Unexplained Death

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coraline

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I was wondering if anyone could help me figure this out.

6 yo mare, no medical problems except from one case of choke. imported from ireland as a 2 year old, put in foal at 4, again no problems. lives out all year round, has hay but no hard feed.

the day before she was depressed, off her feed with no heightened TPR. she drank the majority of her water, but ate nothing. the next day she was stone dead in the field. shes checked in the morning, midday & night and there was nothing visibly wrong. there was no evidence of her trying to get up as the ground had no scrape marks and her legs were clean of dirt. her ears had been chewn off by the fox (tells me she had been down most of the night).originally, we thought it could be colic, as the chickens feed bag was low (wheat only) but she has eaten it before and it has never caused her problems. and there was no sign anywhere in the field that she had rolled, she was clean and there were no gauges in the field.

any ideas? she was in good health and usually a very fiery mare.
any help would be hugely appreciated as the family is at a complete loss and need their minds at ease.
many thanks.
 
So sorry for the loss of this horse. I think the only way you will get a clear answer without supposition is via a post mortem. All manner of complaints could kill a horse without warning from heart attack to an impaction, to poisoning (could be a slow build up of toxins from ragwort etc) or worm burden/damage.
Noone can possibly say.
 
is there anywhere you all would recomend for a post mortem?
ive just been told that the mare looked as if she was drunk and her breathing was very very slow.
thank you all for your advice however, i will suggest a pm to the family.
 
coraline said:
is there anywhere you all would recomend for a post mortem?
ive just been told that the mare looked as if she was drunk and her breathing was very very slow.
thank you all for your advice however, i will suggest a pm to the family.
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They need to ask their vet or a local equine vet practice.
 
While the owners have my sympathy, I think the cause of death is almost irrelevant.

From the symptoms you have described the day before, the vet should have been called immediately, its too late now.

Not eating, slow breathing and looking drunk were fairly serious symptoms.

Its a shame no-one came on here earlier, I'm sure everyone would have suggested ringing the vet.
 
rockysmum said:
While the owners have my sympathy, I think the cause of death is almost irrelevant.

From the symptoms you have described the day before, the vet should have been called immediately, its too late now.

Not eating, slow breathing and looking drunk were fairly serious symptoms.

Its a shame no-one came on here earlier, I'm sure everyone would have suggested ringing the vet.
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Bloomin Henry, hadn't got that far in the post.

Rather shocking eh??
 
A neighbours pony got into some wheat chicken feed, he was similar the next day seemed ok, the following morning he was not quite himself so she got the vet who treated him for mild colic, but unfortunately the owner did not realise the relevance of the eating of the feed 48 hours earlier and the vet thought it had only just been eaten, the vet came back later in the day but by then it was too late.

The feed had caused a toxicity which was by then untreatable, although he came over to my yard and was on a drip for a while it was hopeless and he was pts.

I think that the vet felt if treated as soon as possible after eating the feed he may of survived but this pony had got into the feed before with no ill effect so the owner had not worried at first.

Unfortunately like many things with animals you learn by experience and no one can ever know everything.

The toxins would have been caused by the feed fermenting, hence the horse looking drunk, it in effect was.
 
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my old pony - amazing one at that, was similar to this of what i remember. One of her arteries wall had thinned so she 'bled to death' in theory :( x Post mortem said she should of died before the age of 4 but the artery wall was fine until she was 10! x she was the most amazing pony EVER!! x
 
My first thought would be Atypical Myopathy. The ones we had staggered about as their muscles stiffened up. They also struggled to breath.
They died very suddenly.
 
charlie76 said:
My first thought would be Atypical Myopathy. The ones we had staggered about as their muscles stiffened up. They also struggled to breath.
They died very suddenly.
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Vets have confirmed it is not myopathy. The symptoms are similar but ours had liver and kidney failure which is not consistent. Further tests and biopsy on the three that died suggest a toxin They have ingested has caused something called serum hepititis which is EXTREMELY RARE in the UK. It is NOT INFECTIOUS OR CONTAGIOUS.
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???
 
Sorry to hear about the horse.

From what you say, I'm not sure when the horse died, but sounds as though it probably wasn't today, so I'm guessing the body will have already been removed and therefore no post mortem possible?

I also don't know, but guessing that even if the body is still there a day or so on, it may become more difficult to post mortem because of changed taking place after death? eg gut contents continuing to ferment, so wouldn't know whether gases had been a problem before death or after?

If it was my horse, I think my main worry would be whether it would be safe to have another horse on the same regime (same field, same hay, same water etc) or whether death was caused by something which could still be present and may be a problem for another horse.

I also suspect that from the signs alone it will probably be impossible to be sure about the cause of death. Changes in breathing can be indicative of pain and/or disease. Staggering around could be anything from lack of oxygen for whatever reason, through myopathy, to poisons. If no pm is possible, I guess you'll never know for sure.

Sarah
 
FWIW, the staggering could also have been due to a fall or pressure on the spinal nerves.
My filly did a somersault when a pony broke the fence down and pulled all the electric tape across the field; she got up but was extremely uncoordinated and kept falling down. Vet was with me and she was put down within 20 minutes as she was far too dangerous to treat with the fear of her coming down on top of us. PM at the kennels showed a ruptured spinal chord. Incidentally, her gums turned yellowish immediately because of the fluid leak; don't suppose anyone thought to look in the mouth?
 
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