My boy "tied up"

Rockchick

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he was ridden on a steady hack on tuesday evening, walk and trot - nothing out of the ordinary, was warmed up and cooled down as usual and was fine when he was put in his box

Weds morning he came out of his box a little stiff but seemed to loosen off when turned out - we thought maybe he'd stretched funny or something overnight.

I checked him weds evening and he was really stiff in his hind end and looked thoroughly miserable - even tried to bite me (which is extremely unlike him - he doesnt even put his ears back usually)
Decided to look at him again on thurs morning and get vet if no better - he wasnt so my YO called the vet, who diagnosed "tying up" :(

He is now on a course of ACP and Bute 2x daily for a week, has had bloods done and I am awaiting the results, he goes out in the field in the day and is stabled at night but is obviously not in work..

On the advice of the vet his "mix" has been taken out of his feed (all 1/4 scoop of it) and he now just has forage.

I have never had a horse do this before but have been told a fibre based diet is best... he holds his weight well, is a relatively good doer but requires more "oomph" at times when ridden....

I am also considering a diet review for my mare - again a good doer etc

any thoughts / comments / advice etc greatly appreciated...

thanks in advance :)
 

UKa

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Hi, sorry to hear your boy tied up. It is quite a distressing event especially when faced with this new... however, it sounds as if he has got away with it fairly lightly, hope the blood results will show this.
THe only thing is that they tend to be prone to it once they had it and each time they tie up some muscle gets damaged... so it would be good to manage as best as possible to prevent it reacurring.

My girl tends to tie up after she got a chill so I need to watch that she doesn't get cold or wet, I use an exercise sheet during the winter. In addition, they say that you should not feed any starch or sugar and it is recommended to supplement with selenium and vit E, you can get specially formulated supplements for this. Some owners swear by the high oil diet for EPSM, there will be loads of posts on here about this and related conditions with advice. Feeding high quantities of oil needs to be introduced slowly over time and you will have to definately supplement with Vit E.

For managing the horse, as much turnout as poss, very thorough warming up and cooling down and regular steady workload are a must.

Can't think of anything else right now but will add if need be. Good luck with this and that you will be able to manage him but there is good chances you will :)
 

Mike007

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Bicarbonate of soda acts as a source of Sodium ions. It is an electrolyte.It is this rather than the its neutralising effect that is significant in my opinion.As with so many things to do with horses,the research has not been done so I can only say I would expect this to help and will probably work.
 

Firewell

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My old horse tied up.
I never worked him from the stable and always turned him out for an hr or two first. he had to be warmed up and cooled down very throughly.
If he had time off, his work was built up gradually.
Keeping him in routine helped. For some reason he got worse when in during the day and out at night?!
He was better out 24/7 or just in at night (with turnout before work). The antioxidants in the grass helped.

Alfa A was awful for him, I know Alfa is not meant to affect horses who tie up but it did him! As was any condition or competition type feed.

He was best on HiFi, pony nuts and speedie beet. He couldn't have anything too high profile feed wise and he was a poor doer which made it harder.

The main thing that triggered my horses episodes were being in during the day or being ridden from the stable and Alfa or feeds that were too rich.

I think each horse is different though and react to different things.

Once we realised the triggers he didn't get it again, we were always very careful though :).

Oh and ours was a competition horse and he was fine to carry on competing :).
 

Rockchick

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Update:
Had to take a rain check on saddle fitting as poor horsey still isnt right, had chiropractor type person out to him as planned - she did as much as she could (without doing too much) picked up on the muscle tighness and relieved what she could but advised to get vet back out as the cause wasnt clear - and none of the "causes" of tying up apply to him in any way

Had vet back out - she prescribed more bute and 5x capsules of dantrium per day (1x bute and 5 x dantrium am and pm) however there has been no change in him at all

Got the senior vet coming out to him today as this has been going on a while now and nothing has changed - in fact he's taking longer to "un-stiffen" if anything

Lunged gently the other evening and once he'd loosened up he was fine in walk and trot, pulled him up after 6 strides of canter as he wasnt at all happy and was also holding his tail to one side!

he's well rugged, and only fed on a fibre based diet - when he's in work he isnt "hammered" and is always well warmed up and cooled down and in the winter has an exercise sheet on when being worked

Any thoughts?

*chocolate for those of you that have got this far*
 

CrazyMare

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My mare tied up this year. Very atypical presentation, diagnosed only via blood results.

She is on a high fibre, low starch, low sugar diet plus ad lib hay. She is turned out for 11-12 hours a day. She also has a half teaspoon of salt in her feed.

The biggest thong to affect my mare is hydration or lack of as she tends to not drink enough so we add a splash of apple hijuice to her water when her intake decreases.

She also has an exercise sheet whenever it's cOld
 

soulfull

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just so you know if it turns out to be EPSM it may not show in the blood work. The only way to test for this is a muscle biopsy

hope you get to the bottom of it soon

my last horse had EPSM and though he didn't completely tie up he did get very close. he was a good doer on little food to start with. Then started to lose all his muscle and top line.
The only thing that stopped him getting stiff was 500ml oil a day and vit E selenium supp. Oddly enough he never got too fat
 

paulineh

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With Muscle damage you need to feed the said muscles with the correct Vitamins and Minerals

With the recent weather being warm and then wet the grass has continued to grow and because of this there is a lack of magnesium.

I would give him some Magnesium as well as some electrolytes. I would also get some pure Vitamin E , the best I know of comes from "Trinity Consultants" Give Roger Hatch a ring on 01243551766 Their web site is http://www.trinity-consultants.com
 
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