The ECLAP Tribune: November E Letter 2010

November 2010

ECLAP E-Letter

Dear ECLAPers,

"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz...." But wait - this is the first week in November - usually the hills are still brown, dry and dusty. Not this year. The dust is down - the air is clear and there is "sprigs" of green everywhere - what great conditions for a ride. Now if we could just get rid of those pesky flies things would be perfect! There is lots of information to pass on to you so let's get on with the show.

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE

Don't forget to mark your calendars for this year's Holiday Season Open House. The venue is a great place for good food and fellowship - and an opportunity to swap stories with others in the large animal community - or to come by just to see how awkward the ECLAP vets look in dress clothes!

Event Details:

Saturday December 11, 2010

From 1pm to 4pm

Food and Beverages will be served

Location:

10312 Quail Canyon Road

El Cajon, CA 92021

Please R.S.V.P. if possible by December 8

619-561-4661 or email info@eclap.org

See you there Rain or Shine!!!!

EMAILS, WEBSITES, and DECALS....Oh my!

First- We have changed our E Mail address to info@eclap.org
- we will continue to respond to the old address through the first of the year - and then it will be discontinued.

Secondly - If you haven't already - you should browse through our new web site at www.ECLAP.org. There are many added features - which we will highlight in each of the E Letters. Here is a tip for this month. Many of you have called the office wanting information from a previous E Letter - well now you can retrieve that information in the searchable archives of all the previous E letters. Click on the "Client Education" tab on the top of the home page - and then click on "Newsletters" in the drop down menu. At the top of the page you will find a search box where you can type in a key word from a previous E Letter and magically (since we don't really understand how this process works) - the article or reference that you are looking for will appear! More tips next month (OOOhhh - we bet you can hardly wait).

Thirdly- We look forward to the waves from all of

you when we are on the road - it helps to keep us in the chipper and perky mood you have come to expect. But the problem is there are so many white trucks on the road - that many of you look for the license plates to identify us - and that makes one more thing to do while driving along with fiddling with your blue tooth wireless earpiece. So - in order to make us more noticeable - we are labeling the trucks with a small (smile) sign on the back. So far we have 1 truck with the inconspicuous decal - but hopefully all the trucks will be done by the end of November. Now that you can see us - don't forget to wave!

Fourthly- Don't forget to follow us on Face Book and Twitter for articles, quizzes, photos and other fun info!

And a Few More Items From the Office:

Starting in December we no longer will be continuing the VetStreet Pet Portals. This service seemed to receive more complaints than praise regarding the automatic email reminders. We will now be emailing you vaccine reminders directly from our info@eclap.org email address. We hope this method will be more benefical to you.

Dormosodan Gel: We recieve many requests from clients for a sedative other than acepromazine to use for body clipping, trailering, the farrier, etc. Until now there was no good alternative. This new oral sedative comes in a gel form that we can perscribe for your horse with instructions and it is only $31.00 a tube/dose.

EXERCISING OUR BRAINS

In a continued attempt to provide your animal family member with the highest quality of care - we are constantly sending off ECLAP vets to continuing education seminars throughout the year (Comic Con does not count!).Dr's Smith and Chandler have both attended advanced equine dentistry seminars this past year - and Dr's Chandler and Oman will be attending the American Association of Equine Practitioner's Convention the first week in December. This year's meeting will be in Baltimore, Maryland. We hope to take excellent notes so we can share some pearls of wisdom in next month's E Letter.

Only a Bunch of Christmas Shopping Days Left.....

It seems as though the Holidays are all blending together! Pretty soon we are all going to be confused - exchanging Pumpkins on December 25^th, taking long stockings out to collect candy in October, and dressing up in costumes at the end of November! But the reality is - at today's pace - the days can fly by. And - there are always those people who seem to have everything and you rack you brain trying to find a gift that is unique and useful. We can help!

ECLAP CASH CARDS are a great solution - they can be used for veterinary services (give the gift of good health!) and at many local vendors (the list is on our website). You can buy ECLAP Cash Cards at our office - or if the Holidays are going to put a crimp in your schedule - you can call the office - give us the name of who you would like to honor with some Cash Cards(and give us your credit card info of course) - and we will send them for you in a special gift envelope with a note inside. How could shopping be easier! Now you can sit back and enjoy the family and friends Thanksgiving event worry free.

THE NEW DEWORMING APPROACH

Strategic De-worming based on fecal egg counts is gaining speed - we are now running around 50 fecal egg counts per month - so many of you have made the conversion to the new approach. We seem to all have a good grasp on how to imposed this program on adults(2 years of age and older) but there have been many questions concerning young horses. And for those of you who asked - it is a very good question. Here is the answer. Young horses are treated differently for 2 reasons.

The first is that they have not developed naturally immunity to the parasite world so parasite issues are more common. Secondly - and in concert with the first point - young horses have to deal with Ascarids - a parasite not common in adult horses because of the acquired immunity mentioned above. Ascarids have a migratory phase through the lungs and can create permanent damage if not controlled. For those reasons - the older style of De-worming every 2 months irregardless of fecal egg counts still applies. We start at 2 months of age - using Pyrantel paste (Strongid for example) as the first de-wormer - then Ivermectin at 4 months, and then Anthelcide at 6 months. This rotation is continued for the first year - then during the second year - when ivermectin is due - use a product that has Prazyquantel in it - such as Ivermectin Gold, Ivermectin Plus or Equimax.

Another option would be to use a daily dewormer - such as Strongid C - starting at 2 months of age - still giving ivermectin paste at 6 months and 1 year - then an ivermectin plus prazyquantel at 18 months and 2 years - then start strategic deworming by doing a fecal egg count approximately 30 days after the last dewormer was used at 2 months of age.

SUTURES OR NOT???

We get this comment frequently - "I don't know if it needs sutures or not". Well here are some guidelines when a wound cannot be sutured:

1. A wound cannot be sutured if the skin edges cannot easily be brought together without tension. The picture below shows a laceration over the knee with some loss of skin. On exam - the skin edges could not be brought together so this wound was treated with cleaning and bandaging.

2. In general - wounds that are greater than 12 hours old are contaminated and are very difficult to get clean enough to suture - the exception to this are wounds to the head - these can be older and still possibly be sutured.

3. Puncture wounds are generally not sutured as these usually have bacteria that have been forced into deeper tissues and will need to be open to drain.

4. Wounds that have been grossly contaminated with dirt, gravel and manure at the time of injury - these are very difficult to get clean enough to suture shut as dirt and debris tends to "stick" to exposed tissue.

And to Make You Even More Popular At Parties.....

Throw this one out at your next social events to dazzle your friends. During exercise and increased oxygen demand horses can increase the number of red blood cells available to carry oxygen by contracting its unusually large spleen (a storage organ for red blood cells among other things). This infusion of red cells causes the blood to actually get thicker - or more viscous. Now if that in and of itself does not have enough "wow" factor - the equine heart valves are specially designed to tolerate these changes in viscosity. You and I would effectively "sludge out" and "check out" under the same circumstances.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends filled with fantastic food and great times!

Sincerely,

The Staff and Doctors at ECLAP
Dr. Greg Smith, Dr. Craig Chandler, Dr. Daniel Oman,
Dr. Carlisle Rand

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Our Price: $
List Price: $
S & H: $

$20 Fall Fecal Special	For the month of November we are offering our Fecal Egg Count which is usually $27.00 for only $20.00. If you would like this test done for your horse simply collect a fresh "road apple" and put it in a ziploc bag and bring it over to our office and we will be happy to run it for you! For more information about why you would do this, read our article above about our Strategic De-Worming Program.
Offer Expires: November 30, 2010