5 Tips for Preparing for a Visit from Your Veterinarian

In my years as an equine practitioner, I have found that having a good idea of the number of horses I will be seeing and the procedures I will be carrying out, and having the client be well prepared for our appointment, was invaluable in making the farm call run smoothly, efficiently and cost effectively.  Here are a few tips for how you can prepare for you veterinarian’s visit.

1. Prepare a list of all horses that need to be seen by the veterinarian.  Include any concerns or observations you may have about their health that you would like the veterinarian to pay attention to.  Next, make your appointment and notify the office as to the number of horses that need to be seen and for what.  This will ensure that the appointment slot allots plenty of time to address all issues and the veterinarian brings the right supplies, equipment, medications etc.  This kind of preparation will often times remove the need for further visits to finish up all of the work.  You may also want to have your horses’ medical records handy in case information about past veterinary visits is needed.

The newest Purina Research Team Member!

Our first foal arrived early Wednesday morning and he is up, nursing, running around and doing great.  He has arrived just in time for a major snow and ice storm, so he has yet to be introduced to the outside world.  And since its only 28°F in the barn, he’s got his blanket on to help him stay warm.  Brrrrr! This year, our mares and babies are being fed our Ultium Growth feed, as we continue a large multi-year study monitoring mare gestation and young horse growth on a high fat and fiber concentrate.  This foal doesn’t have a barn name yet, but he does have an official research number, 1301. He’s quite the scrappy fellow and tries to kick at you when you scratch his rear end, and that’s how we like them!  Of course he will be trained to behave more appropriately in the coming days, but some spunk is a good sign in a newborn foal.  We are expecting 8 more babies in the next few weeks, hopefully not all will arrive in the middle of snow and ice. Maybe this foal should be named Stormy….

5 Reasons to try the NEW Purina Horse Supplements

Like the Purina Hydration Hay Original Horse Hay Block, we can finally start talking about the BRAND NEW Purina Horse Supplements! Specifically, there are four new supplements that hit the market in January 2013; Purina FreedomFlex Joint Health Product, HydraSalt Salt Supplement, ElectroEase Electrolyte Supplement, and ElectroEase Electrolyte Paste Supplement. They are so new that you probably have not heard much about them. The new Purina supplement website is a great place to find all of the technical information about these new supplements. Here, I want to highlight some special features and unique technology that sets these supplements apart from what is already available on the market. 

The New Purina Horse Supplements

1. Scientific Research

When we first started discussing the possibility of developing a supplement line, we decided very early on that it was important to have scientific data behind any supplement we sold. This was a key reason why we chose to partner with Science Supplements, an established and reputable supplement company based in the UK. We looked at the extensive research that they had already performed, and built upon that with our own studies conducted at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center. This gave us the confidence to bring these products to the U.S. market, knowing that their formulas are backed by sound scientific principles.

Hydration Hay is now available and we can finally talk about it!

Hydration Hay Package, Block and Fully Soaked

When I show customers the Hydration Hay for the first time, I joke that this product is worth 7 years of my life. When I joined Purina in 2005, they were already working on a similar project that involved compressed hay blocks that could potentially slow down intake time and reduce glucose and insulin response to feeding. At the time, we worked with a company that made custom, handmade machinery for the compression and research trials were underway. In that process, we learned that A) horses found ways to eat the dry, compressed blocks more quickly than expected (picking them up with their mouths, dropping hayblocks on the ground, crushing them with their hoof and then eating the pieces) and B) our manufacturers were not able to keep up with the projected demand for the product. So we kept going back to the drawing board and the hayblocks even went back on the research shelf for short while until we figured out our next steps.

It's time for New Year's Resolutions!

Happy New Year! Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? If not, there is no time like the present to think of a few goals you’d like to achieve in 2013. Why not? Last year, my resolution was to run a 5K race for the first time, and I ended up running 5 of those, along with a 10K and 15K as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve broken my fair share of resolutions over the years as well. Experts say that the keys to achieving a New Year’s resolution is to keep it simple, make it tangible, and make it obvious by writing it down and telling others. It goes without saying that a goal never set will never be achieved. So this year, my “simple, tangible, and obvious” resolution is to eat more whole and locally-grown foods by shopping at my local farmer’s market at least twice a month. What will yours be? Will any of them be horse-related? 

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2013, and thank you for your continued support of Purina!

 

Is it really you??

Year end work at the farm is typically pretty crazy. There are a lot of loose ends to tie up with paperwork, and on top of the paperwork we have a bunch of horses to take care of. This time of year in our part of the country is kind of tough on the horses because of big swings in temperature and the amount of moisture that we get, so the normal workload is amplified to make sure all of our horses are happy and comfortable! Most businesses slow down or take a break for the next couple of weeks, but for us it is just business as usual- research projects to work on and horses to take care of. Because we run full staff on holidays we try to make the most of the holiday season by having a little fun here and there. In the picture above, Santa (aka Chubby) is visiting Charlotte (one of our weanlings). He brought her all kinds of good stuff including some Ultium Growth and Nicker Makers. Chubby is a 16 year old quarter horse that does treadmill and palatability work for us. Charlotte is also a quarter horse that has been doing some growth and development work for us by eating Ultium Growth while we measure the rate at which she is growing. Every horse here has a job, whether it is growing young horses, or older horses. They all help us understand more every day about how to make products that can make a difference for you and your horse. So from all of us here at the farm, Happy Holidays!

AAEP 2012

The Purina Horse Group spent the first week of December attending the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention in Anaheim, CA. Not only does this meeting provide us a great opportunity to visit with veterinarians from all over the country, but it is also our chance to demonstrate our support of current and future veterinarians alike. At our trade show booth, we showcased our premium Purina feeds with a special emphasis on those developed with a veterinary focus, such as our Wellsolve family of products (L/S, W/C, and W/G). We also “unveiled” our new Hydration Hay product and exclusive supplement line to the veterinary community (stay tuned for more details on these in future blog posts). I am really excited about these products, and it was great to see that the vets were also enthusiastic after learning more about the unique features of the Hydration Hay and the technology behind the supplements.

Purina has been a long-time sponsor of the vet student luncheon held at the AAEP Convention, and this year Dr. Gordon and I also participated in the roundtable discussions following lunch. Our table topic was “The power of nutrition in your practice”, and it was refreshing to see how many future vets recognize the importance of nutrition in the overall health and wellness of the horse. Purina also sponsored an afternoon session that focused on orphan foal nutrition, behavior, and care.

One of the highlights of the week for me was to attend the featured lecture delivered by the world renowned expert on equine muscle disorders, Dr.Stephanie Valberg of the University of Minnesota. She discussed the latest developments related to tying up in horses. I definitely learned some things that I will utilize in my work with horses diagnosed with PSSM or RER. There were many other educational talks at the convention, and TheHorse.com did a good job of covering those that are of interest to horse owners (just search “2012 AAEP” from their homepage). All in all, attending the AAEP convention this year gave me a renewed appreciation for the many dedicated equine practitioners who are truly committed to keeping our horses healthy.