Heat Intolerant Horse?

Finns Mum

Finns Mum

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 March 2008
Messages
775
Visit site
This might be a pointless post as I'm not sure there is an answer really but .......

I'll try and keep this brief, in June 2011 my horse went from fit and healthy to having a raised respiratory rate and general lethargy and loss of performance, which to start with was treated as a virus although nothing ever showed on countless bloods, by August there was no real improvement and he was referred to Liphook, £3,000 later, all tests for respiratory problems done, and passed with flying colours, he came home no better and with Liphook saying all they could say that they felt he might have an intolerance to heat and that he was a bit porky, but he was eventing fit when it started and by the time he went to Liphook he had been off work two months so both myself and my vet disagreed with that. It took an awful long time for me to feel he was back to normal but by the end of the year was much happier with him and we decided it must have been a nasty virus that he struggled to kick, and I thought that was backed up with having no problems with him last year.

I'm absolutely gutted that in the last week he has been presenting with the same symptoms, a month ago he breezed round xc at BCA full of running and now he is struggling to trot round the school.

So vet back out today and again everything is showing normal, and he can only think it is a heat intolerance and he held his hands up and said he had no idea what to suggest other than just forgot you've got a horse for the next month or two or move to a cold country :rolleyes:

Has anyone come across anything like this before, I have been trying to think of what I can do to help him, but other than possibly clip him I can't think of anything. Anyone have any thoughts?
 
Is he a non sweater? Very rarely here of it over here but it was something we'd have to deal with in the States. Like fit racehorses. There coat can get glossy and look wet but it's not sweat. There are some good treatments that have come out in the last few years that seem to help. Giving stout was an old fashioned remedy. If your horse isn't cooling himself down properly it could be why he's liks this in heat. Especialy in fit working horses. May be something to think about or enquire with vets. Also he wasn't fit when you went to vets so could have contributed, don't know.

Terri
 
Ask for copies of all blood reports on your horse. Just say it's for future reference.

Check them for anything which shows high or low (blood reports include the value found for each thing tested, as well as the reference range which is the range in which 90% of normal horses will be).

If it shows values for CK, LDH or AST, then do post them on here. They are muscle enzymes and only show up when there is muscle damage which could be anything from minor muscle damage to a fullscale tying up.

Sarah
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Is he a non sweater? Very rarely here of it over here but it was something we'd have to deal with in the States. Like fit racehorses. There coat can get glossy and look wet but it's not sweat. There are some good treatments that have come out in the last few years that seem to help. Giving stout was an old fashioned remedy. If your horse isn't cooling himself down properly it could be why he's liks this in heat. Especialy in fit working horses. May be something to think about or enquire with vets. Also he wasn't fit when you went to vets so could have contributed, don't know.

Terri
Click to expand...

I have one with Anhidrosis and this is exactly whati thought .
Does he sweat normally OP.
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Is he a non sweater? Very rarely here of it over here but it was something we'd have to deal with in the States. Like fit racehorses. There coat can get glossy and look wet but it's not sweat. There are some good treatments that have come out in the last few years that seem to help. Giving stout was an old fashioned remedy. If your horse isn't cooling himself down properly it could be why he's liks this in heat. Especialy in fit working horses. May be something to think about or enquire with vets. Also he wasn't fit when you went to vets so could have contributed, don't know.

Terri
Click to expand...


Goldenstar said:
I have one with Anhidrosis and this is exactly whati thought .
Does he sweat normally OP.
Click to expand...

I've never really thought about it :o but now I do I can't say he has been sweating that obviously. Back in 2011 he did go through a phase of sweating a lot doing little just before he became poorly and in hindsight thought that was a sign he had something a miss before it showed more obviously. But this time he has been getting hot his veins show but more clammy that dripping with sweat.

I will get hold of my vet and see what he thinks, Goldenstar how have you managed the condition in your horse?


Broke_But_Happy said:
Could you clip him out?
Click to expand...

Yes that's the plan for tomorrow, his coat does seem to have become a bit coarse so hopefully that will help :)

flintfootfilly said:
Ask for copies of all blood reports on your horse. Just say it's for future reference.

Check them for anything which shows high or low (blood reports include the value found for each thing tested, as well as the reference range which is the range in which 90% of normal horses will be).

If it shows values for CK, LDH or AST, then do post them on here. They are muscle enzymes and only show up when there is muscle damage which could be anything from minor muscle damage to a fullscale tying up.

Sarah
Click to expand...

Thanks, he was tested for tying up / muscle enzymes / metabolic issues last time and all was normal
 
I have had a similar thing with my horse!! Every summer he goes all lethargic and reluctant to work when before he was spritely and his normal self! I've tried blood tests.. energy supplements.. changes to routine.. feed.. nothing really works so i think i too have a heat intolerant horse.. I have the vet coming this afternoon as he has gone lethargic again but is a bit foot sore this time..

will see what the vet says :/
 
Goldenstar are you using any of the patches or latest treatments? I'm not up on them, just heard of them from back home. It's something I have in the back of my mind when we eventuallly get to go back to America. Nicest day of the year and pretty darn cool by American mid west standards and yet my mares are standing at the gate like Zombies.

OP while waiting for your vet do some research on Chronicle Of The Horse forums, Horse Care section. Also I would not be happy with my vet saying "heat intolerant" as a diagnosis. It really should be considered in light of the work the horse was doing. Not just weather.

Terri
 
Mine seems to have anhidrosis. The vets thought it was hilarious - we live in Scotland :D.

But - as soon as the temperatures go up, he just grinds to a halt. If you ask him to work, he will work very nicely up to the point where a "normal" horse would start to sweat, and then he just stops.

If he does overheat, he starts to puff audibly. If he continues to overheat, all his veins stand out, and his nostrils are hugely distended as if he's just run a race, his sides will be heaving - but not a drop of sweat. We did a gentle hack in about 24degrees a few weeks ago - he trailed along behind the other horses puffing, and when we got home, he was slightly sweated up under girth and saddle - all the others had sweat along their necks and flanks as well.

They get coarser hair over time too, and mine also gets hair loss on his face in summer.

Apparently, it is quite common to come on after an episode of abnormal sweating, where they sweat a lot, and then it just seems to stop. There is a very simple test for it your vets can do - they just inject adrenalin under the skin and see how much the horse sweats at the injection site. Anhidrosis can be full or partial - so like mine, you can see some sweating but just not enough for the work the horse is doing. You can also get total anhidrosis where they stop sweating altogether.

I've tried using the Equiwinner patches - did them this spring (timing it of course with temperatures dropping to -5 :rolleyes:) and I think horse is very slightly better and very slightly sweatier than last year, and he's held on to all his face hair this summer so far :)

I would ask your vet to be a bit more specific - and if horse's symptoms seem to match, get the injection test done so you know for sure. Lethargy and reluctance to work are two big signs, I think.
 
I haven't heard back from my vet but I think I will call on Monday and ask for the test to be done to discount it if nothing else as we don't really know where to go next.

Those that have horses who suffer with it, did you find the horses temperature raised after work? From the research I've done today it seems this is a symptom I only did a light hack tonight as it was still quite warm he did get hot but his temperature didn't rise much from before we went out? I'm going to keep recording his temperature over the weekend and increase the work a bit to see if it shows anything.

Brightbay that sounds very similar to my boy, thinking about it his summer coat came through nicely and then it seemed to grow again and became coarse, I remember as I increased his oil to try and improve the condition, that was about a month ago and in hindsight about the same time his performance started to drop. His coat went a bit odd the first time too, which was one of the reasons he was tested for metabolic problems.

Thanks so much for everyone's input it has given me something to go on in hope that we might get to the bottom of it :)
 
This is how I manage Fatty.
Firstly he would be no good if his job was done in the summer but luckily for Fatty he's a hunter.
I am very strict about his wieght particularily in winter I keep him lean.
On hot days in summer we hose him to keep him comfy he's also black which is bad luck.
We give electrotyles all year .
I feed him linseed and give a very good quality supplement the linseed has helped the coat.
I use baby oil on his elbows and anywhere esle I see dry sore skin developing in fact it never develops because I know where it comes and keep in top of it.
He has a shed for shade which he loves and he comes in when it's hot and we keep him hosed.
We are strict about bathing before hunting we don't let his coat get greasy and I keep close clipped
I have used the patches it he did then have a partial sweating responce for a while I will probally repeat them this winter or try a supplement from the US.
Fatty only once pulled himself up towards the end of a very fast long day hunting
I was driver and I saw the three remaining members of the field cross the road it struck me at once that Fatty had not turned a hair but the others where running sweat.
Twenty minutes later OH rang to say I think Fattys broken down but he's not .
Fatty had just pulled himself up and stopped OH lead him to the road .
When I got to the, I could feel the heat coming off Fatty as I approached but was dry that's when I knew something was wrong.
I had to work to get the vets to do the test they said horses in the uk don't get Anhidrosis but Fatty has.
We are managing him we work early in the day in summer or don't work , we control,his weight.
OH knows to be careful at the hounds especially on those warmer sunny winter days in emergency he would get F to a water trough and use his hat as a bucket to,cool him thankfully F's ever pulled himself again and is having a happy life.
Hes a gorgeous RID a lovely example of the calm confident clever horses that the best breed are ,it has helped us manage this .
 
Interesting you (affectionately :D) call him Fatty, Goldenstar. One of the side effects I have noticed is that mine is a ridiculously good doer and never feels the cold in winter. It's just not possible to get him to shiver weight off - the only way to keep him trim is exercise. He positively radiates heat, summer and winter.

My vet also thought it was bizarre. She was finally convinced when he colicked in April, and despite being miserable and in lots of pain, there wasn't a drop of sweat to be seen. She didn't really see a point in doing the test, as there's no treatment, only management.
 
Thank you Goldenstar that is really helpful. Can I ask when you say you give a high quality supplement is that a vit and min / propel type? Someone at the yard recommended Equicell as it supports muscle recovery too, would that be the kind of thing?

Some of the research I read said that beet pulp can be a factor and he is fed Fast Fibre so I am going to cut that out and just stick with chaff and grass nuts, he already has micronized linseed, and electrolytes as and when, but I will now feed regularly.

I was a bit open mouthed when you mentioned sore patches on your horses elbows, my boy has had those for a couple of years they come and go, he has them at the moment, I mentioned them to my vet when they first appeared and he said he probably did it when he was laying down, but why it suddenly started he couldn't say, bit by bit I think a lot of things are becoming clear now, I think this has really come to a head the last three years as that's when his workload increased as we started eventing, looks like we are going to be bad weather eventers at best :(

I will look into the American supplements probably too late for this year sounds like they work better when used before the weather gets warm.

In a strange way I do feel more positive because at last I actually believe with the help of you brilliant H&Hers I know now what I'm dealing with. Here's to a cold and wet summer :p
 
Horses fed beetpulp have an enlarged cecum, which produces heat from fermentation. So if you have a horse with issues cooling off, it is best to stay clear of beetpulp.

Electrolites are very important, as is a good vitamin E/A supplement.
 
I had my horse for 6 years before I realised :( I just thought I had the most perfect horse - he was never cold in winter, he had a lovely thick coat, and he never sweated, so I never had to deal with sweaty tack and smelly saddlecloths. Just that he would grind to a halt in summer - and we had lots of lessons where he would just sadly stop and stand panting, and the RI would say "kick him on, he's not tired, he's not even sweating yet" :( And the hair loss on the face, and even light exercise in direct sunlight, he wouldn't pant, but you'd hear a slight "rasp" in his breathing.

He got a bad attack last October - his winter coat had come in, he had just gone out on the set aside pasture for winter (so very large carbohydrate intake), and it was an unseasonably hot day. I came up to the field to find him standing panting, looking quite distressed. At this point, the vet said "probably an allergy" - it was only later in the year we started to realise what was going on.

I got the patches here: http://www.equiwinner.com/orders3.htm
I think they have made a difference - this is the first year in the last 4 that he hasn't had noticeable summer hair loss on his face, and he has actually sweated slightly on hot days.

ETA - mineral wise, I got our pasture tested this year, and so he's getting balanced minerals from this month, but had been getting the ForagePlus balancer for the last 5 months which may also have made a difference.
ETA again - our best summer rides are on cool, damp, windy days, when he gets a spring in his step. Typical eh? Just as well I'm in Scotland!
 
Last edited:
Fatty is on the forage plus summer balancer plus linseed ATM as soon as this lot needs replacing he will get the winter one as his strip is bare.
At first when he was diagnosed we where told NOT to give fatty Electrolyes or salt , he then tied up and I went back to doing what I did before which was giving electrolytes daily and mag ox ( we know our land is short of magnesium ) later on we did a muscle biopsy and it came back abnormally low in calcium and magnesium despite him having high calcium and magnesium levels in the diet vets scratched their heads at this but it was decided not to up his already high level of supplementation as they did not feel confident that would not cause another problem.
Fatty eats speedi beet with no issues he appears to be itchy when you give him alfalfa so speedi beet is the next best way to keep his calcium level high .
The same as bright bays horse fatty is a good doer in the Shetland pony range of things keeping him slim is a very very hard job.
The only part of him that ever sweats is his ears and above his eyes after a hard day they run with cold sweat for hours making him un comfortable he loves me to warm towels on his neck and rub his ears and around the eyes with them .
He also gets a strange bleached hair effect on his ears in the spring when the hair starts to grow thevets think this may be due the sweat glands in his ears excreting sweat which much higher in salts than is normal and the salt bleaches his black coat.
Poor Fatty I spend a fair bit of time worrying about him.
I suppose in time he may get renal issues as his kidneys must take a bit of a pounding but ATM we enjoy him and he enjoys life he's a great chap.
 
Crikey I think that is what is wrong with my fella! Bless him today he was just panting in walk :( never sweats apart from under the saddle. Does anyone have any upto date solutions. Is Flintfootfilly still around as I have my blood results and they show higher % that I don't understand.

TIA
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top