Tom Ivers writes:
Long ago, I asked Matthew what caused tying up. His answer was relatively
simple: "inconsistent exercise". That has proven out time after time after
time as a practical "truth". There are a lot of papers written about the
syndrome at the muscle cell level, but often I think they're looking at
results, not causes.
I often wonder how close we get to what is called compartmental syndrome in
humans--muscle expands faster than the fascia surrounding it can accommodate.
Medical descriptions of this syndrome match those for tying up in horses.
ti
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I had 2 tie up episodes in my Arab mare several years ago (none
for the past two years.)
In the first case, it was a classic cause, my fault all the way.
The exercise had not changed, but her turn out area was smaller,
and I was "feeding her up" to put weight on. Minor tie-up about
5 minutes into a ride, from just walking.
Second one was puzzling. Exercise had been constant, turn out
in a 5 acre pasture, no feeding changes. We had done a very good
warm up, and did trotting and cantering on the ride, on an easy
course. She tied up about an hour and a half into the ride.
Because she also seemed slightly colicky (wasn't), I hauled her into
the vet. By then, she showed no symptoms, and he declined pulling
blood.
Both times I knew a tie-up was starting, becuase she started
sweating heavily (down the face), and trembling. Also, in both
cases, she WANTED to keep walking. I read in an article by Dr.
Ridgeway, that if the horse WANTS to walk, by all means let them.
In both cases, by the time we were back at the trailer she seemed
much better.
What was also happening at the same time was she was having erratic
heat cycles. I took her to the Mendo ride slightly over a week
later, and discussed it in depth with Dr. Ridgeway. I wanted to
make sure he thought it appropriate she do the ride. He didn't see
any problem with her doing the ride, and after hearing my
explanation of the tying off, offered the opinion that some mares
will tie up when they go into heat.
Also around that time, I had her palpated, since her weird heat
cycles were indicative of a cyst. That turned out to be negative
also, and by the next summer, her heat cycles had straightend out.
Since her heat cycles have been back to normal, she has not tied
up. I am hoping it was related.
Karen
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