Does anyone have any ideas why my mare died?

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aregona

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On wednesday night i went to feed my mares as usual and sally ann was on her own. They were both there first thing in the morning when i fed them before work. I went looking for susie the other mare an i found her lying dead at the bottom of the hill in the field.

They have been in the field together for many years, it is a flat field with a steepish slope at the bottom leading to a stream. The stream is about 2'6'' deep (knee deep) and you can walk straight through it an out the other side, its not boggy and quite wide not like a ditch. It was in the stream i found her. I ran down to her but she was already dead, i first assumed she was stuck but after calming myself down and removing sallyann from the field i went back.
She was not stuck, she was lying with her legs towards the bank but all 4 were stretched out, there were marks in the bank where she had been kicking with her back legs and her rugs had all moved on her so there was signs that she had been struggling a while.

when i found her, her head was the only part completly in the water and was submerged. when i eventually got equipment to get her out i had a really good look over my mare and there was not a scratch on her, nothing appeared to be broken, her nose was all wrinkled but im not sure if that is normal after they die.

I couldnt afford a postmortum (spell?) so she has now been sent to rest but it is eating me up not knowing what took my beautiful mare from me. I know i will never know what killed her for sure but im wondering if anyone has any ideas.
I hate the not knowing, i dont know what killed her so i can't stop it happening again. She was only 14yrs old and perfectly healthy. any ideas much appreciated. sorry for my babbling x
 
Similar happened to a friend - she called my sister when she couldn't find her horse and it was my sister and I who found the body. In our case it was a previously healthy 7yo native pony. She wasn't actually in the water, but was lying on the bank with her head the lowest point and blood dripping from her mouth.

There was no PM done on this one either, but no sign of injury, so the only thing we could think is that she fell or lay down in an awkward position and couldn't get up due to the slope of the bank (tho she could've if she'd rolled over). Or maybe she just took ill in that spot.

Sorry, doesn't really help you, but wanted to say that you're not alone.
 
So sorry that you have lost your mare in this awful way. I think it is always so much harder to come to terms with when it is totally unexpected like this. Do they use the stream to drink from?

I can only guess that she went down to have a drink and dropped with a heart attack - don't let the marks on the bank and submerged head give you unhelpful nightmares as to how she went. They were more than likely just her legs thrashing in the very last throes of life - not an indicator of pain or distress - just the natural process of life slipping away that she would NOT have been aware of.

I would be thankful that she went naturally like this rather than the horrendous long and drawn out vet treatment/failure and then the awful PTS decision that we are usually faced with.

Hope you soon feel less devastated by your loss.:(
 
I'm so sorry to hear this and my heart truely goes out to you. I would also say the most likely cause was a heart attack, she probably knew nothing about it at all. She clearly had a lovely long term friend and a great human mummy, its difficult when we don't have some kind of control over a situation. Big hugs. x
 
what are the chances she got colic, twisted gut??? it was a long time during the day from me checking her until finding her, the neighbour said he didnt see her after about 10am, so there is at least 6 hours that she wasnt seen.
i hate the thought that she needed my help and there was no one there for her, ironically she died right next to somones house but where she fell was out of sight so no one could of seen her without going looking.

i hope as fewer people as possible have to go through this, susie belonged to my mum so i had to break the news to her. Susies field was about 1/4 mile from our yard so it took a little doing to get the equipment to bring her back up the hill and carry her home. My mum couldnt be here when she was recovered so i had to be here and help attach the ropes and things to susie.
If anyone is ever in this situation i would advise anyone to see if someone else can help because i can honestly say seeing my most beautiful black TB mare being dragged by her legs and then hanging from a jcb is one of the most awful things i have had to deal with, it didnt look like susie. On the good side susie breed us 2 beautilful youngster, one will be 4yrs in january and the other is a yearling, so greatful to susie for giving me those 2 as i do feel like she will still be with me through them.
 
From your description, I don't think she had colic. A colic severe enough to kill her so quickly would have left marks on her - they are in so much pain that they damage themselves very badly thrashing around.
I think she's had the equine version of a heart attack (aorta bursting) and would have died very quickly if not instantly. The marks of her hind feet on the bank would have just been the muscle spasms after death and not an indication of suffering.
I hope you can put your concerns to bed; there is really nothing you can do to stop death.
S :D
 
(((HUGS))) to you and your mum on such a sad loss.

Please don't beat yourself up about her passing - it sounds like she had a heart attack or an anurism and went fast.

Remember her with all the love you had for her and the great times you shared with her.
 
Agree with Shils.

I found a pony dead in the field (not mine) and he was absolutely clean, no sweat scratches or otherwise. To all intents and purposes, he looked to be asleep.

The owners had a post mortem and he had a ruptured aorta. It would've been extremely quick apparently.

Sorry to hear about your mare, I feel for you having to help/see her being lifted by the equipment :(.
 
I've got a stream in my bottom two fields. It's not as deep as yours and has a fording point, however we had an Arab mare get 'cast' in it. We got her out, but she had inhaled some water and took a few days to recover. Is it possible something like this happened to your horse especially with the rugs on? We where lucky and found her in time. What I've done to our stream to stop something like this happening again is to dump a load of limestone in to make the ford even shallower.
 
So, so sorry to hear about your mare.
I too think the most likely cause of death was either a heart attack or as happened to my mare in front of me, a ruptured aneurysm. She'd never shown any signs of having it, ever.
Mine just went down quietly in front of me in her stable and slipped away within a few minutes, she was not at all distressed and showed no signs of pain. I was with her all the time and saw it all. It was a terrible shock for me but at least it was quick for her.

Try not to dwell on the marks on the bank, remember all the good times you had with her and try to think of it in terms of how lovely it was to have had her and share her life with her when she was here.
You obviously loved her very much. There was nothing you could have done to change the outcome.
 
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