Spotlight

NC State College of Veterinary Medicine critical to North Carolina's billion-dollar-plus equine industry

The equine veterinary center and educational opportunities of the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine serve a vital role for horses and horse owners in the mid-Atlantic region.

Posted Updated

By
Don Vaughan
This article was written for our sponsor, the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine

North Carolina is an agricultural state renowned for its pork, poultry and cattle industries. Lesser known to many is its sizable equine industry, which directly contributes about $2 billion to the state’s economy as well as more than 25,000 jobs, reports the North Carolina Horse Council.

The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine supports the equine industry in a variety of ways, including by conducting research into equine diseases and offering specialized care at its equine center in Raleigh.

"NC State serves as a central referral center, much like Duke University does in human medicine, where anything within a 3-4-hour radius that cannot be managed on the farm or at a regional hospital can be managed in our hospital," said Anthony Blikslager, DVM, Ph.D., Professor of Equine Surgery and Head of the Department of Clinical Sciences at the NC College of Veterinary Medicine. "This is much like the concept of a trauma center, where the horse-owning public and associated professionals can bring their horses to us 24/7 to manage prevalent equine conditions."

The next closest equine facilities are Virginia Tech, University of Tennessee, University of Georgia and private practices in Tryon, North Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia – all at least four hours away. "We serve a vital role in the mid-Atlantic region of the country, not just for horses in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, but also for horses traveling the mainstream showing route from New York to Florida," Dr. Blikslager noted. "During the day, we take elective appointments for medical, surgical and ophthalmological workups where I would say we are often the final stop for a horse owner or trainer who wants a definitive answer on what is wrong with their horse."

According to Lauren Schnabel, DVM, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Equine Orthopedic Surgery, the most common medical issues addressed at the NC State equine center are colic (gastrointestinal pain), lameness, issues related to the airway and teeth and ophthalmology cases.

The equine center at the NC State Veterinary Hospital also sees its share of emergencies. Dr. Schnabel recalled a horse named Colby who fell out of a moving horse trailer on the highway. "Colby had multiple open joints and wounds over both his forelimbs and hindlimbs," Dr. Schnabel said. "He stayed with us for many months of intensive treatment and was luckily able to go back to riding with his owner." Dr. Blikslager recalled the time when the hospital surgically managed colic in Jake "The World’s Largest Horse," who had been at the state fair and maximally tested the capacity of the NC State facilities.

North Carolina’s equine industry is divided into five sectors: Racing, Competition, Recreation, Equine Therapy and Equine Rescues and Sanctuaries, notes the North Carolina Horse Council. Collectively, they pump about $2 billion into the state’s economy, with ripples into other economic sectors.

In 2019, the College of Veterinary Medicine entered into a partnership with the North Carolina Horse Council and the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with the goal of improving educational opportunities and facilities for students interested in pursuing careers in the equine industry. This resulted in major facility upgrades, including a clinical facility for equine reproduction, to the Reedy Creek Equine Farm at NC State with a $1.5 million investment.

The CVM’s equine center was established in the 1980s and features state-of-the-art imaging equipment including 3T MRI, standing CT, nuclear scintigraphy, ultrasound and endoscopy equipment as well as cutting-edge surgery equipment, said Dr. Schnabel. However, the facility is in need of an upgrade.
Plans for a new, expanded Equine Veterinary Center are being evaluated and could include:
  • A covered sports medicine arena to be used for lameness and poor performance evaluations with an attached farrier shop to showcase the CVM’s dedicated hoof care specialist. "This is essential for our sports medicine caseload and will allow us to perform our examinations in any weather and to treat these cases comprehensively including farrier care," Dr. Schnabel said.
  • A fully renovated Intensive Care Unit and isolation facilities for the care of critical patients. The isolation unit will include additional stalls to accommodate the increasing number of regional patients with infectious disease.
  • Fully renovated surgical suites for increased efficiency of the hospital’s high surgical colic caseload as well as orthopedic and ophthalmologic surgeries. One of these surgical suites will be for standing surgery, which is becoming the state-of-the-art way to approach procedures related to the throat, sinuses and teeth.

In addition to providing clinical care, equine faculty frequently give talks to the equine public and veterinarians around the world. "We have faculty experts with a local and international reach," Dr. Blikslager said. "We are also developing a partnership with Raleigh-area practices to cover field emergencies, to hopefully start by July 2023.”

Blikslager noted that NC State does not intend to compete with North Carolina veterinary practices but rather to serve as a central resource.

"Many of the horses that we see truly are athletes, and they often come to us with sports injuries and need rehabilitation, just like human athletes," observed Kathryn Meurs, Dean and Distinguished Professor in Comparative Medicine at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. "Their injuries can be career-ending if not properly cared for, so much of our work involves specialized rehabilitation and sports medicine for these injured athletes."

This article was written for our sponsor, the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine