Breakthrough in Equine Healing

I was recently going through a backlog of my horse magazines from the past few months.  I came across an article on a therapy that employs a horse's own blood to reduce inflammation and promote healing.  It is referred to as IRAP.

Many horses suffer from joint pain or osteoarthritis at some point in their lives as a result of an injury or old age.  There are various treatments available to help ease the pain, but some horses don't respond well to any of them.  If an injury is extensive or the body can't repair itself fast enough, it can be difficult to keep inflammation down which can cause more damage to the joint.

This is how IRAP works:
The vet draws 50ml of the horses blood into a special syringe containing glass beads.  The white blood cells recognize these beads as "foreign".  They adhere to the surface of the beads and produce anti- inflammatory and regenerative proteins. 

Right: Whole blood, Left: Blood w/serum separated

The syringe is put into an incubator for 24 hours, then spun in a centrifuge to separate the serum (clear fluid containing proteins).  The serum (called autologous conditioned serum (ACS)  because it contains high levels of anti-inflammatory proteins) is drawn off and divided into 4-6 doses which are administered at 1-2 week intervals.
The ACS works with the anti-inflammatory proteins already in the body to create a one, two punch and take the swelling down.  This therapy can be expensive, but because it is made with the horse's own blood there are very few adverse reactions as opposed  to regular treatments.

Up on the Rooftop

Click, click, click. 

After years of listening to that song during the holidays, it finally makes sense to me.  Being one who has not spent much (or in fact any) time around reindeer I was not aware that they make a clicking noise when they walk. 

They have a tendon in the rear leg that slides over the bone when they move and makes that clicking sound.  No one is sure why this is.  It is believed it helps them stay together in whiteout conditions.  If they can't see or smell their herd mates at least they can follow their clicks.  Apparently a large herd can make quite a racket! 

You can hear the clicking in this video once you get past the snowmobiles.

Another fact about reindeer that I found interesting is that only females and castrated males keep their antlers throughout the winter.  I'm not sure what that says about Rudolph!