Horse suddenly not right - any ideas??

L

Loubiepoo

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 April 2007
Messages
568
Visit site
My horse has suddenly gone from working in a nice soft relaxed, rounded outline in all three paces to a wooden stiff plank with a mouth of steel within the space of three days :o(

I last schooled him on saturday, he went nicely we were working on medium trot/canter. However, on Sunday he pulled a shoe off in the field, so he had three days off till the farrier came on wednesday and put it back on. On wed eve I took him out for a gentle hack but he felt very stiff and tense in the jaw. Yesterday I had a schooling session and he just would not come round and relax his poll and jaw at all, he was tense and almost felt disunited in canter. Although I could see in the mirror he wasn't disunited and didn't look lame he just didn't feel right at all, his neck felt like a plank of wood. The only other thing he's has done is his vaccinations on tuesday morning.

Any ideas anyone, my horse feels broken :o(
 
Agree with Amymay. Many horses react badly to vaccinations as yours has done. Ideal would be to warm bathe the area (heat usually equals comfort) and allow a few days off for it to settle down. I've known some horses take well over a week to recover so just take it very gently and remember for next time too, perhaps arrange a fortnight's holiday to coincide with jabs in future to stay on the safe side.
 
Me too. Stiff neck from the vaccination. Give him some time off and he should be fine in a week. You might consider asking for a different vaccine next time if he has reacted to this one. The reaction next time round could be stronger if you have the same adjuvant and the way to avoid it is to change manufacturer - the bugs are the same, but the carrier fluid is different and it's that which normally causes the reaction. Mine tied up from head to foot and couldn't swallow - yours was just a mild case, thankfully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top