Near Death Experience with Neck Sweat

[Taylor Jo]

For those of you that are new or who are used to putting neck sweats/wraps on I want to caution you about putting them on to tight.

Yesterday I got a new neck sweats for my horses and I'd never used this type before and I put them on all my horses. They were on all afternoon and I left them on that night. I went out earlier then usual to the barn and I gave my favorite horse "Sonny" his grain. He ate a little bit of it and then waited for his hay. I was busy getting the other horses their grain and he stood there waiting for about 3 min.

I then went over and got his hay and all of a sudden he staggered back wards and rolled over on his back, put all four legs straight up in the air and he was on his back with his eyes rolled up in his head. He laid their for a minute and I was trying to get in his gate to get to him, he then jumped up and staggered against his pen, I reached for the neck sweat as he's staggering and leaning against me and I yank it off of him. He laid against me a little bit and then he was fine.

I called the vet and they said to bring him in. He checked him over and he said; I had cut off his airway passage and he couldn't breath.

Scared me to death. If you do use one please be careful. I could have killed my horse out of my own ignorance, not realizing how tight I actually was putting it on. Learned a VERY valuable lesson here and it almost cost my horse it's life I felt sooooo terrible.

Anyway, I just wanted to warn you against the dangers of putting them to tight. TJ

 

[Molly's Run Minis]

WOW!! that's really scary! i'm glad he's ok! that's why i never use any sweats of any kind, i prefer the good ol lunging and jogging(it helps me lose some weight too

) plus none of my guys ever need it cause they're always runnin

you're lucky you stayed calm! i would've been flipping out!

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Very scary TJ!

I'm SO glad Sonny is OK. I've never thought it was possible to put them on tight enough to cause trouble but now I know.

 

[Ashley]

For those of you that are new or who are used to putting neck sweats/wraps on I want to caution you about putting them on to tight.

Yesterday I got a new neck sweats for my horses and I'd never used this type before and I put them on all my horses. They were on all afternoon and I left them on that night. I went out earlier then usual to the barn and I gave my favorite horse "Sonny" his grain. He ate a little bit of it and then waited for his hay. I was busy getting the other horses their grain and he stood there waiting for about 3 min.

I then went over and got his hay and all of a sudden he staggered back wards and rolled over on his back, put all four legs straight up in the air and he was on his back with his eyes rolled up in his head. He laid their for a minute and I was trying to get in his gate to get to him, he then jumped up and staggered against his pen, I reached for the neck sweat as he's staggering and leaning against me and I yank it off of him. He laid against me a little bit and then he was fine.

I called the vet and they said to bring him in. He checked him over and he said; I had cut off his airway passage and he couldn't breath.

Scared me to death. If you do use one please be careful. I could have killed my horse out of my own ignorance, not realizing how tight I actually was putting it on. Learned a VERY valuable lesson here and it almost cost my horse it's life I felt sooooo terrible.

Anyway, I just wanted to warn you against the dangers of putting them to tight. TJ

I had that happen several years ago, like 11 years ago, never used a neck sweat since.

 

[shadowpaints]

yikes! glad he is ok!!!

we only use the neck sweats when we are there to supervise (mainly when they are being worked) just for that reason! i will double check each time now to make sure its not too tight!

 

[Lena1]

Just one other point on the dangers of neck sweats.

Dont put them on when the horses head is down low or grazing, when they lift their head back up the sweat is VERY tight. Ive done this a couple of times.

 

[Genie]

Thanks for the "heads up". You were lucky to have such good timing

 

[wildoak]

Anything remotely on or near a horse can be a danger, they have a gift for finding trouble lol. It is frightening and I had that happen years ago with a throatlatch sweat. Didn't realize until later but that has to have been the cause. Very same scenario - I walked into the barn in time to see him go straight up and over onto his back. He scrambled up as I went in the stall & seemed to be fine thereafter, just scared me silly.

At the other end of the spectrum, I had a big horse boarder about the same time whose horse was a cribber (unknown to me until he was delivered, oh by the way...

). She wouldn't let me use her collar on him for a long time because he had passed out with one previously. I think it was on too loose, and since it's a rigid collar when it turned it did press on his throat and they found him unconscious! I finally put it back on him, but those do have to be tight to be safe and effective. No cribbers in my barn anymore!

Jan

 

[Taylor Jo]

I truly think it was my nursing background that kicked in when I saw him go flat on his back, legs all up. Just a reaction to doing a cpr code. At first that's what I thought I was going to have to do. I didn't have my dang cell phone on me and the day before my cell phone didn't work at home as they're been a problem w/ a tower or something. I ran to the house and luckly it worked but I had my land line and could have used it. However, it ALSO made me remember the IMPORTANCE of taking my darn CELL PHONE to the BARN with me!!!!!!!

I read that on here last year and been sorta lax a daisy about it and I don't think I'll be that way so much anymore.....

Thanks for the support, TJ

 

[Zipper]

Glad he is okay. How scary that must of been.