Editorial
Welcome to the second edition of the Equine Health Update for 2018. The first article in this edition highlights one
of the less obvious dangers equine veterinarians in South Africa face everyday. Rissa Parker suffered some horrific
injuries from a dog attack earlier this year whilst attending a callout. Thanks to Caryn Rademeyer for submitting this
piece and best wishes to Rissa as she recovers from this ordeal.
Castration is a very common procedure in equine veterinary practice however it’s certainly not completely risk
free and on rare occasions can result in life threatening complications. Our CPD article in this addition has been
supplied by Arnold Mahne and is an informative paper on equine castration and complications. Arnold will also be
lecturing on this topic at the upcoming Western Cape SAVA branch congress.
Responsible use of antibiotics is an area of focus for SAEVA. Martin Denkhaus heads up the SAEVA procedures
and policies committee and together with Dr Pia Randleff-Rasmussen of Drakenstein Veterinary Clinic has kindly
provided us with an antibiotic policy document to suit the South African setting.
Hopefully all members are aware of the ECOD disease reporting system. John Grewar and Camilla Weyer have
provided some great visual material to highlight diseases that have been reported this year. SAEVA is grateful to
members for reporting on ECOD but vets should also be reminded of the requirement to report controlled diseases
to their local state veterinarian.
Lastly we have a scientific paper from Dr Mike Hewetson who is currently at the RVC in the UK. This report is an
updated version of the paper presented at our recent congress in February.Further study is obviously necessary in
this area however the theory and results presented in this paper are fascinating. Mikes emails address is at the end
of the article and he is interested in private veterinarians in South African becoming involved in a controlled trial
of this treatment protocol.
Thanks again to all the individual who have contributed to this edition of the EHU. Anyone who would like to
submit an article or case report is welcome to email it to me on [email protected]
Johnny Cave
• Volume 20 Issue 2 | July 2018 •
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