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<< Is coffee colored urine ALWAYS a sign of tying up? I have seen such
urine with no other obvious symptoms other than poor recoveries. A
blood test several days later indicated complete metabolic mayhem,
but my vet indicated that it was not a classic "tie up" . This was
after 50 miles of a race. If muscles cramp or lock up, will that
always result in dark urine even if the horse recovers on his own?
The big question here is should a rider continue with a horse that
has shown some of these symptoms even if he seems to have "bounced
back" or will damage be done?
John and Sue Greenall >>
Dark urine is urine that contains myoglobin from destroyed muscle cells. There
are all degrees of tying up. In racehorses we can see a tying up syndrome
(horse tying up over and over again) coming on when a horse goes dead lame in
a front leg, then is better a few hours later--the should muscles on one side
are cramping.
To the extent that tying up continues, more and more muscle cells die. At some
point, getting the debris through the kidneys becomes a problem and you have
kidney failure and death. Sometimes you get severe laminitis as a result of
tying up.
When you have a horse entering a proclivity for tying up, you should do
something about it--that is, change the workload/nutrition. Essentially, an
increased workload, that is consistent day to day, is the principal solution
in racehorses. So, you have to break out of the syndrome in order to get the
work accomplished. However, at the time of a tying up episode, don't drive the
horse on at that point.
ti
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