TIM WESTON from Drove Veterinary Hospital with more advice for horse and pony owners

  • My horse, a former jumper, has been diagnosed with stringhalt. Now, at the age of 20, is there any medication I can feed him to help relieve the pain?

Stringhalt is a poorly understood condition which can affect horses of any age, breed or sex.

It is characterised by upward jerking of one or both hindlimbs when the horse is moving. The signs are often most easily seen when the horse is asked to move backwards.

Stringhalt is usually (but rarely) seen as an isolated case in the UK. However, in Australia and America, there are occasionally outbreaks' of stringhalt which appear to be related to excess consumption of dandelions.

A few dandelions in pastures in the UK do not cause similar problems.

Some authors believe that stringhalt is related to a tying up'-type condition.

I think the important thing to remember is that the condition is rare in the UK.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable treatment for the condition. There have been dietary measures proposed and also surgery may help.

Many cases do not progress and may also not cause the horse great inconvenience. The presence of the condition, however, may prevent any great level of athletic performance.

When I vet a horse on behalf of a purchaser, I always make the horse back up a few strides as stringhalt is one of the conditions this helps to demonstrate.

Your question concerns pain relief.

In my opinion, pain is not a feature of this condition, so I would not be recommending the use of anti-inflammatory agents, such as bute.

However, in long-standing cases, there could be arthritic changes in some joints. In these cases, bute (danilon equidos tm or equipalazone) would probably help.

  • My cob seems to have very soft soles which are very prone to stone bruising which causes lameness. Is there anything I can purchase (or my blacksmith can do) to improve this?

I presume that when you say your cob has soft soles that these are actually thin soles, which is quite uncommon in cobs, and much more common in thoroughbreds where the problem is usually combined with flat feet.

Usually, thin soles are not changed by dietary means. However, it might be worth trying six months' supplementation with Formula 4 Feet'.

This is a pelleted food supplement, available from veterinary surgeries, some farrier supply companies or direct from the manufacturer.

This supplement is one of two that have any scientific data to support claims of horn quality improvement, and I am happy to recommend its use.

Another possibility for thin soles could be an infection which causes horn dissolution - and so as fast as new horn is produced, it becomes powdered by the infection.

There are proprietary hoof disinfections which will resolve this condition.

Your farrier may be able to help in two ways. I assume your horse is shod anyway, but deeper shoes may give more protection by keeping your horse's feet higher off the ground.

Your farrier can also insert pads between the shoe and the foot which will provide cushioning from stone damage.

  • My 30-year-old Shetland pony has a thick nasal discharge and there is evidence of mucus in his feed bucket. This has only happened this summer, and I am concerned that he may now have a pollen allergy. Can you advise?

The presence of a nasal discharge in a horse could be the sign of several different conditions. If the discharge was only from one nostril then usually the cause of the problem lies within the horse's head and could be sinusitis, tooth root infections, nasal tumours or even a foreign body.

If the discharge was from both nostrils, then more general diseases such as pollen allergies, influenza or strangles could be the cause.

As you say this has happened this summer, I presume your pony is not unwell.

I think that an examination by your vet is in order and will hopefully give a diagnosis or at least an idea of what further tests, such as blood tests, endoscopy or radiography, should be undertaken to arrive at a diagnosis.

Pollen allergies usually cause coughing as well as bilateral nasal discharges, although affected animals are rarely unwell.

Blood tests can now be undertaken to discover what, if anything, your pony is allergic to.

This information is certainly helpful, but does not always lead to an easy solution.

Allergies can, unfortunately, suddenly appear, even in quite old horses. Once a positive diagnosis of a pollen allergy has been made, then there are many drugs which can be used to help alleviate the symptoms (many of these are human anti- hay fever drugs) and specific desensitising vaccines, but these require long courses of treatment by injection.

I think you need to seek veterinary help to establish a diagnosis, which will then lead to sensible treatment.