Stress induced histamine reaction, quivering muscles, neurotic

[jayvee]

Has anyone seen or know of a horse suffering from such effects?
My mare broke out in a histamine like reaction all down her right hand side today, and her shoulder muscle was quivering and I don't understand why.
It was as if she was having an anxiety attack??!
She was in her stable while I was as normal casually getting ready to ride. Nothing was out of the norm!
She is in season and I supose peaking, she seems more alert and spooky when she is not generally spooky!
I don't think it's an allergy issue, I would say it's more of a neurotic one!
By nature she is a very introvert sort of charecter so reading her can be difficult. I would be intrested to know if anyone has a horse with similar reactions/symptoms and what you think or know are the causes and or what can I do to help mine.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

If nothing was out of the ordinary, what makes you think it was stress induced? I only ask because a very introverted rescue pony belonging to my YO had exactly the symptoms that you describe, The mare - for good reasons - is very wary of strangers so when the dentist came to treat her and the YO had to leave the stable for a few minutes, it was no surprise to hear that there had been problems. The ED had continued to see to the pony's teeth but she became untreatable after just a few minutes and almost collapsed in shock at one point. For at least 48 hours or even longer after this, the poor pony was very ill. She stood absolutely still as if in total shock and all the muscles in her body began to twitch out of synch, as if there were tiny electric eels wriggling about under her skin. She wouldn't eat or drink. The vet was called as an emergency and at one point it was feared she was blind. The vets had never seen anything like it and risked a steroid injection, but it didn't help at all.

YO is certain it was some sort of stress reaction and your description is the only time I have ever encountered anyone who has observed something similar. Did you have the vet out? The YO's pony has had a couple of similar but much milder attack since. The only remedy seems to be prevention by always sticking to the pony's routine but of course routines sometimes have to be changed.

 

[fatpiggy]

My old yard was also a RS. One day one of the ponies, an arab x and decidedly neurotic got stung by a bee or wasp. At one point the yard groom who was built like a brick privy (luckily) was virtually holding the pony up. The vet was called and he then called a more experienced one, simply on the grounds that "this was one for the text books". They agreed that the pony was basically suffering from "the vapours", was unharmed and it would pass in due course, which it did.

Box of Frogs - my horse has epilepsy and the dentist has told me that several times in the past, he has had horses collapse while he was doing their teeth. They were quite often arabs (interestingly, my own research suggests that epilepsy is more prevalent in certain breeds, and arabs is one of them (not just juvenile epilepsy, BTW)) He was satisfied that these cases were of hysteria, not anything neurological. The more nervy, sharp types do seem to be more prone to things like this.

 

[jayvee]

Hi I think it's stress or anxiety related because her shoulder muscles will often but not always quiver/shake at feeding times and occasioanlly at other times she may consider 'anxious'.

The last time she broke out in a histamine reaction was when she had an electrode back massage. Was a general back check nothing was wrong but took advantage of the massage to ease just some minor tension and her whole body broke out!

I never got the vet out as it was not as bad as the pony's experience you describe. Although fully aware of what I was seeing I continued to tack her up casually and considerately, and proceeded to ride out. She was fine just abit more forward going and spooky but I think that part is mainly due to being in season.

And yes she too will go into herself at times and deep! Usually when I prepare her for travelling (booting up) she goes very still, head drops and her eyes kinda glaze over yet she will sometimes frantically paw the ground. I think this is a very introvert behaviour and is anxiety related, yet she will load herself and travles fine, eats enroute and never sweats up, so maybe it's like 'pre-stage nerves' ??

I would like to help her, know if anything I am doing is triggering it and what I can do to ease it make it better.

I need a horse shrink LOL

ps forgot to mention, she is of Draft breed/ISH type.