My Pseudo DVM Degree

I've been around horse for about 30 years. In my younger days, I worked at the barn through summers and weekends. I've spent many, many hours at the barn.

As anyone who has spent some time around horses knows, horses are disasters waiting to happen. They are seemingly all too willing and eager to hurt themselves. And if it isn't trauma that sidelines them, it's something that's happened to their barrel on toothpick bodies because of the stresses we put them through.

Most of us become all too familiar with our local vets.  And some of us joke about our veterinary degree that we didn't have to go to school for. I would be one of them.

Over 30 years, I've had a fair amount of things happen to my horses. Mostly non-catastrophic, and only a couple of emergency callouts. Over the last few years, when I've called my vet and said "I think this is what is wrong with my horse" I'm usually right.

Sunflower was a great study partner. She taught me a lot in the first couple of years of horse ownership.

Here is a list of all the subjects that I studied over the years to get my pseudo-vet degree and where possible, my study partner:

Colic (Sunflower)
Uveitis (Sunflower) (eventually caused full blindness after I sold her, but she was still where I boarded)
Strangles (Sunflower)
Navicular (Sunflower)
Abscess (Sunflower, Phantom)
Broken Splint Bone requiring surgery (Sunflower)
Nerve Damage where splint bone was removed requiring nerves to be cryogenically frozen (Sunflower)
Contracted Heels (Farly)
Puncture Wounds (Farly x 3)
Suspensory Desmitis (Farly)
Ringbone (Farly)
Laminitis (Farly)
Alsike Clover Toxicity (Phantom)
Photosensitivity Reaction due to liver damage due to Alsike Clover Toxicity (Phantom)
Scratches (Phantom)
Splints (Sunflower, Phantom)
Tying Up (Phantom)
Hock Arthritis (Phantom)
Choke (Cisco)
Mild Heaves (Sunflower, Phantom)
Anemia (Sunflower)
Hematoma (Phantom)

The above list is things that have happened to my own horses. I know how much horse people like to see gross pictures, but sadly, most of these happened well before the days of cell phone cameras, so no pictures to share with you.

Being around the barn so much means that I have seen, and in many cases helped with treatment, lots of other things:

Melanoma on grey horses
Infection on neck after vaccinations (I don't think it was a clostridial myositis infection)
Colic Surgery
Neurological issues
Diarrhea/Fever that was suspected Potomac Horse Fever but didn't test as such
Corneal Ulcers or Scratches
Lots of Large Cuts or Scrapes
Proud Flesh on Large Cuts
Stitches
Retained Placenta
A Chronic Colicker, who was found in a necropsy to have an intestinal lining that should be 1/8" thick was up to 2 inches thick in some areas (or something like that)
Hives (Allergic Reaction)

These are all that come to mind, though I'm pretty sure more things have happened.

How have you gained your pseudo-degree in veterinary medicine?
(Would this be a blog hop idea?)