From the Summer 2018 Decker Dispatch, the newsletter of the Back Country Horsemen of Montana.
Back Country Horse Travel
by Stacie Boswell, DVM, DACVS, Hardaway Veterinary Hospital, Belgrade, MT — originally published in the Decker Dispatch, Summer 2018. Submitted by the Gallatin Valley Back Country Horsemen.
This article is provided for general information only. It is not a substitute for veterinary examination, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult a licensed veterinarian before beginning any treatment or making decisions about your horse’s care.
The text below is reproduced from the original newsletter so that this article can be found and read online. The full issue of the Decker Dispatch, including this article as it appeared in print with its photographs, is reproduced at the foot of this page.
As members of the Back Country Horsemen, we travel with our horses down long highways and up two-track dirt Forest Service roads in our quests to maintain public access trails. This extensive travel for our horses is not without risk. Common travel-related problems are injuries, colic, and respiratory problems, and the severity of these problems can range from mild to extreme. In this article, we’ll talk in detail about the causes of these problems, and how to avoid them. We’ll also discuss treatment.
Trailer Inspection and Safety
Loose or weak floorboards, a malfunctioning braking system, or a tire blowout can result in a disaster while shipping horses. Before every trip, you should double-check that your trailer coupler is properly engaged, that your lights and brakes are plugged in, and that your trailer’s emergency brake battery is charged and connected properly. The truck and trailer ball or coupling should be properly size matched. Each year you should have your trailer inspected. This inspection should include evaluating the floor, the wheel bearings (and packing them, if needed), the brakes and emergency brake box, and all hardware and latches. Unexpected mechanical problems can occur, but regular inspection and caution will prevent many problems.
Transporting Horses
Driver safety
You should be confident with the truck and trailer in your charge. A contingency plan should be in place with a secondary driver. A smooth, confident ride will help prevent the horses from slipping and falling. You should be well rested and alert; driving drowsy is just not worth the risk. This goes without saying, but drivers absolutely should not have cell phones out while shipping horses. At least pull over to use the phone or have a passenger assist with necessary calls, texts, or maps.
Rest Your Horses
Long trips are especially difficult
for horses. The horse will experience adverse changes in muscle metabolism, elevations in stress indices, dehydration, and decreased immunity. Even just stopping the trailer for a break for an hour or two on a long journey (more than 12 hours) will allow his physiologic stress parameters to normalize, and his tired muscles to get some relief. Providing food and water during the rest stop is ideal. Making sure your horses have free choice access to food and water prior to the journey is important. This has been proven to prevent muscle problems and will help prevent colic.
Halter and Tie Horses Properly
You should not allow horses to stick their heads out of your trailer in any way while the vehicle is moving. This can result in injuries to their head or eyes. A breakaway halter or tie is an absolute necessity at all times in the trailer. With few exceptions (e.g. horses that fight with their neighbors) the horse should be tied so that he can get his head down below the point of his shoulder to cough. This helps clear the airway and is key to preventing pneumonia.
Pay Attention to the Environment
During warmer months, closed horse trailers quickly become 20 degrees warmer than the outdoor ambient temperature, and horses can overheat, sweating and becoming dehydrated. Horses in enclosed trailers generally do not need blankets as they are more likely to sweat. Sweating leads to dehydration and loss of electrolytes. Those losses are the primary contributing factors to colic associated with travel. If you are hauling your horse in a livestock-type of trailer or one with an open design where your horses are exposed to wind, other considerations apply. Your horse should wear a fly mask to prevent particles from injuring his eyes or face. Cold wind may justify using a blanket.
Travel-Related Illness
Most of the time, horses that travel do just fine. The three most common travel-related illnesses are wounds, colic, and respiratory diseases.
Wounds in Traveling Horses
Lacerations and injuries can occur when horses have rough rides during shipments. Taking your time to load nervous horses and driving conservatively helps prevent injuries.
Reasons Wounds Occur When Traveling
Horses’ high flight drive results in panic when they are afraid. Specialized equine anatomy means that there is little to no excess skin, particularly on limbs. The horse also has to learn how to balance while standing when traveling. If your horse is inexperienced or of a flighty nature, he is more likely to sustain an injury.
Wound Evaluation
Wound depth is a critical factor for recovery. It will help your veterinarian if you can evaluate and describe a few things:
- Pull the skin apart a little bit. A full-thickness skin wound will have a gap. A superficial wound will not gap when you manipulate it.
- Walk the horse several strides and determine if he is lame.
- Look closely and see if flap is present or skin seems to be missing, rather than just cut into.
- Determine if the wound is near a joint.
- As you inspect the wound, if you can see muscle, bone, tendon, or other underlying structures, that is a deep wound that will need extensive treatment.
Wound Treatment
Start by providing first aid. Move your horse to the most clean, dry, and safe area you have, and thoroughly rinse it, if possible. In veterinary medicine, we have a saying for this: “the solution to pollution is dilution.” If there is a lot of blood running out of the wound, try to apply some ab-
sorbent material, and apply a bandage tight enough to stop the hemorrhage. This may be all you can do until a veterinarian sees your horse. Cleaning or re-cleaning the fresh wound may cause the hemorrhage to resume. Many antiseptic and topical medications are toxic to the healthy, healing tissue and will damage cells and slow down the healing process. If you are considering a topical medication, a rule of thumb is: if you wouldn’t put it in your eye, don’t put it on a wound. Talk to your veterinarian before you give your horse any medication or apply topical substances. Wounds that are sutured and treated properly from the beginning heal faster and are more likely to result in full return to function.
Extensive or Deep Wounds
Deep and complicated wounds are those that did not heal with sutures, a wound that invades a joint, or is down to the bone. Deep wounds may invade chest cavity, damaging the lungs. These horses can be difficult and expensive to treat. If the deep wound enters the digestive tract, the horse’s odds of survival due to the contamination are low. If a joint is infected, there are a variety of treatment options. Essentially, the earlier the infection is noted and which treatment option selected are the two factors that influence outcome.
Colic in Traveling Horses
Colic is a general term for abdominal pain, and there are a multitude of specific disease processes that result in colic. Risk factors for development of colic include long hours of travel with consequent dehydration, change in feed, change in housing or daily exercise levels, electrolyte deficiencies or imbalances, and stress. About 10% of horses colic each year, and traveling horses have an extra high risk.
Signs of Colic
The way each horse exhibits abdominal pain will vary. Some horses are more sensitive than others and will display a more overt pain response. Horses that do this may be young, a sensitive breed (Arabians and Thor-
oughbreds, for example), or a flighty, nervous individual. Colic signs include changing position from standing to lying down repeatedly, or he may lay down and be unwilling to get up. He may also be rolling, kicking at his belly, watching or looking at his flank, stretching out (which sometimes can look like he is trying to urinate, but can’t), or just not acting right. Some horses will exhibit a wrinkled lip and nostril flair that is characteristic of pain. Your horse may also have a decreased appetite. Signs that your horse has a more severe problem include a lack of response to Banamine, and violent rolling, especially if he has damaged the skin of his eyelids or head while trying to rid him-
self of pain. It is important for you to monitor fecal output closely. A decrease in fecal output or change in consistency may forewarn of an impending colic.
Impaction Colic
A common type of colic is impaction, also known as high constipation. An impaction occurs when the material in your horse’s gastrointestinal tract moves more slowly than usual leading to a “backup “of ingesta. Dehydration and loss of electrolytes are major contributing factors that lead to this type of colic.
Prevention of Colic
Keeping your horse hydrated is the most important thing you can do to prevent colic. Offer water during longer trips, if feasible. Make sure your horse has access to water before setting out, and immediately upon arrival. Avoid sudden feeding changes. Acclimate your horse to the pellets or cubes he will be eating on the trail while at home. Access to salt or electrolytes is important. If the horse has refused to drink, or has a reduced fecal output, feeding him soaked roughage can help.
Veterinary Evaluation and Treatment of Colic
Standard of care is to administer Banamine (flunixin meglumine), which can be given either in the vein or orally. Your veterinarian should do an examination per rectum to try to palpate the reachable portions of the gastrointestinal organs. If we identify abnormalities, then the problem can be more specifically addressed. The majority of time, your veterinarian will also give your horse water through a stomach tube. A cathartic such as epsom salts, electrolytes, or mineral oil may be administered with the water. Veterinarians will then advise you how to modify your feeding and exercise routine to help resolve the colic. Most colicking horses will normalize in just a day or two with this treatment.
Respiratory Disease in Traveling Horses
Horses that travel are at high risk of developing respiratory diseases. Make sure your horses are vaccinated to prevent Influenza and Rhinopneumonitis (caused by a Herpes virus). There is a variation in the severity of respiratory illnesses. It can be as simple as a virus, where your horse has a runny nose for a few days, a fever for less than 24 hours, and recovers quickly. The worst case scenario is that a horse develops “shipping fever” or pleuropneumonia, a serious infection that may threaten your horse’s life. Recovery can take months, and may leave long-term airway deficits.
Air Quality is Key
Traveling with vents open is important for controlling both air quality and temperature. Fresh air flow is critical to reduce ammonia. Ammonia build-up from urine results in damage to the cells that line the respiratory tract, thus increasing the risk of pneumonia. Shavings on the floor are not a good idea, especially in open trailers – the dust and particles harm the respiratory tract. On the subject of particles, if a hay bag is hung, wetting it down will drastically reduce the dust that it emits.
Treating Respiratory Illness
The most important factor in successful treatment is early recognition – watch for coughing, nasal discharge, or general malaise. Treatment will be specific to your horse’s problem. It is likely to include anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. The good news is that with early intervention, the majority of horses make a full recovery.
Summary
Trailering horses means we are able to explore all corners of Montana, and occasionally other states. Drivers should be confident, and the trailer should be in good working order. Maintaining good hydration and air quality are critical for preventing illness. Long-distance travel can be especially hard for horses to endure. Stopping for breaks is important to you as the driver, as well as to your horse’s health. Happy Trails!
Stacie G. Boswell, DVM, DACVS is an equine veterinarian now based at Hardaway Veterinary Hospital in Belgrade, Montana. She and her husband, Sid, recently moved here from New Mexico. They have been active members of Back Country Horsemen of America for the past four years.
The full issue below — this article appears on pages 6–8: