Little Cob: Tied Up!!

MrsMozartletoe

MrsMozartletoe

Just passing through...
Joined
27 June 2008
Messages
41,682
Location
Not where I should be...
Visit site
Little Cob has been off-colour, so vet came out on Friday to take some bloods - we ran a book: anaemic v. allergies, but it came back as Tied Up!

Could have knocked me down with a feather :eek:. He's not been worked hard at all! He was being worked consistently, with time off, gettin gquite fit, pretty bouncy and seemed perky enough, then the very unseasonal weather arrived and it got rather warm. Was wondering if it was somehow connected? The only other thing was that we changed his food to one high in protein about a week or so before that, but he was only on it for three days as he turned a bit whappy.

Anyhoo, any thoughts, etc. much appreciated :)
 
So sorry to read this,

Have heard from another HHO today that this years spring grass could be causing more problems than usual with tying up, cold, then warm then wet could be having an impact on the amount of sugar in the grass.

Hope he is better soon
 
Oh dear, poor Little Cob, give him a hug from me.
Tying up is associated with lack of Selenium and vit E, so might be soil deficiency, high protein seems to be held responsible as well, but I'm not sure how 3 days of feeding it a week before would bring on an attack now:o
I would have to do a lot of thinking to come up with anything else and I'm just not capable of deep thinking tonight, so that's as much as I can remember of the top of my head.
 
Please make sure it is not atypical myoglobinurea/myopathy. You must get his urine tested becuase if it is the other horses could be at risk. There seems to have been anunuasually high prevelance this year.
 
Ta H :). Hope other ned is okay.

M - not bad for this time of night hun :). So, I need to check his vitamins intake - will do that first thing tomorrow :). Hug is appreciated :)

S22 - no idea what that means, but will ask vet first thing!

PaS - I knew that horses that tie-up typically have to have certain diet restrictions, but that was only after a hard day's work, such as hunting, but LC hasn't done anything like that :o. Confused :( Wondering how to make sure it doesn't happen again, but hard when not know what he did this time!
 
I dont know an awful lot about it, however, a friend of mine that does endurance (and is also a vet) has a horse that tied up in the past - she supplements her horses feed with slenavite - it has the highest levels of Selenium in it that she can find which apparently is very good for horses prone to tying up (however be warned although it doesnt put the horse off it absolutely stinks!)

Hope little cob is ok and feels better soon.
 
M - you are indeed a star :D Have a Ferro Roche or two to help keep you going :D. Hope lambs behave :D.

H - ta hun :D. More to wave at vet in the morning :D. Poor woman will be running for the hills lol. She's still bemused as to why LC has it.
 
Mrs M - I am the other HH'er that AlwaysBroke mentioned - I've been dealing with tying up for a few years now and my mare is off yet again with it (together with anemia and low white cell count), despite the best possible management...
As AB mentioned, my vet has said the richness of the spring grass this year has been causing lots of problems in this area.

What were his CK and AST levels? That will tell a lot as to how severe the attack is.

There are so many things that can cause tying up, it can be a nightmare trying to work out what exactly triggers an attack...if you want to ring/PM me I might be able to help a little and give you some tips on feed/management/supplements etc
just out of interest, my mare was on a high protein fibre feed for a week before she tied up (she went wappy too!)....I was told that it would need a week or two to get out of her system completely, so interesting that your cob has had similar...

Hope he's ok...just PM if you want a chat x
 
its a combination of the selenium/vit E and high protein, so maybe altering the diet to be slightly lower in protein, and up the sel/vit E content.

HOWEVER You CAN CAUSE SELENIUM TOXICITY IF YOU GIVE TOO MUCH!!!!!! (just be aware! :) )

Myoglobinaemia/uria is caused by muscle break down. However this is often only an occurence in severe disease, and when you watch him urinate it will be brown!

Also, the work load etc is not a problem so long as the diet fits the energy requirements and he doesnt geta day off with the same massive feed he gets on a day of say competition etc...... its all about keeping things consistent.

And now that you know he has tied up this is more importnat than ever! :) Consistency is the key to managing a tied up horse.
 
Ta R, I'll pm you :)

LN - he gets very little in the way of feed, usually just enough to get the vits. The extra feed was given for only about three days to help his energy levels, but he got very silly very quickly so it was stopped. However that was a good week or two before he first became lethargic. He hasn't been competed yet this year (due to weather and this illness), but his work was steady and gradual with nothing done differently.

I'll have to do a lot of research to figure out why and how - we've had him for three and a half years (half his life) so have seen him go through Spring grass a number of times, and the weather is always the same - gets very warm (I'm a contractor and usually have these months off, so I know it well), wet weather, interspersed with dry and cold, therefore one assumes that the grass grows in a similar pattern. He's also been on far richer grassland at this time of year without any problems and in the same work pattern. Hence our stratching of heads!
 
Well, scientifically speaking, protein shouldn't affect tying up at all - indeed feeds such as Alfa A and Alfa A Oil are supposed to be very good diets for ERS/tying up syndrome (mine was on Alfa Oil), although they have a lot of protein in them. However, its seems strange to me that both our horses have had a higher amount of protein prior to an attack....:confused:

Also, according to the 2 vets practices I have used, there is little scientific proof that selenium actually benefits horses that tie up...my vet is actually going to run a check for deficiency and that may tell us something...

another key thing is how much turnout v stabling does he get?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top