Box_Of_Frogs
Well-Known Member
I'm posting on behalf of Llwyncwn's rescued Section A-type pony. Bonnie is a poppet and usually as tough as old boots but a horrifying incident happened today. Llwyncwn is probably sitting up all night with Bonnie as I type this.
The dentist came today to see Bonnie for a routine check up. As a rescued pony, Bonnie is very nervous of strangers but has seen the dentist regularly before and, apart from light sedation a couple of years ago to have some electric rasping done, has been ok. The dentist is a true professional and has a calm and reassuring way about him, so is above reproach.
Llwyncwn was up to her ears in work so the dentist - who was to see loads of horses there today - quietly got on with his work. Horrifyingly, Bonnie lost the plot completely and was so terrified that she thrashed about and eventually reared and lashed out with her front feet. She has never ever done this before. At one point, she cracked her head, with the gag fitted, against the brick wall of her stable. The dentist wisely stopped at that point and rang down to advise Llwyncwn what had happened. She went straight up and although Bonnie was a little wild eyed, she saw nothing amiss.
A couple of hours later, Llwyncwn went up to Bonnie and her other horses to turn them out for the night. Bonnie was having some sort of a fit, a little like a petit mal epilepsy fit. The side of her head was covered in shavings but that was the only part of her body that was. Bonnie NEVER lies down in the stable. She was standing up with her eyes as wide as a terrified deer. She was trembling all over with tics and twitches in almost every muscle in her body. Even her mouth, tail and (when the vet took her temperature) her rectum and vagina were in spasm. Her temperature and pulse were normal. All the tics and twitches were uncoordinated, ie not all twitching in sync but a generalised and random twitching of her whole body. The only way I can best describe it is Bonnie looked as if she had just been rescued from being stuck in a half frozen lake for hours and was suffering shock and hypothermia.
The vet came immediately - the twitches were getting worse. A few times, Bonnie took some strange steps and we all thought she was going to collapse. It is possible that Bonnie was in severe shock after the dentist and half fell, twisting her neck and causing some sort of spinal cord damage. The vet also thinks she may have had a fit brought on by stress. The vet gave Bonnie a low dose of diazepam to see if gentle sedation would settle her but it made no difference. Shockingly, the vet said that she would like to administer a low dose steroid as if Bonnie had been having a fit or had hit her head hard and had a bleed in the brain, it would stop the swelling. The vet said she had only seen this once before in a newborn foal that turned out to have meningitits. She has seen something similar in lactating mares who go into calcium shock, but Bonnie is in her 20s and is most definitely not nursing. If she deteriorates further, the vet is going to administer a calcium drip just in case because there isn't much else that can be done.
I spoke to Llwyncwn at about 8pm and Bonnie had settled a little so that could have been the steroid injection, or the diazepam or who knows what. It remains touch and go but I'm hoping Bonnie will rally overnight.
Please, please, has anyone ever heard of this before? Or experienced it with their horse? If so, what helped, if anything and what was the outcome?
The dentist came today to see Bonnie for a routine check up. As a rescued pony, Bonnie is very nervous of strangers but has seen the dentist regularly before and, apart from light sedation a couple of years ago to have some electric rasping done, has been ok. The dentist is a true professional and has a calm and reassuring way about him, so is above reproach.
Llwyncwn was up to her ears in work so the dentist - who was to see loads of horses there today - quietly got on with his work. Horrifyingly, Bonnie lost the plot completely and was so terrified that she thrashed about and eventually reared and lashed out with her front feet. She has never ever done this before. At one point, she cracked her head, with the gag fitted, against the brick wall of her stable. The dentist wisely stopped at that point and rang down to advise Llwyncwn what had happened. She went straight up and although Bonnie was a little wild eyed, she saw nothing amiss.
A couple of hours later, Llwyncwn went up to Bonnie and her other horses to turn them out for the night. Bonnie was having some sort of a fit, a little like a petit mal epilepsy fit. The side of her head was covered in shavings but that was the only part of her body that was. Bonnie NEVER lies down in the stable. She was standing up with her eyes as wide as a terrified deer. She was trembling all over with tics and twitches in almost every muscle in her body. Even her mouth, tail and (when the vet took her temperature) her rectum and vagina were in spasm. Her temperature and pulse were normal. All the tics and twitches were uncoordinated, ie not all twitching in sync but a generalised and random twitching of her whole body. The only way I can best describe it is Bonnie looked as if she had just been rescued from being stuck in a half frozen lake for hours and was suffering shock and hypothermia.
The vet came immediately - the twitches were getting worse. A few times, Bonnie took some strange steps and we all thought she was going to collapse. It is possible that Bonnie was in severe shock after the dentist and half fell, twisting her neck and causing some sort of spinal cord damage. The vet also thinks she may have had a fit brought on by stress. The vet gave Bonnie a low dose of diazepam to see if gentle sedation would settle her but it made no difference. Shockingly, the vet said that she would like to administer a low dose steroid as if Bonnie had been having a fit or had hit her head hard and had a bleed in the brain, it would stop the swelling. The vet said she had only seen this once before in a newborn foal that turned out to have meningitits. She has seen something similar in lactating mares who go into calcium shock, but Bonnie is in her 20s and is most definitely not nursing. If she deteriorates further, the vet is going to administer a calcium drip just in case because there isn't much else that can be done.
I spoke to Llwyncwn at about 8pm and Bonnie had settled a little so that could have been the steroid injection, or the diazepam or who knows what. It remains touch and go but I'm hoping Bonnie will rally overnight.
Please, please, has anyone ever heard of this before? Or experienced it with their horse? If so, what helped, if anything and what was the outcome?
