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| Finding Your Horse's Digital Pulse: A Step-by-Step Guide |
Learning how to locate and monitor your horse's digital pulse is an invaluable skill for any horse owner or caretaker. The digital pulse indicates how blood is flowing to the hoof and can give you vital clues about your horse's health and comfort. This comprehensive guide will teach you exactly how and why to take your horse's digital pulse.
What is the Digital Pulse?
The digital pulse specifically refers to the pulse felt in the digital arteries located in the lower legs and hooves. You can locate these arteries by pressing gently on the inside and outside of the fetlock, pastern, and hoof.
When you apply slight pressure to these areas, you should be able to feel the blood pulsing through - these are your horse's digital arteries at work! The strength and rhythm of this pulse indicates how well blood is circulating down to the hoof.
Why Check the Digital Pulse?
There are a few key reasons to regularly monitor your horse's digital pulse:
- Evaluate hoof health: Changes in digital pulse can indicate inflammation or restricted blood flow in the hoof, often an early sign of laminitis.
- Assess soundness: Comparing digital pulses in different hooves can help diagnose injuries or identify lame legs.
- Monitor pulse recovery: Taking pulse during and after exercise shows cardiovascular fitness.
- Detect illness/distress: Digital pulse is also impacted by overall health, stress level, hydration status.
In a nutshell, changes in digital pulse act as an early warning system, allowing you to catch problems and intervene promptly. Making pulse checks part of your regular grooming routine enables you to know what’s normal for your horse. Then you can quickly spot subtle changes that signal issues requiring further evaluation.
When to Check the Digital Pulse
Ideally, check your horse's digital pulse:
- At least once a week when grooming
- After any stressful event – trailer travel, vaccination, etc.
- During onset of illness – helps gauge severity
- After strenuous workouts – monitors cardio recovery
- If lameness is suspected – compares circulation in hooves
- Whenever hoof heat is felt – identifies inflammation
Basically, add a digital pulse check to your list any time you handle or examine your horse. The more familiar you become with your horse’s individual healthy pulse rhythm and strength, the easier abnormal changes will be to identify.
Locating the Digital Pulse Step-by-Step
Finding and accurately measuring digital pulse takes some practice, but this step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process.
Safety First!
Any time you'll be handling your horse's legs and hooves, it’s essential to first make sure both you and your horse are positioned safely:
- Work in an enclosed area with sturdy fencing.
- Use a tied safety ring, crossties, or have an assistant hold your horse.
- Position the horse with his hind end securely in a corner/stall wall.
- Always stand to the side when working around hooves, never directly in front. Horse legs can strike out or shift unexpectedly if the horse spooks or loses balance.
- Allow your horse time to see, smell and process what you’re doing before touching his legs.
Proper preparation keeps you safe while checking vital signs like digital pulse!
Locate the Digital Pulse Site
You'll be feeling for pulse on palmar digital artery, which runs just above and around outer side of the fetlock:
Diagram showing digital pulse check sites on horse leg]
Step 1) Start by running hand down back of cannon bone, over ergot on heel. Stop when you reach the fetlock.
Step 2) Reach fingers under fetlock, feeling for small dent on outside front. Slide fingers forward into this soft dip.
Step 3) Press fingers inward until they contact a firm, rounded cord. Don't worry if you just feel muscle/tendons first – keep adjusting finger angle/pressure until you isolate the artery.
Step 4) Apply gentle rhythmic pressure with pads of fingers, feeling for pulse. It often helps to close eyes and focus solely on touch when first learning.
Note: You can check pulse on either outside or inside of fetlock, whichever is easiest for you. Goal is to isolate digital artery.
Counting Beats to Measure Rate
Once you’ve located the artery and can feel a faint pulsing under your fingertips, it’s time to quantify the digital pulse rate.
You’ll need to count the number of beats per minute, just like when taking a human pulse. Carefully time the beats while applying consistent pressure:
- option 1) Count beats felt in 15 seconds. Multiply this number by 4 to calculate pulse rate.
- option 2) Count beats in 10 seconds. Multiply by 6 for beats per minute.
For an adult horse at rest, digital pulse rate generally ranges from 30 to 40 beats per minute. However, many factors can cause temporary fluctuations – excitement, hot weather, prolonged standing, etc.
The most accurate readings come on calm horses at rest. If your horse has an extremely high or irregular pulse, wait a few minutes for him to relax and recheck. Call your vet if pulse stays consistently over 60 BPM.
Interpreting Digital Pulse Strength
In addition to rate, also assess the pulse strength in each hoof by how forcefully you feel blood surging under your fingers:
Weak pulse – Faint flutter detectable only with very light pressure
Normal pulse – Gentle thump thru artery with moderate pressure
Bounding pulse – Strong throbbing against fingers, visible to eye
An abnormally strong or bounding pulse suggests inflammation and impaired blood flow in that hoof or leg. It's your first alert to get the vet out and investigate further – injury, abscess, early laminitis are common culprits.
On the other hand, a pulse so faint that’s it’s barely perceptible can indicate:
- Poor cardiovascular health
- Dehydration or electrolyte imbalance
- Nerve damage in the hoof
- Extreme hypothermia
As you take more digital pulses, you’ll develop better instincts on what’s “normal” strength for your individual horse. Subtle changes become obvious when you establish each horse’s baseline. Person squatting, checking black horse's back hoof pulse
Checking digital pulse by feeling the artery just above ergot on this horse's back hoof.
Comparing Between Hooves
Ideally, digital pulse strength and rhythm should be nearly identical in all 4 hooves of a sound horse.
So check pulse in each leg, making careful mental notes on any deviations:
- Is the pulse stronger on one side vs the other? If so, it likely indicates an injury causing inflammation.
- Is pulse very faint in one leg only? This points to potential nerve damage.
- Is one pastern hot to the touch? Feel for heat and compare temperatures of all 4 hooves.
Measuring variances between front/hind and left/right legs gives valuable clues in finding both subtle and obvious lameness. It’s one reason regular digital pulse checks are so useful!
Advanced Digital Pulse Skills
Once mastered on resting horses, consider honing additional pulse reading skills:
Monitor Exercise Response
Take pulse before and after workouts. Count the seconds/minutes it takes for elevated pulse to return to normal pre-exercise rates.
Faster recovery signals better cardiovascular fitness. Extremely prolonged rapid pulse may indicate overwork or high risk of tying up.
Fine Tune Pressure
Experiment with finger pressure levels to see full range of pulse detectability:
- Light pressure – pulse may disappear if artery is compressing
- Heavy pressure – will obstruct blood flow
Find each horse's unique sweet spot.
Learn Your Horse's Rhythms
Digital pulse directly corresponds to heart contractions. Closely observe patterns for any extra beats or extended pauses between pulses.
Recognizing irregular rhythms helps diagnose potential cardiac arrhythmias.
Add Pulse-Taking Gear
Clip-on stethoscopes and heart rate monitors can augment and calibrate your manual pulse readings. See how digital results compare.
I hope this guide gives you confidence to begin regularly assessing your horse’s digital pulses. Paying attention to these subtle early cues allows us to catch brewing issues promptly. Please comment with any pulse reading questions!