Pegasus Podcast
@thepegasusapp https://www.thepegasus.app/🐴 Conversations with the movers and shakers of the global equestrian industry. Hosted by Pegasus founders Sam Baynes and Jen Tankel.
Pegasus Podcast
Show-Stopping Biosecurity with Dr. Holly Helbig
Pegasus App Co-Founder and Pegasus Podcast Co-Host Jen Tankel talks to Dr. Holly Helbig about her remarkable journey from the world of events to equine healthcare.
Gain a unique perspective on what it takes to thrive in the demanding field of equine veterinary medicine and biosecurity.
Dr. Helbig also provides practical advice for handling outbreaks in horse barns, emphasizing the importance of clear communication and standardized protocols.
If you’re passionate about equine health or involved in horse shows, this episode is packed with invaluable insights and actionable tips.
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Every equestrian competitor knows a great performance horse score requires the right balance of preparation, feel and focus. It also requires a happy, healthy horse. Zoetis has been supporting horses, riders and veterinarians for more than 70 years.
From Core EQ Innovator® and Fluvac Innovator® EHV-4/1 —vaccines that can be administered by your horses’ veterinarian—to a stall-side testing kit called Stablelab® that your vet can use to measure Serum Amyloid A levels in less than 10 minutes.
Be sure to Visit ZoetisEquine.com or follow @Zoetis Equine on Facebook and Instagram to learn more.
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Zoetis Equine Resources:
· Checklist: Equine Vital Signs for Horses That Travel
· Video: Stablelab® EQ-1 Handheld Reader for Biosecurity
· Horse Owner Blog: Show-Stopping Biosecurity: A Horse Show Veterinarian’s Personal Experience
· Horse Owner Blog: Biosecurity: Trusted Protection. Fast Detection.
· Veterinarian Blog: Show-Stopping Equine Infectious Diseases
Zoetis Equine Products Mentioned:
· Stablelab® EQ-1 Handheld Reader
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Every equestrian competitor knows a great performance horse score requires the right balance of preparation, feel and focus. It also requires a happy, healthy horse. Soedis has been supporting horses, riders and veterinarians for more than 70 years, from Core EQ Innovator and FluVac Innovator, ehv 4-in-1 vaccines that can be administered by your horse's veterinarian, to a stall side testing kit called stable lab, that your vet can use to measure serum amyloid a levels in less than 10 minutes. Be sure to visit zoetisequinecom or follow at zoetisequine on facebook and instagram to learn more.
Speaker 1:Today we're hosting Holly Helbig, a doctor of equine veterinary medicine and equine technical services veterinarian at Sowetis, to discuss show-stopping biosecurity. In addition to serving as the attending veterinarian at several large-scale equestrian shows, dr Helbig also owns a hunter-jumper boarding and training facility called Hawthorne Hill and works with Sowetis as an equine technical services veterinarian. Listen to this episode if you want to learn all about equine disease prevention, especially as horse show season really picks up this month. Prevention, especially as horse show season really picks up this month. All right, welcome Dr Helvig. I know you've built your veterinary practice from the ground up after working as a trainer and pharmaceutical rep for years. What made you want to break into veterinary medicine and what was the journey to opening your own practice like?
Speaker 2:Thank you, jen, so much for having me, and I have a unique story. I'm not your typical go to undergrad, go into vet school, work for a practice, start my own practice path. I had a very different path to get to where I am today, but I think that it was very exciting and fun and came with a lot of challenges. I would say I started primarily actually as a wedding planner right out of undergrad for the Ritz-Carlton in Boston and quickly realized that I didn't like that at all and I got right back into horses doing some training, teaching, and I was working as a pharmaceutical rep on the human side. At that point I got really interested in medicine. They had me teaching classes for the other reps that were new to the team and I was actually at the same time doing some training and I had a client who was a veterinarian and I'm like I love the science and I want to stay with horses. So she really encouraged me to go to vet school. It took two years of night class to do all my prereqs before I could even apply class to do all my prereqs before I could even apply. And I did apply and got in at the age of 29. So I was 32 when I graduated, which is about 10 years older than most of the people in the class. Also, when I moved to Columbus, ohio, to go to Ohio State, I kept riding and teaching and training for a little bit of side money and school money.
Speaker 2:And when I graduated from vet school, I had a small little business that was running. The option was to go do an internship somewhere, go work for a private practice or to start my own, and I was lucky. I had some amazing mentors that were actually clients. I had an equine surgeon, a radiologist, they were all clients at our barn and they're like we'll help you, just do it, like just start a practice and we'll help you get through it.
Speaker 2:So it was a really unique journey to get there, but a really awesome journey in my personal opinion, and I think that it made me a better business woman because of the background that I had. It made me more confident, able to run a business right out of vet school. It gave me all of those tools that I think a lot of young veterinarians don't always get, without experiencing the real world, of course. But yeah, it was just an absolute honor to start a practice. I worked primarily at horse shows because that was my area of interest. So mostly in Ohio, kentucky, michigan, about 42 weeks a year I was on the road at horse shows working as a horse, as official veterinarian, and then Zoetta's contacted me about a year ago for a technical service position with their team in which I took the position and joined them. So it's been quite a journey, but super happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredibly impressive, and I do want to touch upon too, because you had said before that you ride hunter jumper and you train and you do compete, so is that something that you're still able to do to this day?
Speaker 2:I am, and when I went through vet school a lot of people said you can't practice and ride professionally and train, and anyone who knows me will tell you that if somebody tells me I can't do something then I'm going to prove them wrong. So throughout practicing, I did continue to ride professionally. I did continue to train. I won't lie. There are moments I was in my full show clothes rectaling a horse for a colic exam. There's stories of me stopping mid course in the show because I heard over the speaker there was an emergency for the vet. So I just stopped and exited and got off and went. But there were times of absolute craziness and chaos. I am the person that thrives in chaos, in pressure, and so for me I just absolutely loved every single moment of it. I enjoy doing both. It's a ton of work, it's a full life commitment, but for those of us that really love horses, I think a lot of us are willing to make that type of commitment and find a lot of pleasure in what we do every day.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, one that's an incredibly impressive career. It's also incredibly impressive that you are able to hear that announcement while riding in the show ring. I know, when I'm in the show ring I don't hear anything. It's just the fact that you're able to hear that and then recognize that there was an emergency and then act accordingly is incredible. And you also mentioned that you've served as the head veterinarian for some of the largest shows in the country, so what is that like to work as the official horse show veterinarian?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's very long hours. I would say is actually probably the hardest part of it. There's also a lot of high level horses and high end clients, which is awesome because most of them have unlimited means to take care of their horses, unlike some other veterinarians that are working in underserved areas that really have to struggle with that dilemma every day. It was a privilege to work around horses where clients were able. Most of them were able to take care of their horses with not too many restrictions, so that was a huge plus.
Speaker 2:One of the minuses was, again, there's a lot of pressure. So these trainers, the horse owners, they want to win right and so there's a lot of pressure to get these horses to the ring. It can be really hard to have that conversation sometimes about you're not going to show this week or maybe for six months or maybe a year. So there were a lot of pluses and minuses to working at the big shows. It was an honor. I still to this day can't believe they picked me right. There's some really huge equine institutions, especially in Lexington, kentucky, and here I am the little solo practitioner that's working as their official horse show vet, um, and doing FEI it. Sometimes I look back and it's back and it's just amazing how I got there. But overall again, I loved every day of it. I think as a rider, it made me a better veterinarian, and so I think that the community respected me for that reason, and I think it was just an area that I really thrived in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so what would be some of the differences in the scale between your private practice and the horse shows?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the whole practice was in one.
Speaker 2:But I think you're asking like, maybe when I wasn't at the horse show and I was practicing at our home barns and things like that, right, so most of the work that I did at the home, back at our home base, which is in Columbus, ohio, was still mostly show oriented. So it was a lot of lameness, sports medicine, pre-purchase exams, a lot of the same type of clientele that I was treating horses to help prepare them to maybe get to the next competition or to have a successful show career. But then there were some of my original clients that when I first went into practice I took anyone and everything, and so there were a few lingering clients that were real backyard, that had donkeys and miniature horses and I loved going there. It just it's such a different environment and making such a huge difference for some of these owners and animals and I love doing that just as much. Two very different environments and every time I could mix in that really non-show experience from a couple of my original clients, I always took full advantage.
Speaker 1:No, that makes perfect sense and so all right. Well, so, switching back over to the horse shows and the maybe potential stress that comes from being a veterinarian at a horse show, I'm sure you've seen your fair share of equine disease outbreaks, with so many horses traveling and competing in the same venues, so can you tell us a bit more about how you've handled situations like that?
Speaker 2:Sure. So at most of these horse shows there is anywhere from 700, 800 horses to 1,500, 2,000 horses, which is a lot of horses to put into one location, especially when they're coming from all across the United States, as well as some international horses traveling to these horse shows. As you can imagine, biosecurity is always at the very top of my radar. Luckily, I haven't had to deal with too many true outbreaks at any of these horse shows, but anytime we got called for a horse that was febrile, the first thing on your mind is always oh my gosh, is this going to be an outbreak? Right? It's just. The first thing on your mind is always oh my gosh, is this going to be an outbreak? Right, it's just.
Speaker 2:The first thing you think about is a horse show veterinarian, because there's so many things that you would have to do to quarantine these horses and the risk of spreading disease could be quite high in these situations. So it's just. It's always on the back of our mind. It always makes your stomach drop just a little bit when you get the call for a febrile horse. So a lot of febrile horses do come to the horse shows. It always makes you feel good when it's something obvious, like cellulitis or maybe shipping fever they just got off the trailer Just a little cold yeah, exactly those always make you feel a little bit better. But those fevers of unknown origin or the fevers that also have some sort of clinical signs, that are respiratory, always make you just pause in your tracks for a minute. And for me, as the official horse show veterinarian, my rule of thumb was anything that was febrile that was not obvious just automatically went into the quarantine stall, just for proactive biosecurity measures, until we figured out what the source of that fever was.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so I know that there was like an incident at a show in 2019. Is that something that you're able to elaborate a bit more on about what had happened and what that outcome was?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Yes, there was one outbreak that I dealt with in 2019 and I will. I'll start from the beginning. So, essentially typical 2-3 am phone call. One of the braiders noticed the horse was being punky in the back of the stall and the trainer is there and pretty typical, they're like oh, I don't know if my thermometer is working or I forgot my thermometer, which always blows my mind because they're supposed to be taking temperatures every day. But yeah, one febrile horse was presented and really no other clinical signs besides febrile.
Speaker 2:At that time, right on the spot, I ran a SAA or serum amyloid A, with a stable lab, eq stall site breeder, which was elevated, and at that time, along with the show manager, who I informed, we decided to put that horse into another barn by itself. And lo and behold, about two hours later, as people were coming in to start feeding, I got a call from another trainer in a completely different barn on the other side of the horse show that she had two horses that were febrile. And right there you're potentially dealing with some sort of outbreak. Multiple horses, two horses not within close proximity at the same given time, did not come from the same farm. So at that point your stomach just drops right Because you don't know what it is. And obviously the horses were quarantined.
Speaker 2:We went ahead and ran SAA blood work on them PCR nasal swab that was sent to a lab. Unfortunately, those PCRs can take 24 to 48 hours to get back. So there's this gray waiting period in which, after they did come back, we realized that we had horses with equine influenza and literally within the same day there were horses that had traveled home, that had been at that horse show the week before, who were also PCR positive for influenza. So at that moment I was happy it was influenza and not herpes or strangles, which is a much worse situation.
Speaker 2:But at the same time we knew that we had an outbreak at our hands and within about two or three days there were quite a few horses that popped with the fever, nasal discharge, other respiratory signs, and we started quarantining them. So that was a whole thing within itself. One of the things that I'm really proud of in this situation was that, along with the horse show management, we were very public about it. In the past if there was any type of disease at a horse show it didn't have to be reported, but we very proactively reported it to the EDCC. We went ahead and reported it to USEF, the United States Equestrian Federation, the governing body of the horse show, and, within communication with USEF, they have implemented a rule that now horse shows do have to disclose if there are any types of communicable diseases at the horse shows, which was not something that was in place prior to the outbreak that I dealt with back in 2019.
Speaker 1:So I do want to double click into that, because so there was this moment when you got the call. They're getting tested. You're waiting 24 hours to get the results back, right? Is that essentially up to the horse show management to communicate that gray zone, if you will? Because until you really know what the situation is, do people typically in the past just proceed with competing, or until that they do receive the results back and then they connect accordingly? And I know that kind of like COVID, we didn't really know what we were dealing with until we dealt with it. And now that there's more standard procedures in place. But I guess, moving forward with the learnings, is that something where horse show management should communicate that right from the get-go, or could that potentially make people get alarmed and then it turns out to be a false positive, if you will?
Speaker 3:What should horse?
Speaker 1:show management and competitors do, moving forward.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great question because, as a horse show person, you probably know that people go into panic like wildfire over situations like this right, and you're always trying to debate on what is the best way to proceed. In my professional opinion, any of those horses that are febrile should be removed and put into a quarantine type of situation. Any of the other horses within that barn should be tempted at least twice a day. Horses that are at horse shows really should be tempted every single day. That's in their biosecurity guidelines for pretty much all of the governing organizations, but unfortunately that doesn't always get done.
Speaker 2:I've learned over the years that, quite honestly, waiting until those final results come in to disclose is typically the best way to proceed. We might, as the horse show management and veterinarian, encourage exhibitors to take temperature, remind them to take temperatures once a day or twice a day, but I think that causing panic isn't going to help anybody and the changes within the next 24 hours are not going to be that great For us. We over the years have decided that we just waited until those results came in to then inform. But the important thing is to inform the horse show if there is something potentially contagious right, and that's the most important thing.
Speaker 2:And one of the things I'd like to say is for any of the trainers that are out there, please contact the horse show veterinarian and let them know what's going on. Through the years I've had so many horses that I've been called to and the trainer's like it's had a fever for three days and it's had banamine for a couple of days and it's just not quite doing well. Please let us know. I think trainers are sometimes worried that they don't want to be the one that brought the horse in right they contaminated everybody or they want to be able to keep showing. But please, let us know. We just all we want is to work with you for whatever is in the horse's best interest, and we also want to make sure that the safety of everybody at that horse show is at the highest level possible.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and they shouldn't be ashamed it's. They're not patient zero here, so someone gave it to them Exactly who that originated from. But you did bring up a good point as well, which is that people should be checking their horse's temperature every single day, and I admittedly did not know that, and so are there other things that come to mind that those that are competing at horse shows, in addition to checking the temperature, should be consistently doing and checking to ensure that their horses are indeed healthy and happy, versus three days later and then finally doing something about it.
Speaker 2:Sure. So this is something I am super, super passionate about right Biosecurity, being proactive is the absolute best thing that we can do in these situations. At the very top of the list is obviously to come with your horses vaccinated to any type of event competition. Most horse shows, including Yousef, are going to require EHV and EIV within the last six months. I would say that's pretty consistent to most of the organizations that are out there. But making sure that your horses are properly vaccinated and in a timely manner is one of the most important things that you can do for biosecurity.
Speaker 2:And then when you get to the horse show actually before you get to the horse show taking the horse's temperature at home so that you're not potentially bringing a sick horse to the horse show is very important. Some veterinarians will run an SAA or that serum, amyloid A, that is used by Stable Lab EQ Reader. It is a stall side test that's able to detect infection or subclinical disease within 10 minutes. So that is a newer tool that we have in our toolbox that some horses will get tested. It's just a very small little drop of blood prior to coming to compete. When you arrive at the horse show, making sure that stall is clean before you put your horse in it. If there's leftover manure or anything like that, making sure to pull it out, potentially even disinfecting that stall if needed. And then, while you're at the horse show, like we said, taking a temperature every day can be one of the most important things.
Speaker 2:But simple little things that we learn in school wash your hands in between contacting other horses. One of my favorites is up at the ring. Everyone's got these rags that they're wiping the noses off right and the bridle and the bit right before they go in the ring. Don't share the rags, guys. That's the best way to take nasal discharge from one horse to the next. We're like literally doing it right there. The other one that I always see that makes me cringe is when people stick the end of the hose down into the water bucket and they go from horse to horse to horse and those hoses are used by so many different barns. Right, one hose might get used for 50 to a hundred horses in that aisle, and so just either having a hose for just your own group of horses or simply just not sticking the end of the hose down into the water source alone in itself can help to prevent outbreaks and disease.
Speaker 1:It's like all those things that you from people right, we're not, I'm not using my tissue and then giving it to somebody else, so just those things that if you want to do it, let's not do it with our horses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's not just keep wiping the Kleenex from one horse to the next. It's so simple. But again, when you get home, again taking temperatures, it is recommended that horses should be quarantined for two to three weeks upon arrival. I'm a trainer, I'm a barn owner, I get it. That is really hard to do, right, for most places that's really hard to do. But if you can even section those horses off to one side and then the horses that were at home to another side, making sure the horses that are left at home are also properly vaccinated is important. And then just simple things again washing your hands, maybe using equipment, just for those horses that were away at the show compared to the ones that were at home. Really basic common sense things that we often forget but can be so critical in the source of outbreaks?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Okay. So in that situation in 2019, it sounded like that there was a lot of adrenaline that had kicked in, but you are a grounding type of person and we need people like you at an emergency like that. So you described a case of an equine influenza outbreak, but what are some other equine diseases that horse owners should be concerned about?
Speaker 2:Absolutely Most people are pretty well aware of EHV or equine herpes virus, in which there is a neurological form of that that can be quite fatal and, quite honestly, when we found out that it was influenza, I was very thankful that it was not equine herpes virus.
Speaker 2:Another one that people are looking out for are strangles, which can be very hard to manage and one that can stick around for a very long time. I've dealt with barns where they're shut down for six months because they're trying to manage these horses and it's very hard to clear from the horse's system and, if you think about it, that's affecting a lot of people's livelihoods. Right? Six months of not showing, six months of not doing lessons at home that can affect a lot of people's livelihoods and for me, influenza, strangles and EHV are really the three big ones that are highly transmissible that we're looking really aware of and looking for at horse shows Anything that has diarrhea. I'm concerned about salmonella, which is highly contagious as well, but for me those are really the big ones that we're all trying to keep our eyes and ears open for.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And speaking of vaccines, so would you be able to talk a little bit more about the core EQ and the flu vaccines and who needs them? What do they solve? Just a little bit more for those that don't necessarily understand the science behind it all, but we do want to keep our horses healthy.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Before I go into talking about those two, just reminding the audience vaccinating does not guarantee prevention against disease. The science shows that it significantly, you know, reduces the risk of clinical signs as well as the duration of the disease. But again, just like the COVID vaccine, just because you have it doesn't mean that you won't. You're absolutely 100% immune to it, right? So it's just really important to remind everybody out there that there's nothing that's going to protect you 100%, but it's certainly going to decrease clinical signs and duration of disease.
Speaker 2:Okay, so AAAP, or the American Association of Equine Practitioners, divides diseases into two categories. So we have your core diseases and then your risk-based diseases. So your core diseases are ones that are potentially fatal and also can be zoonotic or transmitted to humans. So those core diseases that every horse should receive a vaccine for every year, regardless if they're going to horse shows, regardless if they're hanging out in the backyard, those diseases are your three mosquito diseases, which is eastern and western encephalomyelitis, west Nile disease, rabies and tetanus. Ok, so those five every horse every year should be receiving them. Horse every year should be receiving them. So CoreEQ, as you were talking about, coreeq Innovator, is the only USDA approved vaccine in horses that covers all five core diseases in one single injection. So there are other vaccines out there that may contain one of those one or some of those core diseases, but CoreEQ Innovator is the only one that in one single injection can cover all five of them.
Speaker 2:Okay, those are your core diseases. And then there's a ton of risk-based diseases and those really is a conversation to have with your veterinarian. Most people think that influenza and herpes, which is also people can refer to it as the flu rhino that is required by most horse shows. People think that's a core disease but it's actually not. It's actually risk based. Other risk based diseases would be things like botanic horse fever, botulism, strangles. So there's a whole series of risk based diseases strangles. So there's a whole series of risk-based diseases and those should be open conversations with your veterinarian, tailored to your horse's specific needs.
Speaker 2:Okay, depending on your area of location in the region, how often you're going to horse shows, exposure to different things in the environment that again is just very specific can be very specific horse to horse. But Fluvac Innovator EHV4-in-1 that you asked about is Zoetis' equine influenza and herpes specific vaccine and it's shown to be highly immunogenic, stimulating cross protection against many strains in influenza. So in 2022, they tested it against 14 circulating strains and then in 2023, they actually tested the cross protection against 21 different strains or isolates. It's really cool. So they take isolates from all across the country, as well as Canada, and they send it into the Gluck Research in Lexington, kentucky, and then Fluvac is one of the only vaccines where they go ahead and test it against all the strains of influenza. So something very specific to Fluvac Innovator that I think is really cool that the research is done on this.
Speaker 2:The other really fun fact that I love to share about influenza is that when a horse sneezes, it can actually travel half of a football field. So imagine these barns and one horse has influenza and it sneezes and it just can go right down the aisle. It can go as far as 50 yards or half of a football field, which I think is just really absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, especially if you consider some of these smaller barns that have maybe like an acre or two, and so those horses share a fence line and you can just see how quickly things would be able to spread, knowing that one sneeze can transfer that far. That, that's that blew my mind too, ok, so on that note. So let's say an outbreak does indeed occur at a horse barn. So what should owners do, in partnership with their horse's veterinarian?
Speaker 2:Communication is always number one, right. So contacting your veterinarian, having them come out, assess the situation, obviously run a physical exam on any horses that might be affected as well as ones that appear healthy at that time, are all very important first steps to potential outbreaks at farms. It's hard to summarize exactly how to handle each situation because it depends really on what is causing the outbreak or what type of outbreak you're dealing with. But it's back to those simple measures of hygiene, of washing our hands, of not sharing tack, not dipping the water hose from one bucket to the next, trying to separate the horses that are clinically ill from the ones that are not, and these are all things that your veterinarian can absolutely guide you with.
Speaker 2:And some diseases in some states are reportable, meaning the veterinarian will need to call the state veterinarian and report it, and then that gives awareness to other horses within the state or traveling in or out of the state. So I always like to share that with people so they're not alarmed when we say, hey, we need to call the state vet. But, for example, cases of equine herpes, the neurological strain, most of those are reportable, in which the state vet will come in and also help make recommendations on quarantine biosecurity measures. So the takeaway is to contact your veterinarian. It's okay, don't be ashamed. Get people involved it can happen to anybody and then be ready to take some real proactive measures when it comes to biosecurity within the barn.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. If someone were to take a horse's temperature, can you give the listeners some pointers as to how they can best do that?
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. So just a reminder that you can use a human thermometer on horses that's perfectly acceptable and just putting a little bit of lubrication whether it's some Vaseline or any type of moisture on that thermometer, lifting the tail, placing it in the rectum, holding it until it's finished, the biggest thing is to not let go. Sometimes horses can suck it into the rectum, in which a veterinarian would then have to go in and try to fish it out. But back to lubricating that thermometer. I have a really funny story. Back to lubricating that thermometer. I have a really funny story.
Speaker 2:About 15 years ago we were at one of the finals and that the kids had to ride, but then they also had to demonstrate some horsemanship skills. And they had these horses lined up and they were asking the students what normal temperature was in a horse, as well as to demonstrate taking that horse's temperature. And I kid you not, this thermometer had been used multiple times on this horse. And this next girl came up. It was her turn and there was a thing of Vaseline right there. Instead of sticking it in the Vaseline, she stuck it in her mouth to lubricate it, and I think everybody in the audience just about lost it the poor girl. She was so nervous.
Speaker 2:So word to the audience don't do that. Use some sort of Vaseline or lubricant that's appropriate. And then also just a reminder that serum amyloid A, or our SAA reader, is actually 30 times more sensitive than a thermometer. So the SAA reading again it's tall side, it takes 10 minutes. It's just a very small drop of blood that your veterinarian will put into a little lateral flow test and it actually can detect subclinical disease or potential infections. And it's 30 times more sensitive than a thermometer, meaning you might have a positive SAA with still a normal temperature, and that SAA is indicating that maybe something is brewing or coming along that we need to heighten our awareness for.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay, and so where would someone be able to get their hands on that? Is that something that their veterinarian needs to purchase, or are they able to purchase that themselves?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's something that almost all veterinarians have on their trucks or within the clinics. At this point I don't know too many field ambulatory veterinarians that don't carry these because they're so useful to us. So, yeah, that would be something that your veterinarian would have to perform. It's not something, unfortunately, that horse owners can get their hands on at this time, maybe down the road, who knows? But at this time it is sold to veterinarians and the veterinarian just has to draw a little bit of blood, adds it with a sample, a saline type sample, goes ahead and puts it on this lateral flow test and it's a little handheld reader and it just does a countdown of nine minutes and right there and then you get a result. The result is between zero and 3000. Anything below 50, we consider normal, really below 20 is pretty much normal, but anything elevated or greater than 50 is signs of infectious disease in an adult horse.
Speaker 1:Wow, it'd be great if we could have that for humans too. They do actually. Oh no kidding, is it also the same exact product?
Speaker 2:It's a different company, but they do use it in human medicine in the emergency room.
Speaker 1:Oh, really cool. Okay, awesome, all right, this is fantastic. Are there any parting words for the listeners?
Speaker 2:Just that if anybody has any questions, feel free to reach out. If there's any veterinarians listening that are asked to manage a horse show or work as an official vet at a horse show or anyone has biosecurity questions, to please reach out to your veterinarian other veterinarians if they want to contact me. I'm more than happy to talk to you about any of these things that we discussed today. And for all of those students out there that veterinarians say you can't compete and be a veterinarian at the same time, you absolutely can. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but it is an extremely rewarding job and I encourage you to follow your dreams.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so very much for joining us. And again, that was Dr Holly Helbig, the equine technical services veterinarian over at Zoetis, and we'll include links to Dr Helbig's practice and the resources shared in the episode show notes for more information. So thank you very much, dr Helbig. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3:Jen, Thank you so much for listening to the latest episode of the Pegasus Podcast. As you heard from our mid-roll, our equestrian event management platform is now available to use. Now it's easier than ever to host, sign up and sponsor for any equestrian event in the world, thanks to all the features of the Pegasus app. To sign up, go to our homepage at wwwthepegasusapp. That is wwwthepegasusapp. See you next time.
