Horse lost spark, any ideas?

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marion95

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Hi guys,

My TB mare has been really sluggish and just not herself recently. She is out during the day on plenty of grass, in at night with haylage and fed on dodson and horrel build up mix, chaff and garlic (which she has been on for months).

She is normally really sparky, but lately she needs loads of leg, isn't at all spooky on hacks (good I know, but not 'her'!), and generally seems really quiet. I jumped her last night and she kept knocking them like she couldn't be bothered - very unlike her.

She has no lameness or heat in her legs or feet, back is fine, but she does seem to be drinking quite a lot, although she used to be on automatic water drinkers, so hard to compare.

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything similar?

Thanks
 
It could be that she has a virus. If it were me I would be getting bloods done to check for anaemia etc. There are plenty of products on the market to give her vit levels a boost. Could ask vets for vit B which could help too.
 
when was the last time she had a holiday?try giving her some time off work and see if she improves , sound like she has gone abit sour to me. Failing that, she could be lacking in energy - could try an energy mix
 
Have you checked general health things like her temperature and membrane colour, nasal discharge etc? Has she put weight on recently on all the grass? Anything else you can think of changed?
 
Will be very interested to see replies to this as my friends Novice level eventer is displaying exactly the same symptoms!
Good luck with your horse, do hope that you get to the bottom of it!
 
As said she may have a virus or anaemia - I would get them chekced out. Also my mare that this time last year was on a calmer is so much quieter to ride now and that is with more hard feed and no calmer.
 
As this is so unlike your mare I would be tempted to get the vet out to take a blood sample.... I think it is highly that she has a virus of some kind....only a blood test will really be able to tell you...I hope she comes right
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Had a similar problem with one of my horses.

The vet did bloods ect and it turned out that there was an inflamation somewhere and was treated with antibiotics and anti imflamatories (sp)
 
Thanks guys - she has only recently had a week off, so I don't think she's going sour.

She has no nasaldischarge, cough etc.

I have just called the vet and he suggested giving her some time off until after the weekend, then if no improvement he will come out and take bloods. He did say that with this constantly changing weather there's been loads of viruses around, and lots of horses aren't showing any symptoms apart from being really flat.

I will keep you updated. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Not to worry you but one of my friends horses was like that a few months ago, hes a BSJA horse and never hits fences and he was knocking them down etc and generally not right and needed a lot of leg which he doesnt usually. She had the vet out to do his teeth and when he listened to his heart to sedate him it wasnt right and it was found atrial fibrilation. He had all the treatment etc and is now completely fine. so that might be worth a check as well
 
Jim is the same at the moment. He gets sweet itch & is really itchy too & I'm told this sort of behaviour is another symptom so we're putting it down to that & his dislike of all the wet weather we've had lately.
 
My horse was EXACTLY the same about 6 weeks ago. His usually a bit wizzy and is very enthusiastic about everything and he suddenly because very lazy and quiet.

A horse up my yard had exactly the same symptoms earlier in the year and when he was blood tested it was found he was deficient in Vitamin E (apparently it's very common in my area. They usually get it from the grass, and the quanitities are very low around us). He was put on a Vit E supplement and went back to normal.

It progressively happened in my horse over about 3/4 weeks (well that's when I noticed the behaviour anyway). I can't have my horse blood tested as he is MAJORLY neddle phobic (gets very dangerous), so I decided to put him on a Vit E supplement and gave him 2 weeks off (also had his back done which was a little sore). 2 weeks later he was back to his normal self.
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If you can have him blood tested I would. Also may be worth having his back checked.

Hope this helped.
 
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