Tying Up and Box Rest?

[pickwickayr]

Following my New Forest feeling not quite right in the XC of a BE ODE last weekend, she was very sweaty and out of breath and felth lethargic on the course and not like her usual self. i got the vet out for a bit of a check up just to be sure shes ok. He thinks that she tied up and has taken blood samples. she was moving very short and tight behind when trotted up. It would be bad management on my part sadly, as she always has the day off before an event and I increase her feed too (Spillers instant response) I feel terrible that she would have been in so much pain but carried on becaise I asked her to
I didnt even realise she had tied up as she hadnt locked up and walked back to her trailer with no signs other than being more tired than she should be considering she is pretty fit. anyway the vet has advised box rest for 10 days to let the muscles recover and she is on Danillon. this pony has always lived out and hates being stabled. She is not one to run round the field like a loony and everyone I have spoken to says they have not heard of box rest for tying up before and its best to keep them moving.
So Im looking for other people's experiences of caring for a horse after it has tied up, and when/how to bring her back in to work. Ideally I dont want her to be off work too long, as she loses fitness easily and once the snow and ice arrives it will be difficult to do much hacking to get her fit again. I have never experienced tying up before so any advise would be great!

She was being fed spillers cool fibre, spillers instant response and equi form Jump off supplement with Equiform Daily Electrolytes. I have taken out the instant response mix. i do have cool stance copra meal but am unsure if this is ok to feed?

 

[Muckmeister]

Hello,
sorry to hear your horse has tyed up. I hope she will get better soon.
The good news is, that the vets know so much more about the underlying conditions these days, that quite often they are relatively easily managed and horses can live a normal life.
When I was younger horses that had tied-up would be box rested and receive some form of pain relief.
These days it seems to be a case of "it depends" ... if the muscle is breaking down badly (tell tale sign is dark wee) boxrest still seems required. However, in most other cases they seem to advise on a low dose exercise or turnout regime.
My horse tied up around this time last year, pretty much when her work wound down, her turnout more or less stopped and she received a little extra hard feed as she had lost so much condition.
Bad mistake.
After initial small padock rest and painkillers she was turned out daily for a bout a month, then slowly brought back to work, all under supervision of a vet and with regular blood checks.

This is her new regime ... and she has not tied up again:
- daily turnout
- daily exercise (her day off is a light hack or a lunge)
- feed changed to Saracens ReLeve (this was developed by Kentucky Horsefeeds particularly for horses prone to tie up)
- thorough warming up and equally thorough cooling down (i.e. 10 min hack around the farm, 20 min warm-up in arena, 15-20min schooling, 15 min cool down in arena with canter & trot on long rein, then walk, 10 min hack around the farm)

Horse hasn't tied up since this routine was implemented and carries on competing (eventing).

Hope this helps

 

[pickwickayr]

that is really help ful! thank you so much! will look into the Re-Leve. she had no funny coloured urine and she didnt lock up,so hopefully once the blood results are back the vet might let her out the stable, i feel so sorry for her!