Transcript:

[0:00]

Welcome to this video podcast on when it is a good idea to call your equine veterinarian. Now, just to start off, I want you to imagine a day in the life of a veterinarian. Just think about this for a moment — this is what vets do day in, day out. Start the day around 5:00 a.m., your vet wakes up, grabs a quick bite to eat, gets cleaned up, gets dressed, grabs a coffee to go, and gets into their truck no later than 6:00, because they have to go out to a facility where the owner has to go to work, so the only time they were available was first thing in the morning.

[0:46]

You get to their place around 7:00 a.m., and say this owner's Janice, and she has her three horses up for you, ready to go because she knows she has to put them back to get to work. You have a very busy day — you're there to vaccinate all three, you check them, they look great, and you spend less than an hour on the farm. Get your supplies out, give the vaccinations, monitor the horses, and then you go about your day.

[1:12]

Next facility: Philippa. She’s got a lameness issue. It takes you about 25–30 minutes to get to her place. You get onto her property around 8:30 in the morning, and she brings her horse out. You realize there’s something more to this lameness than meets the eye. You do some triage and evaluation and see that the horse had a puncture wound. This is probably something more severe than just a simple lameness, so this call is going to take you a little bit longer as the vet — and now your appointments later in the day are going to get pushed back.

[2:00]

Your vet has to make a phone call to their call center so they can inform the other clients that day that you’re going to be running a little bit late. Let’s say that call takes a lot longer because you have to call other veterinarians, a referral hospital — this horse may potentially have sepsis, an infection that’s more severe than initially thought. There’s a lot going on for this veterinarian that they didn’t anticipate first thing in the morning, and it’s pushing their schedule back.

[2:30]

Then, around lunchtime, they were going to take an hour off to gather their thoughts, make some notes, prep for the rest of the day, and go by the vet hospital to pick up their instruments that they cleaned the day before through an autoclave, because they have a castration that afternoon to perform. They run through the rest of their day, and then at the end — maybe 5:30ish — they’re done. Oh, but they have to go back to the vet hospital because all the instruments they used need to be cleaned, so they prep them for the autoclave.

[3:12]

Let’s say you get home as that vet around 7:00 p.m. Whether you have a partner or not, let’s say you had a partner and they had dinner ready — a wonderful partner to this hard-working vet. She takes a deep breath, sighs — busy day, great day though, out doing what she loves — but then the phone rings. It’s a client, and the vet hasn’t even had a bite to eat yet. They’re looking at their phone, wondering: is this an emergency? Do I need to go or not?

[3:46]

These are the things veterinarians are faced with day in and day out. They have long days, and what makes it exciting for them is that they’re constantly practicing medicine — meaning they’re always getting new cases thrown at them, keeping the field of equine veterinary medicine exciting. But it’s also a lot of hard work. Because of the emergencies and being on call 24/7, we see many young veterinarians choosing to leave the equine medical field. That’s a problem, and as educators and horse owners, we need to evaluate when we call our veterinarian with an emergency and when we can hold off and call during business hours.

[4:49]

One thing I’ve always said — and I’ve been saying this since I started teaching — is: when in doubt, call your veterinarian. I still stick by that, even after doing all the research into when to call with an emergency. If you have doubts, it’s worth the phone call. Then the vet can determine over the phone whether they need to rush out or if it can wait until the next day.

[5:22]

I got an email from one of the viewers whose daughter is an equine vet. She works very hard, loves what she does, and her advice was: the best thing you can do for your equine vet is to thank them. Keep that in mind. You need to form a good working relationship with your veterinarian — this is key as we discuss this podcast and the things you should think of before making that phone call, because we are running out of equine vets.

[5:53]

I did a previous podcast about how our equine vets are retiring faster than they’re being replaced. After that, people told me they struggle to get a vet to come out because they live in rural areas and the nearest equine vet is hours away. This is a big issue around the world, not just where you live. So in this podcast, we’re going to talk about what constitutes an emergency — after business hours, when you make that call and say, “I need help.”

[6:54]

It’s a good idea to develop a working relationship with your veterinarian and ask them: if I have a question outside normal hours or on weekends, who should I call? Some vets collaborate with others to handle emergencies. This is one of the reasons vets leave the field — by the time they get home at 7 or 8 p.m., they need rest, time to mentally shut down, maybe watch a show, or do their paperwork and billing. They can’t do it while driving farm to farm, though they try to carve out time during the day. It’s on us to make their lives easier.

[8:28]

Think about it from the vet’s standpoint: they get that phone call at 2 a.m., and they have to answer because that’s part of the job. A horse could be in distress, and they need to handle it. I remember a vet telling me, “If I don’t answer, they’ll call my competitor and I’ll lose them as a client.” That’s changing — now vets may tell clients to call specific people on specific days, use a referral service, or in some areas, emergency equine clinics handle only emergencies.

[9:18]

At the end of this podcast, I’ll talk about telemedicine — something new vets are using to help with their caseloads. There are concerns, but it’s helping. Today, we’ll give guidance on when to call your vet, what situations are emergencies, and how to think about it before making that call.

[10:10]

So we need to know what is normal — what is normal for a horse — before we go, “Something’s not right,” and then decide whether it’s an emergency or not. You know, when do I call my veterinarian immediately, or can I wait until the next day?

[10:23]

So what’s normal for your horse? Well, we’re going to talk about normal behavior and then the vital signs — what they are and how to take them. Now, when I get to normal behavior of a horse, there are two previous podcasts you can watch if you really want to learn more, because I don’t have time to cover all of it here: Signs Your Horses Are Happy and A Day in the Life of a Horse. Both describe what’s normal behavior for a horse and the signs that your horse is healthy and happy. Both are important, especially when evaluating health.

[11:02]

Whenever I talk to horse owners about what’s normal, I always stress: it’s what’s normal for that individual horse. We even talked about personalities a few weeks ago — how different horses react to different stimuli. What’s normal for your horse only you can answer, because you watch them day in, day out. You or your friends or family who work with that horse all the time know what’s normal, so you can tell when something’s not right.

[11:39]

In general, here’s what’s normal for horses. I did a study a few years ago comparing time budgets of pastured horses to wild donkeys (the Somali wild ass — the original wild donkeys) and Grevy’s zebra. We just looked at what they do during the day. The data for horses matched other studies looking at horse time budgets. In our study, pastured horses spent about 67% of the day feeding and foraging. This was at the University of Florida’s large farm in Ocala, where we observed horses all day long. Close to 70% of the day, they were just munching food.

[12:27]

The rest of the day: about 18–19% standing (resting or sleeping), 2% social behavior, and 4–5% locomotion (usually moving to new patches of grass). So, normal for a pastured horse is feeding and foraging most of the day, with little aggression (<1%).

[13:07]

For stalled horses, many studies have shown they feed far less — maybe 10–20% of the day, depending on hay availability. This is one reason we now recommend providing free-choice hay, so stalled horses can spend more time foraging like they would in pasture. Otherwise, they stand around more, watch barn activity, and often develop stereotypic behaviors. These behaviors are abnormal, but they’re not an emergency to call your veterinarian about. Just know what’s normal for them behavior-wise.

[14:13]

Now, vital signs. The first is temperature. If you’re calling your vet for an injury or illness, they’ll likely ask for your horse’s vital signs. If you don’t have them, they’ll probably ask you to take them and call back. Having them ready is a huge help. Rectal temperature is the norm — use a thermometer, tie your horse or have someone hold them, stand on the left side, run your hand down their side, move their tail slightly, and insert the thermometer. I always lubricate it. If you feel resistance, stop — don’t risk perforating the rectum. Wiggle it gently if needed. Normal temperature: 99–101°F (37.5–38.5°C). It can be higher in the evening, on hot days, or after exercise. If it’s over 101–102°F (39°C) at rest in the middle of the day, your horse may have a fever.

[16:25]

Next is heart rate. Normal is 30–44 beats per minute at rest. Over 50 at rest means something’s not right. If you catch a horse from pasture, let them settle before taking the heart rate. You can use a stethoscope (behind the left elbow), but I often use the facial artery under the jaw — run your fingers along the underside of the jawbone until you feel the pulse. You can also check under the tail (coccygeal artery) or at the fetlock (digital artery). Count the beats for a full minute or for 15 seconds and multiply by four.

[18:46]

Respiration rate is next. Normal is 8–12 breaths per minute at rest. Over 30 at rest usually means distress. Count either flank movements or nostril flares — each in/out cycle is one breath. Do this when they’re calm, not after exercise.

[19:46]

Also check mucous membranes — lift the lip and look at the gums. They should be moist and pink. Do a capillary refill test: press your thumb on the gum until it blanches white, then release. Color should return in 1–2 seconds. A delay may indicate a serious problem.

[20:11]

So something again — hydration status — you can just do a quick skin pinch test and see if it tents. So, you can pinch, and if it tents, it’s going to go back in like three to four seconds. But if they’re hydrated, when you do that it should go right back, and that means there’s enough hydration in the body. So you want to do all these things before you call your veterinarian, because they’re going to need this information to try to — again, they’re doing triage over the phone, meaning they’re trying to evaluate what’s going on with your animal and then make decisions based on the information you’re giving them.

[20:45]

Now, obviously if it’s something — which, one of the most catastrophic things you can think of is a broken leg — okay, you’re not going to have time to go and get all your vital signs. I mean, your horse has a broken leg, that is an emergency. Call your veterinarian right away. This is if the horse is lethargic, something’s not right, and it’s that middle range. This isn’t an obvious emergency, but it could be. So, let me go take my vital signs — if everything’s normal, then maybe you don’t need to call your vet late at night or not.

[21:24]

You know, on the AAEP article “When Should I Call the Vet?” — again, the American Association of Equine Practitioners — they say check all the vital signs. It’s one of the first things you should do, because that will tell you something’s out of the ordinary. So then, that gets into the most obvious types of emergencies where you want to call your veterinarian. Like I said, a broken limb — absolutely. Or a really gaping wound. I will say, horses bleed a lot. They’re huge, massive animals. But if there’s a gaping wound and they’re bleeding, you need, obviously, to do some first aid — which we’ll talk about later in the podcast — but also call your veterinarian: “Hey, large laceration, front left shoulder. I need help.” And the vet — that’s an emergency, obviously. That’s one of the things they have to do.

[22:15]

But typically, the late-night calls for our veterinarians — it’s colic. And there’s an excellent podcast, if you haven’t heard it before, I highly, highly suggest it. It could save your horse’s life. Why do so many horses still die from colic? I taught the horse course on Coursera — it’s still available, it’s been going for over 10 years now. Over 100,000 students from 164 different countries. When I put that together many years ago — and I still have this email today — when a horse owner wrote me and said, “You saved my horse’s life. I took your course. When you talked about colic and the signs of colic, I realized my horse wasn’t quite right, started checking off the things you talked about in that class, and I told my barn manager, and they told me, ‘Don’t worry about it, horse will be fine.’ I didn’t trust them. I called my veterinarian. Veterinarian came out, treated my horse, and said, ‘Thank you for calling me, you saved your horse’s life.’”

[23:29]

So, colic is the number one reason veterinarians get called late at night. It is the most common reason for emergency callouts for veterinary surgeons. And this was a paper published out of the UK — “Indicators of Critical Outcomes in 941 Horses Seen Out of Hours for Colic.” And colic is the number one killer for our young horses — that is, under the age of 20. Obviously after age 20, old age — at some point they’re going to die because they get older — but colic kills more horses than anything on the planet. And basically what colic is, if you’re not familiar with it, it’s stomach or digestive tract upset — so stomach, small intestine, large intestine, or hindgut — you know, the large colon, cecum, small colon of the horse. There is something going on in their digestive tract; they have pain.

[24:33]

If you suspect colic, call your vet. Period. End of story. Say, “Hey, I think my horse is colicking, and here are the signs, here are the vital signs, and here is why I think they’re colicking.” And then that vet — that I talked about earlier — she’s probably going to go put her jeans back on, her boots back on, she’s going to hop in her truck, and she’s off to your farm because colic is so important to treat for horses.

[25:00]

Now, interesting — out of that study, 941 — they did post some of the vital signs. The heart rate for two-thirds of them was in that normal range, under 44 beats per minute, but for a third of them it was over 50 beats per minute. One couple horses — 150 beats per minute. That’s severe. That’s a horse in severe distress. But, you know, as they go up with that, and that’s some of the things they noted in that article.

[25:34]

Now, there’s an excellent article on madbarn.com, “11 Most Common Causes of Colic in Horses (Plus How to Prevent).” You can go to madbarn.com, Learn tab, Articles — just type in “colic” and all of them will come up. It’s good to have this as a reference if you’ve never seen this before, because there are many different signs, and they can be mild. By the way, that doesn’t mean the horse isn’t in severe pain. Horses are very good at hiding pain. And again, when we talked about personalities and other factors, some horses could be really gutting it out and they don’t show some of these signs, whereas other horses are wimpy and they don’t take pain well and they’re like, “Ah!”

[26:22]

I will say real quick — I don’t need to hammer colic in this podcast — but 90% of colic cases are resolved on-farm. That’s why you want to call your veterinarian right away. They can come out, treat your horse, and hopefully you don’t have to refer them to a vet hospital. All right — but some of the signs: the horse is depressed, they isolate themselves from other horses, they’re not eating, they’re pawing the ground, they’re rolling, they’re sweaty in their flanks and their neck, they’re nipping at their sides trying to get at the pain so you see tufts of hair, they’re just not happy, groaning, straining — all of that could be signs of colic. Manure is mucousy because it’s just slow going through the digestive tract, but dry, hard could be signs of that.

[27:14]

So, if you do suspect any type of colic, call your veterinarian immediately. Okay — so, other injuries we talked about: bone fractures, any deep lacerations or lots of bleeding, any injuries to the eye — that is definitely an emergency for your veterinarian, because you don’t want your horse to lose their vision. So that is for sure something you would want to call your veterinarian out for. Things like snake bites — that’s another one, depending on where you live in the world — and your horse’s face is swollen, or they have a large swelling somewhere in their lower limbs or on their body — that could be a snake bite. Obviously, that’s an emergency. And typically it’s in the face, because the horse is going down to eat or it sees a snake and goes, “Oh, what’s this?” and kind of investigates — and gets bit. So that can happen too.

[28:11]

So how do you respond to something like that — like, you know, my horse is bleeding profusely, or it has a broken limb, or, you know, needs some sort of first aid? This is probably going to be its own podcast in the future — you know, applying first aid to horses — actually it will be, I promise you we will put this together. But the biggest thing is: be careful. Be cautious approaching an injured horse or a very ill horse. Always be on guard, because they may not be in the right mind — but especially if they’re severely injured, they can kick out or strike and really hurt you. And again, if you get hurt, you can’t help your horse. And get help — get somebody else with you, because if something happens to you, then you need help, right?

[29:01]

So, just be very, very careful with that. But be very calm. You want to always approach to their head, try to halter them. You know, whenever I’ve had really ill horses or a horse down in pasture, I’ve been able to cautiously approach them, and then once you have your hands on them you’re able to calm them down. But you may need things like twitches, you may need sedation — and that is where a vet can help you. Or, depending on where you live in the world, people can provide sedation. Hobbles you can use to prevent them from kicking, but you just want to be very, very careful. And, you know, then have your first aid kit, which I’ll talk about at the end.

[29:43]

So I just wanted to put that there — that whenever you find a horse down or in distress, be very, very careful. Be very, very careful. Other things — what if the horse is down, can’t get up or stand? I’m going to talk about that in a second. What’s a cast horse? You know, or they just don’t want to move, they’re just like, “Nope, I’m not moving,” or very reluctant to move. Abnormal behaviors, right? Things that aren’t normal for them that could be like, “Wow, okay, something’s off.” Then I want — if I have a horse that’s unable to move and no outward signs, I definitely would start taking vitals, trying to figure out what’s wrong with this horse. And that’s something that’s way off, and it’s worth a phone call to the veterinarian — that’s an emergency.

[30:30]

Now, what happens sometimes — and this can happen in pasture, typically doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen in stalls — where a horse could be said to be cast. C-A-S-T. Now, what does that mean? That means usually, if they’re rolling in the stalls — it’s a new stall or it’s a small stall — they get stuck and they can’t get up. And I will say here, if they’re colicking, they can get cast because they’re in so much pain or distress, they’re rolling around the stall and they get stuck somewhere where they can’t get up. So beware of that. But sometimes it’s just the horse gets stuck and it’s cast. And again, you want to be very, very careful.

[31:09]

So when you read, you know, what the veterinarian’s advice is or horsemen’s advice is, you don’t want to put on a halter and then yank their heads if they’re cast. First of all, get help — again, always have somebody to help you do this. You know, if you just need to roll them on a side where they can get up, or if they’re stuck in such a way that moving their head is required, don’t put on a halter and yank their head. But grab their mane, maybe around their neck, and just be very careful in moving them to get them to where they can get up. But be very, very careful, and you know it’s going to depend on the situation — you know, if you need to get ropes to bring them around and have people pull or help you. But again, be very careful. You don’t want to injure the horse, you don’t want to be yanking on their heads, and even with ropes, be very careful around their legs. You don’t want to be causing worse injuries. You’re just trying to get them over somewhere where they’re unstuck and they can get up on their own. But again, that could be colic.

[32:22]

So, other things that the AAEP said you should call for — severe diarrhea. So, just out of the blue, this horse has severe diarrhea. Not bouts of diarrhea or watery stools like we see in the spring when all the grass is lush and green and there’s a lot of moisture in their diet — but like severe diarrhea. You should know what that looks like in a horse, because it’s so abnormal. Again, call the veterinarian, because dehydration is a big problem. And then, you know, any high temperatures — just things that might indicate a fever or something bad’s going on there. And then respiratory distress — that’s another one. They have trouble breathing, coughing, you know, where they’re just — you can hear their lungs are raspy — that is, “Wow, okay, I need to call my veterinarian.” That’s an emergency.

[33:12]

So, when we talk about illness or the horse just suddenly crashes, doesn’t look right — don’t hesitate to call your veterinarian. Again, get those vital signs. But this brought back a memory, going to this list, where back in Florida, when I was a professor there — and this was like 15 years ago, 2008 — well, so that’s what, 16 years ago — this title in the paper was, “Mystery Illness Kills 100 Horses at a Farm in Ocala, Florida.” And all these horses started dropping dead — neurological problems, collapsing — and this was a large embryo transfer facility. So they had large herds of recipient mares. And I remember this specifically because I had just gotten to Florida as a professor — been my second year — and I was a reproductive expert, I was doing embryo transfers and things like that.

[34:18]

Come to find out, they were — or what they suspect, I never did see the final report because this was a private enterprise — but they were feeding haylage. Okay, which is when you take hay and ferment it, it gets moisture in there, and we feed it to cattle. Now remember, cattle have a large rumen, where they can eat some of this stuff with toxins and bacteria, and the rumen will break all that down before it passes it on to the rest of the digestive tract. Horses do not. They have a simple stomach — yeah, there’s some acid in there to kill pathogens, but it doesn’t kill them all sometimes. And when they have things like botulism, which can grow in haylage, horses will die. And over a hundred horses died from this, and it was in the news all over in Central Florida.

[35:19]

So again, if a horse is not acting right, shows signs of neurological disease, or something — could be their feed, it could be bad feed — and that’s an emergency, right? So that’s something you want to call your veterinarian for.

[35:26]

Okay, so switching gears — what are the non-emergencies? What are things that you could probably wait until the next day? And again, use common sense. But let’s say your horse comes up lame — not severe lameness, but just some lameness that you notice — and you give them some first aid or whatever and they’re not responding. Okay, that could probably wait till the next day to call your veterinarian and say, “Hey, can you do you mind coming, book an appointment?” Just normal injuries that you get on-farm. Punctures — I would be very careful, I would make sure your tetanus is up to date, watch that because that can lead to deep wounds or infection. But, you know, strangles or just a slight illness where the horse isn’t in severe distress but is starting to not look quite right — you could probably call first thing in the morning, “Hey, do you mind coming to look at my horse?” Lymph nodes are swollen, maybe a slight cough — not severe respiratory distress, but you know, a little bit of coughing. Maybe it’s parasites, things like that. They’re losing weight, they’re not eating as much. Any skin conditions, like saddle sores or things like that, or just anything that’s subacute — it’s not severe — you’re not going to pull that veterinarian away from dinner or spending time with their families or watching their favorite Netflix show or something, whatever they want to watch on television. It’s okay — I’ll call first thing in the morning and then have the vet call me back and we’ll talk about it.

[37:12]

So again, use common sense. But one of the things in that article that the AAEP put out was, you know, if it was your child, how would you react? Would you call the pediatrician late at night because you’re really worried? Or, okay, you’re a little bit sick, I’ll get you a little bit of medicine, we’ll do a little bit of first aid, but maybe we’ll go to the doctor tomorrow just to do a checkup, right? So that’s a good rule of thumb, because they are our children, right? Our horses are our family, we love them so much. So again, use common sense.

[37:42]

Now, this is going to transition to telemedicine. What is this? This is how things are changing as technology advances — you know, our cell phones, and we can take pictures and video, and we can video call now easily all around the world. You know, we can talk. And as we worry about the workload on our equine vets, this is one way that their workload is starting to change. And I’ll put it here too — the COVID-19 pandemic helped institute some of this because of lockdowns or because of social distancing and all these things, things that we all went through. But, you know, doing medicine over the phone is something that’s becoming more commonplace. We do it with our children — with my two young kids, we did it. We called and we were getting medical advice whether we needed to bring them into the doctor, whether we needed to go to the ER, or just needed to get them some paracetamol or some Tylenol or something like that. So telemedicine is working in the human field, now we’re seeing it in the veterinary field. And this is where you’re getting medical advice over the telephone.

[39:03]

Many articles — you can Google this — telehealth or telemedicine in the horse industry. One was “Embracing Telehealth in Equine Medicine” I published just a couple of years ago, and it said, “Technology helps veterinarians improve treatment outcomes and provide life-saving advice to horse owners, especially in isolated rural areas.” Remember earlier I said that I’ve gotten feedback that people out in the middle of nowhere don’t have an equine vet, and they have horses — and where are they going to get their horses treated? They have to trailer them all the way, a couple of hours away, to the equine hospital. So that is a real problem.

[39:41]

So this is where this is stepping in now. Some big different words — telehealth, telemedicine, and teleconsulting. So, telehealth is just the definition that I got off that article: broad term that refers to the remote administration of medicine through technological means — in other words, practicing medicine while being physically removed from the patient. Now, there are some legalities with that that I’m going to talk about here in a second. So that is your veterinarian saying, “Do this to the horse,” and they’re that hour away or two hours away, and you don’t have to bring them to the hospital.

[40:21]

Telemedicine is using things like smartphones or apps or other services to transmit information. And then teleconsulting is consulting where they’re getting insight and advice regarding the medical care of a specific patient. So that’s when you call them — you’re on the telephone, you’re a teleconsultant, you’re doing that already — you know, the veterinarian’s already telling you, giving you advice, but they already have that client–patient relationship, right? So, or that client–doctor relationship. So the veterinarian already knows you generally, and you have some sort of relationship.

[40:57]

Now, the AAEP published a white paper, and this was in 2018 — so this is a little bit outdated after the COVID-19 pandemic because things have rapidly changed since then — but their view on this is, they have some concerns, and rightfully so. But, you know, telemedicine is something that — or, you know, using these technologies — so they talk about teleconsulting, which is vet-to-vet or vet-to-specialist. So let’s say you have an eye injury with your horse, your veterinarian can do some teleconsulting with an equine eye specialist. They can call that specialist at this university two states over if you’re in the U.S., or across Canada, or somewhere else in the UK, or wherever you are in Europe or the world, and talk to that eye specialist and say, “Hey, this is what I have, what do you suggest?” Now, the eye specialist will tell that vet, “Well, this is what I would do,” and they’re not seeing the patient directly, generally, right? So they’re consulting with the veterinarian.

[42:05]

Telemedicine — again, this is where it’s changing — this is the vet-to-client. So, doing this over the telephone or these technologies — that advice, again, that’s what they’re doing. Telemonitoring — so they’re monitoring the patient. Maybe they say, “Hey, go take a picture or a video of the sutures, please send them to me,” instead of the vet coming out to your farm and having to look at that horse, look at the sutures they put in last week or whenever it was. You can send them a video and images, and then they can go, “Okay, it looks good. Is there any heat?” You know, and they tell you what to do. So that’s telemonitoring.

[42:39]

Teleprescribing — that’s where it’s getting a little tricky, where they’re prescribing medications, and again, there’s some legalities in that. But this is changing, and just in the last year and a half, two years, there’s still some skepticism. So again, this article, “Embracing Telehealth in Equine Medicine,” talking about the receptivity of it in the equine vet field — when they were at the Expo Vet meeting a few years ago in Florida in 2021, this author asked the audience what they thought about telemedicine or telehealth. Fifty percent — and this was primarily equine vets — had a good opinion of telemedicine, they thought it was a good idea. Forty percent said it’s a bad idea. Ten percent were undecided. So they’re still very skeptical.

[43:44]

Now again, you do have those older vets, right? And I bet you — I don’t know if you break it down by age — I bet you the younger generation is more keen on embracing this and technology. Whereas if I was a veterinarian out there my age — I mean, I love technology — but I would probably still want to get eyes on the patient. But anyway, things are changing, and we need to embrace this stuff because our vets are overworked and we’re losing them. We’re losing the equine vets that start off in practice. So we need to embrace this stuff.

[44:17]

Now, it’s not going to replace your vet, telemedicine. So, if there is, like, say, an after-hours phone number you can call to get some advice, that’s where I think this is going to step in and really help a lot. And so, there are many benefits of this — I mean, I’m always talking about, you know, reducing the workload of the vet — but also same-day consultation for these rural places where they can’t get a vet out. It could lead to better prognosis of horses, earlier treatments, better — you know, if there are things that a horse owner can do before a vet can get out to them or before they load them on a trailer — if the horse is sick and stress them out for a couple of hours getting to the hospital, if they can do this over phone or video chat or something, it’s going to give better prognosis in the long run.

[45:05]

And that’s some of the other benefits they list — you know, addressing small problems before they become big problems, better prognosis, it saves time, it saves money, and the horse owner doesn’t have to assume the burden of making health decisions. One of the things I keep seeing brought up in looking at embracing this is — a lot of horse owners are Googling or watching YouTube, like this, to get medical advice, and sometimes the medical advice is not the best. It’s not coming from an equine vet or a specialist in the field, or somebody like — I’ve been doing this for 25-plus years, teaching, educating, learning about horses. I have a PhD, I’ve been a university professor. But if you just go and Google some videos on lameness in horses, you get half a million YouTube videos and somebody out in the middle of nowhere talking about how to treat lameness in a horse that’s not a vet, or things like that.

[46:10]

So that’s where hopefully this can come in and help you. The benefits to the vet — there are benefits to this. They can be more vigilant, so they can monitor patients easier, like I said — monitoring those sutures or other treatments. “Send me a video of your horse, let me just look at their behavior and see what they’re doing.” Again, improves the horse prognosis, improves their case success rate, and, you know, permits steady tracking of visual parameters — just talking about that, you know, looking at horses and stuff like that. Improves communication between client, patient, and other professionals, and again, saves the vet time. So that is something that I think we’re going to see more of.

[46:51]

But again, that legality — so the AAEP was a little cautious in their approach, right? Because yes, I can send a video of my horse, but without you actually seeing, feeling, touching, hearing — getting all your senses out there with that horse — is that video serving that horse or giving that horse justice, right? So I think it’s a tool, and that’s how they’re viewing it. It’s a tool, but it’s definitely not a way where a veterinarian is going to sit home all day on their computer and treat all their patients or deal with all their clients. They still need to get in their truck, they still need to drive out to the barn and see your horse, right? It’s just some of this is going to help offset it.

[47:43]

So yeah, I mean, you read through that white paper and they’re talking about they still need a valid relationship between the health professional and the patient, and it’s very, very important. Now, that gets into legalities — where is this legal in the world? Well, if you look in the United States, there are certain states — so if you’re not from the USA, each state has their own laws on top of federal laws. So you have the United States of America law, then you have state laws, right? So in certain states in the USA, this is — virtual vet care — is illegal, like Texas, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi. Other ones — you can look — you know, where you can get this advice. But places like California, Arizona, and Idaho, it is legal.

[48:40]

So telemedicine, some parts of it. Now, just, you know, there’s certain restrictions. In Canada, almost all the provinces allow it. Alberta and Saskatchewan — they have to have a physical exam of the animal before they can give any advice over the telephone. So it is mostly legal there in Canada. And then if you go over to Europe, many countries in some sort of form — like in the UK, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, Norway — there is some form of telemedicine available. So again, you have to look at where you live to see. But it’s something that I think we’re going to see change in the next 10 years.

[49:17]

Now, also things to keep in mind as we wrap this up — what to have in your barn in case of an emergency. You need a first aid kit. Make sure you have your veterinary phone numbers. Make sure you talk to your vet — “What if I can’t get a hold of you? Who do I call?” Ask them — they will tell you. And then get a backup to that backup, right? Have a backup — that’s just how I roll, that’s how I think. So I would have at least three contact numbers: “Okay, if I can’t reach you, who do I call? If I can’t reach them, who do I call?” Okay, then one of those should pick up in case of emergency. Name and phone numbers of friends or family that can help you — again, have that listed somewhere in your facility. Directions to a referral center — so if you need to take a horse to your vet hospital, where’s the nearest one? Trailering — how to trailer, you know, where’s it at, cars, all of that. Emergency evacuation plan — just covered that last week, please watch that, that’s another podcast, that’s a must for any horse owner.

[50:22]

And then in your first aid kit — oh my goodness, this is going to be a whole other podcast — but vet’s phone number, regional map, stethoscope, thermometer, scissors, flashlight, batteries, a bowl (unbreakable) that you can rinse things in, clean syringes, latex gloves, bandaging material (which — Vetrap rolls, elastic wrap, tape, duct tape — all this stuff), antiseptic scrub and solutions like betadine, sterile saline, hemostats for picking stuff from wounds, pliers if you have nails in the horse’s hooves, splint materials if you’re going to splint a leg (again, I would not do that without any training — but be very careful — things available especially if your vet shows up), eye ointment (again, don’t treat anything until you talk to your veterinarian), diapers or other absorbent pads, and clean syringes. That’s just some things you can put in your first aid kit.

[51:17]

I know that was fast and furious, but we’ll have a whole other podcast on that here in the near future on what should be in there and how to treat some basic stuff — and then when to call your vet. My best advice in all of this at the end of this podcast is: speak with your veterinarian. “Okay, if I have an emergency, who do I call? What do you think is an emergency?” Signs of colic — all of these, obviously the most obvious ones. “What if my horse is just sick, a little bit sick?” They may say, “Send me a text. Just send me a text message.” You know, they’ll have a preference on a way to contact them.

[51:56]

But have this discussion with them. And you know, if you don’t have a specific veterinarian, find one and develop a relationship with them, okay? And if you’re one of those rural owners, find the nearest one and just start talking to them over the phone: “Hey…” — and try to meet with them at some point, or see if they can get out to your facility. Okay, but also recognize what is an emergency, what isn’t an emergency, and be prepared. Preparation is always, always important.

[52:23]

So thanks for watching. If you haven’t yet, if you don’t mind hitting that subscribe button — thank you. It shows that you’re really appreciating this content. And check out madbarn.com — lots of resources on there, over 500 articles. And any comments — or if you’re a veterinarian or you’ve had experience in this — email me: podcast@madbarn.com, and I’ll get back to you. But thanks for watching and listening, and stay tuned — we’ve got more content coming your way.