Your experience of horses with atrial fibrillation

nikCscott

nikCscott

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Had sold my WB (subject to vet) and vet diagnosed atrial fibrillation.:(

Vet said today that he may have lived with it a long time (he's 8yo) and his body has probably adapted to accommodate it. He is currently very fit and hunting and did a team chase a few weeks ago and is alway full of running at the end. The vet said he could continue to do so for a long time.

It was a complete shock- in 2 years he's never had the vet out (apart from jabs) and i've not seen any signs of any issue. I feel like I have been kicked in the guts and worried that the high impact activities we have been doing may have put him in danger.

I will get a second opinion for my own vet and discuss the future with him.

He is no longer and will never be for sale again- I know him better than anyone and know I will see the signs quickly should they show themselves, so he can grow old with me. I will probably only SJ, dressage, hack and maybe fun ride him from now on though.

I have an irregular heart beat which doesn't effect me at all so we can grow old with our Dicky Tickers!

Would be interested to here other experiences...
 
Had exactly the same thing happen: sold a very fancy dressage stallion to Germany (ha!) that came up with a murmur on vetting as a 9 year old doing PSG - he competed for another 8 years at Small Tour with nary a problem (as vet had predicted) and died of something entirely different. Horse was absolutely fine all his life (I bred him), but I had to take a substantial amount off the asking price and he was not insurable with the condition. I was advised not to wrap him in cotton wool and treat him as pretty much a normal horse. Might make more of a difference to the horse if it was doing more fast work/endurance type stuff, 'tho?
 
A murmur and AF are very different. My horse had a murmur that didn't affect him, but I got a free check up from Lesley Young (the top equine cardiologist) each year as she used him in a BEVA cardiology course to train other vets each summer. So we had a monitor strapped to us as we went down the gallops at the British racing school and horse went into AF. Physically he seemed to drop back a little as though he was getting tired, but we had just galloped over a mile so I didn't worry and carried on til the end. Only when I pulled up did Lesley say he was in AF. He reverted to sinus rhythm within 24hrs, but I was advised not to ride him. He was PTS soon after as was at much greater risk of sudden death by heart attack and couldn't face racing down to the field each day to see if he was still alive. Literally heart breaking, he was my horse of a life time
 
We bought a 7 year old Czech Warmblood a number of years ago. He was 5 stage vetted and seemed fine until about six months after purchase. We were referred to Newmarket where he underwent tests which showed atrial fibrillation. The vet there was surprised how bad it was in such a young horse and advised euthanasia.

We had a bit of a tussle with the insurers who said it must have been pre-existing but later tests showed that the progress of the disorder was so rapid it had come on in the six months we owned him. Sadly he was then PTS as nothing could be done for him.
 
I have only ever seen 1 case in person, it was in a riding club horse that suddenly became exercise intolerant to any exercise. He was treated with quinidine sulphate via stomach tube every 2hrs for 6hrs. After this period he hadnt returned to nsr to was treated with a second course. Unfortunately he suddenly died while we were treating him. This is a rare side effect more common in horses that have more than 1 dose.

The only other case I have heard about was Denman, he was treated with Quinidine and was successfull and returned to racing.

This is a very good article on AF ( hope it works )

www.provet.co.uk/equinecardiology/5a679c2.htm

The prognosis and treatment all depend on the severity of the condition, but I wish you all the best. The horse's owner was made aware that there was a risk her horse could die during treatment ( quinidine sulphate is toxic ) but said that she wouldnt have changed her decision to have him treated.

I hope this helps.
 
My horse was diagnosed with AF in July last year. After a visit from Lesley Young I could either retire him or attempt treatment. He could barely manage a trot without running out of energy. He went to my local vet for quinidine treatment, which didnt work (in fact we nearly lost him). We were then lucky to be given the option for electrical cardioversion at Newmarket - basically involved putting him to sleep and shocking his heart to correct rhythm. Thankfully it worked, and he has been free from AF since. He is now back in work I thank my lucky stars for every additional day we have together!

I hope it all works out for you.
 
Thank you for your responses- I think :confused: ;)

I'm going to get my own vet in for a second opinion.

Will he not be covered through Lose of Use then? I'm not all about the money but lets face it insurer like to take the money so if theres a chance of funding a replacement (youngster to bring on whilst i wind my boy down) I'll take it.

FYI i'm with NFU
 
I lost my horse due to this, drugs helped for a while but he then had secondary liver failure and just dropped down dead in his field one day!
It was terrible, took me a long time to get over it and I always wished I had pts when first diagnosed!
 
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