Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

An almost surefire recipie for a tie up is to decrease the space a horse is used to.....but increase or not even cut grain.....that is the typical scenario of the "Monday morning syndrome"  or azoturia that used to be seen with working draft horses that hauled wagons all week; then stalled over a weekend but the grain not cut back.  Monday morning they would tie up......

 

Other factors are insufficient warm up before moving out......selenium deficiencies, electrolyte deficiences, not enough warm up before vigorous exercise, mare in heat, cold water on haunch muscles.....

 

I had a mare tie up at an endurance ride.....my  best guess as to why is that I hauled to the ridecamp on Friday morning....but missed my Friday afternoon hour warmup because the vet made me reset a shoe and I had to wait and find a shoer..then it was too late...big mistake...even though I warmed up the morning of the ride, we hit a huge hill immediately.  The tie up was not really clear, not the typical symptoms....and she passed the trot by..but at the first vet check the pulse did not come down......a vet misdiagnosis (he claimed the horse was just "hot") and insisted I hose her down, against my better judgement......once cold water hit her hind end the cramping was immediate.......another vet recognized problem and drew blood...and we got her back to camp and started IV treatment ASAP...two bags......then at their advice I could take her home and try to find local vet to keep IV going.or haul her an hour to Davis....I took her to Davis for treatment.  Two days monitoring, more Iv;s......the blood work showed significant tie up.....but since we had treated EARLY and in the field.....the Davis vet felt no permanent muscle damage.....sent me home with Vit. E selenium to supplement.....this mare never tied up again and did a few 50 mile endurance rides.....

 

After that i was REALLY careful with turnout, slow warmups before rides, good warmup day before endurance ride, bump up Vit. E selenium the week before a ride, blood work to check for Se levels, etc.

 

That is the quick and easy explanation.......

Karen

 

On 4/18/08, Carla Richardson <richardson.carla@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'd sure like to hear advice on this also.  Although I've never had a horse tie up, it would be nice to know what the best advice is.

 

Thanks in advance -
Carla Richardson
Colorado

 

On 4/17/08, Marlene Moss <marlene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ok, I am just a total bonehead.  I totally cause my horse to tie up and I should have known better.  She had lost a little weight so I brought her in from pasture so I could figure out how much food she was eating (instead of miss piggy pasture mate).  And I added a little more Equine Sr and gave her some orchard hay mixed with her timothy (which is not her favorite anyhow).  Then I figured out that she needs her teeth done so I figured I'd leave her in a stall and run til I get her teeth done, which will be almost the end of the month unfortunately.

 

So I just kept giving her extra Equine Sr and lots of beet pulp.  Events worked out that she hasn't been ridden for the past few days either but today the snow melted and the sky was blue so we decided to go do a quick ride over lunch.  We didn't go real fast because it was mucky, but we were trotting.

 

Suddenly I noticed that her neck was sweatier than normal.  We were climbing a hill and going slower than normal, I thought because it was muddy and I'd asked her to go slow.  At the top of the hill she was trembling so I got off and we slowly led back, checking to see if she was unwilling to walk because I was pretty sure what I'd done.  She was willing the whole way and her muscles didn't seem incredibly tight so we kept going.  We did about 3.5 miles total, 1.3 miles after I realized something was wrong.

 

I got a blanket on her, her pulse was around 60, gave some bute and let her decide what she wanted to do.  I did see her pee and it was reddish, but a clear red like food dye.  She hasn't had any real difficulty walking, but her rump muscles are harder than normal.  We called the vet and he said we were doing the right things.

 

Anything else I should be doing?  What should I be considering for a return to work as far as timeframe and distance/speed?  I would like to put her back on pasture during the days (there's not much grass, but there is some, I thought I'd let her eat in a stall first, then go out and come back in for evening feeding) – does this make sense?

 

Upcoming plans were to do a medium paced (5mph) 10 mile moonlight ride this Saturday and a 25 mile easy competition the following Saturday.  Should I consider both of these to be out of the question?  Or what signs should I look for?  I considered her in shape to do a 50 at this point, but we were just going to do the 25 because we're bringing along a new rider.  I've got a backup horse or else I'll just crew if it is too soon to consider her getting back to work.

 

Any suggestions appreciated – haven't done this one before and don't want to do it again!

Marlene

 

Marlene Moss

www.LosPinos-CO.com - Boarding, Sales and More

www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com - Saddle Fitting

 

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