potomac horse fever (PHF) has been reported in Indiana, and West Nile virus (WNV) was found in a mosquito in Ohio. This summer’s hot, dry weather may have something to do with the incidence of these diseases.

Veterinarians in Indiana have more commonly seen PHF in late summer and early fall, coinciding with a rise in the number of freshwater snails, caddisflies, and dragonflies that carry the bacteria that spread the disease. This year’s warm weather in early spring may have reset the life cycles of these creatures, bringing an earlier onset of the malady. Horses with PHF may show colic, diarrhea, and dehydration. Treatment with antibiotics and NSAIDs is usually successful, though horses can die from untreated PHF.

WNV is spread by infected mosquitoes that breed in standing water. Dry summer conditions have allowed many streams to turn into a series of shallow pools which are ideal for producing a large crop of mosquitoes. The disease produces neurologic signs such as stumbling, uncoordinated gaits, depression, and muscle twitching, and can be fatal if not treated. Horse owners can use management steps to reduce the chance of horses being infected by keeping vaccinations current, eliminating standing water throughout horse properties, and minimizing the number of lights in or near barns at night.

More Home Remedies!

Injuries -

Preparation H - helps reduce proud flesh and encourages hair growth on wound sites.

Sugar and Iodine - mix into paste for burns and scrapes.

Diapers - place on the underside of hoof and wrap duct tape around the horse's hoof. This is great for holding a poultice in place and keeping abscesses clean. The diaper stayed on and the abscess stayed clean and was able to heal.

Cleaning open horse wounds -


The best thing to use in cleaning all sorts of cuts, tears or abrasions is sterile saline solution. You should always have some saline in your first aid kit, and plenty of it, since it's the best way to clean wounds. If you've run out or are in a place where there is no saline, flush wounds out anyway with water from a hose. If there's any contact lens saline around, that will work. 

The goal in cleaning the wound by flushing with clean liquid is to wash away bacteria which might otherwise cause infection, so use plenty of fluid when flushing a wound, and let the excess pour away, hopefully carrying bacteria with it to the ground and away from your horse.

Poisonous Plants & Storm Damage

The poisoning of horses by leaves of the Red Maple tree [also called the swamp maple] is a seasonal disorder that occurs during the summer and fall months.  Fresh leaves right from the tree are safe and present no problem to a horse other than the danger of colic; not unlike the colic risk of a horse eating any strange food.  But dried-wilted or fresh wilted leaves are a different story; they are deadly to our horses, even deadly in very small amounts. 

Experimentally dried-wilted leaves are toxic when administered at a dose of 1.5mg/kg body mass.  

Translated:  that is far less than a 1 ounce meal of dried-wilted leaves per 1000 pound adult horse; point of fact, the amount is about equal to the weight of two adult aspirin tablets. The exact toxin present in the Red Maple is unknown, but it is recognized and classified as an “oxidant” toxin.  

The clinical disease produced when horses eat fresh-wilted or dried-wilted maple leaves is that of an acute, hemolytic anemia.  Hemolytic anemia is the abnormal break-down of the red blood cells, with ultimate destruction of the red blood cells. The red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen in the blood.  

When is a plant poisonous?

Some plants are poisonous to horses only when they are fresh, while some are poisonous only after they have died or are dried out (storm damage). Then there are those plants that are poisonous both fresh and dried.

How much is toxic?

It depends on the species of plant to determine how much is toxic. For some plants such as oleander, as little as a few mouthfuls of the right part of the plant can kill a horse in minutes. The yew is another extremely toxic plant, with as little as 8 ounces capable of killing an adult horse in 5 minutes!

Then there are the plants like bracken fern that slowly cause problems and a negative reaction might not occur until months after the plant has been eaten.

It also depends on the growing conditions of the plant...in some growth conditions a plant may be barely toxic, but put it in another growing condition and it could be extremely toxic.

To compound the problem, some plants don't even have to be eaten to be toxic! Black walnut is one example...using shavings from this tree in your stalls will cause laminitis in your horses when a mere 10% of the shavings are black walnut!

What do I do if my horse eats a poisonous plant?

If you suspect your horse has eaten a plant that is poisonous, the first course of action is to call your veterinarian. They will be able to tell you what to do for your horse until they get there.


If the poisonous plant is located in or near a pasture that other horses have access to, remove the horses from the pasture until the plant can be removed.

Which plants are the offenders?

Here is a list of the most common plants that are poisonous to horses. It is by no means absolutely complete, though I have tried to include as many as possible.
Click on the name of the plant to be taken to its page where you will find:

• Plant information
• Level of toxicity
• Picture (if available)
• Toxicity Symptoms

as well as any other pertinent information about the plant.


So, on to the offending plants:

Alsike Clover Azaleas Black Cherry Tree Black Locust Tree Black Walnut Tree Bracken Fern Buckwheat Castor Bean Chokecherry Crotalaria species Fiddleneck Firecherry Tree

Ground Ivy Horse Chestnut Horsetail Larkspur Locoweed Lupine Milkweed Mountain Laurel Oak Oleander Peach Tree Plum Tree

Poison Hemlock Potato Red Maple Tree Rhododendrons Senecio species Sorghum Grass Tobacco Water Hemlock White Snakeroot Wild Cherry Tree Yellow Starthistle Yew

How do I prevent poisoning?

The best way to prevent your horse from consuming one of these plants and becoming ill is to use common sense.


Check your pastures, especially the borders along the fence (BOTH sides of the fence!) and make sure you can identify all the plants growing there. Also make sure none of them are poisonous. If they are, learn how to successfully remove them, and do so.


When grass for grazing is depleted, make sure you supplement your horses with adequate hay. In most instances, horses will not bother poisonous plants, even if they have access to them. However, when they get hungry and no (or poor) grass is available, that is when they will start sampling other plants and get themselves in trouble. Be extra vigilant if you have young or curious horses around, as these groups are more likely to sample unknown plants.


When you are in unfamiliar areas, do not allow your horse to graze unless necessary. If you do allow him to graze, ensure that you know what all the plants within his reach are.


KNOW WHERE YOUR HAY COMES FROM! This is a big one, as many of these plants are toxic when they are dried, and the favored habitat of many of them is on the edge of fields. It is very easy for these plants to get baled into hay, so make sure you are buying from a reputable hay seller, and that he or she knows you are feeding the hay to horses (many of these plants do not affect cattle the same way due to digestive system differences).

What to feed an Insulin-Resistant Pony?


Q. - I have a laminitic, insulin-resistant mare, a 13.2-hand Welsh Pony (Section B). Her insulin levels remain elevated even though she is given metformin twice a day at a rate recommended by the veterinarian. I am happy with her weight, even though ribs are visible, but she has fat deposits. Her diet includes two scoops of senior feed, 7.3 kg (16 lb) of soaked hay, and free-choice salt. Can you give me any suggestions?


A. - The primary goal for managing a horse with insulin resistance (IR)/equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is to control weight, improve insulin sensitivity, and lower the risk of laminitis through correct nutritional management.

The diet you are currently feeding is high in fiber and low in starch/sugar, which is good for your mare in preventing laminitis. The diet, however, is missing some important nutrients for general health and well-being, including essential trace minerals. My recommendation is to balance the forage diet with a high-quality balancer pellet. Fed at 400-600 g per day, this will provide all the additional nutrients your pony needs without contributing calories or starch/sugar, which you need to avoid with an IR/laminitic horse.

You commented that you are feeding a lot of metformin, which is a common medication for IR horses. Metformin is used in humans to improve the action of insulin. Research in horses has shown that intestinal absorption of metformin in horses is very low and certain studies on metformin supplementation did not improve insulin resistance in IR ponies. Because of this new research, many people are not using it on IR ponies.

You did not mention your pony’s age or if she is lame, but exercise is important to help improve insulin sensitivity. Turnout in a field (with a muzzle) is helpful in addition to ridden exercise.

Research has also recently shown that supplementation with DHA and EPA omega-3 fatty acids (from fish oil) may also improve insulin sensitivity in horses, so if you can locate a good source of fish oil in the U.K., we would recommend 30 ml per day.