Re: thumps

[Onefarmgirl@aol.com]

Well, I'd rather be telling a different story, but in the interests of 
sharing learning experiences, here's the tale of my ride this weekend, (Wine 
Country 50) at which my horse developed thumps.   Ah, the humiliation of the 
metabolic pull........

First off, I thought this was a GREAT ride - I had heard that the trail was 
tough, and it was very rocky, plus some pretty steep pitches, but overall it 
was great riding.  The ride organization was excellent, the trail was well 
marked, plenty of water was available, etc.   One little hitch with slow 
vetting in, but hey, I had no where to go. 

The background

Over the last year, I have gradually reduced the alfalfa in my horse's diet 
to near none.  He is currently on 8 acres of beautiful irrigated pasture, a 
little legume, but not much.   He is on other carb sources (oats/beet pulp) 
in varying amounts depending on how hard we are training.  Also gets Dynamite 
as a supplement.  

Two things have changed in the recent past, and in retrospect I wish it were 
only one, since that would help figure things out.   The first is that I 
started feeding loose rock salt, only a couple of weeks ago.  I can't help 
but wonder about this now, tho the vets said it was not implicated, but as 
soon as I offered it,  my horse crunched up quite a bit over several days 
(and he had been totally ignoring his block salt).

The second is that I switched elytes, from Lyte Now to Perform N Win - I will 
describe the elyte protocol below.  Perform N Win is the elyte mix that I 
believe Susan Garlinghouse described at the AERC convention, which was the 
subject of radioisotope tagged studies to verify rapid absorption.  (Susan - 
of course correct me if I have the facts confused here).   Anyhow I had been 
feeding the PNW during training rides for a few weeks.   

The ride:   I'll consider a single one oz scoop of the PNW as "one dose" for 
the sake of clarity.

 I dosed the horse (KA Airborne is his name, and please, I have already heard 
 aaaalllll the jokes about it) with one dose PNW the day before travel, one 
the morning of travel.   We hauled 5 hours to Karen Sullivan's place 
(onegreymare on RC and a finer hostess you will not find).   We rode a short 
walk/jog ride that afternoon, I gave one more dose of PNW that night.

A dose of PNW Friday, and a 2 hour haul to the ride.   Word was that it would 
be very hot, and that many horses had suffered the heat at this ride last 
year.  I gave a double dose after vetting in, and a double dose in the 
morning.

Waited until 2/3 the riders were out before even getting on and jogging out.  
Picked up a pretty good pace after that, 8 - 9 mph, walking the steep hills.  
Let him pass some horses, which he loves better than life itself.  He was 
very eager but not obnoxious.  Drank well on the trail, starting at about 
12-14 miles.  First real vet check was not until 26 miles, and I had planned 
to dose him (with the Lyte Now) on the trail at about 18 miles, but the 
syringe had busted in my pack.

Fog had come in during the night and temps were actually pretty cool.   Came 
into the vet check with him looking great.    I wasn't really keeping track, 
but guess I must have come into the vet check somewhere in the 13-15th place, 
but leapfrogged over quite a bunch of folks waiting to pulse down.   Airborne 
slugged up a bunch of water & I gave one dose of Lyte Now.  He munched 
everything we put in front of him.  Vetted through great - attitude, 
impulsion, hydration, gut sounds, all fine.   He peed and pooped, and 
continued eating and drinking quite a bit.  Gave one dose of PNW just before 
leaving the VC.   

He seemed happy as a clam, trotted and cantered a few flats, just cruising 
along.  I never nudged him on in any way, but did hang on his mouth a bit 
when other riders passed us.  Drank great on the trail at every opportunity.  
Just before the 39 mile vet check, he seemed to be head bobbing a few times, 
tho other riders with me couldn't see it. I slowed to a walk, he was fine, 
moved back up to the trot, no problem.  About a half mile later,  when I got 
off to lead him in to the VC, he stumbled and dropped what must have been a 
pretty loose front shoe.

Led him into the VC.   He drank great, I gave him a double dose of PNW.  
Heart rate 60 on arrival.   He was eating well while we waited in line.  EZ 
boot on.   At the trot out, impulsion was down a bit from #1 - just not as 
eager.   Vet said he was a little off on the shoeless foot, but since the 
boot would prevent any further damage, it would be fine to travel on.  Heart 
rate now down to 54.  Hydration, cap refill, mucus membranes all looking 
good.   Then the vet (who was Dr. Ribley, by the way) listened to gut sounds, 
and he was THUMPING.  Yikes.  It was quite subtle at that time.   She 
recommended pulling him, and just letting him rest and eat.   Did that for 
about 30 minutes, with the thumps intermittent, but seeming overall a little 
worse.  HR now 72.   He still looked fine, interested in the other horses, 
eating and drinking.  Pooped, but no urine.

Back to the doc, who said all other parameters looked okay, tho obviously 
increasing heart rate NOT a good sign.   She did not think it was appropriate 
to elyte again.  Suggested trailering back to camp, and consider treating if 
he isn't improving.   Over the next half hour, HR steadily down, to upper 
40's.   Thumps diminishing and gone within about an hour and a half of 
beginning.   Recheck with the vet in camp (Dr. Farr) and the horse seems 
entirely recovered.  Not even really very fatigued looking.   Peed and 
pooped.  Ate fine.

So............  of course I spoke with both vets, who were completely 
consistent that this was a  result of low calcium, or (I think) possibly 
disturbed Ca/magnesium ratios.   They maintained that I couldn't have over 
electrolyted him.  Didn't think the change to loose salt mattered.    Dr. 
Ribley said I probably SHOULD be feeding alfalfa in the day/hours before a 
ride (again, for the calcium).   On Dr. Farr's suggestion I went back and 
looked for the Ca content of the PNW - not listed, tho it is the 6th 
ingredient on the label.

Looking at Karen Chaton's elyte chart (many thanks, Karen) the Ca content of 
PNW is "n/a".

Guess until I know more, I am done with the PNW during rides.   Wish I had 
thought to ask Dr. Ribley to draw blood, but at the time I was upset about 
the horse, and just not thinking ahead.    

Dr. Farr said no reason to back off the riding once home and rested - said 
the elyte imbalance would self correct in a few days.   But, of course I feel 
leery.  May try a slow 25 next.  Mostly it scares me that I just could not 
see a dang thing wrong with my horse, who was obviously on the verge of 
serious trouble.   Thank God for the attentive experienced ride vets.

Any reasonably constructive input very welcomed.   Sure feel crummy about 
running my horse into trouble.

pat farmer