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Hello
all,
Here is a horse and endurance related topic to get us back to horse
related things.
I recently sold what I consider to be my strongest horse,
a seven year
old 3/4 Arabian mare. She was foaled at my place and brought
along
carefully and slowly and has never had a medical issue in her
life. She
has completed two 25 milers, and four 50 milers (some of them
really
tough ones) with ease.
She was purchased by a really wonderful
lady in the San Diego area and
the trip from Southern Oregon to California
was done in two days with a
layover at a fairgrounds in Modesto.
She was
quarantined for a week and I understand that she never got any
turnout. When
ridden out, she had a mild "tie-up". The vet administered
Banamine and
thought it was due to probably slight dehydration from the
trip and standing
in a stall.
She was only given a week and ridden again and again tied up. The
report
on the blood work is:
Her white and red blood cell count
was
normal, calcium was normal, UN was normal, protein was
normal.
But her AST was 1874 and CK was 1209. This
is in the moderate range -
high but not dangerously
high.
My vet still feels that the trailer
ride for a day,
standing in a stall that night, trailering again the
next
day and then having to be in a barn stall for a
few days on top of continuing
grain and being
dehydrated when she got here is what caused the
initial
tie up. He feels the second tie up was
because it was just too soon
after the initial one tie
up.
OK....still no turn out and here
is the rest of poor Kit's saga:
Things are not going
well here with Kit. It is really
tough for me because I really like
her, but she tied
up again. I have not been able to ride her
without
her tying up. In speaking with my vet, he believes
she needs
to go back to a situation where she can move
around in pasture. I think
that has been the biggest
adjustment for her.
After the last time she
tied up, the vet wanted me to
hand-walk her for 7 to 10 days. This was
done twice a
day. On day 8 we ponied her quietly down the trail
for
1 1/2 miles. She just walked and looked ok. On
day ten I rode her
on the trail. We went for a quiet
walk for about an hour. When we
got back I decided to
go in the arena and trot a bit since I had never
even
trotted her yet. After not more than ten minutes she
began to
get short in the hind. I immediately had
someone open the gate so I
could get her to her stall
before she completely tied up. I sent a
message to
the barn office for banamine and they met me on the
way to the
stall. She received banamine within
minutes. Before I could even
get the saddle off of
her she was completely tied up in the hind. The
vet
ended up showing up and we also gave her ace to relax
her
muscles.
The interesting thing is that she never shows signs
of
distress such as nervousness or sweating before she
begins to get
tight. I do not know what is going on
with this poor mare, but I do not know
what else to
do.
I think it would be in her best interest to get
her
back to a place where she can move around all day. I
am very
sorry. I am having a hard time with this
because I have become attached
to her. She is a great
mare and from what I have learned in riding her
those
very short times, she is well broke. She did
everything I
asked of her.
I think that the mare was never given a chance to
recover from the assault to her system. When another of my horses tied up (big
time), I gave her, as I remember, at least a month of no riding and she has
never had a recurrence. My plan is to give her a couple of weeks and then bring
her home for some real R & R and then condition her to do a couple of 50's
again and perhaps think about selling her next spring.
My question to you
out there is : What would have caused a perfectly
healthy horse to tie- up
and why does she continue to do so? Is it, as I
think, that she needs more
time to get her system back to functioning?
In seven years this horse has
been put under stress of training and hard
riding, etc and never had even a
runny nose. Anyone have any thoughts on
this?
Pat
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