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horses and toxins

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  • horses and toxins

    I have not been around much. I read, but don't feel like I have much to offer as a poster. Maybe someone will be able to use this information.

    I have a couple of horses here. One is an older QH mare out of Easy Jet. The other is a foundation bred mare that is 10. As much as I hear about how stubborn Hancock bred horses are, she is not.

    Sunday morning she suddenly started having bizzare hind limb muscle fasiculations and hypermetria, which looks like goose stepping for a lack of a better term. At first I thought she was colicy, but as the morning progressed, the neurological signs got much worse. Soon she was spooking and running blindly from a clap of hands 50 yards away. The fasiculations and hypermetria became much worse and she became ataxic too. Then she started a weird head Bob and weave, hyper salivation and teeth grinding or chewing. The nostrils were pulled back lime a flehming response minus the elevated lip.

    By thus time it was looking bad. She did not respond to banamine or dexamethasone. She was not febrile, but she was sweating in patchy areas. So rule outs included infectious like epm, eee or rabies, toxic, or a weird hypp type episode. I was at a loss. I call some equine vets I know, sent videos, ran blood, so on.

    No one had any definitive diagnosis. By night, I was considering just putting her down.

    I gave her until this morning, and she seemed a tiny bit better. By lunch, she was walking normally and eating. I can tell she is just not quite right, but she is almost there.

    Anyway, the hay looks clean, the other horse showed no symptoms, and this one is recovering. It almost has to be toxic, but I have no idea what would have done it.

    The only thing in the lit that might even cause anything remotely like this is jimson weed. They have never touched it before, and the symptoms were not quite right. There might have been a single plant in the bale that caused it, rye grass has a weird toxicity that could be like this and I may not see rye in with fescue .....who knows.

    If anyone has any thoughts, I could sure use some help. I hope we are on the downhill side, but an acute case of epm may yet be an issue. Just another reason to kill every damned opossum I see. Coons, foxes, yotes are on that list too.

    PS typed from a phone. It won't let me go back and correct for some reason

  • #2
    Thanks ma. I am still learning toxic plants here. Rye ergot, some weird vetch stuff, jimson are the only things locally that make sense.

    Certain insecticide might do it.

    Just weird that the other horse is normal.

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    • #3
      Scary stuff redman. Hope that even if you don't get it figured out, she makes a full recovery.

      I don't know squat about feeding horses, what's toxic to them, or even how to tell the difference between grains/hay types. Thankfully I know what Jimson weed looks like and rip it out and destroy it every time I see it (had it show up in my backyard garden area a couple of years ago). Unfortunately, all it takes is one bird poop for stuff like that to spread like wildfire.
      Pastemistress. Now aka Mimi

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      • #4
        I never worried about jimson before. The horses hate it and won't touch it unless they are starving. I guess I need to rethink that plan.

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        • #5
          It is possible, and considering the battle we are going through with custody for my stepdaughter, it might be a consideration. Meth heads and pill adicts do stupid things.

          Still, he lives in Louisiana, so that seems unlikely. He is way too lazy to drive here for that. Nasty enough, just too lazy. Lol

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          • #6
            Do the horses have access to any other feed than just hay? I would almost rule out the hay . Two reasons, the other horse didn't get sick and most toxic plants start losing their toxicity when they are cut and baled. It doesn't really sound as if she got drunk on dallas grass like cattle do. If it was fescue, she would most like have foundered and the symptoms would have been different. The first thing I thought of was jimson weed, but horses usually avoid that.

            Is there any trash in the pasture? Possibly something that could have had a poison on it?
            Is there any way that someone with ill intentions could access your horses?

            I would definitely pull blood and do a work up. It could give you a better idea and may prevent something like this happening again. If you suspect a meth head slipping the horse some dope, go to Walgreens and pick up one of those home drug test kits and test her pee. If she was slipped enough dope to mess up a horse, it should show up.

            Let us know what you find out. I'm curious.


            Tex
            = 2
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            If we cannot define a simple word like greatness, how can we ever hope to use it as a measuring stick to know when we have risen beyond average?

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            • #7
              I never thought of testing her for drugs.

              They are in a dry lot. Few weeds. Hay. Small amount of all stock feed daily. Nothing else. No garbage. No sprays.

              The symptoms are not exactly like jimson, but it is really the only thing I can come up with.

              I will test the urine. I wonder how long it stays in the system?

              Neither are on meds. Dewormed about 30 days ago with fenbendazole.

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              • #8
                Can they do EMG testing on a horse? It would be interesting to see what it revealed.
                Revelation 3:16, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

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                • #9
                  They can. The expense is astronomical. Pretty much only going to be at the university type referral centers too. I am not sure if anything would show since she has recovered so quickly.

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                  • #10
                    Redman, my mastiff was just bit by a black widow spider. Had some of the same symptoms. Do you see any marks on her? The spot on my dog was gooey and kind of green. The hair fell out at the bite mark. Just a thought. Not sure if you have black widows in your area?

                    His symptoms started early Saturday morning with back legs that did not work. We got him up and helped him walk. He walked like he was drunk. He was in terrible shape all day Saturday and all of that night. By Sunday he was 80% better and by Sunday night, he was 95% back to normal.
                    I'm a ding bat & AA groupie

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                    • #11
                      Gena, we have them, but they don't bother horses. Usually it is just the tissue necrosis with horses if they get bitten.

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