Are your Minis always sick?? Funny thing someone told me

[tagalong]

She just finished vet school and is doing an internship currently.

Sooooo - she IS a vet.

And is she going to be doing large animal practice out in the field? Methinks she will be seeing sick and needy horses every day then - surely all of them cannot be inbred misfits!

She does realize that 95% of all Thoroughbreds go back to one horse, right?

But on a serious note - in over 20 years of working on farms and caring for horses both big and small... the only thing minis have had more severe issues with than the big horses is foaling. When something goes wrong there is less room to fix it - and thus less chance of a happy outcome. And even then - big horses have issues foaling as well.

The usual basic vet stuff has been the same for all the horses I have worked for - the odd colic. Dental. Check-ups. Vaccinations.

The you have the injuries - big and small - that you cannot predict or always prevent. No matter what size or breed of horse is involved.

Let's see... I have worked with Thorougbreds, Warmbloods, Standardbreds, Arabians, QHs... and minis. And over the past 20 years...

Recently we had a lovely mini colt get kicked in the head (maybe even by his mom) in the pasture - the end result of which was that he lost an eye. Did that happen because he was a mini? Nope.

Another mini mare dislocated her hip overnight - in her stall. She did not get cast or anything - no shavings were on her - and yet somehow it happened. She was just standing there calmly in the morning - on three legs. It was not because she was a mini - just one of those horses who could find a way to hurt themsleves if you put them in a padded velvet room.

Years before that.... a Warmblood yearling did the exact same thing - only he was in his turnout paddock.

The Standardbred stallion who died of a massive heart attack.

The Trakehner stallion - one of the great horse loves of my life - whose front feet were slowly coming apart due to poor management /being nerved for non-existant navicular issues when he was younger. Long story. Far too long for here. Treating him and watching my dear friend struggle - and fail - was one of the worst horse experiences I have ever faced.

That ^^^ farm had over 120 horses.... so there was bound to be something going awry with that many horses in the mix. And none of them were minis.

A pinto Saddlebred/Arab yearling fell down a hillside when he was goofing around and carved up his back legs. He was fine after months of treatment. And only had two tiny scars!

Then there was the grey Arabian mare who shattered her femur just trotting in her level, grassy paddock.

Not long after that ^^^ heartbreaking episode, Maria, a black Arabian mare, developed cancer in her jaw. She was operated on and needed months of treatment. She was happy and content for the next two years - and then one morning I knew It was Back.

And she knew, too...

Some dystocias - including one Arabian mare whose foal was on his back and coming front feet first with his head back - that was a tight fit and a bit scary... the vet was over an hour away and as usual- I was by myself - but I got him turned and out of there. Would I have been able to free a mini baby stuck as firmly as that colt was? Without damage to the mare? Maybe - maybe not.

Let's look at the genetic issues in QHs as another example... everyone loved Impressive - and crossed back to him many times. Only now all his descendants are at risk for HYPP... and need to be tested for it. Two of our boarders have HYPP positive horses... and if you have never seen an HYPP attack (that is how we found out that the one mare was a Positive - she had not been tested) - you cannot imagine the terror in a horse's eyes as they lose all control of their bodies...

Then there is HERDA. HERDA traces back through cutting horse lines - specifically to Poco Bueno. HERDA horses have fragile skin - the layers tear apart and rupture easily and peel away... like peeling an orange. A saddle can trigger the first episode. Rubbing up against a post. Rolling. Anything.

Genetic issues exist in many breeds - not just minis.

IMO no vet should be going into practice with a closed mind and a potential chip on their shoulder that may affect how they view a patient. Hey - if minis are all that sickly then she should be able to make some money treating them...

 

[SunQuest]

Our family got our first horse (Arab) in 1980 or 1981. In 1995 we purchased our first mini. Our family still has very large horses (Hanoverians and our retired 30 year old Appy that we have owned since he was 6) and I can tell you this much. Minis and Full sized horses seem to need to see the vet at the same rate. We have had colic and other emergencies in both, and neither has been more prone to certain illnesses except for one thing. That would be impaction colic. With minis it seems that there is a very slight increase in this if the hay quality is course as they seem to have a harder time with it. But, if you feed good quality horse hay to both, then things tend to be equal in my experience.

On the large horses, our Arab died due to a pituitary tumor at 18, another 2 Hanoverians had to be euthanized due to hereditary OCD lesions (sub-chrondal bone cysts) in which the sire and foal had it and was only diagnosed in the sire after having a foal with a severe case, and had a Thoroughbred with Wobblers Syndrome, all in the same time frame that our family has owned minis.

So based on the above, I think that the minis are healthier if you are not talking about breeding them. Breeding is touchier as the minis are so small that more foaling problems seem to occur.

So coming from someone who has had both large and small horses, ignore your friend and don't use her as your vet! LOL.

 

[zoey829]

Peopple can be so odd. Ooooh I do have one problem and it is a huge one....... they are addicting!!! They produce a scent that when I get in thier presence I want more

hehehehe

 

[Jill]

I could say each of my minis is "healthy as a horse"

 

[Sue_C.]

LOLOL!!! OH!

If she thinks that there was/is a lot of in-breeding with the miniature breed...tell her to check out the peds on many, if not most, Arabians. Whoo! I have seen Raffles so tightly interwoven into pedigrees that I swear they had him breeding himself. That is only one example...nothing againsat him...I love his lines myself...but boy...they bred CLOSE!

Then too, if the minis who are so inbred...why is it that the Quarterhorse industry that is so hurthng right now...from that same problem. And...consider that the Quarterhorse has one of the largest registries...tons of horses to choose from, but they still end up with HERDA, and HYPP.

Nope...ignorance is not always bliss.

 

[River Wood]

Gee in all of the years we have had horses I can count on 1/2 a hand how many sick horses we have had...

 

[Matt73]

Not one sniffle or anything else in over 3 years of mini ownership (knock-on-wood). Like any equine, there are healthy individuals and sickly (poorly bred) individuals (prone to colic etc.).

 

[Matt73]

She just finished vet school and is doing an internship currently.

Sooooo - she IS a vet.

And is she going to be doing large animal practice out in the field? Methinks she will be seeing sick and needy horses every day then - surely all of them cannot be inbred misfits!

She does realize that 95% of all Thoroughbreds go back to one horse, right?

But on a serious note - in over 20 years of working on farms and caring for horses both big and small... the only thing minis have had more severe issues with than the big horses is foaling. When something goes wrong there is less room to fix it - and thus less chance of a happy outcome. And even then - big horses have issues foaling as well.

The usual basic vet stuff has been the same for all the horses I have worked for - the odd colic. Dental. Check-ups. Vaccinations.

The you have the injuries - big and small - that you cannot predict or always prevent. No matter what size or breed of horse is involved.

Let's see... I have worked with Thorougbreds, Warmbloods, Standardbreds, Arabians, QHs... and minis. And over the past 20 years...

Recently we had a lovely mini colt get kicked in the head (maybe even by his mom) in the pasture - the end result of which was that he lost an eye. Did that happen because he was a mini? Nope.

Another mini mare dislocated her hip overnight - in her stall. She did not get cast or anything - no shavings were on her - and yet somehow it happened. She was just standing there calmly in the morning - on three legs. It was not because she was a mini - just one of those horses who could find a way to hurt themsleves if you put them in a padded velvet room.

Years before that.... a Warmblood yearling did the exact same thing - only he was in his turnout paddock.

The Standardbred stallion who died of a massive heart attack.

The Trakehner stallion - one of the great horse loves of my life - whose front feet were slowly coming apart due to poor management /being nerved for non-existant navicular issues when he was younger. Long story. Far too long for here. Treating him and watching my dear friend struggle - and fail - was one of the worst horse experiences I have ever faced.

That ^^^ farm had over 120 horses.... so there was bound to be something going awry with that many horses in the mix. And none of them were minis.

A pinto Saddlebred/Arab yearling fell down a hillside when he was goofing around and carved up his back legs. He was fine after months of treatment. And only had two tiny scars!

Then there was the grey Arabian mare who shattered her femur just trotting in her level, grassy paddock.

Not long after that ^^^ heartbreaking episode, Maria, a black Arabian mare, developed cancer in her jaw. She was operated on and needed months of treatment. She was happy and content for the next two years - and then one morning I knew It was Back.

And she knew, too...

Some dystocias - including one Arabian mare whose foal was on his back and coming front feet first with his head back - that was a tight fit and a bit scary... the vet was over an hour away and as usual- I was by myself - but I got him turned and out of there. Would I have been able to free a mini baby stuck as firmly as that colt was? Without damage to the mare? Maybe - maybe not.

Let's look at the genetic issues in QHs as another example... everyone loved Impressive - and crossed back to him many times. Only now all his descendants are at risk for HYPP... and need to be tested for it. Two of our boarders have HYPP positive horses... and if you have never seen an HYPP attack (that is how we found out that the one mare was a Positive - she had not been tested) - you cannot imagine the terror in a horse's eyes as they lose all control of their bodies...

Then there is HERDA. HERDA traces back through cutting horse lines - specifically to Poco Bueno. HERDA horses have fragile skin - the layers tear apart and rupture easily and peel away... like peeling an orange. A saddle can trigger the first episode. Rubbing up against a post. Rolling. Anything.

Genetic issues exist in many breeds - not just minis.

IMO no vet should be going into practice with a closed mind and a potential chip on their shoulder that may affect how they view a patient. Hey - if minis are all that sickly then she should be able to make some money treating them...

Well said.

 

[Riverdance]

She just finished vet school and is doing an internship currently.

I can never figure out how to do the quotes.

If she is just finishing school, that will answer why she is so smug. Young people fresh out of school know everything, don't they.

(or so they think, one of the reasons why I left a vet I had been with for years, and found another one. They always had doctors fresh out of school. Those doctors thought they knew everything, and knew NOTHING!! They had more miss diagnosis)

 

[Brandi*]

I have been told by certain people and even my vet that mini's do seem to have more health issues than regular sized horses. My vet said that it is due to their small size. He said that it takes less to upset their little systems than in a larger horse. He also said that he see's a whole lot of colics in minis around this area. More so than larger horses. I think he said it was due to the sand. He didn't say anything about inbreeding though.

In order to get accurate results you would have to look into it further than just on a miniature horse forum. Maybe doing a poll of certain vet offices around the country, in certain climates would be a good start. But who has the time to do that.

 

[Matt73]

She just finished vet school and is doing an internship currently.

I can never figure out how to do the quotes.

If she is just finishing school, that will answer why she is so smug. Young people fresh out of school know everything, don't they.

(or so they think, one of the reasons why I left a vet I had been with for years, and found another one. They always had doctors fresh out of school. Those doctors thought they knew everything, and knew NOTHING!! They had more miss diagnosis)

 

[nootka]

Rarely sick. I've only had a few incidences with "illness" and they were quite brief, in 13 years of Mini ownership.

Liz

 

[Amy]

Well, if she is a vet & that is her opinion I would certainly NOT be calling her to attend to my animals

 

[midnight star stables]

I've had miniatures and horses all my life (17) and I have had very few issues with each (knock on wood). The horses have gone lame from time to time over the years from the odd things but that about the biggest.

I find my minis are all healthy as a horse - Oh wait, I thought they were! My mistake

 

[bingo]

Her experience can very well be truthful. The fact is more non horse people have minis then any other breed. More non horse people breed minis and usually more then one at a time then any other breed.

Most non horse people do not have a good grip on horse management. Many will choose to feed poor quality coarse hay to save a buck not realizing the damage it could cause to a small system. Many do not vaccinate yearly or keep up with hoof care. Many let a horse sit for months on end then pull it out of the pasture hook it up and drive it down the asphalt road for hours on end at a trot the whole time with no thought to the concussion to the minis legs let alone the fact the horse is not conditioned.

These are just a few examples of things that could in turn make your friend have the feelings that she does.

 

[Carolyn R]

Her experience can very well be truthful. The fact is more non horse people have minis then any other breed. More non horse people breed minis and usually more then one at a time then any other breed.

I think this depends on where you live, around here, there are many more big horse that have owners with poor horse husbandry skills than with minis. In general, there are just more big horses around here, period.

I do have to say I had lg. horses growing up, never had an issue, but the last 2 lg horses I had in the last 2 year were medical nightmares. They were both the same breed, but it was non stop issues with them. My minis, knock on wood, have required very little medical attention, beyond yearly shots and floating. If a mini has come down with something, they are treated and recover, my experiance with the last large horses I had, well, recovery is very long and drawn out if at all.

Carolyn

 

[jlh]

our minis have been hardy - we had them over a dozen years before we ever had a colic & that one was from eating acorns.

we went longer than that before having any foaling issues. in fact, the first foal we lost was from a mare whose grandmother had been purchased as a weanling, and we had foaled two generations out without a problem.

most of these supposed 'inbreeding' problems are really management issues.

also, where will this woman practice? I don't want to even accidentally use her.

 

[whitney]

I was also told this by 2 different ESTABLISHED vets, re sickness.

I believe they have the same issues as big horses but more severe because of their size. To me they are more like taking care of a big horse foal.

If you really want your question answered used the search tool on this forum and type in the health issue(s) you are concerned with and see how many you find and which members have experience it.

 

[hrselvr728]

You could also remind her that the ancestor of the horse (big and small alike) was about the size of a miniature horse and lived in the wild way back when (with two and three toes!). So really, we've brought the horse back to its ancestor's size. Tell her to look that up.