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Table of Contents
Clover Slobbers
How To: Give An I.M. Injection
UPCOMING
 SHORT COURSES
 The Nuts & Bolts of Equine Nutrition
Wednesday
September 16
7-9 PM
at GVEC
Megan Mongiovi, DVM
 
The Scoop on Poop: Tracking Parasites in Your Horse
Thursday October 22
7-9PM at GVEC
Ann Dwyer, DVM & Rebecca Palmer, LVT
 
 Owning Your First Horse
Wednesday
November 4
7-9 PM at
GVEC
Amy Leibeck, DVM &
 Kathy Stein 
 
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GVEC Horse Health Newsletter

September, 2009
Clover Slobbers
 Many horse owners this summer have been alarmed to find their horse suddenly foaming at the mouth or drooling long ropes of saliva.  Although it's always prudent to rule out obvious causes such as a foreign body stuck in the mouth, most often profuse salivation is due to irritation associated with clover pasture or hay. 
 
(IM Injection 21 Photo courtesy of AJ Neumann, DVM)
 
Clover thrives in cool, wet weather, so this growing season has really encouraged the proliferation of clover in the pasture.  When conditions become muggy and wet, a fungus called Rhizoctonia legumicole, or black patch, can develop on clover leaves and stems.    This fungus produces an alkaloid mycotoxin, slaframine, which over-stimulates the horse's salivary glands.   Clinical signs can develop a few hours or a few days after eating contaminated clover.  "Clover slobbers" is a non-life threatening condition, and the drooling should subside within 48-72 hours after the horse is removed from the pasture.  
 
The molds that infect clover typically last for 2-4 week periods.   Keeping the pasture mowed can help remove fungus laden clover and encourage new, healthy growth.  The fungus can persist on infected fields from year to year, however.   Slaframine can also be present in hay cut from infected clover, but the toxin's strength declines during the drying process and decreases over time.
 
Make sure that any horse experiencing clover slobbers has adequate water intake and is removed from the infected pasture or hay source.  If the horse is off feed, has difficulty swallowing, or has a fever, call your veterinarian.
HOW TO: GIVE INTRA-MUSCULAR INJECTIONS
 
Intra-muscular shots are relatively easy to give to your horse due to the horse's huge muscle mass.  This makes it easy to hit the muscle and harder to hit other vital structures such as the spinal cord, bone, or blood vessels.  Before trying to give a shot in the muscle, it is important to keep in mind a few key facts.
 
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION   You can either give the shot in the neck or in the rump, or both, depending on the demeanor of your horse and your preference.
 
NECK IM Injection 21 There is a triangular shaped area that is used for IM injections in the neck. If you imagine a line a hand's breadth below the crest of the neck, a hand's breadth in front of the shoulder, and a hand's breadth above the groove where the jugular vein runs, this will form a triangle.  You can inject anywhere in this area.
 
RUMP IM Injection 32  Stay a hand's breadth below the point of the rump, and above a line level with the stifle.  You can inject anywhere in this region, as long as you do not go right in the crease between two muscles.  Stand right next to your horse when you do this, with your hip right against his side.  It is always safer to have someone holding the lead.
 
STEP BY STEP
 
1.        Always take the needle off the syringe when you go to stick it in your horse.  This will allow you to readily see if you inadvertently hit a blood vessel, and will also prevent breaking off the needle or wasting some of the medication. 
 IM Injection 21

2.       Be bold when you stick the needle in!  The horse's skin is almost 1/4" thick, and the more timid you are, the more times you'll have to poke your horse just to get it through his sensitive skin.  Take a pinch of skin above the injection site to distract your horse from feeling the needle.  Make sure you push the needle all the way into the hub.  Otherwise, as you are injecting you may accidentally push it further in and hit a blood vessel. 
IM Injection 21 

3.       After sticking the needle in, attach the syringe and pull back on the plunger to make sure that there is no blood.
 IM injection 63

4.       Push the plunger forward to inject the medication into the muscle. 
IM Image 64 

When you give your horse a series of shots, such as a course of antibiotics, rotate the area where you give the shot in order to prevent sore spots.   If you always think "right (side) at night", no matter whether you give the shot in the neck or rump, you will avoid giving it in the same spot in the morning and at night.