Page 30 - March 2008 The Game

30 The Game, March 2008
Safety - Continued From Page 28
is mixed in with the feed it may settle to the bottom of the feed and it may not be consumed by the horse.
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Fractured Foals Detected byAUltrasound
mong the many perils faced by
The Game
Health & Nutrition 2008
Special Advertorial Feature
Equine Health
By Karen Briggs
Dave Landry Photo
(synergistic) thus producing
a net positive effect. This lower concentration of the active constituents is also what gives herbal remedies their higher safety margin. If most commonly sold herbal remedies are taken at 4-5 times the recommended dose no ill effects requiring hospital- ization will occur. The same cannot be said for modern drugs.
In all societies, medicinal herbs were usually prepared in liquid forms and these methods have been well tested over the centuries. The history of the effectiveness of herbs is based on individuals that have used a liq- uid herbal preparation. Liquid herbal preparations have several advantages over the other dosage forms. These advantages are:
newborn foals, one of the most common is fractured ribs. Sometimes sustained during foaling (especially dur- ing dif cult births or those with maiden mares), sometimes after birth (when mom or another horse steps on a recumbent foal), rib fractures often go undetected. But when the fractures are displaced, they have the potential to be life-threatening. Sharp ends of bone can bruise or lacerate the heart and lungs, the pericardial sac, and major blood vessels inside the ribcage, causing severe pain, internal bleeding, compromised respiration, shock, and even death in some cases.
of the 26 foals. But ultrasonography was clearly the best technique. It demonstrated an amazing 49 fractures, in 19 of the 29 foals (about 66%). In other words, 82%
Dosage Forms
The rst herbal remedies were usually consumed as fresh whole herb. As time and knowledge progressed herbal remedies were made from dried herbs because fresh herbs were only available locally for a relatively short period of time. Today most herbal remedies used for horses are usually sold as (a) bulk herbs, ground into powder; or (b) liquid herbal extracts made with alcohol or water. In order for any herb to have an effect on the body, the body must rst be able to absorb the active compounds from
the herb. Horses that consume bulk powdered herbs will usually get only
a small portion of the available active compounds. This is because the horse’s digestive tract is not very ef cient. Therefore for these herbs to be ef- fective the horse must consume very large portions. On many occasions the powdered herbs are not tasty and if it
(1) the active compound found in a liquid herbal preparation is in a form which will be effective on the body;
of the foals who looked normal in x-rays had rib fractures which were detected with ultrasound.
(2) a larger dose of the active compounds can be given to a horse thus producing faster and more notice- able results.
A recent Canadian study, performed
at the Centre Hospitalier Universi-
taire Vétérinaire (CHUV), University of Montreal, and published in the March 2007 edition of the Equine Veterinary Journal, reveals that rib fractures in foals are even more common than most of us suspected, and that ultrasound, not x-ray, is the best way to detect them.
“Ultrasonography is more sensitive than radiography in the detection of rib trauma, justifying its routine use, and it should be considered as the gold standard technique in diagnosing rib fractures in neonatal foals,” the researchers (D. Jean, DMV, MSc, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM; V. Picandet, DMV, MSc, Dipl. ACVIM; S. Macieira, DMV, Dipl. ACVIM; G. Beauregard, DMV; M.A. D’Anjou, DMV, Dipl. ACVR; and G. Beauchamp, Ph.D.) noted.
(3) the active compounds from
the herbs are more readily available (bioavailable) to the horse because it does not have to digest out the active ingredients;
The increased sensitivity of ultrasound allows for better visualization of nondis- placed fractures, they concluded, as well as fractures occurring in the costochondral junction (the junction between the bony and cartilaginous portions of the rib). In addition, they noted the presence of over- lying lung changes on radiographs might hamper the detection of rib fractures.
(4) the liquid extracts will contain a larger range of active medicinal com- pounds than the bulk herbs. The major disadvantage to liquid herbal prepara- tions is taste but the taste of liquid herbal remedies can be enhanced by sweetening or by adding fruit juices.
The CHUV research team examined
29 Thoroughbred foals admitted to their emergency unit for reasons other than thoracic trauma, by means of a physical exam, radiographs, and ultrasonography. They found that physical examination
was the least sensitive of the three detec- tion methods, as 75% of the foals with normal thoracic symmetry turned out to have fractured ribs revealed with the other diagnostic modalities. Foals with non- displaced rib fractures often display only vague symptoms: depression, an increased respiration rate associated with pain, and a reluctance to make any sudden moves (an instinct anyone who has had broken ribs instantly understands!).
In conclusion herbal remedies can be a safe and ef cacious alternative to many modern drugs without many of the side effects found in modern drugs.
Interestingly, in this study, llies were far more likely to have fractured ribs than colts (13 llies, or 68% of the group, had at least one fracture), though in other studies, colts have been found to be up to three times more likely than llies to suffer thoracic trauma. The U de Montreal team also found that rib fractures occurred more often on the left side than the right. They postulated that these variances could be due to the difference in ribcage exibility between genders, as well as the positioning of the foals during the birth process.
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Radiographs performed somewhat better, revealing 10 rib fractures in ve
Detection, of course, is only half
the battle. How one treats a foal with fractured ribs depends on the severity of the injury. Some foals with non-displaced fractures of only one or two ribs can be managed just by restricting their mobility for a few weeks by con ning them to a stall and handling them gently. But others, whose fractures are extensive or dis- placed, may require surgical intervention to prevent or minimize the risk of major thoracic trauma. There are a number of surgical techniques used to stabilize foal rib fractures, and no real consensus
as to which is best, although the use of screws without an accompanying wire or nylon web is falling out of favour, due to the tendency of the screws to work loose and cause more trauma in the thoracic cavity (sometimes with fatal results).
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In most surgical cases, any implants such as wire, plates, or screws are left in place, and follow-up studies of horses who have had rib fracture repairs as foals seem to relieve one worry: that the pressure
of a girth around the ribcage when these animals are adults, will aggravate the old injury and/or cause the horse discomfort. Researchers note that the implants become incorporated into the body of the ribcage as the foal grows, so they shouldn’t be a problem in adulthood.
The Game March 2008 32 pages.indd
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