Devastated - Wobbler advice please

[Caroline1239]

Im sitting here in tears. My 2 year old has been diagnosed with wobblers. On Monday we are going for a neck xray -NOT the one where they apparenty inject ink into the spinal column - just a regular xray. The osteopathic surgeon is going to see what he can see and well take it from there. My vets say hes a level 2 wobbler ( 5 being the worst) but as he is still young he may improve or get worse. I am in total limbo, and just want him to be OK.....has anyone got any advice? has anyone got a wobblers horse?

 

[nelliefinellie]

hi
I am so sorry to hear about your horse. I had a horse diagnosed as a grade 1 wobbler as a 6 year old. I was totally devastated. I was advised that many race horses had his level of the disease and he could probably hack in straight lines, but I had bought him (as a 2 year old) for dressage, so retired him to the blood bank , where he is happy as larry.

Sorry I dont have anything more positive to offer, I am still gutted and this was 3 years ago. At least it is not a painful condition for the horse. I did look into the various options in some depth, let me know if I can help with any info

 

[samp]

I am sorry to hear this, I woould wait and see what the xrays show up and take it from there.

 

[Caroline1239]

Yeah... Im dreading Monday... Im just hoping it wont get any worse. I have this fantastic dressage horse at home - who has this horrible issue to deal with. Am I ever going to be able to ride him? Hack out? some dressage???
SOB

 

[sanda]

My horse is a wobbler and hes in retirement livery. Had not thought about the blood bank, hes only 6 now

 

[Happy Horse]

I have know a few wobblers unfortunately none of which are in work as it's just not safe. I have seen a few Bagby Basket surgeries with varying outcomes - if you are considering surgery then John Walmsley and Tim Phillips at Liphook are amazing and both have experience in the surgery - maybe your vet would refer you?

 

[henryhorn]

I am sorry, we bought a nice two year old from a local breeder a few years back and it was only when we broke him aged 4 we discovered he couldn't bend to the right. It seems he had an accident as a foal which caused the damage, and in his case it was obvious he was deteriorating so he was euthanised.
Since then however there have been significant improvements due to MRI imaging etc, so the first thing is to get him scanned to discover exactly what the prognosis is.
If he is only two I would give him some time to develop and see what happens.
It'a a devastating diagnosis I know, but perhaps the vets can help him..

 

[Kelly1982]

My old horse was diagnosed with wobblers a few years back, he was 5yo though!!

I was told that he could not be operated on as he was grade 3 and the operation would only take him down a grade. Plus it was £5,000 for the op not including after care etc and recovery could take up to a year. Also its only a 50/50 chance of sucess.

I read up about wobblers a lot and i got my horse referred to the Liphook Clinic as John travels all over the world doing wobblers operations (he was in Australia at the time i called). I wanted to know exactly what grading he was at and then the decision would be made to have him PTS or risk the operation.

Luckily for me he was found to have been misdiagnosed by the first vets so i was so glad i had a second opinion carried out as the first vets advised me to have him PTS.

The only way to tell if a horse definatly has wobblers is a myleogram!!! The first vets carried out an x-ray and said it showed he had it. Liphook carried out their own x-rays and couldn't see where the first vets had got that idea from!!!

Also i know for younger horses they can use injections to stump their growth to help the bones grown properly but i dont know how young the horses have to be. I was told my boy was too old as he was almost at full maturity. And i also dont know the results of this route as it wasn't one i could take.

I would strongly suggest a second opinion if i was you!!! Wobblers is such a hard disease to diagnose and i have also know of another horse that was misdiagnosed. Both my old horse and the other horse are back out jumping affiliated tracks again so well worth a second opinion if the results come back they he has it.

If you want any more info then feel free to PM me.

 

[kibob]

I have heard of a few mis-diagnosed cases of wobblers recently. I would second kelly1982, see what the x-rays show and also get a second opinion.

Hope they've got it wrong

 

[MrsMagoo]

Any updates?
Think it seems to be the common thing now adays for vets to just diagnose Wobblers so willingly - my friends mare went lame for no reason and the vet took one look and said wobblers - WTF! After having xrays of her front leg/feet by another vet it turned out just to be the angle of her feet making her lame...i'd second getting a scan and 2nd opinion...

 

[Caroline1239]

I have now spent 2 days on the internet doing research ..... Thanks guys for all your advice.

We did a set 11 step test on my boy. (Found on www.slreh.com) The 11 step test contains various excercies like ''hopping'' (hold one front leg forward and ask the horse to hopp forward on three legs- a wobbler will refuse or very nearly fall over) and ''placement'' (pick up one of their front legs and cross it over the other front. a wobbler wont snatch the leg back into the correct position - it will just stand there with its legs crossed for a while before it ''realises'' that its front are crossed)
The only test my boy failed was the ''tail sway'' (walk the horse forward while another person pulls the tail to the right or left. A wobbler will not straighten his gait and pull back, but ''let'' his back end be pulled to the side.
So - he failed 1 out of 11 - isnt that a good sign???

I have today spoken to the vet who is doing the xrays on monday.
The causes of wobblers is compression of the spinal cord. This can take place in several different ways.
1. vertebrae is ''out'' or moved
2. bony channel (on top of vertebrae)carrying spinal cord is narrowed somewhere
3. the bony channel is ''out or moved''
4. a disc has ''slipped'' and is pressing on the cord between two vertebrae

1 and 3 can show on an xray, 2 and 4 wont.
All of these will show up on a MRI scan. Does this make the myeolgram redundant? (I hope so - putting him under anasthetic and putting ink in his spine is not my idea of a good thing to do!!)

The vet also mentioned injections you can do to into the neck that could help - watch this space. Ill find out more about it on Monday.

I have now had varying opinions.
85 year old race horse Breeder whos family have been breeding 20-40 foals every season for 3 generations says '' dont be to concerned - I have seen MANY youngsters over the years who have presented with ''locking stifle'' and ''wobbler'' type symptoms - and they have grown out of it.

Nutritionist from recovery SA (www.recoverysa.com) in Canada says make sure his nutrition is right to give him the best chance of growing out of it ( make sure he gets no sugar, starches etc, get the calcium phosphorus balance right etc) on top of that give him the recovery SA as it reduces trauma ( I said ''trauma? how has he got trauma?'' - he replied that with something like this in a fast growing youngster there is a continuing low grade trauma going on, and that it is vital to stop it so the horse can recover) Bought some of the recovery SA - it cant hurt.

Spoke to another nutritionist who said (now listen to this?!?) that a clinical study is ongoing in USA. They have found
84% of foals at age 3 weeks have stomach / colonic ulcers
96% of racehorses in work have stomach / colonic ulcers
All because of the hard feed and or stress or lack of movement - shut in a stable - they get!! (foal gets nutrients thru mother milk + nibbles some of her hard feed etc)

9 out of 10 cases who present with locking stifle or wobbler type syndrome, they have found them to have colonic ulcers!!!!
He advised me that there is an easy test you can do for colonic ulcers. on RIGHT side of horse only - find top of ribs with fingers, then move 4 inches backwards towards tail and press gently then with increasing pressure (you are then pressing on top of the dorsal colon) a horse with colonic ulcer will react quite violently.

I am learning so much about this it is unbelievable, but at the same time getting many different opinions - swinging between really depressed and really hopeful?!
It seems the advice is more hopeful as he is young that he will grow out of it???
AAArrggghhh!

 

[sundance]

I have just read this link and would love to know the outcome??

 

[lucylocket]

Just found this post as my horse has wobbler symptons, he is 19! Only been wobbly for 3 weeks but failed tail pull test and also putting one back foot on top of other, didnt move it at all. Vet thinks it could be arthritis of spine or a disc out, but cannto give any prognosis. Im rather hoping its a disc rather than arthritis as at least this might improve. Cant believe how suddently it happened. Im wondering of an osteo could help, but not knowing whereabouts in spine problem is means you dont really know where to start. Does it continue getting worse or does it reach a certain stage then stop?

 

[kerilli]

i have been told that McTimoney Chiropracty can help. where are you? my McT Ch is absolutely fantastic and does a lot of the country. not expensive and might be worth a try maybe?
very best of luck.