Horse with shivers - help please?

asommerville

asommerville

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Hi - so bought new mare in October, 5 stage vetting, passed with no issues. Horse appears now to have a slight shiver which seems to be better when she is on a certain calming supplement and has not presented a problem. Just seems to be when she gets stressed it is worse, she shows no signs of unsoundness and just needs a bit of patience when getting her back feet picked up.

So yesterday she was shod (3rd set of shoes since I bought her), the more I think about it the more I think that the blacksmiths impatience actually caused the problem, as she was a bit of a twit and really not happy getting her back legs picked up. In hindsight I should have stopped him as he was getting annoyed and impatient and she was getting upset, he said to me I should 'stop buying horses as the last one was just as bad' - actually the last one was PTS 5 months ago due to horrific hock arthritis, kissing spines and ulcers and the horse has stood fine the last 2 times she has been shod for his apprentice, the only time either of my horses have misbehaved for the farrier was when he was doing them rather than the apprentice.....I am starting to answer my own questions here......

So question, any supplements which help this? The supplement that she is on at the D&H placid and there is a definite difference when she is off it. I think it's a bit far down the line to speak to the vet who vetted her and as I said she is not unsound so really looking at managing this.

Is there anything I could do with regards to shoeing which would make it a bit easier for her to get her back feet done?
 
The best thing for a shiverer for shoeing is a patient farrier, sorry.

We had quite a bad one at work (shiverer!) and he was a lot better when he knew he would be given time to pick up, shiver, balance etc before the hoof was held hard.

I believe Magnesium can help with muscle tremors, but that is pulled from memory somewhere, and I can't remember where I referenced it from.
 
Taken from a quick search
"The optimal approach is to follow the same dietary strategy used to manage EPSSM horses, which is based on a hay/pasture diet that includes a fat supplement low in starch and sugar—grain should be eliminated from the diet. "
Might also be worth looking into supplementing with Vitamin E.
Have you spoken to your vet to confirm that this is shivers?
And agree you really do need a patient and understanding farrier
 
Thanks for replies, apprentice is setting up on his own at some point (hopefully) so I'll go from there. I'm annoyed at me and at the farrier cheeky twit.

We do loads of hacking so I would prefer back shoes, but if she isn't good getting shod next time I'll take them off and get hood boots, I'd rather shoeing was a good experience!

That makes sense red1 if she's better with her calmer than without it has mag in it and some other stuff
 
It can also help if you can work them or at least turn them out before shoeing - often the shiver is less pronounced if they have had exercise and have not been standing in a box for ages.
 
TGM said:
It can also help if you can work them or at least turn them out before shoeing - often the shiver is less pronounced if they have had exercise and have not been standing in a box for ages.
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Thank you that makes sense, normally I ride before showing but didn't yesterday as I feel off the night before and didnt have a spare gas canister for my bp!
 
Definitely a patient farrier. Long term i would seriously consider taking the back shoes off altogether.

Vitamin e supplement - don't get the one with selenium added. You need to feed vitamin e at a much higher dosage for shivers horses and too much selenium can be toxic. The vitamin e should be supplemented at 10,000 iu's a day (most supps are 500 - 1000 which is fine for normal horse, not shivers). Most cost effective way of doing this is from progressive earth on ebay.
 
FabioandFreddy said:
Definitely a patient farrier. Long term i would seriously consider taking the back shoes off altogether.

Vitamin e supplement - don't get the one with selenium added. You need to feed vitamin e at a much higher dosage for shivers horses and too much selenium can be toxic. The vitamin e should be supplemented at 10,000 iu's a day (most supps are 500 - 1000 which is fine for normal horse, not shivers). Most cost effective way of doing this is from progressive earth on ebay.
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Thank you I thought I saw something about vit e helping and have been wracking my brains to find it
She's currently on as sugarless a diet as poss, thunderbrooks chaff, base mix and hay and I will look into the base mix to see how much vit e is in it and how much I need to add - what is iu?
 
I hav a shiverer my farrier is excellent and very patient although if you can hold the foot low it sometimes doesn't trigger a shiver. I think the banging/concussion of putting the shoe on can cause a shiver so I keep my boy unshod behind. (I also don't trot on the roads either to avoid concussion)
 
asommerville said:
Thank you I thought I saw something about vit e helping and have been wracking my brains to find it
She's currently on as sugarless a diet as poss, thunderbrooks chaff, base mix and hay and I will look into the base mix to see how much vit e is in it and how much I need to add - what is iu?
Click to expand...

iu is the units they measure it in, how much vitamin e is in it. x
 
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