Wobblers Syndrome?

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Samantha008

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I think my horse has wobblers, shes not been diagnosed yet but im pretty sure. Its degenerative, she wont back up, her legs are all over the place and im at a complete loss. When symptoms are this obvious, what action would you take next? Does anyone have any experience or advice?

Thanks.
 
Samantha008 said:
I think my horse has wobblers, shes not been diagnosed yet but im pretty sure. Its degenerative, she wont back up, her legs are all over the place and im at a complete loss. When symptoms are this obvious, what action would you take next? Does anyone have any experience or advice?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_wobbler.htm

http://www.learningabouthorses.com/savvy/wobblers.html
Wobblers put simply is interference with the spinal cord and associated nerves due to malfunction of the veterbrae or compression, either caused by excess bone or due to an injury. Some horses can be operated on depending on the extent of their problem, and a basket which is called a Bagby Basket can be inserted into the vetebrae to help stablise them. Other horses are not so fortunate and can not only never be ridden again, but are also to 'dangerous' to keep alive as they are so unpredictable with their co-ordination that they could fall on someone, or could fall in the field and have terrible trouble being able to rise again which is called recumbency.

I lost a ten year old 17hh warmblood with Wobblers. He developed the condition after suffering from trauma to his neck after rearing over backwards and landing on the neck. The symtoms came on slowly at first, and he started rubbing his back fetlocks together, then he had a 'strange' canter gait which developed suddenly, and he went on to suffer from ataxic episodes (ataxia). There are a number of neurological tests you can do to test your horse, but the most common are as follows:

Do these tests on a soft surface with a hat on. Turn your horse in a tight circle - does its hind outside leg swing out (compare with another horse)? This is due to the horse not understanding the placement of its limbs due to its condition.

Is the horse able to carry out a straightforwards walk unpeded whilst a helper tries to pull the horse of its feet by standing at a right angle to his bum and pulling on its tail? The horse should move towards you once, but then it will be able to maintain in forward course, wheras a wobblers horse you can quite literally pull over of its feet. (Again test with an unaffected horse too to get a comparision). Does she back up properly or does it do a little hop? Any doubt get the vet out.

Wobbles is not thought to be hereditary, there is no proof of that, but it is more common in WB's, TB's and some breeds of American horses - very prevalent in Quarter Horses. Gelding are more effected than mares, and horses with long necks are particularly predisposed to the condition. You can get late set wobblers (caused by trauma) or early wobblers which is what yearlings/two year olds appear to display. The website link will give you more help. Dr Cruz was very helpful when I emailed him.

Please, please, please I must impress upon you the value of having your horse taken to a large facilities where they have a very large xray machine, a vets portable x ray machine that they take to your yard with them will NOT be sufficient to penetrate the neck muscles of the horse. I was told by my vet at the time that my beautiful Rommy did not have Wobblers on the basis of the xray results. I was told instead he had EHV (Equine Herpes Virus) which also causes ataxia. Upon my eventual insistence that my horse did not have this (I am not a vet but researched hugely on the internet) they agreed for him to attend Philip Leverhulme (Liverpool Hosp) and his condition was stabilised with finadyne until he was strong enough to travel. Within two hours of arriving at Liverpool and being diagnosed he was put down as his condition was inoperable and he was very dangerous as he was so ataxic (uncordinated). His vetebrae were C3, C4 and C6 from what I can remember. The picture people have of wobblers is that horses are 'funny' and amusing because they walk drunkenly. My horse was the most placid lovely horse you could wish for and I had to have him put down, there was nothing funny in that. A month before he was put down we were jumping double clears in Discovery BSJA.

Please PM me if you require further info. I am always happy to discuss Rommy's case in more detail if you are struggling but my advise is if you believe your horse has this condition ask the vet to be referred for comprehensive xrays and DO NOT use a portable xray machine as they are very unreliable or at least were in 2004. Good luck

RIP Rommy - you are missed each and every day. x
 
Lexi has a long neck but she can move this around and touch her hq with it. Im so sorry to hear about Rommy and i understand the pain cos i just cant bear the thought of having her pts. I do hope to god that its not wobblers.

Thankyou for such a lenghty reply
 
Not much to add to a14's response, only to say that my friend lost her 6 year old dressage prospect to Wobblers earlier this year which was dreadfully sad. I hope that your horse is treatable.

Her experience was slightly different in that she wasn't able to pinpoint any traumatic incident that could have triggered it. His initial symptoms were mainly tripping behind and he always seemed gangly and ill coordinated and wasn't able to make 'normal' progress with his training. I found her on the yard doing the tests mentioned above and some others. He was still safe to ride and handle at that point but was never going to have any kind of future so she had him put down on diagnosis at an equine clinic.

Fingers crossed for you.
 
I lost a 3yr old gelding to wobblers 5 years ago, he started off with mild symptoms, staggering, lying down a lot, struggling when getting up, he ended up collasping under a fence and was all over the place - it was getting dangerous to lead him or be too close. It all happened over a period of a few weeks and to be honest the decision was made for me to pts as he was so confused by what was happening.

I did look into surgery but ran out of time, we tried anti inflammatory drugs but they made little difference.

We found out later that while being born, a farmer had 'helped' pull him out and I wonder if this caused damage to his spine - we'll never know.

It is a horrible condition and I truly hope your horse doesn't have it, look into every option you have before making any decisions, below are few articles, I emailed one vet in US for advice, can't remember who but worth speaking to as many people as possible.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_wobbler.htm

http://www.equinewobblers.com/

http://www.equinewobblers.com/Surgery/Surgery.htm
 
Samantha008 said:
Lexi has a long neck but she can move this around and touch her hq with it. Im so sorry to hear about Rommy and i understand the pain cos i just cant bear the thought of having her pts. I do hope to god that its not wobblers.

Thankyou for such a lenghty reply
Click to expand...


I think you are a bit confused????? Having a long neck and being able to touch her hind quarters with it has got nothing to do with it at all. Horses that have long neck are more prevalent to having neck/spinal problems as there is more chance (presumably) of a weakness and therefore changes in the bones of the neck (arthritis). Its like tall people often have back problems. Rommy was able to touch his hind quarters with his neck, but it was the arthritis in his neck which was caused due to him rearing and falling on his neck which started the ball rolling and caused the CVM or wobblers.
 
Samantha - how old is your horse?

I have an 11yr old 15hh TB mare. She was diagnosed with wobblers as a 4yr old. I took her to the Royal vet college in Potters bar and they were excellent. They did all the in hand test, x-rays and myleogram (where they inject dye along the spinal canal so that on an x-ray you can see exactly where and how much the vertebre are pressing on the spinal cord).
My mare was graded a 2.5 out of 4 behind and 2 out of 4 infront. I retired her straight away. She did have a foal when she was 6yrs old and he is now 5. I took him for tests at the vet college when he was 9 months and again at 3yrs as i wanted to know for sure he was not developing it. He wasn't & hasn't, he is 100% clear of it and is very well, fit and healthy!
Its not a degenerative disease.
Because they have it they may have a fall/accident etc that causes it to get worse. But then again they may not. My mare is exactly the same as she was 7 years ago! (She's lived out 24x7 for the last 5 years and loves it).

You really need decent xrays before you make any desicions.
If your horse is young there is a possibility of improving it through diet.
Surgery can also be a possible good option too.

Fingers crossed for you too x
 
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