Azoturia

[charlie76]

I have a horse that I ride that has now had mild azoturia twice. Symptoms being a reluctance to move her hind legs, hard hind quater muscles and stiffness.
The first time it came on was the day after a show , it was wet and windy and she was turned out for the day then again today. I loose jumped her and she got hot and sweaty. Walked her down , rugged her(2 rugs and a hood) the turned her out. She ran around a little. Then she was happily grazing for 1/2 hour.
When I checked on her around 45 minutes later she was stood looking at her 1/4s and pouring the ground. Thought it was colic so went and got her in. She was very reluctant to mover her hind legs and kind of did a turn on the forehand instead!
Gave her a minute and then she just walked on as if nothing was wrong!
Seems ok now, she is in her box with plenty of rugs and I gave her 2 bute.

Any other ideas as to how to prevent another attack. I usually use an ex sheet to warm up/walk down. She is in a scoop of fibergy a day, small 1/2 scp mix, 1/2 nuts and sugar beet. I have also recently put her on Soya oil- wonder if this has set it off again?

Have bought her rock salt to go in her feed and she is (and always has been) on stroppy mare.

Any other ideas??

I have not had her blood tested as both times it has gone off within 10 minutes or so.

 

[aran]

for azoturia prone horses -
cut out all cereals - give ad lib hay and a high fibre diet with oil and a vit supplement
check she is drinking enough water - you may want to add unmolassed sugar beet to her diet to increase her water intake.
she may have an electrolyte imbalance give her a salt lick and add electrolytes to her feed if she sweats up (not just rock salt).
keep her hind quarters covered and warm up/cool off very well

if she has another attack I'd speak to your vet as I'd want her bloods tested to see whats going on.

 

[bandit]

get bloods done ASAP to confirm it is Tie Up. then take their advice on rest etc. full box rest is recommended whilst the enzyme levels recover.

also - change diet to high fibre, high oil diet. vet will or can prescribe tie up powders which are fab! do not use s-beet, only speedi beet as sugar is bad for horses prone!

always keep few degrees warmer than other horses and use quarter sheet to excersice them in...

good luck
m

 

[vicijp]

Are you sure shes tyed up? Maybe it could be something to do with the stifle?
First thing to do is run a blood and check the AST level. If its likely she has tyed up then general treatment is 1 day box rest, 1 day field rest, then slowly bring back into work.
Preventatives are a decent electrolyte, never wash with cold water, always keep her back covered, never let her get too hot or cold. It is best to keep them moving (out in field all day), but turning them out in the wind and rain will do more harm than good. FGeed should be as forage and oil based as possible, definetly no high energy stuff.
Your vet may prescribe Azodine if the AST is extremely high, this can halve counts of 1000 in a week. That works best with Red Cell. A blood test is a must - if she hasnt done this before it may be due to a virus, that will need sorting out too.
If it becomes an ongoing thing regular blood tests can be a good idea, that way if the AST drops right down you can reduce the Azodine. If it strats to creep up you need to lay off the work.

 

[siennamum]

Might be worth having a check for Selenium deficiency.

 

[Patchwork]

I haven't used it but have heard that a selenium and Vitamin E supplement can be a useful preventative

 

[squirtlysmum]

After blood tests my mare was found to have Azoturia, as long as I gave her her Vit E and Selenium she was fine. Had to order it through vet though and it was ruddy expensive.

 

[Kezza]

cramp can look like azatoria ... look it up on the web there's lots of info on both. ours had it and we called the vet for advice but didn't have a blood test done. He was fine after 24 hours and we didn't box rest him as he lives out.

He'd had a change of diet 2 weeks prior, went from hi fi to mollychaff and had top line conditioning cubes added to his ration as he's 22 and was back in work. We also had a pretty fast hack, came back and then hosed them off all over as it was a summers evening.

Needless to say he is now on alfa a oil, topspec balancer and speedibeet. We also keep his hindquarters warm at all times and will not be hosing him off completely after a ride this summer!

 

[conniegirl]

We had a very nasty case of azatoria at a show a few years ago. the vet on the showground, gave a muscle relaxant and told us to cool ours down (it was a stupidly hot day) and get him walking a bit. Only when he was happily walking without being dragged or prodded into action were we allowed to take him home and get our vet to see him. luckily we only lived 45 mins from the show ground so we phoned our vet and had him meet us at the yard. It was a very very tense drive home.

we had to box rest him for about 2 weeks, then turn him out for anouther 2, then slowly bring him back into work. we were also told to remove the cereals from the feed and to feed adlib hay/haylege, so now the horse is out 24/7 with a large bale of haylege in the field and a bucket of happy hoof in the evening to keep him happy whilst the others are eating.

 

[Daffers]

i had a mare who had azoturia last winter, due to human error, (over feeding and not enough work), to help combat it this year we exercised an hour every day, i know not possible in some case, and used a supplement called azodine, touch wood not 1 case of azoturia this year. May be worth a try.