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  Discussion on Weight loss and neurological disease
Author Message
New Member:
Danny

Posted on Thursday, Oct 3, 2002 - 5:02 pm:

I have a 10 year old warmblood that no one has really been able to diagnos. I have spent thousands of dollars trying to find out what is wrong with him. Basically, in the past year and a half he has been intermittantly lame(ranging from a 1-3 on any given day)in the rear. He does not look lame in hand or out at pasture...only under saddle. He has had a multitude of diagnosis ranging from ocd lesions, to subluxated scrum. The bottom line though is that no one really knows for sure what is wrong with him. He has had nerve blocks, 2 scintigraphies, radiographs, ultrasounds, etc. Over this time he has lost much weight. Some of it has been due to not being used(he hasn't been ridden in 8 months) due to the intermittant lameness, but he is on good quality feed, grain/pellet, and is turned out on good grass too. He is very quiet at pasture so he has not lost weight due to being outside. He has begun to look like a horse that isn't being fed enough...but he is. I am still trying to figure out what is wrong with this horse. My question is this: are there any neurological diseases that can present shifting hind end lameness with slow insidious weight loss? He does know where his feet are.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Oct 4, 2002 - 6:25 am:

Hello Danny,
I think there are some possibilities:
equine motor diesease
botulism,
organophosphate or ionophore poisoning
myositis,
shivers (equine polysaccaride storage myopathy)
malabsorptive disorders
etc..

Do you get the idea: weight loss and lameness are too nonspecific to begin diagnosing problems. I would like to point out one incorrect statement of yours: that he is being fed enough. If he is losing weight he is not being fed enough no matter what the cause or how much you are currently feeding.

You must generate more information before you can really begin a useful rule out list and the top of the list for information needed:
What is the nature of the lameness, is it pain or weakness? If pain, where is it coming? If the folks you are working with currently canno answer these questions I suggest you have the horse referred. Concerning the weight loss, has a good physical exam and complete laboratory work up not revealed any abnormalities? If these are repeatedly normal a muscle biopsy may be the best next step.
DrO
Member:
Danny

Posted on Friday, Oct 4, 2002 - 5:38 pm:

Hi Dr. O.

I believe he gets enough food. He is eating more now of the same food that he was on when he was in full work. In other words: before all this stuff began he was on feed three times daily, free choice good quality T&A Hay with lots of turn out when he wasn't being ridden and shown. He was ridden 5-6 days a week...including being shown over fences. His weight was great then. Now he has not been ridden at all in 8 months, gets more food(grain and pellets) than he used to when in full work and continues to look pitifully thin...almost to the point where it looks like he is being starved. We can't get weight on him. We've put him through a whole series of worming too just in case the weight loss was due to that. I'm afraid if he gets more grain he will colic. He still has as much hay as he can eat and is turned out on good quality grass.I can't give him anymore hay or grass because he already has all he can eat of that.

The lameness is generated from pain not weakness...I think. I am not sure how to differentiate though. The pain appears to be coming from up high in the rear. That is why some have said he looks like he has a subluxated sacrum. Since he has lost so much weight and there has been muscle atrophy too you can now see the points of his sacrum clearly and they are not even. One is around an inch higher than the other when he is stood up square. He has been evaluated by three different prominent hospitals in Florida. Each one has come up with differing diagnosis. The horse was treated for all those things(removing old OCD lesions, injecting hocks and hip, etc).The last time he was evaluated the vet spent an entire day with us doing nerve blocks of practically every joint in the horse's body with rider up. She was the vet that came up with the subluxated sacrum idea.

From the beginning, I have suspected this horse has some kind of neurological problem...but the doctors have said no. After I first bought him he began to stumble over his front feet occationally. Sometimes he would stumble so badly he would almost go down on his face. He knows where his feet are though when the in-hand tests are done. He doesn't seem to have much difficulty rising when he is lying down either. He seems like an EPM horse without those factors. He has had two blood tests for EPM and they both came back negative.

He has had no recent lab work done. Six months ago I was told to turn him out(after the extensive nerve block examination) in a quiet environment for 8 to 10 months and then reevaluate. I was just wondering if there was/were any kind of weird disease(s) whose hallmarks are intermittant and varying degrees of rear end lameness, stumbling in the front, and weight loss...that's why I wrote. He looks the picture of health, minus the thin frame. His coat is shiny, no skin problems, and he's bright eyed.

Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Oct 7, 2002 - 8:25 am:

If the lameness is from pain I would look at the weight loss and lameness as two seperate issues, they are not likely to be related. Lameness from pain causes specific changes in the gait, described in the article "The Diagnosis of Lameness". Lameness from neurological disease causes weakness and incoordination. One other differeintiating factor is that with pain the gait is consistantly abnormal in the same way every step, while with neurological disease it varies from step to step.

Again, your statement is incorrect: if he is losing weight he is not getting enough food to support him. As to whether there is a disease process going on to account for the increase need for nutrition I cannot say from the vantage but you need to be sure he is getting All of the essential nutreints and then enough calories to maintain desired condition. How to go about diagnosing the cause and treatment is explained in » Equine Diseases » Colic and GI Diseases » Weight Loss in Horses » Diagnosing Chronic Weight Loss. Be sure to read all the pertinent links.
DrO
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