Quick q re Copper supplement

[sam1am]

Has anyone ever had a horse that reacted badly to a dose of copper from a syringe?
Laid back 8yo never spooks bucks or rears today went berserk.
Very unlike him stressed, grinding teeth, reared once. Totally out of character.
Only change in routine was the copper dose, have googled with no joy.
Will get him checked ASAP but in meantime wonder if this contributed to it.

 

[popsdosh]

Why were you injecting your horse with copper! do you have a known deficiency as it is highly toxic if overdosed.

 

[Mickyjoe]

Presumably it was an oral syringe. I had one lose his life just after being given it. Pawing the ground, wiping his mouth off his legs, I was worried for a while but he just seemed to hate the taste (aniseed apparently) and is a big drama queen anyway.

 

[sam1am]

Yes mj! It was about 2-3 hours later though? I'm really hoping was the taste.

 

[Mickyjoe]

My episode happened immediately afterwards. Had to jump out of the stable cos he was.threatening to get down and roll. He was perfect within minutes though. Hope your horse settles down. Could it be some sort of allergic reaction?

 

[amage]

Any chance he was just stung by something and it's a coincidence

 

[Bestdogdash]

Has anyone ever had a horse that reacted badly to a dose of copper from a syringe?
Laid back 8yo never spooks bucks or rears today went berserk.
Very unlike him stressed, grinding teeth, reared once. Totally out of character.
Only change in routine was the copper dose, have googled with no joy.
Will get him checked ASAP but in meantime wonder if this contributed to it.

Genuine question back - why dose copper ? What makes you think a horse has a definceny in it I.e - what are the symptoms of copper deficiency ? Thanks !

 

[sam1am]

Just for his coat tbh, summer coat didn't come through great.

 

[cptrayes]

Genuine question back - why dose copper ? What makes you think a horse has a definceny in it I.e - what are the symptoms of copper deficiency ? Thanks !

Black horses and cows turn brown. Skin conditions, bad quality tail snapping off short, flat soles and thin soles, predisposition to mudfever and to lamintis.

The problems are caused because a copper deficiency interrupts the proper use of insulin to digest carbohydrates. It is maybe possible that your horse suddenly succesfully digested a whack of carbs that was in his gut and that sent him bananas, like a kid full of sugar. What was actually in the syringe? They often use stuff like glucose as a carrier and that can send a horse loopyfruit.

I have one friend whose horse went wild on Red Cell, which I think is also a copper supplement.

I supplement all my horses with copper proteinate powder, and have used copper sulphate, and have never had a problem.

 

[sam1am]

Makes sense cptrays, hes still unsettled today though so I'm really not sure what to do.
Will get him checked over and a few weeks out even if nothing wrong and hopefully all will be ok. Was just such strange behavior it has me flummoxed!

 

[cptrayes]

If you have plenty of money I would be tempted to get a liver function test. I don't know anything about copper in syringes but excess copper is not excreted, it is stored in the liver and used up over time if the horse's diet is deficient.

I would be concerned that your horse may already have a liver which is under some "pressure" from a pre-existing condition and that the request to ask it to deal with copper storage as well was too much for it. Did you by any chance worm him at the same time, or soon before?

 

[cptrayes]

Just to reassure you, the syringe you used contained about 400mg of copper and is recommended for use once a week. I dose mine with 900mg PER DAY and that is within safe boundaries. Copper poisoning, I'm pretty sure, is not your issue here, though the "gel" it is carried in, whatever it is, might be.

 

[sam1am]

Thanks cp he was wormed a couple weeks ago his pulse temp etc all normal just his attitude isn't.
Not that much money to spend!

 

[cptrayes]

One of the attractions of having horses with no shoes on is that you get to understand just how much stuff that goes into their mouths affect them. There are a lot of horses that go footie for a couple of weeks after wormers, especially the long acting ones like moxidectin.

Hopefully he'll be all right in a few days, but with him failing to grow a nice summer coat, and now this reaction (possibly from the liver or from the insulin change) I would, I'm afraid , sorry to say it, be thinking hard about testing him for Cushings or maybe Insulin Resistance. There are quite a few early onset cases of Cushings being found these days and IR is increasingly diagnosed in horses that are not even particularly overweight. I know it sounds daft, but if he has got it and you catch it early you could save a lot of problems later.