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Discussion on 17yr old Thor collapsed
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Member:
Dreamsox
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Posted on Thursday, Sep 28, 2006 - 11:27 pm:
HI Dr. O,
I care for a 17yr old Thoroughbred Jumper who reached his neck over his stall door, lifted his head( his eyes rolled back in his head) and collapsed. He split open his throatlatch area as he crumpled to the base of the door. He stayed down for about 5min, then fell forward into the corner and went down again. After another 5min he was able to stand with splayed wobbly legs. My vet came and we were able to get him outside and sew up his wounds.( he also gave him IV DMSO).Its been a week now and the horse is happy, but neurological on his right hind leg.( on a scale of 1-5, he is a 3. His Owner doesn`t want to X-ray Or do any further testing. In your opinion should this horse be retired ?His young rider loves to ride him. THank-you Terrie
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Member:
Canter
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Posted on Friday, Sep 29, 2006 - 8:20 am:
Terrie, I'm curious as to how your vet explained the collapse...narcolepsy? Seizures? It seems unlikely that anyone can offer an opinion on retiring the horse until they know the cause of the collapse and just exactly what is wrong with the RH leg. Did he damage it when he went down, could it be arthritis in an older horse...there are so many different possibilities with as many or more possible treatment options that all effect the outcome.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Sep 29, 2006 - 8:05 pm:
Hello Terrie,
seems to be a collapsing sort of day. While a 3 out of 5 you cannot recommend riding, even healthy horses stumble and kill their rider occasionally. As to the future, Fran's question is important because without a diagnosis you cannot guess what the best treatment and prognosis might be. For more see, Diseases of Horses » Nervous System » Diagnosing Diseases of the Nervous System.
DrO
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Member:
Zilpha
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 4, 2006 - 9:29 am:
Terrie,
What a scary thing to go through for both of
you. I wish you both well. Did they ever find
out what happened to your horse? I'm not a vet
but a nurse and it almost sounds like it was
something neurological due to the sudden change
in consciousness and the weakness that followed,
but like Fran said, the weakness could be secondary to the fall/possible injury.
Usually with our human patients, this would warrant ruling out neuro and cardiac causes here since it was of sudden onset causing the loss of consciousness.
Though very unlikely, could it have been from the
compression of the large arteries in the neck
when he reached his neck over the stall door?
Sheryl
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