San Pedro Veterinary Service, PLC

04/10/2026

04/07/2026

Join us Sunday April 19th at 9am for our April Education Event. Instead of standard lecture we are going to be looking at trailers. We are going to discuss connection types, hitch ratings, pre trip inspections, and yearly inspections. Going to demonstrate inspections. Welcome to bring truck and trailer and we will go over setup looking for safety issues, please no animals. We are also going to have closed course setup for those wanting to get hands on. You will be allowed to use own setup on the course as long as passes safety inspection. But we will also have both a bumper pull style trailer and a gooseneck style trailer available for those interested in trying maybe a different setup (licensed drivers only). You will be asked to do a pre trip inspections before proceeding onto course with any rig (yours or ours), we might just throw a curve ball and create an issue to be caught. A bonus to the course will be those that come with partner will have opportunity to experience what your animal experiences and ride in trailer as one drives and other rides before swapping positions. This is a new event for us, our goal is educating about trailer safety, we are not experts and do not know everything the intent is to make you better prepared for traveling with a trailer and animals. Similar events held in other parts of country typically are limited to certain number of participants and have fee associated. This is open to anyone interested, but all those wanting to use course must attend 9am lecture, no exceptions.

04/06/2026

Banana or full rocker shoe as some times they are called has their advantages. But these are advantages are often on the short term. The use of this style of shoeing is often more for diagnostics than for long-term use. It's a way to ask the horse what it wants... not tell the horse what it needs to adapt to. Thoughts?

04/03/2026

Thank you Dr Kartchner for your service to the community. We know your support and care of patients over the years will be missed. We appreciate the coverage you had provided for our patients and wish you luck in your new endeavor.

04/02/2026

As we prepare for our trailer safety event later in April, we have decided to invest in some aids. This is a hitch by Weigh Safe that measures the tongue weight of a trailer when on hitch. Tongue weight is important for a number of reasons. One major reason is too little or too much can lead to trailer swaying issues and potential accidents. Too much can also overload the ratings of the hitch components and fail. Every component of the hitch has a safe load limit. Most standard bumper hitch systems are rated at 5000lbs or less for total trailer weight and 500lbs for maximum tongue weight. This Weigh Safe hitch is rated at 12500lbs of trailer weight and 1500lbs of tongue weight. Part of our event will be looking at these ratings and making sure that everyone in attendance knows how to properly read ratings and checking those present. Equipment failure is a safety issue and having the proper equipment reduces the risks of failure. So we hope to see a number of people later in the month at the event.

03/31/2026

With fuel prices having increased substantially recently, we will be assessing a fuel surcharge to trip fees. We are electing to do it this way instead of raising the trip fees as we are hopeful that the fuel price increase is temporary. This allows us flexibility in covering this expense while adapting to daily price changes. It is an option to avoid this fee by hauling in. We thank everyone for your understanding.

03/30/2026

We posted yesterday about inspecting trailers for safety of the animal(s) that you transport within them. With that and the lecture last week, we have seen some interest in a trailer safety event. So to prepare for this we are looking to get some ideas of what people would expect from such an event. Here's what we currently are thinking
Brief lecture on types of trailer connections and wire connections.
Review of weight ratings for the different hitch components.
Demonstrated annual and pre trip inspections.

Now, we need some help on the hands on side. We have ideas but not 100% on anything yet. We are thinking trailer obstacle course with turns, backing and such. We would like to do this with people in their own setups but are debating about having ours setup for people that would like to try a different style of trailer (gooseneck vs bumper).
With the obstacle course, we would also like pairs to experience riding in trailer with one driving and other in trailer for course before swapping. All of this would be on a closed course for safety.

So share your thoughts, questions, or other comments as we prepare for an April event instead of April lecture.

03/29/2026

When you think of your veterinarian, most wouldn't think about their horse trailer. But with the need to haul your horses ever increasing for necessary care, emergency situations, and for pleasure for some, safe trailering is a critical component for taking the best care possible of your equines. Whether you haul to your veterinarian or not, you should have access to a trailer that is in good working order and have your animals trained to load into said trailer. Our community has people who will transport animals if owning a truck and trailer isn't for you but you still should verify that your animals will load. With trailer ownership, comes some added costs in the form of maintenance. We recommend at least once a year, looking over the trailer. The main things you want to check are the tires, floor, coupler and lights. In our years of having the haul in clinic open, we've seen a number of trailer issues come in and if we notice, we will try to help fix them to get the animals home safely. Some of the common issues we have caught include
* Bad tires
* Broken floor boards
* Non working or incorrectly working lights
* Locked brakes
* Uncoupled hitches
And yes we said common as in happened more than once. We are not a trailer repair shop but we try to help facilitate necessary repairs so that the animals can travel safer than when arrive. Putting on spares, adjusting load position to avoid bad boards, replacing missing hitch pins are all easy repairs to make voyage home safer. We would hate for anyone to have an accident so we encourage you to inspect your truck and trailer annually. If you rarely haul, be sure to double check latches, gates, and couplers before taking off. And even good treaded tires can fail with our heat and quality roads like the one pictured which has only 1500miles. Trailer maintenance can be as important in an emergency as anything else because having a flat or accident when minutes matter can be life threatening.

We bring this up because of the pictured tire failure on one of our trailers and because we are considering hosting a trailer safety and handling event in April instead of traditional lecture. If you would be interested in this topic, drop us a comment as we work on the concept.

03/26/2026

HORSE OWNER WEBINAR ALERT! 📢

Join us for our upcoming Horse Owner Education Committee webinar! Our topic will be "Oh Sugar! My Horse is Foundering!"

Join AAEP-member veterinarians Drs. Allie Catalino and Chelsea Folmar for an in-depth discussion about the two most common metabolic disturbances in horses: Cushing's Disease and Insulin Dysregulation. They will take you on a deep dive into diagnosis, treatment and management of these diseases, followed by discussion about laminitis, a common sequela.

Registration is FREE but required. A recording of the webinar will be available if you miss the live event. Register at https://events.zoom.us/ev/Aqk4QqZ8CSEZVzoTjoed1OchP7YIDfrDxmN7sn3bmdtN0eMBkO1X~AhLXYhuX8F4hYAwaFVb5RYYV903KHqLrJKTrAP-zT2spI-fUNInOwEr12A

This informative session is brought to you by the AAEP Horse Owner Education Committee.

03/21/2026

Is it a Podiatry case or a lameness case? Often the answer is both. With a higher number of lameness issues originating from the hoof and hoof related structures, podiatry is an important part of equine care. But not all lameness cases are related to the hoof. Joint issues, soft tissue injuries, and even arthritis can be causes of lameness not associated with the hoof directly. Most of these can still be benefited by good mechanics applied to the hoof. These mechanics can be a combination of support, leverage, traction, concussion dampening, and tensions.

Yesterday, we worked up a lameness using our Equinosis Q Lameness Locator. Visually, the horse had left fore head hike and a short hind gait. But objective analysis revealed a left hind lameness with compensatory left fore. Radiographs showed some bony changes in the left hind fetlock of chronic nature. Treatment elected was therapeutic shoeing followed in few weeks with injections if soundness not sufficiently achieved. The horse was fitted with a set of Easy Care Versa Grips on both hinds and immediately reassessed with the Equinosis Q. Immediate improvement with zero time for the animal to acclimate to shoes resulted in roughly a 60% improvement in the lameness scores for both front and hinds. At that time, no changes had been to front which also confirms primary hind limb lameness. The forelimbs were shod based on radiograph images before a final objective assessment. The overall improvement within 5minutes of the shoeing was roughly a 65% improvement with near full resolution of head lift.

This is a prime example of where proper assessment, objective data, and mechanical therapeutics can improve the quality of life for these animals while minimizing the need for medications and invasive treatments. The animal will be reassessed after it gets to adjust to the shoeing before deciding if joint injections are necessary for comfort for the intended use.

Most shoeing changes require a week to objectively see the full benefit. The immediate response by this horse is testament to how beneficial the Easy Care line of shoes can be for our equine athletes and companions.

03/21/2026

All patients will be seen at clinic only until late next week. We are non mobile at moment. Thank you for understanding