What Can Horse Owners Do To Prevent The Top 3 Foal Complications? - #180 The Horse's Advocate Podcast
The Horse's Advocate PodcastShow Notes
Foals are especially vulnerable in their first months of life. Think about the first time you met a newborn foal—did you know it takes both knowledge and experience to protect them well? In this podcast, we'll dive into three of the top challenges horse owners face with foals just after birth to a few months old. This isn't a complete list, so remember, teaming up with a seasoned professional will always help you stay ahead of problems. I picked these three foal problems because they're common—and, good news, they're all preventable! Imagine welcoming a new foal into the world. Suddenly, you learn that one of the biggest risks it faces is failure of passive transfer (FPT). This can happen if the foal does not drink the mare's first milk within 24 hours of birth. Or, it may occur if the mare's milk leaks out before birth. The resulting weak immune system leaves your foal vulnerable to everyday germs. Illness and even death can follow. Have you ever noticed a foal with diarrhea? It's a common issue, with several possible causes. Diet is usually to blame, but sometimes more serious issues are at play. Have you ever noticed a foal struggling to walk, or perhaps heard about issues like contracted tendons, angular limb deformities, or epiphysitis? In addition to infection and digestive concerns, these developmental orthopedic diseases (DOD) are conditions I often see when I'm called to work on the mare's teeth. The good news is that these issues are almost always diet-related and preventable. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Over the years, Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. This journey helped him learn how to blend medical care with good horsemanship. Geoff believes in doing what is best for the horse and also in working with the horse. While at Cornell, he started the Cornell Student Horseman's Association, which organized talks with local experts, a knowledge competition called the Intercollegiate Horse Bowl, and Foal Watch at the Equine Research Park to help with live foal deliveries. Wanting to educate horse owners even more, Geoff also launched the first "I Love New York Horse Symposium," which drew 500 people from across the northeast. Geoff also worked at the Equine Isolation Lab alongside respected colleagues, including Dr. Coggins, whose name is on the well-known test. He worked both part-time and full-time at Cornell's Equine Research Park. On graduation day in 1984, while his classmates celebrated, Geoff drove his fully stocked vet truck to his first call—a sick foal. This marked the beginning of The Finger Lakes Equine Practice, which still operates today. Geoff sold the practice in 1996, worked for a short time at another clinic near Albany, NY, and then started The Equine Practice, focusing on equine dentistry. He continues this work from his base in South Florida. Geoff worked on his first horse's teeth in 1983, when his mentor showed him how to place his hand inside a horse's mouth without medication and rasp off the offending sharp points. He was hooked from the start and made dentistry a key part of his practice. Since then, he has examined the mouths of over 84,000 horses across the United States - yes, he's been counting.
More from The Horse's Advocate Podcast
In this podcast, I explain why it's important for all of a horse's systems to stay flexible, especially when it comes to body fat. Many horse owners worry when their horses lose "weight" and assume it's a problem. I reassure them that, as long as the horse isn't starving or sick, this can actually be a sign of good health. Every living thing needs energy to survive. Sometimes, the body needs extra fuel fast, and that's where body fat comes in. For example, if you or your horse had to run to escape danger, you wouldn't have time to stop and eat. Your body would use stored fat to restore energy until you eat. The same thing happens during long stretches without food, like in winter. A horse's body needs to stay flexible in all its systems to handle extra stress or times when food is hard to find. This flexibility helps horses stay healthy and thrive. Without flexibility, they can get sick or lame. Body fat supports the ebb and flow of energy needs, and even if a horse has a lot of it, the horse can still thrive as long as the fat stays flexible. Timestamps: 0:00 - Body fat as a buffer. 1:15 - The ebb and flow of food intake. 3:09 - The similarity of body fat to an electrical capacitor. 9:15 - All body fat is the storage of excess food, especially glucose. 10:05 - When body fat is no longer flexible. 13:19 - All body systems flex to accommodate loads applied to them. 15:50 - Summary - The importance of system flexibility. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973. He earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Starting out mucking stalls as a farmhand, Geoff eventually opened his own equine practice. He now uses his experience to Help Horses Thrive In A Human World™ by teaching owners about dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and other important topics.
Like all animals, horses need energy to survive. That energy comes from fuel, which is why many health issues focus on what horses eat—grains, hay, supplements, and treats are all fuels we can see and buy. We often ignore how well a horse's cells turn fuel into energy, since we can't see the process or buy a quick fix. We tend to focus on taking action, usually by giving something, rather than changing how we keep them. But for hundreds of thousands of years, horses have adapted to survive on very little fuel when needed. In this podcast, we talk about why horses need their cell engines—the mitochondria, or MT—to stay flexible in how they use different fuels. Today, horses often get the same type of fuel all the time, which can cause their MT to get stuck. Just like a car engine that loses power, adding more fuel or supplements won't restore full power if the engine itself isn't working right. Timestamps: 0:00 - How do hay, water, and air make a horse move? 1:28 - Insulin resistance/dysregulation is a distraction from the actual cause of EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). 2:40 - The Cell has an energy budget. 3:30 - What makes a horse thrive? 5:00 - Adding food or supplements can't cause the horse to make more energy. 6:15 - First-principles thinking about energy production in horses. 6:50 - Mitochondrial flexibility. 8:23 - Fructose is unlike glucose in that it drains energy. 9:29 - Body fat is a system that buffers energy use and can also get stuck. 10:10 - Mitochondria manage energy production in several ways. 10:50 - Summary of the energy budget. 12:40 - Mitochondrial flexibility is critical for the horse's health. 14:05 - The Laws of Thermodynamics are the physics behind biology. 15:35 - How can "sugar" be required for life, but also blamed for all diseases? ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for horses by educating owners through his extensive experience, emphasizing dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
Horse owners who are watching their budgets often focus on the cost of feeding each horse—hay, grain, supplements, and treats. But what about other expenses, like illness, less work, lost work, or even losing a horse too soon? These can lead to extra costs for vets, farriers, and other care. So, what is the real return on investment? I'm talking about this on the podcast because many horse owners think extra costs are just part of owning a horse and don't realize some of these expenses can be avoided. Like with all living things, what you put in shapes the life you get—good or bad. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 2:05 - All food is medicine, which drives an action. 3:09 - Energy is created in a mitochondrion. 5:06 - CORRECTION: The energy is not returned to the origin, but dissipated as light and heat. 6:30 - Eating more food doesn't create more energy. 7:30 - Eating the wrong food prevents horses from fully using the energy created. 9:20 - Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) come from inflammatory foods. 10:38 - ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the currency of cells. 11:40 - Clarifying - the energy is transformed into another form of energy that isn't helpful. 15:05 - Every cell has a set energy budget. 19:50 - Remove unnecessary things (inflammatory foods, stress). 20:45 - Changing the horse through improved energy production will take time. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
Since 1983, I have seen horse dentistry shift from hand-floating, done without medication or machines, to a mechanical approach using sedation and motorized tools to remove sharp enamel edges. My main argument is that these newer procedures are not proven to achieve better outcomes, yet are often promoted based on arbitrary goals. As a result, horse owners may become confused or exposed to unnecessary techniques that may not benefit their horses. Listeners may react strongly to this podcast because horse dentistry divides opinion. My central point is simple: horses should receive dental care, regardless of the technique. Yet debates over various methods overshadow the real issue: many horses get no dental care at all. It's like missing the main purpose of a journey by arguing about driving style, while the real problem is not picking up the passenger. If horses in rural areas lack access to dental care—whether due to a lack of practitioners or restrictive laws—they continue to suffer. My focus is to explain why I use my methods and to emphasize that it is better for horses to receive reasonable dental care, by any method, than none at all. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:32 - My equine dentistry training and personal beliefs. 2:15 - The history of equine dentistry is obscure and non-memorable. 5:44 - The horse's threshold of pain and their ability to express themselves without sedation. 8:02 - The purpose of medicating horses for dentistry. 11:12 - All areas of every tooth can be addressed with hand floats once the anatomy and position of the teeth within the horse's mouth are learned. 13:12 - The three lies often given to say why hand floating is less effective than power floating with sedation. 14:24 - Horsemanship reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 16:25 - Practical reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 17:44 - Scientific reasons for not using drugs and power equipment to float horses. 18:25 - Conclusions about floating horses and the method used. ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.
In the last podcast (#183 - How Does Energy Flow Keep Your Horse Alive And Healthy?), the energy potential of the cell is its ability to perform all necessary functions, which was the product of supply (energy flow) and demand (energy resistance). The "sweet spot" for the supply and demand is regulated by the individual. But living in the human world has affected the amount of energy available for cellular functions or the cell's ability to use it (energy resistance). The result can be either too much or too little of each, which results in malfunctioning cells, illness, lameness, and even death. In this podcast, I look at the flow of energy in a way that allows horse owners to see horses as energy containers, with energy flowing through them from food into movement and then into waste (water and carbon dioxide). This simplicity allows us to identify the friction points that cause illness and poor performance. The concepts given here are actually simpler than how you think about your horse care now. Clarity allows you to look at your horses (and possibly yourself) with a better understanding of how the body works. Health improvements come specifically from reduced stress and inflammation, which can help your horse perform better and stay healthier. Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction and review of Podcast 183. Energy Potential (EP) = Energy Flow (EF) x Energy Resistance (ER), the supply and demand theory, and Energy = mass times the speed of light squared, or E = mc² 3:54 - The 3 cell functions that require energy, all cell functions have a cost, and all cells have a finite maximum amount of energy. 7:23 - Resistance and Energy Flow affect the cell's ability to function. 11:44 - Supply and demand within cells, presented as a math problem: disease is when the product of decreased energy flow and increased energy resistance falls outside of the cell's "sweet spot." 12:35 - Colic in terms of energy. 14:32 - Laminitis in terms of energy. 16:28 - All other diseases in horses in terms of energy. 18:00 - Why increasing food intake doesn't increase cell energy. 21:15 - Using diet and exercise to adjust cell energy use to find the "sweet spot." 25:30 - The effect of stress on cellular energy potential. 27:37 - Summary: energy supply x the demand for that energy = the cell's energy potential (health or illness). ******************************* #horses #veterinary #horseteeth #horsecare #equinedentistry Join us at The Horses Advocate Community page: https://community.thehorsesadvocate.com/yt Dentistry: https://theequinepractice.com/ Horsemanship Dentistry School: https://www.horsemanshipdentistryschool.com/c/information/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHorsesAdvocate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsesadvocate/ Geoff Tucker is a veterinarian and horseman who has worked with horses since 1973, earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University in 1984. Geoff went from mucking stalls as a farmhand to starting his own equine practice. He advocates for the horse by educating horse owners through his vast experience, with an emphasis on dentistry, horsemanship, nutrition, and more.