Ask the Vet - Most important thing to keep your horse healthy

In this excerpt from the February 2020 episode of Ask the Vet ( • Ask the Vet - Sanitizi... ), SmartPaker Dan and Dr. Lydia Gray each give their answers to a question about what the most important thing is for a horse’s health (aside from food, water and shelter). While Dan’s is somewhat predictable, Dr. Gray’s one word answer is something that every horse owner should be doing every day. Can you guess what it is?
Additional reading/watching material mentioned in the video:
Horse Health Library Videos: pak.horse/HHLvids
How to take equine vital signs: • How to take equine vit...
Ask the Vet - What to track in your horse's journal: • Ask the Vet - What to ...
To see more from our Ask the Vet video series, you can check them out on the SmartPak blog (pak.horse/2bt0jyw), SmartPak's Horse Health Library (pak.horse/HHLvideos), or on our Ask the Vet playlist (kzbin.info?list....
Want to know when the next Ask the Vet videos get posted? SUBSCRIBE to our channel! Want your question answered so you can win a SmartPak gift card? Ask your horse health question in the comments, on any of our social media channels, on our blog, or on our form at www.SmartPak.com/AsktheVetQuestions and be sure to use #AsktheVetVideo.
Happy learning and #haveagreatride.

[@elizaeliza5937]

They are saying this in the context of horses and equines but it goes for all animals we care for. Know whats normal and look out for things that are not normal. Your pet will be all the better for it. :)

[@verrenus]

Smart pak is wonderful: informative and funny

[@jaykneegarner2479]

Properly latching the freaking gate! Forgot to drop the tail through the loop to prevent a certain red headed mare from picking the latch. The day ended with emergency vet call, Fire department, Sheriffs deputies, lots of convincing the dispatcher that it wasn’t a joke and that yes the horse had fallen through a mobile home floor! ( no walls or roof as it was being slowly demolished) and me pitched on a 2”x8” floor joist keeping said red head calm while the fire department cut the other floor joists and metal framing so I could walk her out of the mess she got herself into! Spent over a hour squatted down on the joist while waiting for everyone to arrive, and another 2 hours working to treat as best we could all the lacerations which were full of pieces of the particle board flooring( basically sawdust and glue)! Stitching up wounds and medicating. Bruised, battered, cut up and in shock pretty much sums up the next morning for both of us! Couldn’t even touch her without her shaking for 3 days. Spent all summer paying for my stupid mistake. All because I didn’t drop the tail end of the gate chain through the loop to prevent her from being able to work the chain free. She’s ok now, has some scaring and no desire to play catch me if you can again so hopefully she has learned her lesson!

[@krisillus5249]

I have a 15-17 year old Thoroughbred gelding that I’ve owned for 8 years. Last summer, he had a lot of difficulty breathing (heaving, wheezing, coughing, etc) even when he wasn’t working. I came to find that this was called “heaves”. He has no issues in the fall/winter. Why did this suddenly appear after so many years without issue, and how can I prepare him for this spring and summer? Will it appear every year now? Can I alleviate the symptoms with supplements, and is it better to start those supplements before symptoms appear? I’m not sure if you’ve already addressed this problem. Thank you for reading! #AskTheVetVideo

[@alyssam8548]

I was wondering if it was okay for the same stallion to appear on both sire and dam’s side of a pedigree. I’ve been looking at horses for sale and noticed that some have the same stallion on both sides, that are few generations back.