Urgent Advice needed! Something has "clicked" she wont stop pacing!

china

china

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 November 2008
Messages
5,193
Visit site
Hi all! I am posting on behalf of someone else who has their horses in the same field as me. The mare in question has been fine up untill the last few days. She has started pacing the fence, i noticed her cantering up and down the fence a couple of nights ago but just thought they had the wind up their bum! This morning her owner went down and the mare has walked a rut into the ground. She has paced the fence all day and every attempt to stop her has failed. The vet was contacted and they suggested a maximum does of sedalin which didnt touch her! The vet came out and put some dope in her food ( at this point she is grabbing mouthfulls of food on the go!) whenever she stood still her legs would shake and shed be off again. The vet gave her the maximum amount of dope and within 2 hours she was fully lucid and pacing again. We let her into the front part of the pen and she seemed to settle and have a pick of grass. This is completely out of character! the vet described it as something "clicking" in her head. Has anyone had any experiences of this? This mare is 8 years old and is retired due to a poll injury which means she cannot be ridden. The owner was not aware of the poll injury untill issues arrised when riding. The owner is unsure what step to take next. She has had the maximum amount of dope she can have today. we think putting her in a stable will stress her out more. The worry is she wont eat and will colic through the stress of it all. She is out with a friend and just barges through him if he is in the way of her "path". I think the worry is something nuerological is going on :-/
Thanks you
 
I've only once known of something similar. Horse (not mine) suddenly paced a circle in the field and wore a deep track in the ground. He ended up being PTS as he wouln't eat or drink at all. On post mortum it was found to be a brain tumor. :( The whole thing happened over a very short period of time (fine to PTS in three days). I really hope that this is not the case here.
 
Oh dear - not good news from me either - remember a beautiful placid gelding a friend owned - started the same behavior and actually became quite dangerous if anybody or anything tried to intercept his pacing. PTS and on further investigation was also a brain tumour. Was also a very quick decline as previous poster said.:mad:
 
Have her pasture companions changed in the last few days - is one of her buddies on the other side of the fence? Or have any new additions arrived in nearby fields?
 
hi all,
echo b- yes she has a poll injury but how it happened we dont know.
nothing has changed in the last few weeks. She has not been in this field long. The vet suggested putting her in a stable to take her out of the environment but we felt this would make matters worse, taking her away from her field mate into a different environment, the worry was she started hitted the stable walls. Her owner checked her earlier and she was circleing. I am going to meet the owner down there soon and try and get some fibre into her. A thought that popped into my head was a brain tumour for a sudden behaviour like this to happen? its really bizzare! we will do the best for her and im certain her owner will try everything and make a decision if it is needed.
 
hi this is very worrying for you sorry how long since the injury may be related or maybe as said tumor other thing that can trigger odd behavior is hormonal problems i would be asking vet to scan her for cysts and do bloods for hormone levels my mare changed into a nervous quivvering wreck when she had this problem but was fine after hormone treatment good luck
 
Have you tried giving her bute? She may be pacing due to pain. If she is circling then this could indicate a neurological problem. I had a horse in my care that did both these and then flipped over for no reason.
 
UPDATE: Well this morning she is happily grazing.. she is walking over to the fence every now and again but not pacing it like she was. So we are still unsure what was causing her to be nuerotic yesterday! She is having some more acp and brumide today just to keep her chilled and i believe bloods will be done on monday to try and find out what the cause of it was. She has abit of a cough that she has had for a week or so, it might relate in some way.
 
Maybe something happened out there. We had some trouble getting horses into a paddock once and they would hang around the gate not grazing. A few days later I found a deer carcass! A big one! What the hell killed it?? I think they saw and were frightened... not the first time a Big Black Cat was spotted round these parts... they're fine now, they must have forgotten.

Really sorry to hear of those horses who had brain tumours. Poor things, hope it's not the case with this mare...
 
Alexart said:
Have her pasture companions changed in the last few days - is one of her buddies on the other side of the fence? Or have any new additions arrived in nearby fields?
Click to expand...

I love your caricatures!!!!!!! Do you sell them???
 
As tallyho! said, sounds as though something happened.

Could be people/horse mare used to/really doesn't want to know going by/wildlife/even possibly the thunder in some parts lately (tree being stuck by lightening?)...

Glad she is calmer now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top