Wobblers -tell me all

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BTR

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Hi all,

My 4yr old gelding has just been seen by my vet, he's X-rayed him and he's pretty sure he's got wobblers (X-rays have been sent for a second opinion).

I'm absolutely devastated as I lost my previous 4 yr old this time last year to a clostridium infection.

Vet did say they could operate but he wouldn't recommend as not a huge success rate sadly.

Does anyone have a horse that lives relatively comfortably with this condition or am I just clutching at straws?!?

Thanks for any help
Becky
 
Hi,

No experience at all, but just want to say how sorry I am for you, really unfair and upsetting, and I hope that you find someway to make your baby better x
 
Thanks for your kind comments.

I've pretty sure I know what the outcome is going to be for my wee man but just can't think about it.

Becky xx
 
I don't have a happy tale, sorry. I lost a 3yr old years ago to this, he went downhill quite rapidly in a few weeks, from stumbling in the field to completely collapsing. I was in the middle of researching all options when he got quite bad and fell and managed to get under a fence, I called the vet out and had him pts then, he just looked so scared and confused about what was happening and my vet had said anything was going to be a long shot.

But, with hindsight, I wish I had given him more time and researched as best as I could, I have no idea if I could have kept him going longer as he was a massive 17.2 beast but I will always wonder a bit...

So sorry you have to deal with this, horrible thing to go through and to see in a beloved animal
 
I am so sorry that you appear to have a wobblers diagnosis for your horse.

Sadly I do not have a happy ending for you either :(

I had my horse pts August 2011 after being diagnosed with grade 2-3 wobblers. This was after a couple of horrific leg injuries caused by his lack of being able to sort his back legs out.

You can't ride a horse that has this diagnosis, you can't insure for anything to do with wobblers or an injury as a result of wobblers (once diagnosed).

There are several threads on here to do with wobblers - some of which I have contributed to. If you do a search you should come across many personal accounts of this awful condition.

I am sorry that in my experience I can not offer you anything positive.
 
None of my previous experiences have been good, so wasn't expecting miracles :-(

This had come on quickly since Monday, his back end is completely crock to the front end, he's also slightly wobbly on a front leg too.

At the moment he's out in the field (vets advise and he box walks in) but hoping whatever happens, happens soon.

It's very distressing watching your lovely horse wobble round the field :-(
 
Sorry, I lost mine to it with a sudden onset at ten years old this spring.

His xrays showed that he was born with it, but he seemed to be fine until one day he was suddenly partly paralysed.

I am so sorry, especially after losing a four year old last year. What terrible luck.
 
Rommy was a ten year old gelding, (more common in young fast growing WB and Quarter horses/shires and TB's) and in those horse with long necks, and more common in geldings also. I had owned him for 2.5 years and he was a lovely showjumper and we'd won quite a bit of money BSJA together.

Rommy had a fall in the field which hurt his neck and the vet came as he was ataxic (wobbly on his legs) and the vet said it was wobblers to start with but then changed his mind. Then another vet took over who wanted to write a thesus about what she thought my horse had - EHV (equiine herpes virus) when in fact he did not have this. This delayed any treatment that might have been beneficial to him as she spent many weeks going down this route and ordering blood tests. The chiro came out twice as Rommy kept knocking his hind fetlocks together but on both ocassions said he did not have wobblers when it was very obvious that he did. THe vet also did xrays on a portable xray machine that she bought to the yard and said his xrays were fine but the machine was not strong enough to penetrate the muscles in the neck hence the false reading.

Finally upon my insistence he was referred to an Equine Hospital (Phillip Leverhulme at Liverpool) and he had comprehensive xrays and a neuro examination. Within two hours of arriving he was pts as they couldn't do anything for him, as he was too compromised in the neck, C3, C4 and C6.

His was late onset wobblers, probably more accurately called CVM (cervical vetebral malfunciton) due to the fall he has on his neck in the field.

The operation is to fit a metal 'basket' in the neck called a bagby basket which stabilises the vetebrae. http://www.equine-equilibrium.com/ARTICLE.BasketCasePDF.pdf

Here is a fabby link which explains about wobblers by someone who is fab (Antonio Cruz) and who emailed me when I wrote to him after my horses death. http://www.meadowherbs.com/Info Center PDFs/Wooblers_EPM.pdf

Even in the middle to latter stages (before we knew what was wrong with him and obviously before he was wrongly diagnosed with EHV) he was jumping double clear discoverys one day and then totally uncordinated the next. On his good days you would never know there was a problem, on his bad days his canter used to throw you up out of the saddle with huge force and he would just look 'strange'. By then he was only Grade 1, the day he was put down he was Grade 3 to 4.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well after all that it turns out its not wobbler syndrome!!

Second opinion has confirmed he's fractured c2 vertebra, which links with the hind end being wobbly.

We're still not sure what his outcome will be but he's on box rest now with lots of anti-inflamatories and antibiotics too.

X-ray again in 10days and see if its stabilised.

So any ideas on fractured necks??

Thanks for all your help xx
 
BTR said:
Well after all that it turns out its not wobbler syndrome!!

Second opinion has confirmed he's fractured c2 vertebra, which links with the hind end being wobbly.

We're still not sure what his outcome will be but he's on box rest now with lots of anti-inflamatories and antibiotics too.

X-ray again in 10days and see if its stabilised.

So any ideas on fractured necks??

Thanks for all your help xx
Click to expand...

My horse was stabilised prior to transport to Liverpool with finadyne. Apparently it can make a lot of difference if given early. A lot of nerve damage may have been caused by the fractured vertebra, maybe a physio or chiro in conjunction with your vet to free up the muscles around the neck would be the answer but I would have thought this wouldn't be for quite a while until the swelling has gone down and the injury isn't it the acute stage.
 
If a physio agreed to touch a horse with an unstable neck fracture they should be struck off.
Hope pony heals- are vets hopeful? Its obviously affected some nerves already and its a high up fracture to have.
 
Don't worry physio won't come near him.

He's now walking as normal although showing a little bit of drag through his left hind. He's eating, moving his neck as normal showing no obvious signs of pain.

Although not brilliant on box rest, Sedalin at the moment Is my friend!

The vet is hopeful that if we can stabilise the vertebra he may come back into ridden work, not getting my hopes up until the next X-ray on 20th.

Becky xx
 
two of my horses came down with ataxia in March, totally unrelated incidents. both have improved hugely. both had high dosage courses (a few) of steroids, Prednidale (predisnolone).
Ellie's was sudden-onset, 100% definitely NO trauma at all (she'd been under supervision on horsebox tv monitor for previous hour, and had loaded perfectly fine). utterly bizarre. blood tests etc all negative.
this vid is Ellie just after getting her home, about an hour from initial onset (coincided with arrythmia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7SrSwBOXXc&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=12&feature=plcp
this is 10 days later, first time turned out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEHU5U_-6ps&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=10&feature=plcp
this is another 10 days on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXWcnHlqTpM&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=9&feature=plcp
she's improved hugely in the interim months, now moves 99% normaly. I plan on getting on her later and seeing how she feels, have ridden her briefly at walk here and there during her recovery to see how she feels from on top (sometimes dramatically different to how she looked).

My yearling Jinni, who slipped over sideways from a full-height rear while pratting around in the field and knocked herself out cold (for about 50 mins) and gave herself whiplash and subsequent ataxia, is also improving a lot. Her recovery is complicated by her growing (whether it will affect her spinal cord or not, and there might be damage at C6/C7, the x-rays aren't 100% clear though) but she's much better than she was and I don't despair.
Hope that helps a little, happy to explain more if you like.
Edited, sorry, re-read your last post. Very best of luck with him. I knew an Intermediate eventer who fractured his neck in a xc fall years ago and improved somewhat but I don't think he ever competed again.
 
kerilli said:
two of my horses came down with ataxia in March, totally unrelated incidents. both have improved hugely. both had high dosage courses (a few) of steroids, Prednidale (predisnolone).
Ellie's was sudden-onset, 100% definitely NO trauma at all (she'd been under supervision on horsebox tv monitor for previous hour, and had loaded perfectly fine). utterly bizarre. blood tests etc all negative.
this vid is Ellie just after getting her home, about an hour from initial onset (coincided with arrythmia) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7SrSwBOXXc&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=12&feature=plcp
this is 10 days later, first time turned out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEHU5U_-6ps&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=10&feature=plcp
this is another 10 days on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXWcnHlqTpM&list=UUcmiEj3iErZ2_d7O9FB6RIA&index=9&feature=plcp
she's improved hugely in the interim months, now moves 99% normaly. I plan on getting on her later and seeing how she feels, have ridden her briefly at walk here and there during her recovery to see how she feels from on top (sometimes dramatically different to how she looked).

My yearling Jinni, who slipped over sideways from a full-height rear while pratting around in the field and knocked herself out cold (for about 50 mins) and gave herself whiplash and subsequent ataxia, is also improving a lot. Her recovery is complicated by her growing (whether it will affect her spinal cord or not, and there might be damage at C6/C7, the x-rays aren't 100% clear though) but she's much better than she was and I don't despair.
Hope that helps a little, happy to explain more if you like.
Edited, sorry, re-read your last post. Very best of luck with him. I knew an Intermediate eventer who fractured his neck in a xc fall years ago and improved somewhat but I don't think he ever competed again.
Click to expand...

it depends on the age of the horse and the degree of ataxia and what neck bones are involved. In my horses case there was a narrowing where the cord passed through, from 51mm to 17mm. Obviously this is a huge defecit and one that would never have a sucessful outcome. Also my horse had C6 involved, I understand this is much more serious especially in an older hose.
 
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