Re: [RC] Cramping/typing up question - Jeannie Gillen
Have had similar experiences with one mare....it seems that after they have
ever tied up....they are more prone, under any circumstance....usually
undetectable. Knowing this mare, we avoid things that might cause her stress but
like your horse, she is a trooper, and can handle most anything so we don't have
to avoid much. Even under this consideration, she will occasionally do
exactly what your horse did..... get tight in the hindquarters...once I thought
she was going to fall down coming home on trail at a walk...we were then within
200 feet of the barn, but it was scary. We can usually massage it out, but
if she goes down, we give her banamine and rest....like your horse, she is fine
the next day, and we may never know what caused it.
Massage and stretching seems to help...if this horse walks toooooo much and
doesn't get to extend, she is likely to have an "event"....If she eats alfalfa
more than
"on occasion"...she is likely to have an event. If she doesn't drink
enough water, she is likely to have an event....and she will only drink fresh
water out of a known trough, or her own bucket! OTOH, this am she
kicked a hole in her manger wall (1/2" plywood) and got a big wood splinter
stuck in the bulb of her hind foot...pulled it out, she bled a lot and was
ouchy, but this pain would not likely cause an event.....go
figure!
She is still the best trail horse in the barn and we love her very much,
but the tying up thing is why we stopped doing endurance.
She had a major episode at a ride....never really figured it out, and we
just don't want to risk damaging her.
I would like to hear any constructive input on a
situation that just occurred for me with a horse I own.
History:
I have owned Buddy since March 2005. He is a 9 y.o. Arab gelding,
15.2+H of a heavier build. He came to me from the NE region with lots of
behavior and nutritional issues. Over the past year he has done well,
other then some skin allergy problems in the summer months here in
southwestern AZ. His diet consists of free forage bermuda grass
hay, beet pulp mash with perhaps 1/4 lb alfalfa pellets for flavor, flax seed,
BOSS, biotin and Platinum Performance, mineralized loose salt (BP and
supplements given once daily). He gets alfalfa hay in the winter when it
is cool but only in limited amounts - none recently. I did get some oat
hay recently but he had only a small amount and none for the three days prior
to the incident below. He is on approx 1 acre sand turn out 24/7.
The temps have been averaging 111-115 for the past two weeks. All
the horses have plenty of shade and don't seem stressed, but we haven't been
riding too much except for early morning and late evening. He has
access to salt and I add a bit to his BP mash daily.
Since he is not working much, he is not getting any grain products.
This past weekend I rode my other horse and ponied Buddy for about 4
miles - mostly at a slow trot. It was still relatively cool - for us -
and I decided to work Buddy in the round pen for a bit. He still has some
issues with pulling on the snaffle so I decided to work him with a bungee type
training martingale to see if the instant release would help him "get the
idea" of being softer in the bit. We worked for about 15 minutes -
walking and slow trotting only, nothing strenuous or fast - he was
pulling a bit but the light seemed to be coming on about giving and getting
the release. I was ready to quit for the day and called him in
to end the lesson and noticed his flanks were quivering - uh oh. By the
time I got him untacked and back to his paddock, he was cramping/typing
up. I called my vet who was out of town (no real backup vetting here)
and he told me to administer Ace promazine - which I did 4 cc IM. His
rump muscles and up over the flank area were very hard. This was
followed by 10 cc banamine IM.
Buddy was very uncomfortable and not moving for about 1-2 hours but he
was eating and drinking, urinated clear two times, plenty of volume. He
began to move stiffly after about 3-4 hours and contnued to
improve. By the end of the day he was moving more freely -
but I think still somewhat stiffly. The next day he was back
to normal.
So, any ideas on what caused the problem. He has been worked at a much
higher level in the past and even with the decreased work due to heat, I
would not consider the exercise excessive. The horse that I was riding had
sweat under the saddle and a little in the crease of his neck but was not
unduly stressed by the heat. There was a good breeze blowing to help
with evaporative cooling.
Any thoughts out there on what happened and how to avoid it ?
