Advice What Do You Think Happened

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LaMooch

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Posting on behalf off my friend. My friends horse collapsed last night after having a shock of the fencing (which was at it's usual current) they thought he died he got up after what she said felt like ages. He started staggering around and had clear fluid coming out of his nose. The vet was called who came out and assessed him but she is quite puzzled as she said his heart rate and his breathing normal. She said keep him calm and quiet and keep a close eye on him. He stayed out over night in his field as being in would stressed him out. I went to check on him mid morning today and he seemed fine other then he needs to be off grass for a bit.
Just wondering if anyone else has had any experience or idea what could of happened?
To me it sounds like something heart related and guess the vet felt the same. Just all a bit puzzled now
 
Did someone see it happen? How old is the horse?

The reason I ask was my old mare had a fit and landed on a fence. She had cushings. Could it be the horse has cushings, and had a seizure, and just happened to be near the fence?
 
amymay said:
Is the fencing run off the mains?
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NO it is battery

alainax said:
Did someone see it happen? How old is the horse?

The reason I ask was my old mare had a fit and landed on a fence. She had cushings. Could it be the horse has cushings, and had a seizure, and just happened to be near the fence?
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Horse is 7. He touched the fence trotted off stagger then collapsed. She said when he got up then stagger on his legs. She said he was not near the fence when he went down.

Thanks for the replies
 
Horses are very susceptible to electrocution. A zap that would knock a human down can kill a horse. It could be that the horse touched the fence and it twanged a nerve (my dentist has had horses collapse when he got too near a mouth nerve), in the same way as tightening the girth can make some go down. I knew a pony (arab of course!) that quite literally had the vapours when it was stung by a wasp or bee. We had 3 beefy men holding her up and the vet called out a colleague so that they could both witness "one for the textbooks". She recovered perfectly well after 20 minutes or so.

Any idea which bit of the horse touched the fence?
 
LaMooch said:
NO it is battery



Horse is 7. He touched the fence trotted off stagger then collapsed. She said when he got up then stagger on his legs. She said he was not near the fence when he went down.

Thanks for the replies
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No expert here but sounds to me like the horse had a temporary interruption of blood supply to either his heart of brain which resulted in some form of seizure. The fence would appear to be a co-incidence. I'm not a vet but this would seem the most likely of explanations.

There is no way you could suffer anything other than a bit of a nasty shock from battery electric fencing.

These are the primary symptoms of heart disease in horses

Loss of condition
Fatigue during exertion
Weakness, occasionally resulting in collapse or fainting
Shortness of breath
Increased rate or effort of breathing
Rapid, weak, and irregular pulse
Signs of fluid accumulation in the abdomen or beneath the skin of the lower thorax
Heart murmurs, indicating erratic blood flow
Unexplained lameness
Gait disturbances
Stumbling or collapsing
Weak digital pulses
Tender, swollen cord in the neck, accompanied by heat, redness, and swelling (in the case of thrombophlebitis)

As you can see stumbling or collapsing is one of the symptoms.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Justification said:
No expert here but sounds to me like the horse had a temporary interruption of blood supply to either his heart of brain which resulted in some form of seizure. The fence would appear to be a co-incidence. I'm not a vet but this would seem the most likely of explanations.

There is no way you could suffer anything other than a bit of a nasty shock from battery electric fencing.

These are the primary symptoms of heart disease in horses

Loss of condition
Fatigue during exertion
Weakness, occasionally resulting in collapse or fainting
Shortness of breath
Increased rate or effort of breathing
Rapid, weak, and irregular pulse
Signs of fluid accumulation in the abdomen or beneath the skin of the lower thorax
Heart murmurs, indicating erratic blood flow
Unexplained lameness
Gait disturbances
Stumbling or collapsing
Weak digital pulses
Tender, swollen cord in the neck, accompanied by heat, redness, and swelling (in the case of thrombophlebitis)

As you can see stumbling or collapsing is one of the symptoms.
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Thank you for this. He being kept a close eye on and as he been fine I'm going to exercise him tomorrow as friend is busy working. Will take it easy but he needs the work to loose some weight
 
My old mare napped herself backwards onto an electro. Fence with my husband in the saddle. She sat on it so long she fused the entire thing and freed 20 horses from the next farm along... She sat down in the road rather like a dog, but soon jumped back up and appeared to have no ill effects.
 
Spoken to my friend who lunged him tonight and she said he was his pissed off self because he been in stable and couple hours grass due to weight. so no lasting affects
 
No help I'm afraid but I had a horse collapse in the car park at the vets. She'd been xrayed and we were just about to load up to go home. Everyone who saw it happen, including the vet nurse, thought she was having a heart attack. Her back end went and the rest followed. However she stood up, got taken back to the treatment room where she had many different tests inc ecg and had this monitored for several hours, before a baffled vet allowed her to leave. Everything came back normal and it never happened again.
 
MadJ said:
No help I'm afraid but I had a horse collapse in the car park at the vets. She'd been xrayed and we were just about to load up to go home. Everyone who saw it happen, including the vet nurse, thought she was having a heart attack. Her back end went and the rest followed. However she stood up, got taken back to the treatment room where she had many different tests inc ecg and had this monitored for several hours, before a baffled vet allowed her to leave. Everything came back normal and it never happened again.
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sounds very much like my friends horse. Hopefully put this down as a one off. Glad your mare is ok
 
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