Photonic Therapy Horses Treatment

Continued from part two

What is Choke?

“Choke” is horseman’s lingo for esophageal impaction. It happens whenever a horse swallows a feed bolus which is too coarse or big or sticky to pass easily down the esophagus from the pharynx to the stomach. The bolus gets wedged at some point along the length of the esophagus and subsequent swallowed feed gets stopped at the level of the obstruction and gradually backs up toward the mouth. depending on the sensitivity of the horse, he might stop eating immediately, making effective treatment or even spontaneous resolution very likely. Horses that continue to eat after a blockage–or if the owner doesn’t notice the signs, allowing the problem to continue for hours to days–face an extremely serious condition that can be fatal in prolonged situations.

Signs of choke include sudden refusal to eat, stretching the head and neck forward or side to side or toward the ground, lying down, rolling, general distress, coughing, eye rolling, pawing, etc. The hallmark sign, that distinguishes choke from colic, is feed (or feed-tinged saliva) running from the nostrils. But this is not always observable.

As noted, some cases of choke resolve spontaneously. Some are easily treated with heavy sedation, passage of a stomach tube, . Others need surgery, and some are not treatable. Complications include aspiration pneumonia, of the esophagus, perforation, and death, a recent case of choke that had been ongoing for two days was resolved in a matter of minutes by treating with Photonic light Therapy. In this instance,sharp hooks on the teeth, were the cause of the problem, Know your horses’ eating habits. If you notice these signs, especially after feeding, evaluate the situation and be ready to call your veterinarian. Choke can be a veterinary emergency.

Hypsodont teeth are adapted to tolerate quite a bit of structural compromise before they become nonfunctional. Malocclusions (abnormal relationships between opposing teeth) have to progress to severe proportions before an owner will observe any difference in the horse’s behavior or see loss of body condition. In addition to this built-in adaptability within the dental system, horses are, generally, quite stoic when it comes to their feed intake. Most horses will continue to eat, even in the face of enormous discomfort, until it becomes mechanically impossible to do so. Bear in mind, they evolved as prey animals having to graze on the move. A wild horse that loses condition and becomes weak is easy prey for predators. This system served the wild horse well for thousands of years and still does. On the other hand, our domesticated horses are not subject to the same diets or lifestyles as wild horses are.

Dental Care

There are three major reasons to provide your horses with skilled comprehensive dental care: 1) comfort, 2) health, and 3) longevity.

I’d wager that not a single owner reading this article would intentionally allow their horse to be in pain. A lot of malocclusions, such as hooks, crooked or displaced teeth, stepped teeth, diseased teeth, fractured teeth, periodontal disease, and other dental abnormalities can cause minor to excruciating pain.

It is not uncommon for horses to be in chronic pain for years without the owner being aware of the situation. The sooner these problems are diagnosed and treated–or even better, prevented altogether–the less pain the horse has to tolerate. Additionally, it is important that the tack not cause discomfort, as it impacts the horse’s head structures as well as the teeth in particular. Sharp enamel edges on the teeth can lacerate sensitive soft tissues if the bit, noseband, bosal, or hackamore forces that tissue onto sharp edges on the teeth.

A variety of dental abnormalities may cause disease conditions, periodontal disease in particular. Those abnormalities can cause severe pain if left untreated and can lead to premature tooth loss. Cracked teeth are often painful and many must be extracted or treated . Horses are susceptible to tooth root disease, the same as people. Tooth root abcesses are almost always very painful.

Finally, the third reason for comprehensive dental care is always to prolong the useful life of the teeth to last the horse through his lifetime. When horses only lived to be 20 or so, maybe it didn’t matter so much if their teeth lost effectiveness in their late teens. But now, owing to advances in equine veterinary care and nutrition, our equine partners are living well into their 30s. But that means their teeth have to last longer, too. Here’s where the fantastic thing about truly comprehensive, lifelong dental care really shines.
.Most horses must have annual examinations , although some situations require more frequent treatments. Young horses, for instance, frequently need more regular exams to keep up with their rapidly changing dentition. Horses with demanding competition schedules may also need more frequent exams to keep them comfortable and performing at their best. Find out if your Veterinarian has advanced training in equine dental care or else ask for a referral to a professional practitioner in your district.

Referneces

wozenphotonictherapy.com

thehorse.com

Continued from Part One…

Next the tongue, cheeks, and palate must all function in synchronous harmony. The extremely muscular tongue and cheeks function opposite each other to position the feed bolus between the upper and lower arcades for optimum grinding efficiency. Also, the hard palate is strongly ridged in an alternating pattern to act as an auger, keeping feed moving from front to back. If you have ever seen a horse try and spit something out, you understand how hard it is to override this strong front-to-back mechanism.

Once the properly chewed feed bolus reaches the back of the mouth (the oral pharynx), it is carried out down the esophagus, continuing to the next stage of digestion. If you watch a horse eat, you will see him grinding with his jaws rhythmically moving side to side. Periodically the motion stops. This is generally when he’s swallowing. There is a furrow that runs the length of the horse’s neck near the front. This furrow contains the large jugular vein, the carotid artery, as well as the esophagus. You can actually observe the feed bolus move all the way down the esophagus if you very closely watch the left side of the horse’s neck in the groove during this momentary break in chewing.

Summarizing, the lips select the feed and move it into the mouth. Other soft tissues conduct the feed through the mouth, enabling the grinding teeth to pulverize it, mix it with saliva, and move it to the rear of the mouth for swallowing.

Sounds straightforward, right? On one level it’s simple. But when you begin to examine the many mechanistic elements involved in the process of chewing and preparing stemmed roughage for swallowing, a way more complicated, though no less sophisticated, apparatus emerges.

Specialty Teeth

The next conceptual step is that regarding biomechanics. The horse and other herbivores, due to their extremely different diets, have evolved with specifically adapted teeth plus a very effective chewing pattern to break down the coarse ration. Their teeth are termed hypsodont. That is they have got large crowns, and the majority of each crown remains deeply embedded in the bones of the skull and jaw, erupting a few millimeters every year to replace the same amount as it is worn away on the chewing surface. But horses don’t produce new tooth material. There’s a finite quantity of tooth to last the horse’s lifetime.
.

They chew in a roughly elliptical pattern that utilizes crushing forces in a side-to-side motion. There’s also an important, although smaller, forward and backward component to the pattern, but it is much less obvious to the casual observer. If you were to spend a bit of time watching your horse eat his hay or pasture grass you will see that his lower jaw opens then moves toward one side or the other, then simultaneously closes and moves back toward center. Due to this powerfully “sided” movement, horses are only able to chew on one side of their mouth at a time. This last motion, because the jaw closes and moves the lower cheek teeth strongly across the uppers, is very effective at breaking, tearing, and grinding stemmed roughage.

The health of the system–in addition to the type of feed the horse eats–determines the number of grinding strokes needed to produce a feed bolus which is safe and appropriate to swallow. A horse with compromised dentition might take much longer to chew his feed. Fortunately for the horse, the masticatory equipment  and also the larger digestive system have a lot of potential for compensation. One part of the system can make up for deficiencies in another.

For instance, new studies have revealed that horses do not necessarily need to grind roughage perfectly so as to get the needed nutrition. The lower digestive tract is apparently capable of extracting nutrients from a variety of chewed particle sizes. There is, obviously, a critical limit to this compensatory capability. The horse must able to chew roughage well enough to swallow the bolus. Extremely coarse stems cannot be safely swallowed, and the horse might “choke” if he tries to swallow poorly chewed feed.

Continued in Part Three…

Referneces

wozenphotonictherapy.com

thehorse.com

While many horse owners have become aware of the importance of equine dental care through media attention and increasing veterinary education, the majority might not have a working understanding of the horse’s components needed to chew stemmed roughage But if an educated horse owner needs to make informed decisions concerning health care for their equine companion, he or she needs to understand the basics of equine dentition and how the teeth affect overall health–after all, correct mastication is the first step in the long process of digestion. Armed with this fundamental knowledge of dentition, the owner will be in a position to ask the appropriate questions of their health care provider

A normal mature horse (at least 6 years old) should have between 36 and 42 teeth, depending on gender and presence or absence of wolf teeth. The incisors, the teeth you see immediately inside the horse’s lips, are useful for nipping grass and for defense and grooming, but they have an even more important function in the biomechanics of mastication. Their health, wear patterns, and physical length can determine how effectively the grinding teeth, farther back in the mouth, can perform their job.

Most males have four canine teeth immediately behind the incisors and in front of where a bit sits in the open area of gums. These areas are referred to as the “bars” in Horseman’s language . These teeth are used by stallions in the wild as weapons. They can be quite long and sharp. In the domestic horse it is prudent to smooth any sharp edges to prevent oral injury, particularly from tack pinching sensitive tissue against these sharp teeth.

Occasionally mares have canines, but they are typically much smaller and only on the bottom jaw.

The “wolf teeth” are small teeth that can be, but not always, present just in front of the first large grinding teeth in both sexes. They usually come in at an early age, usually by the time a horse is a year old. A typical horse has two, but one or none isn’t uncommon and horses with four wolf teeth are prevalent.

These small, sharp teeth serve no useful purpose for the horse and can cause discomfort when tack is introduced. Most veterinarians recommend removing them before the horse is introduced to a bit or any headgear. The canines and wolf teeth account for the normal variability in teeth number between individuals.

Continuing our tour toward the rear of the mouth, the next teeth we encounter are the premolars. These teeth, together with the molars just behind them, comprise the roughage grinding apparatus of the horse. These teeth are the workers in the horse’s mouth. Together, the premolars and molars (cheek teeth) total 24 teeth arranged in four arcades of six teeth; two rows on the top and two on the bottom. These teeth are large plus uniquely designed to perform their task of grinding stemmed roughage into a consistent bolus (a chewed mass of food) suitable for swallowing. they have got special corrugated surfaces so as to make their grinding function more effective. Teeth are designed to last the lifetime of the horse, and they will if they wear optimally. On the other hand, disease or abnormal wear patterns can develop, causing pain or shortening the functional life of these teeth.

In addition to the hard tissue structures with the horse’s mouth, soft tissue components play an equally significant role in correct mastication. The horse’s prehensile lips allow him to pick up very small or fine items with great precision and dexterity and move the items into the oral cavity for processing. The lips are incredibly sensitive and can discriminate with mind- boggling accuracy. Any owner who has tried to medicate their horse through feed knows this. How does that animal manage to sift through the medication and take only the feed?! Blame the prehensile lips.

Continued in Part Two

Referneces

wozenphotonictherapy.com

thehorse.com

Horse foot abscess can develop from punctures of the sole, bruising, corns and nails. Some horses are prone to them, without obvious cause.

Acute and extreme lameness shows up suddenly with an abscess and indication of inflammation of the capsule is the pulsation of the artery. Running down the inside of the horses leg. Your vet or farrier will usually be able to find the abscess using hoof testers and release infection by making a discreet drainage hole, the shoe should be removed so as the foot can be soaked in a hot bath, twice daily, using Epsom salts a generous handful to 5 or 6 L of hot water.

The drainage hole should be syringed out with hydrogen peroxide, and then poultice using plugs, of cotton wool soaked in castor oil, and the whole foot bandaged to prevent dirt from entering.

Horses suffering from a abscess need to be assessed by your local veterinarian, as antibiotics may be required, and to assess your horse for further treatment

Photonic Therapy can assist your horse in recovering from any abscess or injury by increasing the bloodflow and reducing the pain.

In the case of a foot abscess treatment with Photonic Therapy around the Coronet band  incresases  oxygen , improves the bloodflow and reduces the time for healing.

Any abscess or wound will benefit with the treatment of Photonic Therapy, as the bloodflow increases and pain is reduced. The collagen repairs the wound in a much shorter time, stimulation with the Photonic Therapy torch speeds up the repair of recent cell damage.

When old scars or wounds of a chronic condition are treated with t he Photonic Therapy torch  they start renewing again.

An abscess can be very painful for a horse as long as you act quickly, with treatment. The healing process can be resolved, relatively quickly. By using Photonic Therapy regularly, you will strengthen your horses, immune system. Therefore, speeding up the healing process of any injuries.

For additional information about Photonic Therapy…

Contact Trevor on 0746661071 or 0414515400.

Or catch him on Twitter @wazer