Very poorly mare, neurological

[Saucisson]

Hi, I'd be interested to know if anybody else has experienced this.

Just to say before she is staying at the vets under veterinary supervision so this obviously isn't asking for a diagnosis, more of a what could it be?

Basically, my friend's nine year old mare suddenly started staggering about in the field. My friend took her to the vet's and after they arrived she noticed that the mare was completely wet with sweat on one side of her body and not the other. It looks like a stroke but her face, ears and nose are all ok.

She is eating well and full of beans but she can't walk and staggers like a drunk. She can't bend to one side to accept food either. Also, she can't control her bladder and is just dribbling out urine.

I saw her like this for the first time today and found it quite distressing.

The vet has her on anti inflammatries in case of a haemmatoma in her brain. But we're thinking maybe a tumour or I was wandering if a virus/bacteria could cause it?

Many thanks for any help Sorry for my medical spelling.....

 

[charlie76]

Sorry about your friends horse, it could well be atypical myopathy, it affects the muscles .

 

[Meandtheboys]

Hi, I'd be interested to know if anybody else has experienced this.

Just to say before she is staying at the vets under veterinary supervision so this obviously isn't asking for a diagnosis, more of a what could it be?

Basically, my friend's nine year old mare suddenly started staggering about in the field. My friend took her to the vet's and after they arrived she noticed that the mare was completely wet with sweat on one side of her body and not the other. It looks like a stroke but her face, ears and nose are all ok.

She is eating well and full of beans but she can't walk and staggers like a drunk. She can't bend to one side to accept food either. Also, she can't control her bladder and is just dribbling out urine.

I saw her like this for the first time today and found it quite distressing.

The vet has her on anti inflammatries in case of a haemmatoma in her brain. But we're thinking maybe a tumour or I was wandering if a virus/bacteria could cause it?

Many thanks for any help Sorry for my medical spelling.....

I lost a yearling last year to the same issues, looked drunk with no coordination to the point she was self harming, walked in circles (only one direction) but still was eating and looking spritely. After various vet opinions the agreement was it was 99% a brain bleed or tumour - a decision was made to have a PTS............it was so heart-breaking as it came on so quickly, we tested for infection, bacteria, poisons but they all came back clear, we had hoped it may have been to do with a rapid growth spurt - but unfortunately not.

I hope you friends horse has some form of diagnosis so she can make the right decision if needed.

 

[flintfootfilly]

Have they done comprehensive bloods? If not, have some done asap. If they have done them already, what came back high or low?

Were there any recent changes in management before she became ill? eg turnout with different horses, travelling, lots of exercise, anything else stressful?

Unlikely but all I'm thinking is when one of my boys was a yearling he had a "wobbly do". Lost his coordination, tried to canter in from the fields with the rest of the gang and fell over 6 times in the process. Vet thought he was a wobbler as he had no tone in his tail and also was very easy to knock off balance. However, he could still stand.

Unfortunately I didn't think to ask for bloods at the time, so we'll never know whether they would have shown anything up. However, since then I've had various problems with the rest of the gang which seem to be pointing to a selenium deficiency (confirmed with forage analysis, but blood selenium in supposedly normal range).

So in hindsight I wonder if it was anything to do with this. In cattle, selenium deficiency appears as white muscle disease, and animals can lose their balance and may not be able to stand.

It's a long shot, but definitely worth knowing if the bloods show high CK (creatine kinase) which indicates muscle injury (found with selenium deficiency, and some other causes).

In the meantime, I'd make sure the horse was getting a full ration of a good balancer including as near to 1mg of selenium yeast as you can find, just in case (Blue Chip Original is what I'm trying at the moment).

Might be something else entirely, but that's not going to do any harm.

Sarah

 

[Saucisson]

Thanks for your replies

Gonna chat to my friend then I'll get back to you

 

[Saucisson]

Just been to see her, vet is doing all blood tests. She actually looked a little better

Asked him about the selenium (thank you Sarah ) and he'll look into that too although he doubted that it was that because of the one sided aspect of the problem. However, friend did say that this area is known to be low in selenium.....

 

[fatpiggy]

I would also query whether she could have had a fall. My girl fell loose lunging in the indoor arena (arsing about pretending to be a motorbike). She jumped straight up had a buck and seemed ok but the next day couldn't go around the menage on the left rein to save her life - just couldn't make the bends at all. A couple of physio sessions sorted her out. A very mild case compared to the OP but possibly not dissimilar. I would go for steroids rather than antiinflammatories. The ancient pony I cared for went like this overnight, back end was going sideways while the front was going forwards. She stayed bright and cheerful, ate well but it was painful to watch her trying to stand still to eat - her muscles were shaking with the effort and as she was only little I would brace myself against the fence and let her lean on me a bit. She was PTS a few days later but I subsequently found out that a new livery "hated little ponies and would go for them" so I did wonder if it had had a go while she was lying down and in getting up she twisted herself.