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Re: [RC] horse with body quivers - Elizabeth Walker

This reminded me of an incident at a boarding stable a long, long time ago. It involved a foal, who kept circling, staggering, falling down. The vet couldn't figure out the problem, and the foal was put down. On necropsy, they found the ear canals packed with ticks.

So - checking for an ear infection (or ticks if it is tick season), might be worth doing.

Best of luck!


On Sep 12, 2008, at 7:56 PM, Elizabeth Chase wrote:


I had a mare do this back in May.

However, I did have a causative: 3 days earlier, she ran through a fence -- at the corner post, tore herself up good. I'm a trauma nurse, so wound care isn't a problem for me.

We were totally mystified as there were no overt signs of infection, save for behavioral indications and a temp of 110 degrees (F).

Vet came out, found a wee splinter in the crease at the base of an ear, and lots swelling going into the ear canal. He removed the splinter, pus sprayed like a geyser for a moment. Gave her a mega dose of penicillin, something for her temp, and a 5 day anti-biotic regimen.

Next day she was behaving normally (for her).

Question: is EPM a possible factor?

In humans, even a urinary tract infection can influence behavior, and in the elderly, they can become quite confused and delerious. It's also interesting to note that adult humans get ear infections all the time... and again, sometimes it affects a person's mentation.

I hope your horse recovers; to me, they are family.

Liz
Minnesota



--- On Fri, 9/12/08, Don Huston <donhuston@xxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Don Huston <donhuston@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [RC] horse with body quivers
To: "Vickie Jensen Hogen" <vjhogen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, September 12, 2008, 4:09 PM
Finding my horse like that would scare the crap out of me
and having
the vet not know what it is...ugh.

This is a wild guess. Stop all processed type feeds and
supplements,
they might have a toxin like that stuff from china in the
dog food.
Check with the owner of the other horse to see if you were
both
feeding something the same.

Another wild guess. One morning my friend found his horse
walking
backwards in a circle. He put a halter on to lead the horse
out for
the vet and the horse would not go forward. These symptoms
are
completely different than yours but the diagnosis for my
friends
horse was something I had never heard of. The blood test
showed heart
worms and why that made the horse walk only backwards is a
mystery. I
do not know what the treatment was but the horse recovered
completely.

Good luck because it always helps to have a little.

Don Huston



At 10:08 AM 9/12/2008 Friday, you wrote:
I need some advice. My 10 year old arab was down this
morning, his
whole body was quivering. Got him up with lots of
encouragement to
stay up.. Trailer ride seemed to relax some of the
muscles and he
wasn't wanting to go down after we got him to the
vet clinic. He
still had the shakes so bad that vet couldn't get
an accurate heart
rate on him. Gums were gray, temp was good, body very
quivery, no
appetite, alert, balance seems to be off, reacts
normally when hand
is brought toward eye. Those are just random things
vet looked
at. Drew blood to screen for west niles. Horse was
vaccinated with
5 way and west nile one week later in late may or early
june. After
being at vet clinic for over an hour, receiving an
intravenous
injection of banamine, and a dose of penicillin he
slowly quit
quivering and regained some of his pep and personality.
(Hubby says
that he was not really shaking even before receiving
banamine and
penvk) We were able to get a resting heart rate of 28
on him
then.   We were sent home to follow very basic care
instructions.  Feed him 25% his normal amount and watch
him, call if
quivering returns.

Vet was very honest, he did not know what was causing
the problem,
he doubted it was colic, I didn't think it was
colic to start
with. Here is my dilemma, we have no idea what is
going on and one
other horse in the valley showed signs that were very
similar over a
week ago, she continued to get worse and is being put
down this
morning, they only did a blood draw for west niles and
sent it off
yesterday. So if any one has any advice the vet and I
are both open
to suggestions. I really don't want to get behind
the 8 ball.

He is currently alert and wanting to eat, bright eyed
and seems
normal. Unfortunately the other horse also seemed to
come around
only to regress and is now down and being put down
probably as I am
writing this. Symptoms of that horses first day seem
to be very
similar. I just don't want to get behind this and
loose him. Any
other blood work we should be doing? We are going into
the weekend..

No changes in feed or daily routine, high quality grass
hay
diet. No access to weeds or strange plants. Has not
been exposed
to any other horses this summer, The rides I wanted to
do were
canceled, so we have done a few trail rides by
ourselves.. No
obvious wounds or punctures..

If there are spelling errors and this is random, please
ignore, it
has been a really crappy morning.. My son missed the
bus on top of
all of this, and I missed my drs appointment..
SIGH!!!!!
Thanks

vickie hogen

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Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
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Replies
Re: [RC] horse with body quivers, Elizabeth Chase