Wobblers syndrome... to stop me scaring myself by googling........

B

Bounty

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 February 2006
Messages
4,231
Location
Gloucestershire
www.freewebs.com
Boozle has suspected wobblers.

I know the eventual outcome of wobblers (
frown.gif
frown.gif
frown.gif
), but what, if anything, can be done in the mean time to alleviate/slow the worsening of symptoms?

crazy.gif
crazy.gif
crazy.gif
frown.gif
 
Oh no. Really sorry to hear that (((hugs))) You have my sympathy. A friend of mine's horse in the USA was diagnosed with this (they call it CVM over there) and he went on to have an operation fusing the vertebrae in his back. I think he had this in June, and by August the improvement was good but not great. He will not be able to be ridden ever (he's 4) but it does mean that Jen can keep him as a "pasture ornament".

I believe she also manages his diet but I'm not sure how - I can email her and ask if you like?

Sorry if that wasn't what you wanted to hear, the vet gave him a 50/50 chance of recovering...
frown.gif
But all horses are different and you never know...
 
Can I be nosey & ask what they think has caused it?

I don't know if this is of comfort as such but this is my experience

My old horse had wobblers as a result of breaking his withers. He continued as normal for a couple years after breaking them (he wasn't competing though coz I was at uni). Then when I started to do more schooling work with him after uni it became apparent that he had no control over his back legs. He would stumble & not be able to stop himself from tripping. Then once he fell & nearly landed on me. The vet got me to trot him up & pulled on his tail. He wasn't capable of preventing his quarters from swinging. Obviously he had to be retired & he lived about another 18 months before i had to have him PTS for my & my other horse's safety, and his comfort.

Hopefully your horse isn't as severe & I believe they can do some things (like fusing vertebrae) to try to resolve it these days. I was unlucky as it was a result of his broken withers & not detected early.

I'm sorry if I haven't consoled you. Fingers crossed he's OK
smile.gif
 
So sorry to hear about Boo. Have no experience of this whatsoever. Are the vets carrying out further tests? Have they said anything about diet etc which I think helps?

Poor Boo. Hope she was ok for the nerve blocks.
 
QR. Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply.
I am trying not to get too deflated at the moment, but it doesn't look good. She is booked for a full body scintigraphy scan in 2-3 weeks (waiting list) and is on a bute trial in the mean time as it can't do any harm in trying to rule out other problems aside for the neurological aspect.

Todays examination... standard walk/trot up, then had her back up and spun her on a tight circles in both direction. She really did not want to go backwards and had trouble sussing out her hinds on such a tight circle.
Then we did the 'sway test' where he pulled her tail to each side as she walked. He told me it wasn't conclusive either way, but I know full well what a horse is meant to do in a sway test and she really wasn't doing it
frown.gif
Blindfolded her, spun her each way and backed up again. Not too much worse than before.
Tried flexions - each time either limb was brought up into full flexion she would 'crumple' and collapse
crazy.gif
Physio was here too, she was excellent. She manipulated Boo's neck a fair bit and said there was a restricted range of lateral movement in the cervical vertebrae and discomfort.

It all fits; she is malco-ordinated and i can't remember the last time she walked over a pole without smacking it. I did alot of work with her when she was in full work to try and improve her proprioception, but it didn't help at all.


Henry - if you could email your friend for me that would be great, but not if it is too much trouble, I don't want to put you out.

Abbey - Not sure what has caused it. It could be trauma (I don't know her detailed history since before I owned her, other than she was a badly behaved 2yo racehorse!) and it could be partly the fact that she was a racehorse... sometimes youngsters that are highly fed and encouraged to grow at warp speed can get it apparently. Certainly she hasn't had any trauma or overnutrition since being here anyway. She hasn't been right for 18months/2years now but I have been repeatedly told by various vets that it is schooling issues, behavioral issues, management issues, muscular issues... you name it! I am upset that it has taken s olong and for her to get into this state for me to be able to get anyone to listen
mad.gif
Sorry to hear about your lad
frown.gif


CBAnglo - Thankfully we avoided nerve blocks! Scintigraphy is allowing us to forgoe them as well, yippee!
grin.gif
I think the prescribed diet is high fibre and fat; she is on high fibre already but isn't on the fat bit as she is watching her waistline
wink.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, what is Wobblers Syndrome???

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a degenerative neurological issue - where the spinal cord is being compressed by the vertebrae at some point. It stops the horse being able to get messages from it's brain to its hindlimbs, resulting in malco-ordination, tripping, falling etc.
Not good news!
frown.gif
 
It is when there is a problem in the horse's spinal cord usually a compression, which cause it to not have proper control of it's body - hence the 'wobbling'. It can be inherited, caused by injury or poor nutrition.
I haven't had any experience personally but when we did it at Uni they told us there are a variety of treatments. Drugs that act on the nerves, operations as Henry described and diet. I think the options are dependent on the cause and severity of the condition. I think they said about half of the horses recover if treated but I don't know whether that means they can be worked or are just symptom free.
 
Poor old thing. She hasnt had an easy time of it.

Yes, I was told it was a schooling issue as well for months. Turned out to be KS. When the rehab didnt seem to be going quite to plan, it turned out to be a schooling issue as well (regardless of the fact that he was perfectly fine for 2 years beforehand). You rapidly lose faith in vets ...
 
ajn - 50% success rate from surgery, but she might not be a candidate for that anyway, depending on the location and severity. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't put her through such a massive op with such a low success rate anyway. I don't know the %'s for the more conservative treatments, though I will find out.

CBAnglo - this vet is fantabulous, so will be sticking with him. He has all my faith and trust, so I hope to god he doesn't blow it.
 
Just a thought - my ex racer has a variant of wobblers - he has arthritis in his neck which squeezes the nerves to his hind legs making him uncoordinated and lame.

He has improved immensely since diagnosis because he is now always worked in an outline and I've spent alot of time building his topline. Flexing his neck releases the pressure on the nerves and he is rarely lame while on an outline. He had cortizone injections initially to help him get moving.

If her neck shows pain, is there a hope this might work for her too?
 
Part of the reason for the investigation (amongst 100 other symptoms) is that she cannot/willnot flex through the jaw... or at least she will,but very quickly becomes anxious and fidgety and scared of the contact.

Perhaps cortizone injections would help get her past that though....

Thank you SO much for posting that, I really hope I can investigate the same route for Boozle
smile.gif
smile.gif
smile.gif


Am not going to enjoy the 2/3 weeks of not knowing though!
crazy.gif
 
Is wobblers more a common problem with TB racehorses? I was always under the impression it was and I guess that may be partly due to the overnutrition and development early on with TBs in the racing industry.

I think try all you can, explore different treatments cos I think wobblers can vary in severity and some horses can live pretty happily although cannot be ridden so I guess it depends on your circumstances.

Wish you the best of luck.
 
More common in geldings than mares, more common in horses with long necks, more common in warmbloods, and quarter horses. Mine had late onset wobblers and was ten when he suffered trauma to his neck falling over in the field which brought on the wobblers. He was put down at Liverpool uni hospital as he was too far advanced for an operation.
 
Sorry about long reply - I had a horse put down with late onset wobblers at the age of ten. This was four years ago. Rommy was a belgian warmblood with a little TB in him. Wobblers is more common in male horses, warmbloods and quarter horses and horses that typicaly have a long necked confirmation. It can come on early in horses, ie yearlings but it can also be caused by trauma as it was with my horse who fell on his neck in the field. He started having problems with his hind fetlocks rubbing together and I thought it was a tilted pelvis so got the chiro out twice but this did not remedy the situation so the farrier raised the inside of his hind feet to help eliviate the problem. Then in canter he developed a very strange gait where he would concertina his body and it felt like a very strong disunited canter (but it wasn't). It threw you violently out of the saddle - this came on over a period of a few months. When you halted him and reined back and cantered again he would be fine (we now know this 'unlocked' his neck. He was always a very strong ride and had to be led everywher in a chifney as he was so strong (we now know this was related to his neck pain prior to his accident). One day I hacked him out and had to reverse out of a barn and he felt like he was drunk. We went up the lane and he was weaving all over the place so I led him back and called out the vet. Despite the vets inital response saying he thought it was wobblers he changed his mind and thought the horse had EHV (equine herpes virus). However as a safety precaution he was xrayed by portable xray mc at the stable and I was told the xrays were fine. However we know to our cost that they were not fine at all (the mc was not powerful enuf to penetrate the neck muscle to see a clear picture of the spinal column). He was put on bute and finadyne and had a tail sway test which came up positive but a wobblers diagnosis was still not confirmed. He was tested for EHV which came back positive (33% of the horses in the country are carriers but not all go on to develop the illness). I was convinced it was wobblers having read up about it on the internet but again the vets said it was EHV. He had three further attacks over the course of the next couple of weeks and I insisted on a referral to the Philip Leverhulme Clinic at Liverpool Equine Hospital. He was there two hours and underwent numerous xrays on his spinal column and gait analysis and I was given the news that he would not only never be ridden again but he was considered to dangerous to be a field ornament as he was so likely to fall on someone as he was so ataxic. We decided there and then to end his suffering and he was sadly put down there and then. This was in June 2004 but in April 2004 he was competing BSJA and getting clear rounds. Although the intial symptoms came on slowly and he was not in pain the traumatic injury he suffered in the field excelerated the disease. He had four vertebrae effected so an operation (bagby basket) was out of the question. It is important for me to stress that right until the end the pain suffered by my horse was neglible but when a horse is a flight animal and relies on its bodily functions and muscles being able to react as a life or death situation (as horses see things) it must have been distressing for him. Thats why we had him refferred to get a definitive answer which made the decision so much easier at the end of the day. Rommy would have good days - sometimes weeks where he would be fine, out in the field with his friends, doing a one day event, showjumping, dressage, the works. Then other days he would have a 'wobbly episode' and the vet would come out to reassess. I told the hospital if they wanted to keep his neck bones to help students (liverpool is a teaching hospital) then they were welcome. If it helps people learn and understand about wobblers then Rommys life death has been worth while.

You will find the link below very useful.

http://www.equiworld.net/uk/horsecare/erc/wobbler.htm

RIP Rommy - I will always love you and miss you, my beautiful black beauty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top