WOBBLERS. please help HOPE

Hi. I bought a horse from sales yesterday. Not something I usually do. In the ring and pen it looked to have a bad back.

Today whatever she was doped with has worn off,

This is the sweetest, prettiest mare ever.

My mctimony lady came out today and suspects wobblers.

Obviously I've googled it but am struggling to find answers in the UK, tho in the US it appears to have surgical and non surgical options.

Please can anyone help with info/advice? I'd really like to fix her.
 
oh, thanks, that was quick!!!
I've really taken to her and I'm in bits!!

She's 5 and largly connemara we think, though I can't prove any thing.
About 15hh not particularly long through the body.
Front end seems ok and one side is worse than the other at the back, this doesn't fully fit wobblers, but the tail test, and lack of rear spatial awareness is all there. She can walk backwards after a fashion so may not be too bad/beyond hope.
 
thanks
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Hi ya,

I've had a yearling with wobblers - please PM me....

It is more usual to see wobblers in fast growing TB colts in all honesty.....But firstly you absolutely need an experienced equine vet to take a look - IF the vet suspects wobblers they may want to X ray the spinal channel BUT I wouldnt be so quick to jump to conclusions. In all honesty the lady who did the McTimoney shouldnt have said that to you!! Not much is known about Wobblers in general....

IF it is - it depends on the severity of the case.


Dont panic just yet......

Best wishes

Jo
 
Can people put the results they have had with wobblers on the forum rather than PM'ing


cos I'm nosy and want to know.

I hope your mare is ok Cai (((Hugs)))
 
There is surgery that can hlep some wobblers however it is huge surgery and very expensive and it is unlikely you will get insurance at this stage. The prognosis for wobblers having much of a useful life is poor although if they are low grade they can remain paddock sound for a reasonable legnth of time if this is an option.

The best advice I can give is to get the vey to examine the mare and xray her neck and take it from there.

Good luck!
 
Thanks.
Congrats on wedding!!

Will get the vet, really not trying to be tight just waiting for regular surgery hours rather than sunday!!
Only way i could afford surgery is if i do a sponsored everything, rides, horsey carboots, especially if get my riding club on board.

I am trying to find ways round this should it be the worst senario, but the advice comin in i'm startin to think 50/50, there may be hope afterall!!!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Will get the vet, really not trying to be tight just waiting for regular surgery hours rather than sunday!!

[/ QUOTE ]

It isnt an emergency. The vet wont thank you. I would be the same!
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Good luck.
 
So sorry to hear this and how distraught you are. Did you know that concussion can cause exactly the same symptoms as Wobblers? My mare was concussed, but before we knew this she was referred to Bristol for a week for all the tests and radiography. They felt it wasnt Wobblers, but couldnt rule it out ... there is so little known about it and the effects can be hugely different from one horse to the next.

Massive vibes coming to your little mare and please let us know how you get on with the vet.

Hx
 
sorry to be dense but do you mean concussion of the brain or a concussion injury to foot/joint? I'm guessing you mean a bump to the head. She does have some muscle wastage on 1 side tho.

Thanks so much tho. every1 seems really supportive on here!!
xx
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Wobblers is a neurological condition. No amount of dope could disguise it. Wobblers is the spinal cord being interfered with by bone. Like someone stepping on a hosepipe and interrupting the flow. Messages from the brain simply don't get to the feet. It is a progressive and degenerative condition. However the horse could have a low level condition for years before going down hill. Trouble is you don't want to find out the horse has gone downhill the day it falls over and crushes you. Hence, riding a wobbler is unsafe.

There is no pain involved and the horse will have no idea that anythig has happend to it because the condition comes on slowly. It can be caused by incorrect feeding as a youngster but there is also a genetic factor. Hence, it would be an act of insanity to breed from a wobbler.

Wobblers has been found in all breeds of horse and pony except fallabella. You would be extreemely unlucky to find it in a horse such as yours.

Lots of things can look like wobblers. A horse with lack of coordination and general back end weakness is statisticly far more likely to have a digestive myopathy in the EPSM spectrum. This might be worth looking up... give it a google. It is far more common than wobblers, and in most cases it is fixable with diet and exercise therapy.

I had a horse who was a low level wobbler and he lived for years as a field ornament with no problems. It cost about 2k for radiographs etc to establish what his problem was. I never contemplated surgery because the chances of sucess are so low.
 
As Yorkshire lass has already said, Wobblers (or Ataxia) as it is also known is a neurological condition. Vets grade it on severeness after a full assessment which includes scans etc so it is not something that anyone other than a vet should diagnose.
The neural pathways become interrupted whether caused by a congenital narrowing of the vetebrae which impinges on the spinal chord, or from a trauma such as a fall where bones or the bursa surrounding a joint is damaged or broken.
I've seen some horses with Ataxia and depending on how severe it is & the rehab exercise followed, some can make a very good recovery. Wait to see what the vet says.
 
I don't think you could disguise wobbler syndrome to be honest, it's far more likely she was perhaps injured en route to the sale and the effects are showing now.
If she can walk backwards that's a good sign.
It isn't really wise to buy anything that looks as if it already has a bad back tho I must say...but many of us have bought speculative horses at times !
If you don't want to spend a fortune Tex Gamble is worth a call, he has a good eye for problems with backs and has fixed several for us over the years.
 
Wobblers can improve the TB stallion Anabaa was given away as a yearling to become a teaser on a stud farm in France but went on to win group 1 races and sire the winner of the French Derby Anabaa Blue.
 
Hi, Sorry to hear this.

I bought a foal and as a yearling it was very unbalanced. Simply things like picking up his feet ect. I had his half sister exactly the same age and they were so different. He was a very well bred event horse. As it went on i got the vet to just have a look. He then told me about Wobblers it was in a matter of weeks that he took a turn for the worse and we had to have him put down. Like someone said on her don't wait untill they come down on you!!! We tried every avenue on getting him right but got told in the long run you'll never get them right. I must say though my horse was bad.

Better to get a very good vet to check your horse over.
 
What is the treatment for wobblers? Financially how much would it set you back?

I'm thinking of adopting a horse with wobblers but I know very little of the disease and I am not rolling in money so although my heart tells me to take him and look after him...my husband says think about it!

If anyone can help me please do!
 
Just to give you a bit of encouragment, the TB stallion Shamardal was a confirmed wobbler and was actually an insurance right off from what I understand. Under normal circumstances he would have been put down but he was gifted to a guy in the US who was doing some preliminary rehabilitation for wobblers with some success. The horse was successfully rehabilitated, went on to win multiple group 1 races and over a million bucks prize money. He now stands for €20,000 in Ireland.

This horse had compression of the spinal cord seen on x-ray but when he was re-xrayed after rehabilitation all was normal. As some others on here have said, very little is known about wobblers and so many get euthanased before anything else is attempted so it may be with some horses, rest and re-cooperation could reverse the condition. Therefore there could be light at the end of the tunnel even if your horse does turn out to be a wobbler, however for obvious reasons great care should be taken with any horses suspected of being a wobbler.
 
My 5 year old connie was pts in January after a wobblers diagnosis, he had become so bad he was losing his backend and couldn't walk in a straight line.

He was in the vet school several times and had numerous tests to confirm the syndrome. He was put on a course of steroids for a month and then regraded, he regraded the same and I had to make the heartbreaking decision to have him PTS.
 
Dear Cai,

I've had a horse with Wobblers, a 16.3hh beautiful Hannoverian. He is now living a happy retirement, so Wobblers is not neccessarily a death sentence, but in most cases does mean you cannot ride them again (more for the safety of the rider than the horse). The only real positive is that it is not a painful syndrome for the horse, though they do become more unsteady on their feet as time goes by.

It's a neurological symptom, resulting from compression of certain vertabrae - this can be for many resons, injury, osteochondritis, virus's inflaming the spinal cord and so on. This results in damage to the spinal chord thus interupting the signals being sent to and from the brain to the hind legs.

Please look at this site for really excellent up to date info on the syndrome and other equine health issues:

http://www.thehorse.com/

The leading expert in this country is at the Royal Veterinary College - There or a similar institution, is where your horse will be sent for diagnosis if your vet suspects there is a neurological issue.

Please do let me know if you have any specific questions, I have researched Wobblers extensively. But the most important thing is to involve your vet as soon as possible.
 
My friends welsh pony gave birth to wobbler sorry no good news he was destroyed but that was a long time ago so things might have improved
 
my horse is very stiff and sore in neck/shoulders/withers when getting up from lying down...do you think mine may have wobblers? x
 
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