Ataxia help ASAP pls

Hope it's something treatable/short term. Unfortunately my only experience of ataxia was my old Exmoor, who had episodes every time he was on grass. He was pts and donated to my vet school, where a brain tumour (astrocytoma) was confirmed. His also responded to steroids, but actually went away by itself when not on grass.
 
Very glad to hear that he seems to be improving as unfortunately my one experience of ataxia did not end well.

I had a lovely 11 year old warmblood mare. One day she came in from the field looking a little 'off'. I did notice a small scrape along her side which looked as though she may have got too close to the gate post (gate was open between two of their fields). She improved but wasn't 100% so had the vet out. Advice was to keep an eye on her but a few days later I noticed that every so often she took a misstep with her near hind and was reluctant to back up. Vet back out who agreed that she wasn't quite right on it and thought she may have town some cartilage in her stifle.

We took her up to Newmarket Equine Clinic (about a two hour drive away) for further investigation. When we got there she was completely ataxic to the point where we were not sure we could get her off the lorry. We did finally mange to unload her and get her into a stable - she did seem to improve on the walk to the stable - but during the night she went down and they were unable to get her back up onto her feet. Sadly she had to be pts the next day. I did have a post mortem done and the only thing they could find was that she had two separate bleeds on her spinal cord which they could not explain as they did not seem very recent.
 
hock said:
Well he didn’t have any notable changes until he had to stand still. In walk and trot and canter in a straight line he was super. But having to stand still all hell broke lose. We won’t be boxing him im not putting him through anything apart from the very basic treatments before deciding to say good bye. I don’t believe the X-rays will give us a conclusive result. I just can’t believe he’s improved so much as I was having him pts today. He was beyond a grade 4 today and now after the steroids maybe a 1. Thank you for your reply.
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I’ll firstly say I am by no way an expert in neurological issues but have dealt with a couple of horses and more importantly talked through at great depth with a specialist vet.
So what I say below is my lay person take on things that may or may not be applicable.

What you describe sounds very much neurological.
The moving well at forwards and ataxic at still is very much in line with that.
It’s easy to miss subtle signs so this may or may not have been a sudden onset - it might just have been exacerbated.

I would do exactly as you are in terms of steroid/bute in the short term.

Personally I’d X-ray the neck before pts - these do tell you things, my understanding is that depending on where the issue stems from is strongly linked to potential longer term outcomes / danger for horse & human.
 
I’d probably want x rays too to rule out an obvious fracture (though there could still be one not visible on x ray). But they are pretty useless with necks, there’s so much that can’t be seen.

An ultrasound may be helpful to see if there’s any obvious inflammation. But again not always foolproof. My guy has arthritis on x ray but without a CT mylogram there’s very little else that can be diagnosed.

I didn’t bother with one as it wouldn’t have changed the outcome anyway and it was better just to deal with the horse in front of me. If I had wanted to know if it was worth pursuing treatment only with a view to return to athletic function (rather than PTS) I would have, but that didn’t matter to me.

Sounds like you are on the right track OP- good luck. Also has your vet spoken to you about high dose vitamin E? Definitely worth doing so if not, I use the liquid stuff as better absorbed.
 
ihatework said:
I’ll firstly say I am by no way an expert in neurological issues but have dealt with a couple of horses and more importantly talked through at great depth with a specialist vet.
So what I say below is my lay person take on things that may or may not be applicable.

What you describe sounds very much neurological.
The moving well at forwards and ataxic at still is very much in line with that.
It’s easy to miss subtle signs so this may or may not have been a sudden onset - it might just have been exacerbated.

I would do exactly as you are in terms of steroid/bute in the short term.

Personally I’d X-ray the neck before pts - these do tell you things, my understanding is that depending on where the issue stems from is strongly linked to potential longer term outcomes / danger for horse & human.
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I can remember being told its often worse prognosis when C6 is involved, although I can't remember the reasoning for this. Think my horse had C3, C4 and C6 affected.
In America they have done a lot more research than us and they offer operations called a bagby basket which is used for fusing the neck veterbrae.

Sometimes they like to carry out a myelogram but this is under a GA and they inject a dye to see where the impingement is. When my horse was looked at in 2006 at Liverpool they had comprehensive standing xray machines and they did a CT image broken down into thin 'slices' so it was very easy to spot. I wouldn't have agreed to the myelogram - a horse with a neuro defecit would be very unpredictable being anaesthetised.
 
Birker2020 said:
I can remember being told its often worse prognosis when C6 is involved, although I can't remember the reasoning for this. Think my horse had C3, C4 and C6 affected.
In America they have done a lot more research than us and they offer operations called a bagby basket which is used for fusing the neck veterbrae.
Click to expand...

They do it in the UK too actually but it’s very controversial. Not something I decided was right for my horse even if he was a candidate.
 
Michen said:
They do it in the UK too actually but it’s very controversial. Not something I decided was right for my horse even if he was a candidate.
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This is the guy that invented the procedure, carried out on humans, before moving onto horses. No I'd not have considered it either in retrospect.

apnews.com

Dr. George Bagby, inventor and surgeon, dies at 93

When orthopedic surgeon Dr. George William Bagby II died on Dec. 12 at 93, he left behind scores of patients grateful for his innovative mind and his steady hands.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
Again thanks all it’s a flying visit to say that he is still doing brilliantly, great appetite normal eating tpr etc. I’ve asked for a blood/cushings test and we will do that providing he maintains his current healthy as a horse status next week. He’s gone over the 24 hours since his initial treatment and the vet (who is super but has a slight tendency to be liberal with drugs) has agreed that more steroids (unless he relapses) tomorrow is unnecessary.

We are just stunned at his turn around. He’s now in a stable with cameras pointing at him and I’m 10 feet away. The replies look very interesting and I will look through all of them, but my concentration is shot right now.

Just to say we are still assuming the worst so watching him like a hawk. My husband is going to do the afternoon shift with him and I’m on the night shift. Scared to be relieved and can’t believe my best boy is still here. We can cope with Cushings .. party at mine if it’s positive. I will take cushings any day of the week over what we were looking at yesterday. Thank you everyone for your concern advice and well wishes -
 
Hiya .. sorry for the delay in coming back to you guys. Ollie is doing so well, we’ve had no symptoms at all and he is back to his usual self. Huge relief, however the realisation now is that we have to find the cause and decide how manageable it is.

I have his chiro/back lady coming tomorrow who has treated him for the last 5 years. She’s very experienced and is very well respected. My guy instinct is neck, possibly made worse by getting cast. I found some fresh hoof marks very high up on the wall that looked fresh, but typically nothing on our cameras. They could easily be old marks though and he’d never as far as I’m aware been cast before (this is the horse that stood in a water trough over night waiting to be rescued with zero panic, and a hedge, he knows an adult will be along shortly).

Regarding his neck I can’t help feel as though he’s holding it out and lower than usual on the lunge. But we’re in the process of backing our 4 yr olds at the mo that are sports horse types so I’m hoping it’s the comparison (Ollie is hano x shire). He looks absolutely ginormous to me at the moment.

I don’t know how to post photos on here, any tips?
 
Just caught up on messages! Makes me sad so many of us has been through this with our bestests. Thank you so much for your kind and informed messages, they have really helped me.

The thing that stays with me is that day I looked at him and thought wow you’re moving so well, breathtakingly well. I forgot to add, he is currently on no meds is sound forwards and sideways etc. He has only had one dose of steroids, plus pain killers. Also just his backend was effected, and he was losing his backend to his off hind. He was appearing to be confused as well.
 
Another with no experience but glad to hear you've been able to get the time to see if there's a manageable reason for it. All looking very positive. Sending love x
 
That’s cautiously a very good update, hock 🙂.

Fingers firmly crossed that he’d just tweaked something. Will be interesting to hear what your chiro/back lady finds.

Please continue to take great care while handling him, though, in case it was a neurological episode. The vets described my mare as looking ‘confused’ in the aftermath of her penultimate seizure (caught the latter moments on cctv). At the time we thought she might have got concussed in an accident, she had repeatedly crashed into the fencing demolishing it. Got the OOH vet out who found her to be bashed up but neurologically normal.

She showed no more abnormal signs for three weeks and seemed fine, then she had a full seizure right in front of me just after I’d turned her out back out after her breakfast.
 
Mine was diagnosed as a wobbler last year age 4. He fails some but not all of the neurological tests. I first knew there was a problem when he went absolutely berserk one day when I'd just got on and I had a crashing fall. He was stiff and lethargic for 2/3 weeks after this. As well as worrying results on specific neuro tests he toe drags in walk and can't canter on the lunge without changing legs, going disunited and bucking. I had his neck and back xray'd which did show an issue in the neck described as bone remodelling. I won't get back on with the neurological symptoms but since I plan to keep him I wanted to know what was wrong. If it had been a brain tumour I would have pts. CT myelogram would have given a better image but I wasn't going to go for the surgery and as well as the problems with a GA they hyper extend the neck which can make them worse.
 
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