UPDATE 5,,,LADY IS HOME!!!!!!

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This is my first time hearing about hypocalcemic.

Could someone familiar with this please share with the rest of us what symptoms you see?

Thanks.

Hoping for an update soon on this sick horse.
 
I am so sorry to hear she is still not doing well. My mare that we lost 3 weeks ago...her blood was black too. My vet still doesn't know why.....
 
This is my first time hearing about hypocalcemic.
Could someone familiar with this please share with the rest of us what symptoms you see?

Thanks.

Hoping for an update soon on this sick horse.
It is on the original post......Her prognosis is very poor.............................They are checking for blister beetles, but vet said that she should have blisters in her mouth and on her tounge for as advanced as her condition is...We are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo very careful with our hay. We NEVER throw a solid pad to them, we always break it apart and shake it lose so we can look for????? Is it possible, yes that we miss them. BUT>>>> we feed the same hay to all our horses, no one else is off.... I am pretty sure it is her calcium levels. I swear I did not notice anything different (off) with her last night. I have gone over it a hundred million times in my head. She was fine last night, and to be critical/life threatening in less than 18 hours, I MUST have missed something last night. OH GOD THE PHONE IS RINGING...not the vet...I hate it when they are not home, and they are sick!!!!!!! Thanks for your prayers, we all know it is powerful medicine!
 
Don't beat yourself up.... This is the exact same thing that happened to me. My mare was fine at the pm feeding...came running for food. Nothing at all would give the impression that less than 24 hours later she would be dead. She was not off at all. We tested our hay, our water....everything was fine. Her calcium was down and her phosphorus was very high. The first thing my vet did was IV calcium and she was better for a bit.
 
I've been thinking about you and Lady all afternoon. I will continue to pray that she improves. I am glad that you stood your ground and made the vet test Lady.

Hypocalcemia is not something to mess with. It is crazy how fast it comes on. Now I am so paranoid about it that I check all my horses daily for any signs.

My vet said that she has seen it in cattle alot. One time some cows were moved to a different pasture of irrigated bermuda. And within 24 hours the owner called her with a cow down. By the time she got there the first cow was gone and 2 more were down. And as she was working on them 2 more cows went down in the pasture. She said it was unreal and they ended up losing 3 of the cows before they got them sabilized and the rest of the herd moved. At first they thought that maybe something toxic was in the field, but after checking the cow's bloodwork they were extremely hypocalcemic. She thinks that the water used to irrigate the pasture was leaching the calcium in the soil causing the bermuda to me insufficient in calcium. So now the owner just had to be sure to provide a loose mineral supplement to any cattle he pastures there. I also believe that this is what was wrong with my mare that developed hypocalcemia. Poor hay.
 
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This is my first time hearing about hypocalcemic.
Could someone familiar with this please share with the rest of us what symptoms you see?

Thanks.

Hoping for an update soon on this sick horse.
I am not familiar with this, I have just gotten a crash course on it. It is a very real possibility we will lose her. Lady bug was fine last nite. This am she looked like she had severe hiccups in her flanks. Back legs (although one was worst than the other) were splayed like she had to urinate and were stiff. She appeared to be in no pain. By 2 pm she was getting worse. By 230 she was stiff in both back legs, stumbling and dragging her back toes. She seemed to be confused somewhat. Never broke into a sweat. Vet said her blood was black from lack of oxygen in the blood. They hiccup with their heart rythem(sp). I Don't know why. She had absolutely no signs of anything. All my horses are feed and watered in their stalls so we know when there are warning signs, no guessing on how much they have or have not eaten. Ladybug did not eat any of her feed or hay last night, but she did drink her NORMAL amount of water, yet she was severly dehydrated. After 1 1/2 of the big bags of IV she finally urinated alot 2x. and poo'd, not alot but it was moist and of normal color. I just can't figure out how I missed something. And how she became difficient in Calcium so quickly...I am doing ALOT of googling on this to educate myself, unfortunately, after the fact....Stay with me Ladybug, Sweet Dreams...I'll be there before the vet opens in the morning...
 
Prayers coming for Lady!
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Bless you for insisting on the bloodwork many vets do not listen to us. I know mine sometimes does not. Prayers for you and Art coming as well.....

Gini
 
I'm sick at heart for you. I KNOW how much you love her. And I know that some of the vets around here you have to FORCE them to listen (boy do I)

Our mare Girly was FINE then all of a sudden was "off". We ran her to the vet and he said it was west nile. I called him that night crying and begging him to come because she was dying and suffering and he told me she wasn't. She died 2 hours after I called him. 17 hours after the 1st sign of anything wrong, til she was dead. I don't think it was west nile. Too sudden.

GOOD for you for making him listen!

PRAYERS for Lady
 
There was a farm at the World Show from Oklahoma who had fed their horses alfalfa hay from their area. They had blister beetle, so far they have lost 2 and 3 are still at the vets. It seems to be pretty nasty and usually kills a horse within 24 houesa, though one of theirs hung on for 3 days before they had to put him down.

According to the vet there, if it was straight hay there would not have been a problem, it is when they try and feed alfalfa from Texas, Oklahoma or Missouri.

I hope it is not blister beetle.
 
I'm sick at heart for you. I KNOW how much you love her. And I know that some of the vets around here you have to FORCE them to listen (boy do I) Our mare Girly was FINE then all of a sudden was "off". We ran her to the vet and he said it was west nile. I called him that night crying and begging him to come because she was dying and suffering and he told me she wasn't. She died 2 hours after I called him. 17 hours after the 1st sign of anything wrong, til she was dead. I don't think it was west nile. Too sudden.

GOOD for you for making him listen!

PRAYERS for Lady
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[SIZE=12pt]My prayers are with you that your mare makes it through this..... [/SIZE]

I had a mare last year that developed hypercalemia and she managed to survive it. However, her recovery took about 3 weeks.

Our mare "Glory" was perfectly healthy the day prior to being diagnosed. The following day I noticed that she wasn't feeling very well in the morning and assumed that she possibly had gas colic from the alfalfa since it was so green and leafy. NO..... Within an 8 hour period she dropped to the ground and could walk along with having sever muscle contractions. We rushed her to the vet where they determined her condition.

Our mare actually had a foal on her side "Guardian" that we had to remove from her immediately that night at 3 months of age since she was in critical condition. She managed to make it through even with everything that she went through produced another colt for us this season.
 
This article is straight from the Merck Veterinary Manual. Cantharidin Poisoning (Blister Beetles)

The description of your mares' symptoms very much sound like this to me.
 
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I had a feeling that's what it was when I read your original post.. Exact same symptoms our girl Lexi showed last year, profuse sweating, lethargic, head hung low, heavy breathing, looked and felt like her heart was beating at every part of her body etc. We rushed her to the vets as we thought she had colicked (though no signs of rolling, no stomach biting etc).. Vets checked her over, not colic, decided to run bloodwork thinking she had ingested a toxin, and that's how we found her calcium levels dangerously low.. Gave her shot of Calcium and it seemed to help for a short period of time.. Had us take her 3 month old colt home and leave her over night so they could continue monitoring her and IV calcium into her.. Got a call the next morning that she was getting worse and that we needed to run her down to the University Hospital.. When we got there she was down, could barely hold herself upright or hold up her head, very shallow breathing and she had started to head press the night before, had rubbed hair off her forehead.. Looking back I should have followed my gut and had her put down there, but I just couldn't get those words out and my dad wanted to give her every shot possible and we opted to rush her down to the University, unfortunately we lost her in-route
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We had an autopsy performed as we were told originally that a nursing foal could not have pulled her Calcium level down as far as hers was, but everything else came back clean/clear and COD was ruled as hypocalcemia due to lactation...

Every loss is horrible, but this one was extremely bad, it happened soo fast with no warning:(

I'm praying extra hard for you and your gal..
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(((HUGS)))
 
I am so very sorry to read this, it is heartwrenching.

Please everyone, keep a supply of CALCIUM PHOSPHATE in your horse supplies.

I had a newly weaned colt develop "thumps", it was thumping in rhythm with his heartbeat, so scary. Fortunately I caught it quickly after it started, called the vet, and because I had this on hand, was able to give him a dose (orally, in a syringe with water). I was lucky, he recovered.

Unfortunately, we cannot predict everything that could possibly happen with our horses, but having this on hand could give you another weapon in case you need it.

Again, I am so sorry to read this about Lady.
 
:::::sob:::::: I'm so sorry that you are all going through this. Many prayers and positive thoughts coming your way.
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Becky,

That does sound like what Lady has. Which would mean that the low calcium levels are a symptom. Scary because Theresa lives so close to me.

We see blister beetles all the time around here. But my alfalfa is from a 1st cutting so hopefully it is beetle-free.

Theresa - We are still thinking about you and praying for Lady.
 
We had a mare with hypocalcemia several years ago. She was heavy in foal and initially I thought she was going into labor. She wasn't eating, appeared to be having mild contractions. I watched her some, & decided it wasn't labor, but didn't know what it was. Called the vet clinic--vet on call said to keep an eye on her. She stayed the same that night and by early the next morning she was obviously worse--she had thumps (called thumps I think because of the noise made when the diaphragm contracts--it's a very loud hiccup that sounds like a THUMP) and was having muscle twitches through her jaw and sides. She wouldn't/couldn't eat--her jaw was clenched tightly--she could walk but was reluctant to do so. I called the vet back & told him this was serious. He sent another vet out--she lived closer so could be here sooner. She came out, checked the mare, asked if she'd had a tetanus vaccine (she had) and so ruled out tetanus and said it had to be calcium deficiency. She'd never seen it in a horse but was very familiar with it in dairy cattle. She didn't even do a blood test, she was that sure of what the problem was. She had to go back to the clinic to get IV calcium but was back in less than an hour. She prepared two 20cc syringes of calcium & put the first one in, then started the second one. By the time half of that was run in the muscle tremors had stopped and the mare's eyes had brightened. she did not relapse and delivered a healthy filly 2 weeks later.

Hypocalcemia can kill in 48 hours or less--it is vital that the early signs not be missed. A horse out on pasture may well be sick for several hours before anyone notices, because she may stand or wander around with the other horses without anyone noticing that she isn't eating or moving right. Early signs maybe mistaken for colic. Some horses get sicker faster, so the early warning signs last for less time & are more likely to be missed-- A horse could be fine at evening feed and deathly ill by morning--which sounds like the case with your mare Theresa.

Muscles require calcium to work properly which will be why your mare is so splayed and stiff on her hind legs. As the heart is also a muscle, lack of calcium affects the heart--it will not be pumping properly, which accounts for the black blood and lack of oxygen--heart failure, according to my vet, is the cause of death in hypocalcemia. (Just an FYI for those not familiar with the condition and its effects)

If a horse was this sick from blister beetle poisoning I'm quite sure that there would be blisters/burns in the horse's mouth. As a side note to blister beetle poisoning...it isn't just hay from the 3 states listed above in an earlier post that can be a problem. I think that it's more common in hay from the southern states, but blister beetles have moved further north. We have them here but not in great numbers. There hasn't been a problem with alfalfa hay right around here (that I've heard of) but a couple years ago someone further north of here lost a couple horses--vet diagnosed cause of death as blister beetle poisoning, and the guy had been feeding his horses on locally grown alfalfa hay. There have also been occasional blister beetle poisonings in horses in various places in the northern US--on hay grown locally in those areas.
 

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