Neurology - Bonnie update

L

Llwyncwn

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 November 2006
Messages
3,461
Location
Muckheap
Visit site
For all who have been asking how Bons is - she had another episode yesterday and one this morning. Briefly, we believe that she had a fright with the EDT about 10 days ago and banged her head resulting in a fit and swelling to the brain. Vets administered diazapan and steroids when it first happened and admitted they had never seen anything like it. Begining with muscles along the spine, every muscle on her body then going into spasm. She seems unaware of what is happening as she quite happily continues to eat.

Bonnie never lies down in her stable and even during these episodes there is no evidence of shavings on her body at any time, even first thing in the morning.

We have a fantastic equine vet clinic who are at a complete loss. Bloods all within normal parameters, temp, heart, lungs all normal. Ruled out wobblers and narcolepsy along with rye grass staggers and calcium deficiency. They are now going to e-mail a neurologist based at a Veterinary University in Scotland to see if he has any ideas.

Still clutching at straws and exploring every idea that people come up with. Hoping that someone will fall upon this post and know exactly what is wrong as Bons cant be the only equine in the UK to suffer this. She is Sec A, 22 years old, rescued 3 years ago from starvation and having popped foals on a mountain all her life. Here is a pic of her on the day she came to me 3 years ago with her 12 wk old colt, Magic ...

20thaugust06-2.jpg


Your ideas, no matter how daft you think they are, please keep 'em coming.

Hx
 
Poor wee Bonnie. good to hear the dick vet are getting involved, i am sure they will be able to shed some light. What a strange and disturbing thing to be happening.
Hope she is much better soon. You have worked wonders with her, that pic is awful, with all her bones poking out.
 
Sorry to hear about Bonnie, what a dreadful shame after all she has gone through before you rescued her. I have however found a very interesting link of pages of a manual relating to neuro related conditions in horses and you need to flick through the previous pages to give you more information as to the various neuro problems:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OyxGEbjY4l0C&pg=PA988&lpg=PA988&dq=head+injury,+equine&source=bl&ots=x3x3AfUeJa&sig=9mvr9vlRBQQ-yl6BMb1Is3J9w_g&hl=en&ei=zZkSSrv5Bs7KjAft7eG2BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA984,M1

I was thinking about the Leucoencephalomalacia idea but this could well be the ryegrass staggers that you refer to.

To be quite honest I might be missing the point but if the vets are suggesting that the horse could have a brain injury due to banging its head then why are they testing for wobblers, etc? Would the bang to her head resulting in severe concusion not have given her a form of epilepsy for which she is having fits? Is transit tetany the same as a calcium deficiency as this can cause a type of fit too? I really don't want to give you false hope and I do not proclaim to know more than your vets but like you say, any ideas, however small might be worth a try. I wish you all the best and hope they find an answer soon.
 
So sorry to hear about poor Bonnie, sounds dreadful. Richard Piercy is Europe's top equine neurologist, he's based at the RVC, I'd be sending a full report to him. Good luck, I really hope you can fix her.
 
Dickie Henderson at Willesley has a special interest in equine neurology, perhaps drop him a call/email for his thoughts? He is amazing, very knowledgeable and lovely with it.

I really hope you can get to the bottom of this X
 
Aw poor Bonnie - I was hoping that there may be good news - sorry to hear that she's had some more fits
frown.gif

Good luck with the hunt for a diagnosis.
Kate x
 
Sorry to hear she is still having fits.
It is frightening and i really empathise, thankyou so much for your message btw.
It is awful not knowing why its happened, i wish i knew why seren had hers and if it will happen again.
I hope you get to the bottom of it soon with your bonnie, poor little thing, the worst part is feeling so helpless.
All the best x
 
Just a quick thank you everyone, there is lots of info here for me to be getting on with.

Bounty - Dickie Henderson. Cant believe my vets dont know of his interest in neurology as Ollie Crow comes to our clinic and operated on my girl Cass two weeks ago there. Our vets are also in regular contact with Svend. I will ring them tomorrow with this.

Will pass info on re RVS too along with all the info you have all so kindly given me today. Bless you lot
laugh.gif
 
So sorry to hear that she is continuing to have problems. Her episodes are starting to sound increasingly epileptiform. Fingers crossed for all of you. I hope you get the help / answers you are looking for.

As you know, I'm only too well aware of what you are going through with her - don't hesitate to get in touch.
 
Dickie diagnosed my wobbler mare within seconds of seeing her. From his observations of her movement (in walk alone) he was able to pin point which areas of her neck he wanted x-rayed. It took a couple of hours (including xrays) and less than £500 to come away with a definitive diagnosis.
This was after spending £2.7k on diagnostics and having them put the poor mare through intensive exercise at another well known practice, who were well off the mark with a diagnosis of KS and behavioural problems.

He will take you seriously and respect Bonnie. Best of luck. X
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top