The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
Issue link: https://thehorse.epubxp.com/i/858568
11 September 2017 THE HORSE TheHorse.com For additional news items, see TheHorse.com/News Foals' Dental Pulp Can Help Heal Horses There's good news for horses with soft tissue injuries and degenerative arthritis, and it's com- ing straight from the horse's mouth … literally. Researchers have learned that neonatal foals' dental pulp can be used to help reduce pain and improve lameness in horses with these conditions. Alicia Bertone, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS, ACVSMR, Trueman Chair in Equine Clinical Medicine and Surgery at The Ohio State University, and colleagues injected a novel dental pulp tissue particulate solution (pulp was collected from otherwise healthy foals that died due to difficult births) directly into an arthritic joint or injured tendon or ligament in 20 horses. Another 20 horses served as controls, receiving saline solu- tion instead of dental pulp. "Horses with tendon and ligament injuries responded surprisingly well," Bertone said. "Sev- eral of these horses came back to being sound. Patients with degenerative arthritis improved, just not as great a degree." These benefits aren't just short-lived, Bertone said; 83% of owners responding to a follow-up questionnaire reported that their treated horses were being ridden two years after the study ended. Veterinarians have collected tissue for stem cell proliferation from three sources: the umbilical cord, adipose (or fat) tissue, and bone marrow. Cord blood can be obtained at foaling, processed for stem cells, and cryopreserved for later use, should the horse need it. The owner has to pay stem cell storage fees, and stem cell viability can decline over time, Bertone said. Fat and bone marrow can be obtained from a patient, processed, and placed back into the horse to help treat injuries. Both techniques are currently popular but cell yield and quality can vary, Bertone said. Further, collecting both adipose tissue and bone marrow involves invasive procedures. Fat is typically harvested from the tailhead and bone marrow from the sternum, she said. Bertone said a "Holy Grail" product would be consistent, from a juvenile source, and "off the shelf" so that it doesn't require an invasive pro- cedure to harvest tissue. Fetal dental pulp tissue could present a practical solution. Learn more at TheHorse.com/39359. —Katie Navarra Vets With Horsepower Complete 2017 Tour The Vets With Horsepower aren't your aver- age equine veterinarians. These practitioners and researchers go on annual motorcycle tours to deliver high-level continuing veteri- nary professional development and raise money for nominated charities. The registered charity got rolling when Prof. Derek Knottenbelt, OBE, BVM&S;, DVM, Dipl. ECEIM, MRCVS, of the University of Liverpool, in the U.K., won a Harley Davidson in a raffle. He and other cycling veterinarians completed the first tour in 2010, when they rode 1,500 miles in one week, visiting all the U.K. vet schools and raising money for SPANA (the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) and the British Equine Veterinary Association Trust. In the following years, Vets With Horsepower have toured in such places as North and South Africa and Scandinavia. So far, the charity has raised more than £500,000 (US$648,950) for equine and children's charities and worked to improve human and equine quality of life. This year the group toured Eastern Europe, making stops in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Re- public, Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Par- ticipants covered 3,200 miles in two weeks and delivered more than 80 hours of veterinary lectures. The tour raised money for the Gam- bia Horse and Donkey Trust (which hopes to purchase a properly equipped horse box to transport sick and injured equids); the St. Ethelbert's Child Refuge Centre; and HEROS, a charity that retrains and rehomes ex-racehorses in the U.K. —Bianca Schwarz, DVM, DrMedVet, Dipl. ECEIM, WEVA board member COURTESY DR. BIANCA SCHWARZ ? Within the rubberlike cartilage that helps pad and protect your horse's joints are tons of specialized cells and nutrients. Oh, and crystals—microscopic protein crystals, that is. Dirk Barnewitz, DrMedVet, of the Research Centre for Medical Technics and Biotechnology, in Germany, and colleagues say these crystals are unique: So far, horses are the only species found to have crystals in their cartilage cell mitochondria, he said. While the explanation for their existence is not yet clear, it could be related to horse joints' capacity to withstand great levels of mechanical stress, the study authors said, because the crystals are larger and more numerous in cartilage areas under the most stress. Furthermore, they're far more abundant in growing horses—specifically, yearlings. "We will continue to investigate this phenomenon, to find out if there is a relation to any other clinical relevant physiological condition," Barnewitz said. Learn more about the crystals at TheHorse.com/39351. —Christa Lesté-Lasserre, MA YOUR HORSE'S CARTILAGE HAS BLING DID YOU KNOW weva 83% of owners reported that horses were still working two years after the study Vets With Horsepower toured Eastern Europe earlier in 2017.