A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. The term is also used with certain other animals and livestock, such as domesticated camels. By comparison, the equivalent term for a castrated male bull would be ox, or a wether for rams and billy goats.
Cat food is food specifically designed for consumption by cats. As obligate carnivores, cats have specific requirements for their dietary nutrients, namely nutrients found only in meat, such as taurine, arginine, and Vitamin B6. Certain nutrients, including many vitamins and amino acids, are degraded by the temperatures, pressures and chemical treatments used during manufacture, and hence must be added after manufacture to avoid nutritional deficiency.
The domestic or domesticatedrabbit—more commonly known as a pet rabbit, bunny, bun, or bunny rabbit—is the domesticated form of the European rabbit, a member of the lagomorph order. A male rabbit is known as a buck, a female is a doe, and a young rabbit is a kit.
Equine exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) is a syndrome that affects the skeletal muscles within a horse. This syndrome causes the muscle to break down which is generally associated with exercise and diet regime. Depending on the severity, there are various types of ER, including sporadic and chronic.
Equine conformation evaluates a horse's bone structure, musculature, and its body proportions in relation to each other. Undesirable conformation can limit the ability to perform a specific task. Although there are several faults with universal disadvantages, a horse's conformation is usually judged by what its intended use may be. Thus "form to function" is one of the first set of traits considered in judging conformation. A horse with poor form for a Grand Prix show jumper could have excellent conformation for a World Champion cutting horse, or to be a champion draft horse. Every horse has good and bad points of its conformation and many horses excel even with conformation faults.
Choke is a condition in horses in which the esophagus is blocked, usually by food material. Although the horse is still able to breathe, it is unable to swallow, and may become severely dehydrated. A secondary condition, aspiration pneumonia, may also develop if food material and saliva accumulate in the pharynx, spilling into the trachea and into the lungs. Choke is one of the "top 10" emergencies received by equine veterinarians.
Equine polysaccharide storage myopathy is a hereditary glycogen storage disease of horses that causes exertional rhabdomyolysis. It is currently known to affect the following breeds American Quarter Horses, American Paint Horses, Warmbloods, Cobs, Dales Ponies, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, New Forest ponies, and a large number of Heavy horse breeds. While incurable, PSSM can be managed with appropriate diet and exercise. There are currently 2 subtypes, known as Type 1 PSSM and Type 2 PSSM.
Equine nutrition is the feeding of horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and other equines. Correct and balanced nutrition is a critical component of proper horse care.
Stable vices are stereotypies of equines, especially horses. They are usually undesirable habits that often develop as a result of being confined in a stable with boredom, hunger, isolation, excess energy, or insufficient exercise. They present a management issue, not only leading to facility damage from chewing, kicking, and repetitive motion, but also leading to health consequences for the animal if not addressed. They also raise animal welfare concerns.
Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is an endocrinopathy affecting horses and ponies. It is of primary concern due to its link to obesity, insulin dysregulation, and subsequent laminitis. There are some similarities in clinical signs between EMS and pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, also known as PPID or Cushing's disease, and some equines may develop both, but they are not the same condition, having different causes and different treatment.
The back describes the area of horse anatomy where the saddle goes, and in popular usage extends to include the loin or lumbar region behind the thoracic vertebrae that also is crucial to a horse's weight-carrying ability. These two sections of the vertebral column beginning at the withers, the start of the thoracic vertebrae, and extend to the last lumbar vertebra. Because horses are ridden by humans, the strength and structure of the horse's back is critical to the animal's usefulness.
An easy keeper, easy doer, or good doer is a horse that can live on relatively little feed. The opposite of an easy keeper is a hard keeper, an animal that is prone to be too thin and has difficulty maintaining adequate weight.
The health of domestic cats is a well studied area in veterinary medicine.
A pony is a type of small horse. Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under a given height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared to a larger horse, a pony may have a thicker coat, mane and tail, with proportionally shorter legs, a wider barrel, heavier bone, a thicker neck and a shorter, broader head. The word pony derives from the old French poulenet, meaning foal, a young, immature horse.
Obesity in pets occurs when excessive adipose tissue accumulates in the body, and is generally defined as occurring when an animal's body weight is at least 20% greater than its optimal body weight. Obesity is associated with metabolic and hormonal changes, and can predispose pets to illnesses like orthopedic disease, diabetes, and cancer.
The Henneke horse body condition scoring system is a numerical scale used to evaluate the amount of fat on a horse's body. It was developed in the early 1980s by Don Henneke at Texas A&M University with the goal of creating a universal scale to assess horses' bodyweight, and was first published in 1983. It is a standardized system that can be used across all breeds without specialized equipment; condition is assessed visually and by palpation. Scores range from 1 to 9 with 1 being poor and 9 being extremely fat; the ideal range for most horses is from 4 to 6. The system is based on both visual appraisal and palpable fat cover of the six major points of the horse. The system is used by law-enforcement agencies as an objective method of scoring a horse's body condition in horse cruelty cases.
Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), or equine Cushing's disease, is an endocrine disease affecting the pituitary gland of horses. It is most commonly seen in older animals, and is classically associated with the formation of a long, wavy coat (hirsutism) and chronic laminitis.
The developmental life stage of dogs requires a specific intake of nutrients to ensure proper growth and development and to meet energy requirements. Despite the fact that puppies have different nutritional requirements compared to their adult counterparts, of the 652 breeders surveyed in the United States and Canada in 2012, 8.7% report feeding puppies commercial diets not intended for the developmental life stage of canines. Large and small dog breeds have even more specific nutrient requirements during growth, such as adjusted calcium to phosphorus ratio, and as such should receive a breed specific growth formula. Feeding diets formulated by a nutritionist for specific breeds and life stage differences in nutrient requirements ensures a growing puppy will receive the proper nutrition associated with appropriate skeletal, neurological and immune development. This includes nutrients such as protein, fibre, essential fatty acids, calcium and vitamin E. It is therefore important to feed puppies a diet that meets the minimum and/or maximum requirements established by the National Research Council.
A senior cat diet is generally considered to be a diet for cats that are mature, senior, or geriatric. Nutritional considerations arise when choosing an appropriate diet for a healthy senior cat. Dietary management of many conditions becomes more important in senior cats because changes in their physiology and metabolism may alter how their system responds to medications and treatments.
The horse body mass is highly variable, depending on breed, model, physiological state, condition, owner's purpose and usage of the animal. Always 65 % to 75 % water, it is divided on average between 50 % muscle, 11 % bone and 10 % fat. Depending on whether it's a pony or a draft horse, it can range from less than 200 kg to over a ton, with an average of 500 kg for saddle horses. It also differs with the season, as horses are almost always fatter in summer than in winter. Various tools are used to estimate their weight and body condition, and veterinary scales have been created to determine whether a horse has an ideal body mass according to precise criteria. Thinness is associated with mistreatment, but owner-independent factors such as age and illness can cause dramatic weight loss in horses. In Western countries, equine obesity is one of the major veterinary health problems of the 21st century. It is directly linked to numerous pathologies, such as laminitis, osteoarthritis, insulin resistance and colic. It also favors the development of equine Cushing's disease, and causes a drop in stallion fertility.
