July 2017 8 Arizona REAL COUNTRY the magazine Mike Barna Publisher mbarna@963realcountry.com (602) 622-3695 Casey Grantham Editor (602) 403-0785 Misty Voitovski Creative Director Contributing Writers Robert Bill, Kimmie Dillon, Robin Etnyre, L. Gordon Kesler, Jim Olson, Bob Roloff, Michele Wilson 801 W. Wickenburg Way Wickenburg, AZ 85390 (602) 622-3695 ArizonaRealCountry.com Arizona Real Country is owned and published by Barna Broadcasting LLC. No person, organization or party can copy or reproduce the content on our website and/or magazine or any part of this publication without a written consent from the editor’s panel and the author of the content, as applicable. The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights with regards to copyright of their work. /ArizonaRealCountry @arizonarealcountry /arizonarealcountry Q: My horse gets nicks, scrapes and cuts all the time. He is an accident waiting to happen. I am never sure if the wounds are serious enough to warrant a vet visit, as some minor wounds look more horrendous then they really are. Could you give me some basic tips on wound management? A: Questions regarding wound management are some of the most frequently asked. Although your first concern should be loss of blood, it is rare for a horse to hemorrhage so profusely that its life or general health is in danger. An average-sized (1000-pound) horse would have to lose over two gallons of blood before it is in danger. If your horse is bleeding profusely, the best way to stop the bleeding is with a pressure bandage or, if the area is not one that can be bandaged, with direct pressure. Determining if a wound needs sutures is based on a number of factors. How old the wound is, how deep and long the wound is, and where the wound is located. One rule to remember is that if a wound needs to be sutured, the sooner the better. Although six hours is considered the cut off time in terms of suturing a wound, in most cases one to two hours is the limit. In general, wounds on the head, neck and body heal better than wounds on the lower limbs. For this reason, wounds on the lower limb should be attended to as soon as possible (within two hours). Also, wounds on the limbs generally require antibiotic treatment whereas minor wounds on the upper body often can do without. Wounds that are not all the way through the skin do not need to be sutured. Whether the wound is all the way through the skin is not always easy to determine. Long, gaping and deep wounds are obvious. Smaller wounds are more difficult to determine. If the edges of the wound are pulling apart, or if you can gently pull the wound apart, this usually indicates that the wound is all the way through the skin and needs to be sutured. Q: When I follow the “recommended feeding guidelines” for my horse (based on breed, weight, and activity level), he continues to be overweight. Why does this happen? Can this weight gain affect his health and fitness?  A: Excess weight and “over nutrition” can have negative effects on your horse’s health and well being. It sounds like your horse may be an “easy keeper,” one that requires a minimal amount of calories to maintain good body condition. Feeding based on generally accepted ration guidelines will cause an easy keeper to actually gain weight. This excess will increase stress on the horse’s heart and lungs, put added strain on the feet and joints, affect the horse’s ability to “cool out” following activity, and predispose him to laminitis or founder. The first thing you should do is remove all grain or concentrates. The healthiest diet for most horses is a diet consisting of good quality hay, with access to salt and plenty of fresh water. Grain is recommended only for horses undergoing strenuous exercise or those classified as “hard keepers.”  As with humans, exercise is also an important part of weight control and overall health and fitness. Make sure your horse receives a minimum of 3-4 half hour workouts per week. This should help keep him healthier and in better weight. If you have tried reducing or eliminating grain and increasing exercise and your horse is still overweight, you should contact us to check him for hypothyroidism. Q: Do probiotics help my horse’s digestive tract? A: The horse’s digestive tract and hindgut microflora produce all the enzymes a horse needs to digest feed properly and have done so for centuries. There is no scientifically controlled data in a reasonable number of animals to demonstrate any improvement in digestibility as a result of adding enzymes to a quality, well balanced diet. It is an unnecessary expense to which too many people have fallen victim. Yeast, on the other hand has been added to horse diets over the years primarily as a B-vitamin supplement. There has been recent research studies evaluating other potential benefits such as increased fiber and phosphorus digestibility. Small improvements have been documented but is doubtful that an increase in fiber digestibility from 39% to 42% or phosphorus digestibility from 23% to 27% has any significant impact on nutrition. Is yeast harmful? Absolutely not! Should it be the main reason you buy a feed? It wouldn’t be mine. Most high quality horse feeds today contain small amounts of yeast and other cultures such as lactobacillus. History has shown that horses have grown and performed well without the addition of these products and are not a replacement for top quality feeds and good feeding management. Ask the Vet