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Convulsing Horse

5K views 32 replies 13 participants last post by  Peggysue 
#1 ·
My horse had been acting a bit odd for about a month-for instance he felt like he wasn't all with it when being ridden and breaking down his stall door without breaking down the stall guard (all he would need to do is push and he would be free, but he didn't) and then his striding at the canter was off so I called the vet and he said to just put him on bute for two weeks and see if it clears up.

After about a week and a half my horse seemed to be back to normal, but then the next day I was leading him into the barn and he stopped and just started shaking uncontrollably.

It started with him chewing like he had just been wormed and then it looked like he was going to swallow his tongue. He had his head bent around to the left and his jaw was set crooked. This went on for a few minutes and then we walked him out and he was fine. By the time the vet came out he was back to normal, but because he was still off in the front, we figured he had just been writhing in pain due to a pinched nerve or or pulled muscle in the shoulder. I then went back to giving him bute, stretching out his legs, and rubbing absorbine on his shoulder.

Once again after two weeks he appeared to be normal and we were getting back up to our usual amount of work and then this morning my friend who witnessed the first attack was riding him back from the creek (nothing more than a walk) and he backed up and started shaking again, but this time only the left side of his face was affected.

Like I said before the vet HAS been involved and he did test NEGATIVE for EPM. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
 
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#3 ·
EPM is the last one I would have thought on this one since that typically effects the hind end. The vet needs to do a more thorough diagnosis or find a new vet.
 
#4 ·
First you need to ask if the horse is a QH. Then ask if it is a descendent of Impressive. If it is a quarter horse and ancestry is unknown then HYPP is a possibility, however I wouldn't scream get a new vet immediately just yet. Although, EPM isn't usually associated with seizures so I would think it would be something else. I'd lean more towards HYPP but like I said before, it has to be a QH with Impressive in it's lineage, and it would have to be HH or NH.
 
#5 ·
hes a tb/standardbred cross so hypp isnt an option =\ and i forgot to put in that the first time the vet was out his hind end was a little off but that cleared up with the first round of bute
 
#13 ·
HYPP is traced SOLEY to Impressive. If there are horses in your area with HYPP then Impressive is somewhere in their lineage.

I would have the horse double checked for EPM. Although seizure is throwing me off.... ? I would also have it checked for HYPP. If it's a Tb/standardbred cross, then it's possible the previous owner "geussed" the breed.
 
#7 ·
i just ran out to the barn and someone else is having my vet out this wednesday so ill be sure to bring it up. thank you!
 
#9 ·
i also just watched some hypp videos and his attacks seem to be more of a shaking than a twitching if that makes any sense. then again ive never seen an hypp attack so my information may not be accurate.
 
#10 ·
if brain scans ran on love i would be able to do it in a heartbeat but i dont have the money and even if they found something would there be anything noninvasive they could do?
 
#11 ·
Well, if he doesn't have Impressive in his bloodlines somewhere, then it is a physical impossibility that he could have HYPP. It originated with Impressive and it was just a freak genetic mutation that got passed on to some of his offspring. However, it could be quite a number of other things. A friend had a horse that was poisoned with Locoweed about 15 years ago that exhibited similar symptoms (not exactly the same, just similar) so it could be anything from a pinched nerve to a tumor to some serious neurological disorder.
 
#20 ·
A friend had a horse that was poisoned with Locoweed about 15 years ago that exhibited similar symptoms (not exactly the same, just similar) so it could be anything from a pinched nerve to a tumor to some serious neurological disorder.
Do you know if it grows in northeastern pa?
 
#22 · (Edited)
It didn't have HYPP then. Walking horses are known to have certain issues such exertional rhabdomyolysis ("tying-up" syndrome). "Tying-up" syndrome can be caused by many different circumstances, including exercising a horse beyond the capacity to which it has been trained, as well as nutritional deficiencies and metabolic diseases. A distinguishing feature of HYPP from "tying-up" syndrome is that horses usually appear normal following an attack of HYPP. Horses with "tying-up" syndrome, on the other hand, tend to have a stiff gait and painful, firm muscles of the hind limbs, rump and/or back. "Tying-up" syndrome is also generally associated with some type of exercise. HYPP, by contrast, is not usually associated with exercise, but occurs when horses are at rest, at feeding time, or following a stressful event such as transport, feed changes, or concurrent illness.
 
#19 ·
The vet hadnt tested for any other neurological problems because he had seemed to make a full recovery after he had his first episode. We thought he was just having severe pain in his shoulder, so when the shoulder pain cleared up and he had no other indications of a problem we assumed he was then ok.

When a horse has an hypp attack would it cause the horse to lift up its legs higher when trotting almost like passage? As i was falling asleep last night I remembered that right after his first attack we got him into the round pen to wait for the vet and he started to trot with his legs lifting really high as if he were trotting through deep snow and thats highly unusual for him.
 
#24 ·
Farmpony the horse tested N/H for HYPP !!!!

Purdue is not reporting all of it's testing is all I can say


From the sounds of it this is not HYPP or EPSM or PPSM ... sounds more like EMP or something along that line
 
#26 ·
He had another episode this morning and it was decided that it was a seizure. The one this time was worse than the other three so we're just going to wait it out. If he has another one with in the next two days or a big one in the next week he will be put down but if nothing happens he will just have an early retirement as a pasture pet. We still dont know whats causing it, but thank you all for your input.
 
#27 ·
Has anything blood been drawn to even test for toxins? If he has gotten into something poisonous, waiting it out is the worst thing you could do and potentially life threatening to you horse.

I've seen horses with Locoweed poisoning when I lived farther south, and it does seem to fit your description. Where I live in northern Indiana there is no locoweed, so I would be willing to bet there is no locoweed in PA either. However there IS snakeroot - another very common pasture weed, some horses ignore it, but if they don't, it can cause some serious problems. However I think toxicity from snakeroot is usually associated with nasal discharge and coughing?

White Snakeroot | Plants toxic to animals | Veterinary Medicine library at U of Illinois

Also common around here, in Indiana, is Poison Hemlock growing in unmanaged pastures. Signs of toxicity sound VERY similar:

frothing at the mouth
uneasiness
dilated pupils
weak, rapid pulse
convulsions
clamping of jaws
 
#28 ·
I agree that the vet should pull blood for a toxicology screening.

If it's not poisons or toxins and turns out to be something neurological, the kindest thing would be to euth the animal before the seizures get worse.

My heart horse started having seizures. They got so violent that he would fall down. The vets could find no reason for them, but suspected something neurological.

The last day of his life he had 3 seizures right in a row, and fell and broke his pelvis. He hadn't had any seizures for 8 months, and I thought he could live out his life as a pasture pouf. I thought wrong.

If I had known then what I know now, I'd have let him go after the first really bad seizure instead of making him suffer those last, debilitating, terrifying moments.
 
#29 ·
Nothing has changed in his diet and the pasture he is in doesnt have any snake root =\ the vet will be out tomorrow, so the toxicology is an option but theres only so much we can do :(
 
#30 ·
I talked to the vet and she said that because of his behavioral changes along with the seizures chances are it's a brain tumor, so hes being put down monday afternoon :'(
 
#32 ·
I'm very sorry to hear about your horse:( That is very sad, it must be hard.




Just out of curiosity was your horse vaccinated against rabies? We had a horse at a barn down the street from us that had it and it had behavior changes, and was doing other weird stuff. Not saying that is what it was or anything just wondering. I never in my life really thought about horses having rabies. It shows up different in horses, and the only reason the vet thought of rabies was because of the behavior change.
 
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