Dr. Snedden is currently completing coursework to become certified in equine spinal manipulation.  You may ask  the difference between spinal manipulation and chiropractic. It's pretty simple really,to be considered a chiropractor, one needs to attend a 3-4 year postgraduate school and graduate with a Doctrate of Chiropractic (DC), which then allows you to earn your living working on people.   In order to treat animals, both DVMs and DCs need further education.  While there are several animal spinal manipulation courses  open to both DVM's and DC's  focusing  on both horses and dogs, Dr. Snedden, has chosen to attend the Integrative Veterinary Medicine Institute in Florida which is only open to DVM's and focuses solely on horses.  

The first session, focusing on the head and neck, consisted of 20 hours of lecture and 10 hours of lab covering not only the theory of spinal manipulation (it's not really about putting bones back in place), but also delved into topics such as the interrelations between dentistry and the spine, as well as dissection and ultrasound labs to refresh a solid understanding of the applicable anatomy.  

Check out Dr. Snedden's facebook posts from the first trip for some relevant tips for evaluating your own horse.  

We want to hear from you!  Have you had experience with equine spinal manipulation in the past?  What were the results?  What questions to you have for us?

In the 1950's penicillin was a wonder drug, today any Tom, Dick or Harry can show up to the local feed store and pick some up, but do they know how to safely and effectively use it?  Here's a hint, as an equine veterinarian seeing a fair amount of sick and/or injured horses, I probably only prescribe penicillin 2-4 x PER YEAR.  

Here are a few reasons why:

1) There are often better choices available. While penicillin can still be a very effective drug, it actually has a pretty narrow spectrum of bacteria against which it is effective.  If you don't have a reasonable idea of which bacteria you are dealing with, or don't pair penicillin with another drug with a complementary spectrum of action, it may well be useless.

2) Penicillin is thick which means you need to you a larger bore needle for administration (which horses become progressively less appreciative of over time)

3) It needs to be given in relatively large and frequent doses (~ 30 mL 2x/day).  (I find it exceedingly frustrating when I get am told that the horse has been receiving 10 mL 1x/day as this is only causing discomfort for the horse and contributing to antibiotic resistance)

Last and most importantly
4) PENICILLIN CAN KILL YOUR HORSE!  Yest that's right.  Procaine Penicillin G if given in the vein (or even if given in the muscle in an inflamed area where it can quickly migrate into the blood stream) will cause a reaction which can range from the horse blindly walking or running into anything or anyone in it's path for several never ending minutes,  to simply falling down seizing and dying.   

Please, please, please consult with your veterinarian before administering penicillin to your horse because there are probably both more effective and safer options out there.

I'll get off of my soap box now:)