mdegner
Well-Known Member
Lost a 2.5 year old mare this week to what our vet called cholostrial (sp?) toxemia. Happened very quickly and the mortality rate is almost 100%, so there was nothing we could have done. Just shocking this happened to a happy, healthy mare for no apparent reason.
Sunday afternoon, we noticed Stormy was rolling a little, so we pulled her in and gave her banamine right away. She pooped fairly soon--a bit runny--and then a couple of other times in the next few hours and it was normal. She seemed much better and was eating/drinking. She was still "off" a bit on monday, but temp, heart rate, breathing, etc was normal, so we kept her up in an enclosed area and gave her some electrolytes monday afternoon. She perked right up and started eating/drinking again. Pooped and urinated. We gave her some probiotics later that evening to help get her system normalized again and when Mike checked on her at midnight, she was comfortable. He found her dead at 6AM the next morning.
We had our vet do a necropsy and he said there was evidence that she had "cholostrial" toxemia (Merck lists it under colitis x, other terms mentioned). I am NOT a vet but my understanding is a bacteria attacked her colon, small intestine and she essentially died from a toxic shock. According to what I read (and vet talked about), this is typically brought on by stress (e.g. transport, surgery, etc) and its nearly always fatal. Starts with diareaha, can be a short high temp period but then it drops to normal or below and the animal then gets dehydrated, blood doesn't flow right, etc.
What we can't figure out is what stressed her out or caused that reaction. She was fine and playful that morning. NOTHING had changed on the farm; she was in the same pasture she was literally born on with the same group of horses eating the same hay, etc. Last time she was off the farm was in July. She was a young, healthy mare. Vet explored possibility of a poison or something that was ingested but, its winter in MN, so nothing in the pasture. Hay was fine, great in fact. She ate the same food the other 21 horses eat. Couldn't find anything wrong with her other than the colon and intestine issues and the other damage probably related to the toxic reaction (e.g. fluid around the heart).
As I thought about it, we did use to call her the Drama Queen because you could put her on a trailer for 5 minutes and take her off, and she would roll like she had the worst colic ever. It was almost comical, because she wasn't colicing. It seemed so incongruent because her personality was sunny and relaxed and playful. Not a nervous or sensitive horse except with weird stuff. We use to laugh about it--don't take Stormy anywhere without banamine--but now I think, maybe she was just built that way. Some little switch in her that would just go off. We will never know I guess.
Now I know why we are having the warmest winter EVER (at least in my lifetime) in the state of Minnesota. We were going to have to bury the Storm in the middle of January. And we did. . .
Pics of the storm during her short but wonderful life may be found on my facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.342333319119983.88400.100000299539018&type=3&l=17ae80d9a6
Happy Trails Stormy.
Sunday afternoon, we noticed Stormy was rolling a little, so we pulled her in and gave her banamine right away. She pooped fairly soon--a bit runny--and then a couple of other times in the next few hours and it was normal. She seemed much better and was eating/drinking. She was still "off" a bit on monday, but temp, heart rate, breathing, etc was normal, so we kept her up in an enclosed area and gave her some electrolytes monday afternoon. She perked right up and started eating/drinking again. Pooped and urinated. We gave her some probiotics later that evening to help get her system normalized again and when Mike checked on her at midnight, she was comfortable. He found her dead at 6AM the next morning.
We had our vet do a necropsy and he said there was evidence that she had "cholostrial" toxemia (Merck lists it under colitis x, other terms mentioned). I am NOT a vet but my understanding is a bacteria attacked her colon, small intestine and she essentially died from a toxic shock. According to what I read (and vet talked about), this is typically brought on by stress (e.g. transport, surgery, etc) and its nearly always fatal. Starts with diareaha, can be a short high temp period but then it drops to normal or below and the animal then gets dehydrated, blood doesn't flow right, etc.
What we can't figure out is what stressed her out or caused that reaction. She was fine and playful that morning. NOTHING had changed on the farm; she was in the same pasture she was literally born on with the same group of horses eating the same hay, etc. Last time she was off the farm was in July. She was a young, healthy mare. Vet explored possibility of a poison or something that was ingested but, its winter in MN, so nothing in the pasture. Hay was fine, great in fact. She ate the same food the other 21 horses eat. Couldn't find anything wrong with her other than the colon and intestine issues and the other damage probably related to the toxic reaction (e.g. fluid around the heart).
As I thought about it, we did use to call her the Drama Queen because you could put her on a trailer for 5 minutes and take her off, and she would roll like she had the worst colic ever. It was almost comical, because she wasn't colicing. It seemed so incongruent because her personality was sunny and relaxed and playful. Not a nervous or sensitive horse except with weird stuff. We use to laugh about it--don't take Stormy anywhere without banamine--but now I think, maybe she was just built that way. Some little switch in her that would just go off. We will never know I guess.
Now I know why we are having the warmest winter EVER (at least in my lifetime) in the state of Minnesota. We were going to have to bury the Storm in the middle of January. And we did. . .
Pics of the storm during her short but wonderful life may be found on my facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.342333319119983.88400.100000299539018&type=3&l=17ae80d9a6
Happy Trails Stormy.
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