This is just a nightmare - Azoturia!!

[Mbronze]

Eek..Long post btw ..Went to Badminton

for the weekend and came back Sunday night, all was well with both my horses.

Then on Monday night took baby horse for a nice evening hack around our fields and finished off with two laps of canter, as we were walking off she suddenly went all stiff in her behind. At first i thought she was lame, but her movement became more and more limited...friend suggested Azoturia..!

Called my vet out (nice bill for the bank holiday!!

) She instantly said it was azoturia, took a blood sample, told me to leave her in for a few days and gave me some bute.

All was going ok, Tues morning I walked her out of her stable for a couple of yards and she had regained all movement so put her back in stable, and she quite happily tucked into her lick-it (disgusting thing - but she likes it!)

But Vet has just phoned with the blood sample results, and says whilst her kidneys,white cells, haemoglobin and liver are perfectly normal her muscle enzymes are really high

(confirming our initial suspicion of Azoturia)

She thinks it was caused because my horse isn't fit enough,

although i explained that she has done a couple of ode's and xc's and me and my trainer have mapped out a really careful work out plan for her...and never had any problems.

Vet has now suggested 2 weeks off work, which throws out any plans to event for the next two months!!!

I have recently changed her diet though and my instructor and myself both think this must be the cause, the diet was v high in protein and apparantly this can cause an onset of Azoturia and i don't think i gradually introduced the feed into her diet enough

(started off giving her half a scoop and then a full one by day 3) Whereas instructor has since told me that i should of started off with a handful.

But vet is adamant now that it is her fitness that has caused this??

My trainer is calling her vet tomorrow and phoning her instructor (Carl Hester) to get another opinion.

Has anybody ever had this before and if so, any ideas???

 

[vicijp]

I dont think you need to worry about the introducing feed bit - that is just a myth.
When you went away for the weekend was your horse actually worked, or did they have days off?
Regardless of how fit they are, all horses need an easy day after they have had a day off. It would be a combination of that and the high protein feed (should always drop to next to nothing when they have days off) that would have caused her(mares are more susceptible btw) to tie up.
What is the AST count?
2 weeks off work seems a bit extreme to me, that may be advisable for an ongoing problem though. General treatment is 1 day box rest, 1 day turnout, then walk/trot until the AST drops, then increase work and feed, if AST ok after a week then kick on as normal.

 

[Mbronze]

She had Sat & Sun off but being stupid I didn't decrease her feed, the vet didn't tell me her ast count but i'll call them tomorrow to find out, does that tell you how severe the case is?

 

[vicijp]

Not really, the CPK levels will indicate that more if you had the blood done soon after the attack.
The AST will give more of an indication towards repeat attacks (now she has had one). It can decrease fairly quickly, with the right work/feed/medication they can drop to normal within a week.

 

[Twiglet]

I'd say the addition of more protein in the diet would be a major factor in it.......I'm not an expert but I have to stay well clear of anything starchy at all with my boy because I know it'll bring it on.

 

[ravenwood1]

Although I have never personally had a horse with azoturia - quite a few hunt horses round here seem to be susceptible. With lots of grub and stabled, they are boxed to a meet on high ground and with a cold strong wind whipping around their loins, this triggers it off. It seems that once they get it they are then prone to it and you have to keep an eye on the grub and exercise them everyday religously and keep them warm by not clipping right out and perhaps even using an exercise rug.

 

[Maesfen]

It certainly sounds like the full feeds plus no work plus the blast seems to have set this off (to me, anyway and I have done two horses that were prone to it)
As Ravenwood1 said, many times it comes down to being vigilant and not thinking 'it won't happen to me' because it does if you don't keep to the simple rule of no hard feeds - or at the very least, less than half normal feeds, more fibre, from the evening before time off until the day after they are back in to work, plus to give them an easy (walk and very little trotting, no more) day the first day back - even if they were only off for one day, also to make sure you warm them up properly before asking them to do anything. (In our case, we would only walk for at least the first mile and always walk the last mile home too; never bringing them in sweating; if they were sweating, we would walk them out again until they had fully cooled off. We would also turn them out every day well rugged up so they could keep their muscles moving rather than be stuck in a box for the next 22 hours.)
It's not the end of the world but if you don't take these sort of measures from now on, it is quite likely to reappear quicker than you would like and each time will involve longer recuperation time. We also used to feed a supplement, can't think what it was called but it was made by Ranvet and cost £25 for 2.5 litres but that was 5 years ago, which helped no end; Thatch didn't have another attack while he was on that.

 

[Happytohack]

Have pm'd you with an excellent article. It is quite common in endurance horses. Hope the article helps you.

 

[aran]

I'd change your feed. After my mare had an attack I changed to a mainly fibre based diet with some oil and a good vit min (talk to saracens as they are the leaders in EPSM/azoturia research). I was also very careful about rest days - she rarely got any and if she did then she would only get a handful of ready grass and a few carrots with her ad-lib hay. I was also very careful about her electrolyte level and gave her added in the feed if she sweated up at all. I also gave her unmollased sugarbeet to keep her fluid levels up (as it can be caused by dehydration and my mare hardly drank anything). I also was very careful warming up and cooling down.
I hope she's feeling better

 

[Mbronze]

Thanks everyone, for all your help, even though vet has suggested two weeks off and she still thinks its her fitness levels ( i agree with most of you - think its diet related - i did keep her feed the same on her two days off - eek)
Will take it one day at a time and walk her out today, see how she moves and them maybe i will get on her on saturday - also looked into muscles - apparantly its a good idea to massage the muscle (anybody done this)