Thought he was lame again

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MiniNHF

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2012
Messages
625
Reaction score
189
Location
Delaware
Over a week a so ago I posted for some thoughts about my older QH's lameness etc which ended up being a rock up inside his hoof. He has been moving around better since then but dropped a significant amount of weight due to him barely eating because he didnt want to walk out in the field until I got there and redid his hoof etc. Before that we were bragging how well he looked weight wise etc for his age of 26 years old.

Today I got a call from the barn owners that he was gimpy again and wasnt his normal self, so I said I would be down tomorrow to take a look at him and see if it was the same hoof. But my BF said lets take a ride down, so 45 mins later we arrived at the barn.

I saw him near the hay feeder which was near the front of the field and he was just standing there with his right leg forward like his hoof could have been bothering him again, so I was thinking "yup he is lame again". So as I started to fuss with the gate to go in my boyfriend all of a sudden says, "Max just collapsed". and I looked up and there he was on the ground.

My heart dropped into my stomach and I sprinted out towards him. As i approached him he just groaned and laid back. I grabbed a hold of his halter and attempted to get him up and he wouldnt even sit up and thats when I knew it wasnt just a lameness. He eyes were dull and he was breathing very heavy at the time. After a 1/2 hour or struggling with him I got him to lay up only with me behind him to support him from laying flat again and we called the vet.

So we faught with him for an hour and then he finally attempted to stand. As soon as he got up his rear end looked like jello, and I had to run behind him to help support his rear and as he steadied himself I noticed that he body looked like it was doing a convulsing (sp) type thing and I started to get even more frantic. Took us another 1/2 hour to get maybe 100 feet to the barn and his back legs were crossing all over the place and just all around could barely walk.

We got him into the barn and a good sign was he eating and drinking. I thought he might have coliced but there was no signs really of it.

After the vet got there and got through with him, she treated him for colic and gave him a few shots. She also found he has a pretty significant heart murmur but there was an irregular beat/pattern as well that concerned her that wasnt adding up to everything else. No temperature so thats a good thing.

We are not ruling out neurological until he starts to improve, but she said if he is the same or worse tomorrow she will come out and start to run blood tests. But with all the sedatives we had to give him to allow us to tube him, she said his heart was still racing. I know horses cant have "heart attacks" but they can have heart problems and it almost sounds like he might of had something similar to one.

He looks awful now and looks like nothing but bones sticking out, whatever happened to him from friday night to today as taken an awful toll on him. I am worried about my big baby, when I was out there trying to get him up I told him I was not ready for him to leave me and he cant do this today, not like that. I know he is 26 and getting very old but he is my best friend and we have been through so much in competiting etc for the last 16 years together but I honestly dont think after this he will make it two more years to move with my and the mini to South Carolina to my new farm.

I left him around 5:30pm after my boyfriend and I literally supported him as he walked outside for us; he was eating happily and the life looked like it came back into his eyes and his ears were perked. We are keeping him in a small paddock so that if he does go down again its not in a stall and then we have a bigger problem .

Call it by chance, call it fate but sometimes I think my horse and I communicate to each other without myself fulling knowing it. When I got the call today something told me to go down NOW, but I was thinking nah he is just lame again he will be okay for tomorrow. Then my boyfriend 10 mins alter out of the blue was like lets take a ride down (which he is never enthusiastic about going down to the barn or suggests it on his own) and then when I got there it was almost like Max was waiting for me to get there before he collapsed.

If I hadnt of went down no one would have found him until feed time. I got there at 12:30 and they feed around 5:00. Someone would have thought he was just snoozing in the field until he wouldnt get up to eat grain.

this is max about a month ago, little dark from shadows but as you can see, he looks good for 26 years old. He looks nothing like that today after losing weight from his hoof episode and now this. I think the only reason he was able to fight through is he is a former "athlete" up till about 3 years ago when I fully retired him and even the vet could see he was for how strong he was fighting us and the meds.

1002485_10151721588857692_2032778942_n_zpsedfff8ee.jpg
 
How scary that must have been. I am praying for you and him, and must share about a gelding I had 25 years ago. I promised him to spread the word.

I had a horse that had atrial fibrilation (sp). The heart isn't beating like it should. He would have spells where his hind

legs would collapse out from under him and he would throw his forelegs out to the sides to try and keep himself upright. His AF wasn't diagnosed for 7 years despite many trips to a dozen different vets.

My mom, who grew up in a family with heart problems, asked each vet if it could be his heart. Oh no, horses do not have heart problems. They were so excited when they diagnosed his heart problem.

And even though horses do not suffer "heart attacks" like people, I witnessed heart attacks in my gelding. They were not pretty, and thank God I was never on him when he suffered one. And the vet that finally diagnosed his heart condition chastised me for calling them heart attacks. He appologized when he witnessed one for himself.

Anyways. Loosing coordination in the hind quarters is one of the signs. My Taj also would get swelling in his sheath and his legs if he stood for too long. His endurance was gone, riding at a walk one lap around the arena and he would be almost panting. He was not quite 17 when we had to put him down because his heart issue had gone undiagnosed/untreated for too long and he ended up in congestive heart failure. He was my best friend for 13 years. He helped see me through my turbulent teenage years. Prayers for you and your boy.

By the way, your boy is beautiful!
 
I was just looking up the signs for the congestive heart failure and out of the 13 symptoms he has at least max of 10... Im sorry you had to go through that
default_sad.png
this is the first time my boy has ever shown any signs of this, he has always been 100% healthy in the 16 years ive had him with maybe the worst being a swollen leg and a quarter crack which resulting in reconstructing his whole right hoof when he was younger.

The vet did say something that he could of had heart wise and almost sounded like he could of already had a "mini heart attack" maybe the night before or so and we would have never known it.

Im still convinced it was a "heart attack" or some type of heart failure he was going through and if he shows no signs of improvement tommorrow I am going to call her back and suggest she test for that.

Oh and thank you for the compliment by the way on him
default_smile.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's amazing how there is a connection and sometimes they can wait "as long as it takes" until you show up! I understand that.

Sending you cyber hugs to get thru this.

He is a beautiful boy and you've been thru a lot with him. Take care.
 
Thanks for the comments so far everyone, this has been hard on me.

I just got back from seeing him this morning and as soon as my truck pulled up his head popped up and I could see he was wide eyed and bushy tailed with his ears perked up, but as soon as I came into the paddocked and he tried to come towards me he could barely walk. I could see the frustration in his eyes as he looked at me while he attempted to walk almost like he was asking "why cant I walk right?"

He didnt looked to be in pain but almost like his right fore and hind was in a paralyzed type state. Usually with him if he is lame he wont move or attempt to, today he was trying with all his might to move around like he didnt know he couldnt walk right until he tried.

He was eating and drinking etc they said and he continued to while we were there along with taking treats.

I groomed him up in the paddock but when I was done he limped over and tried to open the gate to his regular field with the 2 gypsy fillies and my mini was but I told him no he couldnt so he protested and just stood there not looking at me. I know he doesnt understand why he cant go out there because im sure he may feel better but he cant walk right.

After looking up his symptoms, he has 10 of the 13 symptoms for chronic/congestive heart disease/failure. And I think he was having a mini heart attack or stroke yesterday that took his movement down even more and I think from his limp around off and on this week he may of had a few others and the worst one was yesterday.

At this point i can get xrays, cardios done etc to determine what valve is having the problem which looks to be his right side and then determin what meds to put him one but they have to be micro managed and only are short term. At this point i do not know if that paralysis he is going through is permanent or if he would need like physical therapy to get movement back.

I am at a cross roads right now in should I let him go this week or see if he even improves, but if he does when will his next episode be?
 
Could he have hypp?
I read up on the HYPP here http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php and they didnt mention anything about the heart to much and I know he has a loud murmur now that he has never had and other irregularities to the heart beat. After 3 seditives his heart was still racing after everything was done and he was recovering in the paddock. He is a TB/QH (appendix) cross and I have his papers and I know "Impressive" isnt in his bloodlines.
 
So sorry he is still having such difficulties. I know it must be very hard on you, and it's so wonderful that he loves you so much. If he's not in pain, then I think I would give him time and see how he goes. Pain is a whole 'nother story, on that you'd have to do what you felt was right.

So hoping and praying he comes through this for you. Sending lote of {{{{{HUGS}}}}}
 
I hope your boy is doing better. I know zero about heart problems in horses or humans, but sometimes bacteria or viruses can attack the heart (endocarditis is one big problem). The infection doesn't have to be severe, it just has to find a way to the heart and make a foothold there. I know a bit about viruses and bacteria thanks to a degree in Molecular biology with undergraduate research on viruses of bacteria found in feces.

Is he vaccinated for West Nile? My QH gelding (Zips Chocolate Chip lines) was extended trotting in the field one day & then the next he was collapsed in the field unable to get up or use his hind legs. He had a temperature tho. He was only 6 years old, but I ended up having to put him down because he couldn't recover from the virus.

Good luck!
 
I make sure he gets every shot available honestly, and especially being a eventing/show jumper and how much traveling around the country we did, we had to be on top of his shots etc.

I spoke to the vet tonight and she thinks its time to re-evaluate him and I told her it looked like when a human has a stroke and they go paralyzed or partially on one side and she did agree with me that that could have most likely happened, that he could of had a few mini ones all week and a more significant one on saturday which took him down.

But he was less in distress today which is good and in more of a calm state so now we can see what symptoms there are lingering around on tuesday. His weight still is awful, it could be a couple hundred down now or more. I just dont know what to do about that to pack on the pounds quicker so he doesnt keep loosing more. He is still eating hay and all of his grain as well as drinking. He is also still on banamine as well and some stomach calmer just incase the banamine upsets it from having to give him a dose every day.
 
As to the weight, if its not what he's already on, you might want to switch him to a good complete senior feed (or just add senior to what he's already getting). Senior feeds are easy to digest. Add another meal or two to his daily regime; sometimes they just can't get enough in only 2 or 3 meals per day, so several smaller meals through out the day work better. If he's in his own paddock, then just increasing the amounts per meal might work, as he can work on it as he wishes. A probiotic might help to, the older fellow have a harder time with digestion, so it might be he needs a little help digesting his food now.
 
You can soak hay cubes. I used 50/50 alfalfa and timothy hay cubes and soaked them into a hay slop and fed that plus senior feed to an aged gelding I had once and he picked up weight beautifully and looked great in no time.

So sorry your boy is struggling. It is hard to experience and it can feel so helpless trying to figure out what will make them comfortable. best wishes.
 
I suggested to give him some beet pulp this morning which I use to give him in the past at my farm. He was perfectly fine on the feed he was on until he started not eating because of his lameness caused by a stone and then whatever episode he went through this week dropped his weight even more.

I havent gotten any phone calls as of yet that he is worse or wont eat so that is a good sign that he is still stable at the moment. I am planning on going down tonight to see what he looks like and if there are any new symptoms or if the ones he has had have improved.

I pulled out a big vet book I had kept from when we use to breed and raise thoroughbreds and I have found a few things that I will suggest to the vet besides looking into the heart diseases etc and the HYPP. I was also thinking it might be EPM (had a pony who contracted it) but he isnt showing the other obvious signs of that disease that I saw in my other horse and still doesnt have a fever or anything.

I also thought maybe he got hold of some toxic plants or something but yet I dont think there are any out there in the field he is in because they take very good care of all the pastures but I will take a look around the fenceline etc tonight just to make sure.
 
You can soak hay cubes. I used 50/50 alfalfa and timothy hay cubes and soaked them into a hay slop and fed that plus senior feed to an aged gelding I had once and he picked up weight beautifully and looked great in no time.

So sorry your boy is struggling. It is hard to experience and it can feel so helpless trying to figure out what will make them comfortable. best wishes.
We tried soaking his hay to try to get some more water into him and he got mad and flipped the bucket over (hes to smart for his own good), so we mixd grain in with the hay. Even thought you could see he was just as mad, he started picking through the hay for the grain. I cant say he is a picky eater but he is to smart for his own good. He is also a nightmare to get to eat medicine. It doesnt matter if you smother it with mollasses that horse will not touch it haha.
 
I was just going to suggest the vet check him for EPM, but I see you are already considering it. I had a mare contact it back before there were vaccs for it and she didn't have control of her back end at all, but could still eat. When she would go down we proped her up sternal with bales of straw, and the vet showed me how to hold her tail to get her up when I had help. We didn't have a good outcome. Hope your vet finds something soon.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Latest posts

Back
Top