Archive for the ‘Healing Horses Naturally’ Category

By Madalyn Ward, DVM

Sometimes diagnosing our horses’ pain can be a pain in the you-know-what! Our horses don’t speak English, and they can’t tell us exactly what hurts or why. That’s why understanding the different kinds of pain, especially from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) point of view, can be so valuable.

 This information can be difficult to digest at first, but you’ll find that in time you will be able to distinguish one kind of pain from another based on your horse’s symptoms. In last month’s newsletter I covered excess pain conditions, and this month I review deficiency pain conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

Madalyn Ward, DVM

None of us want our horses to be in pain. Horses can’t tell us in words what hurts, but they do communicate to us with their body posture and behavior. Acute pain, such as colic or injury, is pretty straightforward to understand and treat, but chronic pain in the musculoskeletal system is more of a challenge.

There is a tendency in conventional medicine to treat all pain in the same way, by reaching for steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). These products have a place in treating acute injuries, but their side effects limit their use for chronic pain. Chronic pain is almost always related to a systemic imbalance, and needs to be approached in a way that addresses both the immediate pain and the underlying cause. Read the rest of this entry »

A Note from Faye: Well, September is upon us…which also means that Fall is rapidly approaching! So this month we will once again focus on Holistic Horse Care & Natural & Herbal remedies for our horses. The colder weather brings with it a host of health issues, but instead of rushing out and buying a ‘traditional’ (possibly toxic!) treatment, first explore the possibility that there may be a natural remedy that will not only cure what ails your horse, but also support his immune system and treat the horse as a whole being instead of merely treating symptoms!

FOOD ALLERGIES & SENSITIVITES IN HORSES

 By: Madalyn Ward, DVM (www.holistichorsekeeping.com)

Normally when we think of allergies, symptoms like a runny nose or cough come to mind. A horse owner may more quickly think of the horrible skin itch that occurs with sweet itch, the allergy to culicoides gnats. But not all allergies have such obvious symptoms. Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is an excerpt from Marijke’s new book ‘Healing Horses their Way’. This wonderful book is available at www.rivasremedies.com

The Dont’s of Parasite Control

 By Marijke van de Water, B.Sc., DHMS.

What NOT to Do:

 DONT contribute to the parasite mutation problem and the toxic chemical overload by overmedicating. If you must chemically de-worm, keep it to the absolute minimum determined by the fecals and treat your horse with pro-biotics and herbal liver support for one to two weeks after.

DONT chemically de-worm horses that don’t have a parasite problem- this is not appropriate or sensible prevention. Read the rest of this entry »

By Marikje van de Water, B.Sc., DHMS.

Don’t confuse cribbing with wood chewing. Some horse can be observed chewing or eating wood, licking dirt, or nibbling on the tails of pasture mates. This behaviour is best known as pica- an appetite for non-nutritive substances.

In most cases , the horses that engage in pica are looking for one or more minerals that are either not supplied in their feeding program or are unavailable in their immediate forage area.

Minerals are required for a number of body functions. For example, Read the rest of this entry »

By Marikje van de Water, B.Sc., DHMS.

High Starch Diets:

Horses often ingest more starch and sugar than they can effectively digest. When horses are fed excess starches from grain or grass, their relatively small stomachs become overloaded with feed, which causes the stomach to delay emptying the food into the small intestine.

When they become contained in the stomach they begin to ferment, causing unnatural levels of harmful bacteria like Lactobacillus to multiply, which then produce organic and lactic acids.

The organic acids are known as volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and are actually a source of energy when they are produced from fibre that is properly fermented in the cecum, which is where ruminant digestions is SUPPOSED to take place.

When the organic acids multiply in the stomach however, Read the rest of this entry »

By Marikje van de Water, B.Sc., DHMS.

The equine digestive system¸ as with that of all mammals¸ is efficient and functional and normally services an animal with good health throughout a lifetime. All of the digestive organs are perfectly designed and calibrated to work together to sustain life by breaking down food¸ extracting nutrients and eliminating waste. Like all body systems, breakdown in function is almost always precipitated by external factors.

I am therefore puzzled by the mainstream belief system within the world of medical science that seems to accept the hypothesis that the breakdown of tissues and organs and subsequently of general health¸ is not random event¸ but one over which we have no control…

In order to understand just how much control we really do have over our horse’s health¬- and ours too for that matter- we need to understand WHAT, WHY and HOW things go wrong.

So what goes wrong? Read the rest of this entry »

by By Ken Wilkinson, Nutritionist

Many are familiar with the fact horses ferment fiber in the hind gut via the microbial population back there and derive most of their energy from that (at least at maintenance levels of activity).  If more energy is needed, we add higher energy, lower fiber feeds to the diet which are digested more up front.

 I would like to move even further back and start a discussion about how horses actually eat. Read the rest of this entry »

Grass As Food For Horses

By Dr. Joyce Harman

Horse owners rarely think of being a true farmer, but, in fact we all are grass growers, which qualifies us as farmers. So, we need to think a bit more about how to grow healthy grass, and to recognize when our grass needs attention.

As we think about the horse from a holistic perspective, we must look at the food we feed them. Not just that bag of grain full of preservatives, or the supplements we endlessly feed them, but the mainstay of their diet, the grass they eat on a daily basis.
But, you say, we fertilize regularly and spray for weeds periodically. The grass looks wonderful, in fact sometimes it is so rich we cannot turn the horses out on it for long periods of time because they will get too fat or even founder. Great, but is that a healthy thing to have happen? Read the rest of this entry »

Article written by: Dr Joyce Harman

Summary
Herbal medicine is being used with increasing frequency. Many people are unaware of the best way to use herbs, or what conditions can be treated. This article is an introduction to the many aspects of the use of herbs in horses with discussion about some specific herbs useful for older horses. Over time I will publish more details about herbal medicine and individual herbs. 

An Introduction to the Use of Herbs

Horse owners are becoming increasingly interested in natural medicines and herbal medicine in particular. There is much lack of knowledge about Read the rest of this entry »