MU VHC Equine Hospital

06/23/2026

Educating the Next Generation of Veterinarians

In this image, Equine Ambulatory Clinician, Dr. Alison LaCarrubba, discusses dental radiographs with fourth year clinical students and our Mixed Animal Intern - Dr. Sam Hoover. One of the important ways that the Mizzou College of Veterinary Medicine educates our clinical students is through case discussions and rounds.

On clinical rotations, students have the opportunity to work with our veterinarians as they diagnose and treat equine patients. This hands on experience and opportunity to work through clinical decision making with experienced veterinarians enables students to gain valuable skills while patients receive the best of care from our experienced senior veterinarians.

In our veterinary teaching hospital educational model at Mizzou College of Veterinary Medicine, our students are lectured by actively practicing veterinarians who are the same individuals that teach the students while they are on clinical rotation. Our students have consistency in their education and our veterinarians get to see first hand how their instruction has impacted their students in real life situations.

06/22/2026

Mizzou Vet Fact - Pre-Anesthesia Mouth Wash

Did you know that we rinse out every horse's mouth before general anesthesia? In this image you see our Licensed Veterinary Technician Ms. Joyce Guthrie with an oral syringe. We rinse every horse's mouth out before surgery to remove any clumps of hay or feed that might be present. This prevents any of that material from being pushed into the lungs when the orotracheal tube is passed. The orotracheal tube is a large silicone tube that is placed through the mouth and into the trachea. During anesthesia, oxygen and anesthetic gases are passed down the tube to maintain general anesthesia.

06/21/2026

Happy Father's Day!!

Who doesn't love a good dad joke?? 😂 Happy Father’s Day to all the amazing dads out there!

Today we take a moment to recognize our AAEP members who balance the demands of being a father with their dedication to equine health and veterinary medicine. We are so inspired by you!

06/20/2026

Equine Wound Care - Silver Sulfadazine Cream

Silver Sulfadiazine Cream, often referred to as SSD, is one of the common topical anti-microbial products we use to treat equine wounds. SSD was originally developed to treat human burn patients so it is very gentle on healing tissue while being tough on bacteria. SSD kills a broad spectrum of bacteria including Pseudomonas, which is a bacterial genus many other topical would treatments do not kill well. SSD does need to be re-applied regularly in order to maintain its efficacy. It can also slide of a wound (it does not stick like honey) so it is often used under a bandage. It is used early in the wound healing process when significant topical anti-microbial effects are needed.

Equine veterinarians at the MU Equine Hospital are committed to offering the best in wound care to help your equine friend return to comfort and activity as quickly as possible.

06/19/2026

Our Clinic will be closed today in celebration of Juneteenth

We are always open for emergencies both in the clinic and in the field. If your horse needs emergency veterinary care, please contact us at 573-884-0173

06/19/2026

The MU equine field service offers students an opportunity to take an extra elective rotation on the trucks, giving them more time to learn ambulatory medicine. As part of the elective, we ask our students to create an informative, equine-oriented social media post.

Thank you to Madison Otte, a senior veterinary student, for this post on our long eared friends.

06/18/2026

Time to focus on another of our great 2025-2026 Interns! Dr. Dan Thurston is one of our Large Animal Interns who has worked in both the Equine and Farm Animal Hospitals. He previously worked as a dolphin trainer in Hawaii before attending veterinary school. Dr. Thurston is a graduate of Lincoln Memorial University and has an interest in Equine Surgery and Sports Medicine. He will continue to pursue his goals with an internship at Ocala Equine.

🐴 Ultrasound of the abdomen or of a limb? 🦵Limb
🚨 ER choke or colic? 💩 Colic
🥼 Gowning up for surgery or isolation? 🦠 SURGERY
✂️ Castration or wolf tooth extraction? 🦷 Castration
🍼 Sick foal or post-op colic with ileus? 🐴 Post op Colic with ileus
☀️ Ambo call in July or January? ❄️ July
🧠 Neuro case or lameness exam? 🦵lameness
🌅 Early morning or late-night ER call? 🌙 late night
💉 Arthrocentesis or thoracocentesis? 🫁 arthrocentesis
📹 Gastroscopy or BAL? 🌬️ Gastroscopy
🦷 Dental nerve blocks or hind limb nerve blocks? 🦵hind limb nerve blocks
🦄 Mini pony or draft horse colic? 🐴 mini pony
🖥️ Standing CT – all 4 limbs or head scan? 🐎 4 limbs
🦷 Molar extraction or dystocia? 👶 dystocia
📚 Medicine or Surgery Journal Club? 🔪 Surgery Journal Club
🎤 MM Rounds or Seminar? M&M Rounds
🏥 ICU shift or dental day? 🦷 ICU shift
🦠 Septic foal or septic joint? Septic joint
📝 SOAPs or restocking the ambo truck? 🚚 Restock Ambo trucks

☕ Coffee or energy drinks? ⚡Energy Drink
🍫 Favorite ambo truck snack? A sandwich
🍬 Favorite front desk candy? Reese's (any seasonal shape)
🍔 Most consumed fast food this year? Taco Bell.

💊 Favorite rotation? And why? Surgery was my favorite rotation. It prepared me for what I want to do for a career and gave a wide variety of cases
🐴 Favorite case? Two-year-old who presented for colic. It was her first time off the farm and it was great to help her and watch her grow up some and learn about a place that was not the farm

06/17/2026

Getting Ready for Surgery - Gowning and Gloving

Before our surgeons go scrub, they open their surgical gown and gloves. There is a special way to open these so that that the inside remains sterile. Surgical gowns and gloves have been autoclaved (treated to kill all micro-organisms) and sealed in special pouches. The surgical gown and surgical gloves enable our Equine Surgeons to maintain a sterile field and prevent bacterial contamination of the surgery site.

Notice that there are two pairs of gloves.

Our surgeons always start wearing two gloves. This helps protect their hands from accidental contamination while they are draping the patient. Horses are large and irregularly shaped, which makes draping challenging. After the patient is draped, the outer gloves are removed. For many surgeries, our surgeons will remove the outer gloves after draping and then put on a new pair of gloves on top. Wearing two sets of gloves during surgery - double gloving - prevents against accidental contamination from microscopic tears that could develop in the gloves.

06/16/2026

Mizzou Vet Fact - Gastric Ulcers

Gastric ulcers can be a significant cause of pain, discomfort, and colic. Some horses show subtle decreases in performance, or resistance to girth tightening, while other horses may show obvious colic signs.

Gastroscopy is the best way to diagnose gastric ulcers. In this image our equine internal medicine specialist, Dr. Kile Townsend performs a gastroscopy. You can see an image of the inside of a horse's stomach on the screen. The minimally invasive procedure involves passing a small camera down the esophagus to evaluate the inside of the stomach. Gastric ulcers can occur in two locations in the stomach, the glandular mucosa, and the non-glandular mucosa. These two types of ulcers have different causes and different treatments. Determining if gastric ulcers are present and also determining the type of gastric ulcers is one of the reason gastroscopy is so important as a diagnostic.

06/15/2026

Next up for our wonderful 2025-2026 Interns is Dr. Hannah Eggert. Dr Eggert is a Minnesota native who is a 2025 graduate of Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. She has a strong interest in equine surgery and equine emergency and critical care. We are thankful for all of her fantastic work with us this year and are excited for her to continue to pursue her goal of becoming an Equine Surgeon with an Equine Surgery Internship at the University of Illinois next year!

Let's learn a little more about Dr. Eggert!

🐴 Ultrasound of the abdomen or of a limb? 🦵Abdomen
🚨 ER choke or colic? 💩 Colic
🥼 Gowning up for surgery or isolation? 🦠 SURGERY
✂️ Castration or wolf tooth extraction? 🦷 Castration
🍼 Sick foal or post-op colic with ileus? 🐴 Post op Colic with ileus
☀️ Ambo call in July or January? ❄️ JANUARY
🧠 Neuro case or lameness exam? 🦵lameness
🌅 Early morning or late-night ER call? 🌙 late night
💉 Arthrocentesis or thoracocentesis? 🫁 arthrocentesis
📹 Gastroscopy or BAL? 🌬️ BAL
🦷 Dental nerve blocks or hind limb nerve blocks? 🦵hind limb nerve blocks
🦄 Mini pony or draft horse colic? 🐴 draft horse
🖥️ Standing CT – all 4 limbs or head scan? 🐎 4 limbs
🦷 Molar extraction or dystocia? 👶 dystocia
📚 Medicine or Surgery Journal Club? 🔪 Surgery Journal Club
🎤 MM Rounds or Seminar? Seminar
🏥 ICU shift or dental day? 🦷 ICU shift
🦠 Septic foal or septic joint? Septic joint
📝 SOAPs or restocking the ambo truck? 🚚 Restock Ambo trucks

☕ Coffee or energy drinks? ⚡COFFEE
🍫 Favorite ambo truck snack? Babybel cheese or fruit snacks
🍬 Favorite front desk candy? Dove Chocolate
🍔 Most consumed fast food this year? McAlister’s

💊 Favorite rotation? And why? ER/ICU - you get the most chances to learn and teach, can see a medicine case and a surgery case on the same day, and I’ve always liked emergency work.
🐴 Favorite case?A jaw fracture repair and a septic dummy foal who survived and thrived