Vet Trends: Arizona Travel

Here’s what to plan for before you’re Arizona-bound.

Colic guard

Impaction-type colic can rear its ugly head while on the road, often resulting from a change in feed or routine and dehydration. When hauling horses in hot weather, make special efforts to allow them to drink regularly to prevent dehydration, because once dehydration impacts a horse, he may quit drinking and eating, which creates a problem that can only be treated by intravenous fluids.

Staying sound

Long trailer rides can cause unnecessary stress on both hard and soft tissue in horses’ legs. The secret to helping alleviate that stress? Keeping a horse’s sole stimulated on a long trailer ride. Even pressure on the horse’s frog allows the horse to naturally pump blood back up his leg, increasing circulation and cutting inflammation. Soft-Ride Equine Comfort Boots’ deep-gel orthotic helps with that pumping of the sole on long trailer rides, even when he’s wearing shoes and standing on hard ground that doesn’t conform to his hooves. The deep gel reaches into the crevices of a horse’s foot—shoes or no shoes—to push against the frog and provide deep comfort for the horse. When worn correctly and not too loosely (like many ropers and barrel racers tend to do), the deep gel has nowhere to go but up into the foot, creating natural comfort for the horse.

Once you’ve made it to Arizona, your horses can hang out in Soft Rides 24/7 in their pens, too, adding to the benefits.

Soft-Ride Comfort Boots with gel orthotic increases natural circulation which is beneficial for equine comfort and recovery. TRJ File Photo

Paperwork

Coggins tests and health papers aren’t just a hassle. With outbreaks of Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) in Colorado this summer and fall, they’re as important as ever. Before you haul across state lines, take your horse to your local vet for an exam and get the proper paperwork. Most fairgrounds offering stalling en route to Arizona require proper paperwork, and most facilities in Arizona require it, as well.

Safety first

Pack a first-aid kit with “bute” or Banamine, vet wrap, gauze, iodine, wound spray, needles and syringes, and electrolyte paste. Ask if your vet thinks you need any antibiotics for the trip, too.