Keep Your Pet Healthy During the Winter Months
As we approach the colder months and the Holiday season, it is important to remember some dangers pets face during this time of year. Antifreeze Most antifreeze contains ethylene glycol as an active ingredient which is toxic to animals. Antifreeze has a sweet taste. Because of this, dogs and cats will drink it. Antifreeze can be leth

Umbilical Hernias in Puppies
A hernia is defined as a protrusion of tissue or an organ through the wall that contains it. Hernias can occur at different locations on a dog's body. An umbilical hernia is a hernia at the umbilicus which is where the umbilical cord attached to the fetus or newborn puppy. To relate to people, your umbilicus is your belly button. Because of a genetic defect, the body wall fails to close at the site of attachment of the umbilical cord, resulting in an opening in the body wall and outpouching of the skin.An umbilical hernia can vary in size to very small (2-3mm) or very large where a large defect or hole can be felt in the body wall. For the most part, the outpouching of skin cont

Sweeney in Horses
Sweeney is the common name for shoulder atrophy (shrinkage or wasting) in the horse. The muscle atrophy is caused by damage to the suprascapular nerve which innervates to the infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles. These muscles are found on the scapula or shoulder blade of the horse, on either of the spine or bony ridge of the scapula. When these muscle atrophy, the shape of the scapula becomes noticeable by the hollowing on each side of the spine of the scapula. The pictures below illustrates the loss of muscle on the shoulder blade and the distict spine of the s

The Wonderful World of Draft Horses Part II
In the last blog, I discussed some general characteristics of draft horses and the Belgian breed. This blog, I will discuss the other two major draft breeds: Percherons and Clydedales.Percherons