Fistulous Withers

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baileymoo

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Hi, my mare has just been diagnosed with Fistulous Withers, she is just 5 years old.
She has been tested for Brucellosis which came back clear, thank god.
She is currently at Newmarket and is awaiting very high risk surgery. The vet has never seen anything like her case and says it is exceptionally rare. She wont be able to be ridden again anyway but this surgery might give her a chance at a normal life and to wear rugs etc.
I just wondered by some small miracle if anyone had a horse diagnosed with this, or knows a horse with it?
Any information or experience would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've only ever seen 1 case of this & that was in the 1970's - caused by a heavy weight new zealand rug that was left on for a number of weeks in a wet winter without being lifted/moved at all.
Heavy canvas & rough underblanket had become almost embedded into the horses wither, causing a nasty fistula. This animal was at the RSPCA bering treated for neglect at the time & I was on work experience there for a week from school.

Have seen a pony who had recovered from this - his was caused by a badly fitting saddle which had sat down on the withers in a past life. He had a bald patch & white hair around the area. This pony was in his mid 20's still doing sterling work in a riding school, tho they had to take care that nothing was ever allowed to come into contact with the top of the withers. He even had special cut back rugs to combat this.

Never seen this in the past 30 yrs tho.
Do you know how your mare got this? Hope she recovers well :)
 
baileymoo said:
Hi, my mare has just been diagnosed with Fistulous Withers, she is just 5 years old.
She has been tested for Brucellosis which came back clear, thank god.
She is currently at Newmarket and is awaiting very high risk surgery. The vet has never seen anything like her case and says it is exceptionally rare. She wont be able to be ridden again anyway but this surgery might give her a chance at a normal life and to wear rugs etc.
I just wondered by some small miracle if anyone had a horse diagnosed with this, or knows a horse with it?
Any information or experience would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Sorry I have no experience but I read about this is my old veterinary manual. I remember it said that you should keep horses with fistulous withers separate from cows until the brucellosis virus has been determined as present or not and brucella infected cows should be kept clear from horses in case it passes on. My old veterinary manual is full of things like that, things that you don't hear of now like hemmorhagica purpura, transit tetany, poll evil (similar to fistulous withers) and angleberrys to name but a few.

Found a lot of information and photos if anyone on the forum is interested in seeing what fistolous withers is like.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sa=X&e....,cf.osb&fp=b7dabb026280a31f&biw=1302&bih=679
 
Last edited by a moderator:
baileymoo said:
Hi, my mare has just been diagnosed with Fistulous Withers, she is just 5 years old.
She has been tested for Brucellosis which came back clear, thank god.
She is currently at Newmarket and is awaiting very high risk surgery. The vet has never seen anything like her case and says it is exceptionally rare. She wont be able to be ridden again anyway but this surgery might give her a chance at a normal life and to wear rugs etc.
I just wondered by some small miracle if anyone had a horse diagnosed with this, or knows a horse with it?
Any information or experience would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I read about this is my old veterinary manual. I remember it said that you should keep horses with fistulous withers separate from cows until the brucellosis virus has been determined as present or not and brucella infected cows should be kept clear from horses in case it passes on.

Found a lot of information and photos if anyone on the forum is interested in seeing what fistolous withers is like.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sa=X&e....,cf.osb&fp=b7dabb026280a31f&biw=1302&bih=679
 
Thankyou very much for your replies.
No, we do not know how she got it. She is a very mischievous mare who is always getting herself into trouble and the vet thinks it could have been something as simple as rolling on a rock. She has been kept up to date with physio, back checks etc and I have been so very careful with her saddle, changing it 3 times as she grew. She is very unfortunate to have gotten it to the scale she has apparently.
She is kept on a farm with cows, but her brucellosis test has come back negative (or she would have been destroyed instantly).
The pictures on google are quite strange, she has a large fistula but she looks completely normal. We initially thought she had damaged her spine and the nervous senses because of the way she was acting, luckily she went for a bone scan at Newmarket and no one thought it was as serious as this. It took a long time to diagnose but i was fobbed of with skin washes and told to ride her through it..thank god i persisted! I will try and find a decent picture of her withers to show just how normal and healthy she looks.
 
Hi I had a pony with it when i was a child (1980) ,vet had never seen it before, sorry i cant remember too much i know the vet came and injected him twice a day and i remember having to keep him in for a long time and only hand grazing him, but he fully recovered and carried on competing and being riden until he was nearly 30 ( had it when he was 7 ). Hope it goes well for you xxx
 
friends horse had it. I didn't know horse until much later he had recovered and continued to be ridden to an old age. Was odd to look at but other than that didn't seem to affect him
 
Thanks very much :)
She is having the operation tomorrow, the surgeon has never seen this condition quite like this but if it goes wrong she will be no worse off than she is now. If it goes well she can live a normal life, roll and wear rugs etc and MAY even be able to be ridden!! The box rest is only a month which sealed the deal for me, i wasnt going to put her through months and months of stabling.
Hers doesn't look odd at all, her withers look very normal and she has won quite a few in hand showing classes with this condition hiding away so it is a very odd case indeed.
Fingers crossed it goes well :) and thanks for the success stories, it fills me with hope.
 
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