Jamie Rothenburger, DVM

It’s been said that 95 percent of horse lameness is caused by problems in the hoof. Among the most common equine hoof ailments are hoof abscesses. These can occur if something causes a defect in the bottom of the hoof through which bacteria enter and cause infection in the sensitive inner hoof tissues. Since the […] Read more

Every year across Canada, barns tragically go up in flames. Last year, a highly publicized barn fire in Puslinch, Ont., killed more than 40 racehorses with losses estimated in the millions of dollars. Investigators determined that the cause was an electrical issue. In response to this fire, the Puslinch Fire and Rescue Services and Ontario’s […] Read more

It is tempting to dismiss a little extra fat on a horse as nothing to worry about. Many horses and ponies these days are overweight. The same holds true for cats and dogs. It is my experience that animals of normal weight have become so infrequent that many people worry the animals are too thin. […] Read more

It’s a diagnosis no horse owner wants to hear. Bowed tendons are a serious cause of horse lameness and can be career ending for equine athletes. Although most often a condition of racehorses, it can occur in other horses as well. A bowed tendon is an injury to the superficial digital flexor tendon, which runs […] Read more

This year, the Nobel Assembly has awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Japanese researcher Yashinori Ohsumi. His remarkable work focused on understanding how cells eat themselves. Cells are the tiny building blocks that form the tissues and organs that make up our bodies. Using generic baking yeast, he identified the genes […] Read more

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines empathy as “the ability to share someone else’s feelings.” This differs from sympathy — feeling for the individual without actually experiencing their feelings. Without a doubt, animals feel emotions. But do animals experience the feelings of another? In other words, can they feel empathy? It’s a long-standing question that gets to […] Read more

Is it a good idea to blanket horses during winter? Since I moved to southern Ontario with its freezing rain, blanketing has become a part of my winter management. Putting on a blanket before a freezing rain is a no-brainer. Cold and wet isn’t fun for me and I wouldn’t expect it to be for […] Read more

Imagine a grizzly bear wandering south from the Yukon into the Alberta Rockies and encountering a mate that made a similarly remarkable journey north from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. This type of encounter is part of the vision of an ambitious wildlife conservation effort in Western Canada and the United States. Called the Yellowstone […] Read more

Science heralded CRISPR-Cas9 as the “biggest scientific breakthrough of 2015.” A Nobel Prize drumbeat has already started for co-discoverers Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, even though their discovery was published only in 2012. This speaks to the importance of their achievement because most Nobel Prizes are awarded decades after the work is complete. CRISPR is […] Read more