Cold horse - please help!

Fee Fo

Fee Fo

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Hello all
Please help me, I am worried about my mare. She is a 3/4 TB 14 yr old Bay Mare, who is well and in light work and fully clipped. I was late home from work this evening and didn't manage to go and bring my horses in from the field until about half 8. When I got to the gate (in the pitch black!) she seemed VERY pleased to see me. I realised immediately her thick winter weight NZ had come off. Fortunately she had a thin stable rug on underneath so she wasn't naked, but I have NO IDEA when she lost it today. The weather has been mild but VERY windy. I later found the rug totally intact, with only a belly strap undone, with no visible signs of a struggle on the grass. I brought her in changed her rugs, so she now has on a thermatex, a thin stable and a big think winter one that comes up her neck. I have put 4 stable bandages on her and tried giving her a light feed (half her normal portion; about half a scoop) of her cool mix with hot water. I have also rigged up a couple of pig lights to try to heat her up.

She is off her food (very serious for Tess, she is ruled by her tummy!), feels cold on her ears to the touch and if I lay me hand on her chest behind her elbow I can feel her trembling (very slightly) she is very lethargic (acting like she has been sedated) and generally looks really sorry for herself. Her body temperature an hour ago (at half 10) was 38.2deg c.

Is there any thing else I can do for her? Should I call a vet, or will it just take time for her to feel warm again?

She has now been in about 2 1/2 hours.

Fee
 
Her temperature is normal (around 37/38 deg). She should warm up in time, though I would have thought 2 1/2 hours would have been enough. If it were me I would call the vet & just ask for their opinion over the phone. Then they will be able to come out if needed. Good luck, I hope she feels better soon.
 
Just a thought. If she gets cold quickly (which to my mind she does since it's nowhere near as cold as it's going to get by mid December and she still had a light rug on and 14 isn't old and she's only 3/4 TB) and she's only in light work, why on earth has she got a full clip???? Why clip her at all or if you need to, do a belly clip or a very very low trace clip. Why a full clip??? Don't be dictated to by fashion or peer presssure. Leave her with as much of her winter coat as she needs then accidents with her turnout rugs won't be the panic it obviously is now. If you scour back through the Forum, you'll find hundreds of stories of horses ditching their turnout rugs apparently with all the skill of an equine Houdini so I wouldn't worry about that. Maybe you should relax a little and accept that she's a horse and isn't made of bone china and can cope better than you realise in far worse weather than we've had today!!
 
She doesn't get cold quickly; for all I know she could have been out there since 6 am this morning with no rug. She has been back in work 2 weeks after a month off, she gets sweaty very easily, I work full time and have no time to stand around and wait for her to dry before turning her out after I have ridden at 6am. Clipping her is not a "fashion statement" nor the result of "peer pressure", but a pratical solution in order to keep my horse healthy and me on time, and therefore in a job, which helps pay for horse feed......
 
Hope she's warm and cosy now. I do think Box_of_Frogs has made a valid point and I'd add that you need to check those caring for your mare when you're not around. A full clip makes her totally dependent on humans for her body temperature regulation and you are the one responsible in the end.
Sorry to sound harsh but you need to think this through for her benefit.
 
BTW, I'm sure some of the older members of the forum will remember "thatching" as a technique to warm a horse up...use layers of straw in between blankets, rugs, etc to create extra layers of air trapping for excellent free and easy insulation!

Also you can use hot water bottles on top of a rug around the kidney area to encourage blood flow throughout which will also warm the horse up quickly.

FWIW 38.2C is normal temperature so she wasn't hypothermic in this case, but probably wind chilled. In these cases giving a warm mash/feed and also taking the chill of the water in her bucket will help too!

Long term, I also would give consideration to the clip type too...

Glad she's warmed up now.

HTH Imogen
 
FWIW stroking the ears on a cold horse / human / anything with ears will help. Cup the ear in your hand between the thumb and forefinger. Slowly draw the had to the tip of the ear. Repeat as much as necessary.

This has several effects:
Connects to the triple heater meridian (therefore warms you up)
Lowers blood pressure (therefore less likely to go into shock)
Calming,
Boosts the immune system.
 
Many thanks to all for some really useful hints and tips. I am very happy to report she is back to her normal self. It took until about 4 a.m. to bring her back up to a piont where she no longer felt cold to the touch, so much longer than I expected. Anyway she is on great form today!

FYI - Before I gave her a full clip I gave it long hard consideration and tried a trace for a few days too. But she gets quite heated on a ride (physically and mentally), as she loves her work; she just broke out everywhere, even in her light walk work that she is currently doing. She is also quite sucseptible to lumps and sweat scald. I find that having everything off keeps her skin healthier and saves me time. I know it puts all the emphasise on me to care for her to compensate, but I don't care; that's the horse owning life as far as I am concerned. I am confident that this is one isolated incident, from which I have learnt lessons.
 
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