This article is from the February 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

At the time of writing this article more than 10.7 million hectares of Australia has been burnt by bushfires. That’s 26.4 million acres. There are no statistics that advise us the number of horses that have perished or been injured by the bushfires, but owners and vets across Australia will be struggling with the various horse health conditions that follow. Horse Deals has enlisted the help of Dr Elizabeth Herbert of Adelaide Plains Equine Clinic (APEC), to share with our readers some of the important lessons that were learnt when the Pinery Fires tore across South Australia’s Mid North and Barossa Valley regions back in 2015.

Stress Colic

Health effects aren’t always directly from the fire, and stress colic is a prime example of this. Although we did not have many cases with the Pinery Fires, stress colic can be a major issue. If you are evacuating your horse do it in one trip, far away from the threat of the fire, as multiple moves will stress your horse. If you can evacuate with supplies of your own hay this will minimise stress on the horse’s intestinal system. Once you have evacuated, feed hay in very small amounts for the first 48 hours and supply lots of fresh, clean and cool water. This will reduce the colic incidence.

Respiratory Conditions

Respiratory compromise was interestingly not an issue with the Pinery Fires, since they were open range and fast-moving; it burnt approximately 225,000 acres in five hours. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to be the case with the current bushfires in Australia, due to their sheer size and the amount of smoke that has been produced by them. Any signs of respiratory distress should be a reason to seek veterinary attention. This might include coughing, increased respiratory rate, nasal discharge and increased abdominal effort in each breath. Horses should not be exercised in smokey conditions. Horses that already have respiratory problems such as asthma/heaves are particularly vulnerable. Unless there is confirmed bacterial infection, antibiotics are of little use.

Burns

When it comes to burns, caution is advised as the effects often don’t look too bad to start with. With the Pinery Fires, it took two weeks or more to visualise the full extent of the burn injuries. Some horses just lost hair, others were significantly worse. The road to recovery with significant burns was long and intensive, with one of the horses staying at the clinic for four months.

For first responders to horses that have been burnt, the number one thing you need to do is use water to cool the horse down. Not ice water or cold water, just basic tap water. Realistically speaking though, depending on how the fire has affected surrounding infrastructure, there may not be water available. When the horse has been cooled down, cling wrap or similar can be used to protect the sensitive skin until you can get the horse to a vet for treatment.

Tetanus

When the veterinary clinic is presented with a horse with burns, they will ensure the horse is up to date with their tetanus vaccination. Burns open the skin to infection so a tetanus vaccine is a strongly recommended precaution.

Lesions and Penetrating Wounds

Burns aren’t the only skin condition that can be caused by fires. Lesions and penetrating wounds are a common occurrence due to the horse’s lack of vision and need to escape the danger. In the case of the Pinery Fires, antibiotics were administered to horses with severe lesions and/or penetrating wounds. Not all of the horses got antibiotics and we took them off as soon as we could.

Shock and Dehydration

For the management of shock and also pain relief, flunixin (Finadyne) was administered twice daily as needed, with us eventually switching to phenylbutazone (bute). For the first few days following the fire, intravenous fluids were given to a few of the more seriously burned horses to assist with shock and to get them rehydrated.

Eating and even drinking was painful to most of the horses due to burns on the lips. Intravenous hydration was also used to prevent impaction colic.

Corneal Ulcers

Corneal ulcers were very common with the Pinery Fire; every single horse that we treated had them, even if they only had minor burns. To treat them we used a triple antibiotic ointment twice a day and Orbenin (a long-acting eye ointment for cattle) once daily, which seemed to give them some pain relief. We used these treatments until they had a negative corneal stain uptake, which took around two weeks, and then we switched to a steroid cream. Corneal ulcers tended to be transient; a couple of weeks and they were gone. There were no cases of fungal keratitis (infection of the cornea).

Coronary Band Separation

One of the more instant effects of the fire was damage to the coronary band. Some of the horses had oozing coronary bands within an hour of the fire coming through. Over time, the coronary band separated, but surprisingly it caused little pain to the horses and none were lame. It took six months for the whole hoof to grow out. They did get abscesses in the last few weeks of the hoof growing out, but then they were perfectly fine. In the case of the Pinery Fires, there were no horses with severe P3 (pedal bone) rotation.

Ulcers and NSAID Toxicity

For the horses treated at APEC for the Pinery Fires, omeprazole was administered to prevent ulcers during the recovery time. The long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) did not result in obvious clinical signs of toxicity.

Ongoing Treatment for Burns

For treatment of the burns, especially in the early period, a key item for us at APEC was using raw honey under the bandages, which proved to be just as good as manuka in this case. Interestingly, Flamazine (silver sulfadiazine or SSD, an antibiotic cream) worked better than honey for some of the patients, so we tended to use whichever they responded best to. Other products that were trialled include aloe vera, which proved very painful to the horses in the early stages but worked well after a week or so, and corticosteroid cream which did not prove helpful.

For bandaging applications, sterilised Chux can be used as an economical option. We would smear them with Flamazine and/or honey, place them around the leg and then wrap over the top of that. In our situation, lightweight bandages were superior and less expensive than bulky bandages, with cotton fibre cloth a worthy option.

To avoid any cracking to the skin, emollients (non-cosmetic moisturisers), such as sorbolene moisturiser were applied which helped keep the skin soft. If the skin cracks while it’s healing it can add months onto the total heal time. Continuous use of moisturiser was critical to prevent the skin from splitting.

Each day between bandage changes, we would sedate the horse and scrub them to remove eschar (scabs and dead skin) and keep the wounds clean. The scrubbing would take around an hour, to an hour and a half per horse. The product we used for this is a mild detergent called Liquid Organic Cleaner or L.O.C. (an Amway product) and occasionally a small amount of sorbolene. We found that L.O.C. was very mild and was the one product that didn’t cause irritation or make the horses stomp when it was put on. Mild generic soap would be another option.

As the horses progressed, they reached the pruritus (itching) phase. This began several weeks in, whilst the burns were healing. Rakelin (reserpine) given orally was excellent to prevent itching. If we didn’t give this to some of the horses, they would rub themselves raw.

Mental Health

Throughout the time that these horses were being treated, APEC saw the significant advantage of giving the horses lawn-time. This time spent grazing benefitted the horses’ recovery immensely by aiding their mental health. The horses were put on a lawn to move around and graze after the sun went down to prevent sunburn.

Recovering horses from the effects of fire, particularly burns, is a very intensive, expensive and long-term project. In the situation of the Pinery Fires, surface injuries covering a large percentage of the body were not predictive of prognosis, and all but one horse was able to fully recover from their injuries.

Where are they now?

Four years on from the Pinery Fires, the horses have resumed normal activities including riding and/or reproduction. As you can see, the horses recoveries were incredible which is a testament to the time, expense and effort the staff at Adelaide Plains Equine Center invested in them.

Penny and Crystal

Owner: Michelle Gregory. The burns across the side of Crystal’s mouth have healed beautifully with minimal scarring.

Ash

Owner: Kylie Kemp. Ash had a foal the following year and now enjoys life in the paddock. Pictured with Ash is Julie Laughton who was Ash’s primary carer during her four months at APEC.

Wyatt

Owner and rider: Kylie Kemp. Although Wyatt is now semi-retired, he continued his career as a barrel racer including competing at Equitana 2018.

Cupcake

Owner: Kylie Kemp. Cupcake has now had a foal.

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