[RC] Pony death, question for vets or others who've experienced same - sherman
My friend’s 13 yr young Shetland/mini-horse cross,
Muffin, died here yesterday with severe sudden onset neurological symptoms,
staggering, head pressing in corner of stall, with legs flailing, going down,
trying to get up but unable to control legs, neck, when up unable to lift head,
mouth hanging open, tongue dragging, later clamping teeth onto tongue, death
within a couple of hours as we were consulting via telephone with vet as the
symptoms progressed.
It started in the AM with a somewhat healthy looking Muffin,
being treated with a half tab of bute twice daily for
laminitis that popped up out of nowhere 2 weeks ago, even though there had been
no change in her feed, for months, she was in very good body condition. I gave
her the bute, put her in a stall with her food &
water as I’ve been doing, then I let her eat for 2 or more hours before
muzzling & turning out in the pasture. After feeding all the other horses,
I checked on her as she gave a pathetic whinny as I entered the barn. Muffin’s
water was knocked over, I refilled, noticed she hadn’t eaten much if
anything, so gave her soaked beet pulp thinking her tooth may be giving her
problems again. She hung her head in the pan but seemed unable to take anything
up, she put her lips on the hay but nothing went into the mouth and got chewed.
Heart rate was 80 BPM, temp 100.5, good gut sounds, had just done a nice
looking moist poop. Called the vet, said to give some banamine,
went to get some from a neighbor, by the time I got back I could see she was
covered with spider webs from the corners of the stalls, her mouth was hanging
open, tongue was hanging loose, she couldn’t put her head up and I
assumed couldn’t swallow as her mouth seemed useless. I called the
neighbor to bring a shot instead, she began staggering around, pressing her
head into the wall, etc. She got the shot, tried more to stay up, maybe because
the shot made her feel better, but still unable to really control her legs
much, went down and struggled much to get up, we had to keep her head from
getting stuck under her body. Still consulting with vet, says probably he
should come out to put her down. We give her another shot to help with pain, if
there is any, and she goes before the vet gets here.
3 years ago, she nearly died, symptoms much milder, only
slight tremors, but didn’t eat then either, I syringe fed & watered
her for weeks as she recovered. At that time, she also had an infection that
showed up after the tremors & failure to eat, possible caused by a long
tooth scraping the gum below where a tooth was missing, allowing the long tooth
to grow too much. After her heart rate returned to normal & she was eating
a bit on her own (sloppy mash) she was taken to UCD, but no firm diagnosis was
ever made, other than have that tooth filed down. She was kept on antibiotics
for about 3 mos back then. She’s been totally
healthy since then, until now. Could this be EHV1,
retreated into the nervous system & brought out by stress of laminitis? Or
what else would act like this? She was kept fully vaccinated on a regular
schedule.
