How often do you wish horses could talk to you? Well, you know they can’t, but nevertheless your horse will give you signs when something is wrong.
Here is an overview of common symptoms and what they can mean:
To check the condition of the lymph nodes, gently press on the areas around the head marked in the diagram above. You should be able to feel them well here.
If the lymph nodes are swollen, this can have various causes. Most often it is a viral or bacterial infection, more rarely it is caused by cancer.
Appetite and thirst also say a lot about your horse’s well-being.
If your horse has little appetite, dental problems or stress are often the culprits. Excessive appetite can indicate malnutrition, EMS or PPID.
If your horse drinks a lot, this can also be a symptom of PPID, but also kidney failure.
Stress, diarrhoea or other illnesses often manifest themselves in low thirst.
Your horse’s urine and droppings often give you clues about the health of your horse.
If the urine is dark yellow, it may be caused by dehydration or profuse sweating. Bloody urine is often caused by urinary tract infections, trauma, kidney stones or growths. Large amounts of mucus in the urine often make it foam.
Dark urine can be a sign of kidney failure, dehydration or cross-contamination.
When checking the condition of your horse’s droppings, look for dry, hard, diarrhoea or constipation. You can also recognise a parasite infestation by worms in the droppings.
If the capillary refill time is longer than two seconds, it may be a symptom of heart problems, poor circulation or dehydration.
The skin fold test is an easy way to check your horse for possible dehydration. Gently pinch your horse’s skin between thumb and forefinger. If the skin flattens only slowly (after two to four seconds) or not at all, this indicates dehydration!
Going barefoot refers to the practice of keeping horses without horseshoes, allowing them to walk and run on natural surfaces with their hooves unprotected by metal shoes. This practice is based on the idea that horses evolved to have hooves
Temperature, Pulse and Respiration – Indicators of Your Horse’s Health Early detection of fever, respiratory abnormalities or a too low/too high pulse can save your horse’s life. The following will elaborate on how to take your horse’s temperature, pulse and
When grooming and saddling, you can easily check your horse’s body for symptoms. In this blog post you can read about symptoms of the horse’s body and what they could mean. Everything About Symptoms on the Horse Body A Sore
Constant Free Movement in Herds Can Help Against Obesity We always talk about how feed can affect a horse’s weight but feed is not the only thing that can and should be considered when helping a horse lose weight sustainably.
Everything About Symptoms on the Horse Body II Chart on Symptoms on the Horse Body How often do you wish horses could talk to you? Well, you know they can’t, but nevertheless your horse will give you signs when something
Assessing a horse’s overall body condition The body condition score (BCS) is a subjective evaluation method used to assess a horse’s overall body condition and fat coverage. The BCS system typically uses a scale of 1 to 9, with 1
