Horse tied up on saturday!!!

[horsey mad matt]

hi all,

the weekend before last i did a sponsored 40 mile endurance ride (20 miles a day) and last week he had 5 days off to recover. i took him out saturday and we walked for about 10 mins and came to a field where there are some donkeys. he acted up as he always done, but we got past it. as we were walking away i said to my friend that he didn't feel right and stopped about 100m down the road. just behind his flanks he was trembling, he had started to sweat and looked very uneasy in himself. so he was obviously 'tying up'. i got off and led him home and put his sweat rug on to cool him down. gave him some electrolyte as i have been told by my endurance friend who used to have a horse with awful azaturia, that when they tie up the salt in the muscles goes into the blood stream and looses it. i think the cause may have been that i have put him on quite rich grass without cutting his feed down enough.

 

[horsey mad matt]

B.U.M.P

 

[TheMule]

Did you have the vet out?

 

[Bryndu]

hi all,

the weekend before last i did a sponsored 40 mile endurance ride (20 miles a day) and last week he had 5 days off to recover. i took him out saturday and we walked for about 10 mins and came to a field where there are some donkeys. he acted up as he always done, but we got past it. as we were walking away i said to my friend that he didn't feel right and stopped about 100m down the road. just behind his flanks he was trembling, he had started to sweat and looked very uneasy in himself. so he was obviously 'tying up'. i got off and led him home and put his sweat rug on to cool him down. gave him some electrolyte as i have been told by my endurance friend who used to have a horse with awful azaturia, that when they tie up the salt in the muscles goes into the blood stream and looses it. i think the cause may have been that i have put him on quite rich grass without cutting his feed down enough.

Hmm...are you sure it was tying up and not over excitement?
My experience of tying up...and I am ready to be corrected....was the horse actually stopping behind..ie grinding to a halt....the sweat actually sitting on the top of the hindquarters and the horse physically unbale to move.
Personally...I would get some bloods done just to be sure as it will show up in the bloods if the horse has tied up...and then ....and please don't be offended...I am only giving helpful advice....seek some experts out in the endurance brigade to help you with a feeding/stroke fitness regime....as there are some wonderful people out there only too willing to help.
Good luck
Bryndu

 

[horsey mad matt]

Did you have the vet out?

no, but i phoned for advice and what they suggested we had already done.

 

[furball]

Yes it sounds like tying up, my old anglo arab was prone to it, if it was his urine would have been very dark and looked blood tinged, if it happens again get off and box him back to the yard, shouldnt realy lead him back but i could my old girl if she wasnt bad, mangements the key, try to turn out every day or exercise daily even if its walking in hand. When he has a day off you need to adjust his feed ie cut it right down!!! Good luck

 

[horsey mad matt]

Hmm...are you sure it was tying up and not over excitement?
My experience of tying up...and I am ready to be corrected....was the horse actually stopping behind..ie grinding to a halt....the sweat actually sitting on the top of the hindquarters and the horse physically unbale to move.
Personally...I would get some bloods done just to be sure as it will show up in the bloods if the horse has tied up...and then ....and please don't be offended...I am only giving helpful advice....seek some experts out in the endurance brigade to help you with a feeding/stroke fitness regime....as there are some wonderful people out there only too willing to help.
Good luck
Bryndu

ohright, my friend who i was riding with had a horse who tied up a few times and i also have a 'veternary notes for owners' book and the symptoms in there were exactly what he had. my friend who i did the ride with who had a horse with awful azaturia and also my farrier are both very experianced horse owners and endurance riders.

 

[Bryndu]

Then I would definitely get a blood test because then you can treat the cause so you can stop it happening again.
Hope you didn't think I was being patronising......only trying to help
Bryndu

 

[highlandponygirl]

hi all,

the weekend before last i did a sponsored 40 mile endurance ride (20 miles a day) and last week he had 5 days off to recover. i took him out saturday and we walked for about 10 mins and came to a field where there are some donkeys. he acted up as he always done, but we got past it. as we were walking away i said to my friend that he didn't feel right and stopped about 100m down the road. just behind his flanks he was trembling, he had started to sweat and looked very uneasy in himself. so he was obviously 'tying up'. i got off and led him home and put his sweat rug on to cool him down. gave him some electrolyte as i have been told by my endurance friend who used to have a horse with awful azaturia, that when they tie up the salt in the muscles goes into the blood stream and looses it. i think the cause may have been that i have put him on quite rich grass without cutting his feed down enough.

Horses on rest days really should have their diet adjusted. Horses who finish hard work and are put on their rest without any changes to their diet is a stereotypical scenario of what triggers ER.
You should cut his hard feed on his days of especially carb rich feed.
Also it's the protien that is lost into the blood stream and is passed in his urine, you might have noticed it looked a different colour to his normal wee.

 

[Aces_High]

I would say that the horse sounds like he has tied up. You need to have bloods pulled soon after them tying up for anything to be read. It is due to a lactic acid build up which in effect is like you or I getting cramp. When a horse cramps across it's quarters with it being such a large muscle mass it is in a lot of discomfort. I know you have to get them home but ideally you don't want to move them more than you have to. One of mine tied up about a 40 min walk from home a few weeks ago. I let him potter home (I was across the farm in fields so transport wasn't an option) in hand and stopped and let him eat grass whenever he wanted. Upon getting home I gave him bute and ACP. The bute to take any pain away and the ACP to relax.

How fit is your horse? How long have you had him? Has he done this before? It can be managed and avoiding over exciting/stressful situations, exercise 7 days a week is important, sometimes haylage or very high energy hay (Alfalfa or Canadian hay), too much concentrates and not enough exercise. The horse I have mentioned above was given 1/2 an ACP prior to exercise every morning to help stop him stressing. Equine Alkaline Syrup can be of use and I think NAF also do a supplement for tying up. When you did your endurance ride did the horse sweat excessively and did you give him electrolytes and make sure he was drinking enough to not dehyrate? Lots of questions sorry

 

[horsey mad matt]

Then I would definitely get a blood test because then you can treat the cause so you can stop it happening again.
Hope you didn't think I was being patronising......only trying to help
Bryndu

no i didn't find you patronising at all!!!

 

[aran]

if it was an azoturia attack you really do need a vet out as you need blood tests done to evaluate the severity of the muscle damage.
without that you don't know what you're dealing with
the vet will also be able to give you a management plan
usually they need to be box rested and have repeated bloods done
you might want to up the fibre/calcium/electrolytes - contact some of the feed companies if you need help (saracens are very good for ERS)

 

[horsey mad matt]

I would say that the horse sounds like he has tied up. You need to have bloods pulled soon after them tying up for anything to be read. It is due to a lactic acid build up which in effect is like you or I getting cramp. When a horse cramps across it's quarters with it being such a large muscle mass it is in a lot of discomfort. I know you have to get them home but ideally you don't want to move them more than you have to. One of mine tied up about a 40 min walk from home a few weeks ago. I let him potter home (I was across the farm in fields so transport wasn't an option) in hand and stopped and let him eat grass whenever he wanted. Upon getting home I gave him bute and ACP. The bute to take any pain away and the ACP to relax.

How fit is your horse? How long have you had him? Has he done this before? It can be managed and avoiding over exciting/stressful situations, exercise 7 days a week is important, sometimes haylage or very high energy hay (Alfalfa or Canadian hay), too much concentrates and not enough exercise. The horse I have mentioned above was given 1/2 an ACP prior to exercise every morning to help stop him stressing. Equine Alkaline Syrup can be of use and I think NAF also do a supplement for tying up. When you did your endurance ride did the horse sweat excessively and did you give him electrolytes and make sure he was drinking enough to not dehyrate? Lots of questions sorry

he was fairly fit and didn't struggle very much with the ride
i have had him 2.5 years
no he hasn't done it before
he drank a fair bit and also had some very sloppy spedi-beet
he had salt that night

 

[Luci07]

Typing up used to be known as Monday morning disease. It was when a horse in hard work would have the same amount of feed, no exercise and then go out to do the same job - result was often tying up. 5 days off sounds like a lot. I appreciate eventing is different to endurance but I always had a slow hack the day after an event to stretch out my horse and then normal work the day after.

Def echo the blood tests and also, now your horse has done this once, it is highly likely it will happen again...

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

What we do with horses that tie up is box them home if far away, or totter them home in hand if not very far. Put them straight back in their stables with nice warm rugs on, pull some blood and add salt to their next feed. THe following day the horse is allowed out for 5mins in-hand walking. 10 the next. Then 15 on the horse walker and so on and so on building it back up we turn back out in the field after 6 days. After about a week for a mild tie up to a week and a half for a serious one the horse is then hacked out on a walking hack. 4 to 5 days of walking hacks then a slow steady canter, 2 days of walking, 1 day of 1 slow steady canter, 2 days of walking, 1 steady canter, 2 steady canters, 2 days walking, 1 steady, 2 steady, 3 steady and so on and so forth. It takes us 3.5-4 weeks to get a horse back into it's proper galloping routine and even then the horse goes on the horse walker for an extra 15-20mins before work and for 15-20mins longer after working just to make sure they are properly warmed up and cooled down.

Tieing up is a pain in the bum (no pun intended!) and you do need to be very careful with how you bring them back into work.

 

[EstherYoung]

Ditto the comments about getting a blood test, particularly if it's the first time the horse has tied up. You need to know when his muscle enzymes have returned to normal so that you know when you can resume work, for starters. Otherwise you can cause more damage or risk another episode. Tying up is another one of those things that you can't tell how bad it is from the symptoms. They can be just a little stiff and yet have bad permanent muscle damage, or they can have a really acute attack but with no muscle damage. Always treat a first attack seriously.

I'd be a bit nervous about giving e-lytes without knowing what the cause is, too - if it's dehydration related e-lytes can make them much worse.

It's a scary thing when it happens so well done for keeping your head.