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  Discussion on Recovery for Tying-Up
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Posted on Tuesday, Jul 23, 2002 - 6:04 pm:

I have been searching for months to find an answer to help my horse. I have a seven year old Arabian gelding that I had shipped to my home in Colorado from my brother's home in Illinois. The horse, Meeko, was nothing more than a lawn ornament for two years and as I was soon to find out, not fit for such a long journey. Meeko arrived after three days in an air-ride semi trailer equipped for long trips. He seemed very wobbly and unstable on his back legs. The driver told me that he just had the equivalent of "sea legs" from traveling and he will just need some time walking around to correct the problem. I introduced him to my other equine (a quarterhorse mare, and two gelding donkeys) and walked him around the parimeter of the 20 acre pasture before turning him loose to join the herd. My mare treated him pretty badly, biting, charging, and kicking, but I was told by some good friends that it would be best not to interfere and let them work it out. The next morning to my horror I watched out the window as my mare charged toward Meeko and he fell over on his side and laid there too weak to get up. I ran outside, helped him up, ushered him into the barn and called the vet. She drew some blood, gave him a several injections (selenium, vitamin e, banamine), tubed him to get fluids into him, and started him on electrolytes. I was told to put him on complete stall rest because he was suffering from a condition called "tying-up" (later confirmed by the bloodwork) and that his muscles needed time to rehydrate and heal. That was in January. It is now July and the progress has been extremely slow to say the least. I babied this guy along with a special diet of high fat and low carb diet, excellent quality alfalfa hay, muscle building supplements, massage therapy, and tons of TLC. He has made some progress, but still drags his hind feet so much so that the toes of his hooves are worn down to the sole. He still stumbles and has trouble balancing. He has been able to cooperate enough to begin picking up his hind feet for picking, but not long enough for trimming. I have had x-rays done on his neck and had a neurologist examination, but nothing has been found. Is it possible that he is still recovering from the extreme tying-up that he suffered in January? He was completely healthy when he left Illinois, so there is no indication that he was suffering from any disease prior to this episode. I even called the breeder to see if there is anything in his bloodline that might be a clue, but came up empty. Is there anything that I am missing that I can do to help him heal or recover? My vet is stumped, the neurologist said he couldn't find anything wrong, and the teaching hospital here in Colorado doesn't diagnose nervous system problems, so I am at a loss here. Any help or suggestions would be very appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 24, 2002 - 7:21 am:

Hello Ginger,
Well it just is not true the neurologist cannot find anything: all the symptoms you describe are possibly caused by compressive spinal cord lesions. Just because he cannot visualize the compression does not mean that it does not exist. Did the neurologist think that these symptoms were not of neurological origin and why did he think that?

Laboratory work is an easy definitive way to tell if you have ongoing tying up. For more on this see the article at, Equine Diseases: Lameness: Tying Up, Rhabdomyolysis, and Shivers (EPSM).
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 24, 2002 - 1:11 pm:

Hi DrO,

Thanks for your quick response. I read and re-read the article you suggested and I think I might be on to something here. I wonder if Meeko has EPSM. I have contacted my vet here locally, and although he is not familiar with EPSM, he has agreed to perform the biopsy and send it to Cornell for analysis. Is it ok to print out the article and share it with him to help educate him about EPSM. Although Meeko was on the special diet I mentioned, he was only on it for about six weeks. My vet thought that it wasn't necessary to keep him on it once he was turned out to pasture following the stall rest. We discontinued the electrolytes at that same time. His diet now consists of grass hay only (analyzed to be about 7% protein). No supplements of any kind, only salt block and loose minerals. What do you think?

Posted on Thursday, Jul 25, 2002 - 6:33 am:

The best way to tell if you are having muscle problems is by testing for the muscle enzymes as outlined in the article, that should be your first step for ruling in or out tying up, including the subclassification of EPSM. Yes you may print out the article for your vet.

I am still interested in why the neurologist did not think the symptoms were neurological in origin. Considering the history it strikes me as a probable cause while it is difficult to figure why the EPSM would pop up following the traumatic episode.
DrO
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