Tied up :/

My filly tied up tonight and it was a first for me.. she wouldnt walk and her back end was shaking.
We gave her some meds and rubbed cooling gel on her ligaments. She seems to be doing better now cause she moves around more.. but she still doesnt move her back legs as much as I would like. Im just worried sick and needed to vent I guess... :/
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Give her some electrolytes, and keep a close eye that she doesn't start urinating blood.
Tying up is scary, I had a little warmblood gelding that was prone to it, he's get himself so worked up that he would tie up, to the point of needing to go on fluids because his kidneys would start failing and he would urinate blood.

For mild tying up, you need to keep the muscles over the back as warm as you can. It is caused by a build up of lactic acid over those muscles, so keeping the loins and croup warm, encouraging the horse to move around, and if possible giving the horse a massage, will all help to move the acid build up and get the muscles moving again.

I did all of that except electrolytes, just have been giving her water and massaging her and put a blanket on her. I tried to walk her but she wouldnt move a muscle so we gave her banimene(spell check!) and put that icy cool for horses on her tight muscles. She was moving around when I left, she just was mostly keeping her back legs still and pivoting her front around.
My BO is keeping a close eye on her for me since I had to come back home to my five month old son.

Im really worried. The BO just texted me and said she's improving a bit and she's moving around more..
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Try getting some electrolytes into her, this is really important as is she does not have sufficient electrolytes in her system, that will be contributing to her muscles still contracting.
If she's not better within a couple of days, I would have the vet out to her as she may require a muscle relaxent and some intravenous fluids to get her back moving around. Mild tying up should not last for more than a couple of hours at most, and the horse should be back to normal within a day or 2. More than that, and you start compromising the function of the kidneys.

Subbing. We just got a horse in for training at the barn and the owner was freaking out because he tied up before she brought him over to us. He is better now but would like to retain any information possible as since he is not at our barn I will have a share of the responsibility for him and don't have a lot of experience in this area.

Kayty, for electrolytes, should I just plan on keeping some gatorade around (Which we have anyway) and putting some in his water if this horse was to tie upon us?

SH - Unfortunately once they tie up they can be prone to it from then on. You need to watch what you feed them (consult the vet about a specific diet plan if possible), and always make sure you warm up and cool the horse down very thoroughly before putting it away. As I said earlier, tying up is a build up of lactic acid in the muscles around the hind end and over the back, the the longer you can walk the horse out after a ride or lunge, the better. Keeping the horse in a paddock for as long as possible each day will also be helpful.

Gatorade is ok, but I would hesitate to give it as a regular source of electrolytes because of the enormous sugar content. Just go and buy a tub of equine electrolytes. You can get it as a liquid or a powder/granules, this will probably work out cheaper than trying to give your horse a bottle of gatorade each time it works hard.
I give my horses electrolytes each day over summer as a maintenance dose, because it gets so hot here. If I've worked them hard, they'll get a double dose.

Okay, I will check our supplement room for the equine electrolytes and if not I will use some of the alotted barn money and go buy some. Hopefully this gelding works out okay for us, would hate to have issues while he is in our care. Thank you for the information.

What about giving banamine or bute if electrolytes aren't available? Can you give both? Had a three year old n/n qh tie up and that is all I had on hand. It helped her relax. She drank a lot of water and I walked her out for a while. She recovered by the next day. I considered her episode mild. Sorry for hijacking the thread...........

I'm going to add that the horses get a selenium supplement. They need 1 mg of selenium a day to provide proper muscle relaxation, and the US doesn't have much selenium in the soil. In Michigan, we have less than .2 mg and I had a horse tie up because of the lack of selenium in his diet. We had a blood panel done to confirm.

Selenium in Counties of the Conterminous States

I'd added this to my horse's daily diet. Vitamin E Selenium Crumbles Horse Health (Equine - Supplements - Vitamin Mineral) There are also selenium blocks (like salt blocks) that can be placed in the pasture.

Please check the horses diet and talk this over with your vet. Remember a phone call to the vet doesnt cost you anything but time ! My sisters mare tied up really bad, the worst tie-up my vet had ever seen. It was because the ridiculous lady who ran the barn thought she looked skinny and gave her a couple lbs of sweet feed.