SmartPak Monday Morning Feed: Ask the Vet, Episode 3

SmartPak’s educational “Ask the Vet” series is back to answer all of your burning equine questions! Today, SmartPaker Sarah and Dr. Lydia Gray discuss kissing spine, over and underweight horses, abscesses and more.

SmartPak is always in our corner when it comes to happy and healthy horses, and the “Ask the Vet” video series puts the knowledge of SmartPak staff veterinarian Dr. Lydia Gray at our disposal. In today’s episode, she and SmartPaker Sarah answer fan-submitted questions including the following:

1. A few of the horses at my school have kissing spine. What is it and can it be treated/can they still be ridden?

2. How do you actually know if your horse is overweight? Specifically in the case of my horse, she is ridden six days a week (and has been consistently for the last three years) and so she is fit, but yet I hear from people (usually not anyone credible like a vet) that she is fat based on her aesthetic appearance!

3. My horse has a lot of trouble gaining weight. Do you have any tips or tricks?

4. The horse I lease always has problems with abscesses. She goes outside for about 12 hours a day normally, but she’s on stall rest because she has another abscess. Is there any precaution I can take to help prevent more future abscesses?

5. I wanted to get my horse off of sweet feed and was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of choices. How do you decide on a feed and what happens when the recommended amount is too much feed at once? How much is too much? How much should I be giving my horse per feeding if he gets fed twice per day?

Have some of your own questions for Dr. Lydia? Post your questions in the comments section on this video on YouTube with tag #askthevetvideo between April 1 and April 8. You can also post your questions using that tag on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Dr. Lydia’s blog at SmartPak.com.

Bonus: if your question is featured in the next episode, you win a SmartPak gift card!

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Go SmartPak and go riding!