Australian stringhalt - any experiences

[Missy m]

I have a lovely 6 year old gelding who has been off work and under Leahurst for almost a year now. He has a strange ataxic gait, looks like stringhalt and most apparent in the right hind but the left will also goose step on occassion.
He's had gamma scans, x Rays and almost every test under the sun and the vets haven't got a clue what's wrong. The current diagnosis is Australian stringhalt or nerve damage.
It is intermittent and we had a period in the summer where I actually started to get back on him, but then a lorry journey to leahurst stressed him and he was even worse than when he started when he came back.
It is worse when he is anxious, and his anxiety levels are often that high that it's pointless trying to do anything with him. He's on magnitude, and vitamin e along with a low starch, high fat, high fibre diet.
Has anyone had experience of Australian stringhalt? What do you do to keep the horse calm? He's usualy quite a laid back chap and it's heartbreaking to see him like this. He's genuinely worried when he starts being a spooky so and so, his flight mechanism takes over and the gait is even worse then.
Any experiences good or bad appreciated.

 

[Circe]

Hello,
One of the horses that I used to ride developed this very suddenly, ( with in a couple of days. ) I think that its thought to be caused by the flat weed plant, or dandelion, but seems more common after periods of drought.
To be honest, I didn't think horses got Australian stringhalt anywhere other than Australia and New Zealand? but your horse certainly sounds like he has it.
When Red got it, he had been very sick with cellulitis and then lymphagitis, so was certainly stressed by that, which might of set it off. When I spoke to people here about it, the general opinion seemed to be that horses recovered from it, if they were taken off the pasture causing the problem, but it could take up to 18 months. Magnesium seems to help some horses, but I see your boy is already on that.
We lost Red, due to the other problems, so I don't know if he would have recovered from the stringhalt.
Sorry I can't give any better info for you, but if it is Australian stringhalt, maybe he will come good with a bit more time?
Kx

 

[Missy m]

Thanks! He was removed from the pasture but I am also thinking a year off might help more than anything else I'm trying! Just so frustrating when hardly anyone has ever heard of it over here!

 

[ester]

IIRC the amount of magnesium in magnetitude/recommended dose isn't actually that high compared to what say, pro earth on ebay would recommend of their mag ox, might be worth looking in to.

 

[Missy m]

Would you think I could increase the magnitude dose then? I may call the company to as k their opinion on increasing the dose

 

[ester]

well they suggest 5g per day of 97.5% Mag oxide (I wonder if that is because they are using USA grazing as their benchmark) and Pro earth recommend double that of their 99.8% for a 500 kg horse (it probably also works out cheaper!)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGNESIUM...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f342396de

 

[maggiesmum]

I'm sure i've read somewhere that mycotoxins can be a cause / make it worse, how about trying a mycotoxin binder? Its not expensive so theres not much to lose.

 

[Overgrown Pony]

OP PM me. I have a horse that sounds spookily like yours. I'd love a chat about it x

 

[ihatework]

Approx 4 years ago I bought a lovely young horse from a wheeler dealer type.

Within a couple of months of being home he developed a stringhalt type gait in a hindlimb. Very mild to start with and progressed over the course of 6-9 months into pretty obvious when moving off in walk (not majorly noticeable in trot & canter). Vet had a look but not really much to be done about it, horse sound on flexions etc.

This same horse over the 18 months I had him in competition work had very pronounced peaks and troughs in energy levels. Some days he was pinging out of his skin, other days he was flat & lethargic. We went down a number of avenues with him but never really got what I felt was a satisfactory explanation for what I was feeling under saddle.

Fate dealt him a blow and he had an accident and for that reason (combined with exasperation at the energy) I turned him away for what was supposed to be a year.

The following spring he became boarder line laminitic.

At the age of 7 he tested highly positive for cushings. We went through treatment for this with no effect, we couldn't get his ACTH down even on 3mg prascend a day. So he has something weird going on, who knows what but I would suspect an obscure pituritry tumour.

I've always wondered if the stringhalt gait we see is a neuro symptom of whatever else is rumbling on medically. I may never know but it's certainly possible.

One fascinating thing we did discover, was when investigating his injury we had a thermal scan done. This showed a complete 'black spot' in the colours on the stringhalt hock, which indicates a lack of neural activity in that area (as opposed to red spot for heat/inflammation).

 

[shergar]

My friends horse was lame for over a year his vet was Leahurst who could not diagnose the problem ,so they suggested turning him out,for a few months and then bring him back into work ,my friend was so upset about this horse she took him to another vet who diagnosed and treated him in two hours,he should never have been turned out or
worked,he is on box rest and doing really well .
A horse on our yard was diagnosed by Leahurst as having stringhalt he had a pulled hamstring.