Tying up

Mahoganybay

Mahoganybay

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Can anyone tell me about tying up, my Standardbred mare tied up 3x last winter, the first two occasions only slightly and the last one was abit worse (but not too bad), vet came and suggested change of diet, which i promptly did, i always warm up and cool down when riding and she always has access to a salt lick.

All summer been fine, then on Friday evening, severe tying up in the sand school, rang the vets who said leave her still & warm for half an hour and then see is she will move, i gave her 30 mins, still would not move, sweating, panting, pawing etc etc, vet came gave painkiller, muscle relaxant etc and box rest over the weekend, she came back today to take a blood test.

Now, having been on google, i personally think she has Recurrent Exertional Rhabdomyolysis (RER), as she:

1. Is a standardbred
2. Is highly excitable
3. tends to have small explosions in the school, lots of squealing, lunging etc
4. Is very fit

She is fed a very small handful of hoofkind, high fibre cubes, outshine, magnesium & sugarbeet and adlib haylage.

Has anyone with any experience with this, the vets say they may have to do a muscle biopsy, is this the best thing, have been researching Vitamin E & Selenium, anyone with any experience of this supplement.

I am so worried for my little mare.

Many thanks.
 
Have you thought about putting on her a complete fibre diet (or as much as possible)?

I'd be inclined to stop the outshine as it is reasonably hight in protein.
 
amymay said:
Have you thought about putting on her a complete fibre diet (or as much as possible)?

I'd be inclined to stop the outshine as it is reasonably hight in protein.
Click to expand...

The diet that she is on was recommended by the nutritionist at Baileys including the Outshine, will defiantly research a complete fibre diet, i think thats the way we are going to have to go.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
 
With a standardbred you might want to consider EPSM.

Have a look at this site http://www.ruralheritage.com/vet_clinic/epsm_summary.htm

Beth Valentine is a good vet. Practical and highly experienced.

If your mare does have this type of condition I would suggest cutting more starch and sugar out of the diet and increasing the oil. The oil is really important.

Vitamin E is easily fed. Holland and Barratt do 1,000iu capsules (online or in their shops).

My 450kg horse gets two per day (3 in the early days). I feed them by hand wrapped in a bit of her bucket food.

If you are feeding a good quality vit/min supplement then be very careful re the selenium. Too much is toxic.

pm me if you like.
 
LucyPriory said:
With a standardbred you might want to consider EPSM.

Have a look at this site http://www.ruralheritage.com/vet_clinic/epsm_summary.htm

Beth Valentine is a good vet. Practical and highly experienced.

If your mare does have this type of condition I would suggest cutting more starch and sugar out of the diet and increasing the oil. The oil is really important.

Vitamin E is easily fed. Holland and Barratt do 1,000iu capsules (online or in their shops).

My 450kg horse gets two per day (3 in the early days). I feed them by hand wrapped in a bit of her bucket food.

If you are feeding a good quality vit/min supplement then be very careful re the selenium. Too much is toxic.

pm me if you like.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, very interesting, someone else has recommended Beth Valentine, so have googled her and found a useful factsheet.

I think that once i have the blood tests back and have the muscle biopsy i will know what i am dealing with, at the moment i suppose it is me just guessing so it could be EPSM, tis all very confusing lol.

Thank you very much for your input, much appreciated.
 
My 5 year old Holsteiner mare has just been diagnosed with RER following a biopsy 3 weeks ago.

After doing a lot of my own research I have started to feed her:

Hi-Fi Mollasses Free
Baileys Lo-Cal (which she has always been on)
Speedibeet
Micronised Linseed (from Charnwood Milling)

She is also having

Magnesium
Electrolytes
Vitamin E

The vet has said that basically she really shouldn't have any days off, ever. I'm lucky that I have a horsewalker as she needs a good 20 min warm up and another 20 min cool down. But I also start a new full time job next week and I'm really worried about fitting it all in! lol
 
my old horse had EPSM all these things are closely linked and require almost identical management.

I fed my horse rapeseed oil from the super market started off adding a small amount ended up feeding him 500ml a day for a long time. I also fed a vit E and selenium supp which is very important as most feeds do not have enough in them, even balancers don't have enough for the EPSM horse


the website you have been given is the BEST place on the net to get correct information. If you email DR Beth Valentine she is very helpful!!

I don't believe just going on a high fibre diet is recommended these horses need a high oil diet


The biopsy is the best way to find out, it is what I did with my horse and it was sent to Dr Beth to examine as UK vets couldn't decide (this was years ago)
 
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