Mystery symptoms - anyone seen this before?

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tantallon

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Wonder if anyone's horse has ever had these symptoms I have never seen them and my vets are puzzled too. 17 year old mare in light work. presented with mild colic symptoms and dark unrine on Monday vet came gave buscopan and mare was given some noradine granules as thought she might have cystitis which she has suffered from in the past, mare appeared to brighten for a bit - however since then she has got progressively stiffer and lower limbs are now very swollen and hot. She is walking like she has severe onset laminitis although that has almost certainly been ruled out - no significant heat in feet, no raised heartrate, temperature in normal and stiffness involves whole body including back and neck. Bloodtests on everything you can think of are inconclusive - slightly raised liver levels but nothing to suggest anything like an Atypical Myopathy. Over last two days she has remained just as stiff and lame although, now she is on painkillers, she is walking albeit incredibly painfully and stiffly. In herself she is remarkably bright - eating and drinking as normal. So here we are on Wednesday and nothing has changed limbs still swollen and she in finding walking, moving painful although appears bright and eating fine. I have never seen anything like it in more years than I care to remeber of looking after horses and neither has my vet - Dick vet school who are being consulted also puzzled. Has anyone else's horse ever presented with these symptoms. Any comments welcomed as hate to see my gorgeous mare like this. Vet is coming today to take more blood and tests are all going to be repeated to see if anything has changed.
Tea a biscuits to anyone who can help
 
Compltete and total stab in the dark, no idea if other symptoms match up with this but maybe too much protein??? Tying up type thing but obviously severe?? Or something to do with Alfa??

I know a few horses who have problems with Alfa and get mega bloated and swollen with water, it makes them really irritable and itchy, painful stomachs, dark urine etc and thinking too much protein because of the dark unrine, pain, reluctance to move (tying up)??

Aimee xx
 
aimeetb said:
Compltete and total stab in the dark, no idea if other symptoms match up with this but maybe too much protein??? Tying up type thing but obviously severe?? Or something to do with Alfa??

I know a few horses who have problems with Alfa and get mega bloated and swollen with water, it makes them really irritable and itchy, painful stomachs, dark urine etc and thinking too much protein because of the dark unrine, pain, reluctance to move (tying up)??

Aimee xx
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Hi Aimee thanks for that but I should have said she is out 24 hours at mo on grass (until this hit her) with a small daily feed of high fibre cubes and chaff plus vitamin supp and hoof supp. She never gets much feeding as she is a good doer but is not fat. She was feeling so good on Saturday that she nearly dumped her rider cos she was mucking about feeling great and now can hardly move :(
 
I am really sorry to hear that, its so hard when you just cant understand what is wrong and how to help them.

Does she lie down alot?
Are her gut noises normal or reduced?
Does she come in and out of brightness frequently?
Is she still eating and drinking well?
is there any patchy sweating?

I really hope she feels better soon

Aimee xxx
 
It could well be viral.

I know symptoms don't fully match, but noticed you are in Scotland ... I assume a mild grass sickness has been ruled out?
 
ihatework said:
It could well be viral.

I know symptoms don't fully match, but noticed you are in Scotland ... I assume a mild grass sickness has been ruled out?
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Just what I was getting at, the swelling doesnt quite match but glad and sad that someone else thought this too, not just me being OTT.

I am sorry OP I dont mean that to sound how it does, I really hope it isnt but worth mentioning if not already been thought of. :(
 
Hiya, have they looked at ESPM? I have not seen a horse with it and only have heard of it because my horse has an issue with her hind leg and someone suggested ESPM. When I read your post the dark urine stood out as this is one of the symptoms, other symptoms are stiffness/lameness etc...hope you find out what is wrong - not knowing is the worst.
 
20+ years ago in Ontario a virus went through the horse community that caused gastrointestinal distress, grossly swollen legs, lack of appetite and a host of other symptoms, depending on the individual. At least a handful of horses died but it was pre-internet and nobody knew what it was, so there may have been more whose deaths were attributed to something else. It was only really obvious how extensive the situation had been when people compared notes over the years. Severity varied greatly - I bought a horse that developed it shortly thereafter, his legs swelled up spectacularly and he was definitely under the weather but he actually went out and evented when, we knew in retrospect, he was already symptomatic. The horse next door to him came down with it lay down for a week, and tried his best to die. :( Others developed complications, like lymphangitis or founder. Forever after, my horse was prone to scary looking stocking up for almost any reason, although so far as we can tell he was otherwise just fine. Almost all the horses that got it and lived ended up with some long term effects and someone I worked for had a whole "year" of foals that were permanently affected.

No one ever figured it out (although in retrospect it might have been Potomac fever but it was years before that became a commonly known disease) and it disappeared as quickly as it came, although for all I know a horse or two still got it now and then, we just never made the connection.

True, diagnostic ability was far less advanced at that time and place, so maybe we would know today. Or maybe each individual would be subjected to rounds of tests and "diagnosed" by ruling things out, possibly with different explanations.

Another breeder I rode for had something similar "come in" with a horse that had been at a vet college. Again, no doubt viral but never pinned down even with much more modern technology than in the first case.

The horse in question does sound very much like it's somehow picked up a "bug", perhaps never to be adequately diagnosed. Has there been any discussion of anti-virals? Those sorts of things do often seem to come down to just giving the horse the best chance to shake it off.

Another option might be poisoning. I saw a horse have a complete system fail (initially looked very similar to "tying up") after eating withered maple leaves off a tree that was planted by mistake in a stand of similar looking but non-poisonous trees. There were three other horses in the paddock, none of whom became ill at all. So it isn't always something obvious or ordinary.
 
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Thanks for all your replies guys turns out she has an EMS laminitis so next five weeks are critical as her pedal bones are rotating quite badly. So keep your fingers crossed for us.
 
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