Does everyone else have unusual horse maladies, or just me?

[BlueDrifter]

I got a late start into horses at age 38. Now 68. I have been fortunate that I can afford to care for them, but despite all that, I am amazed at the things I have experienced.

Boz: first horse, TB, something neurological eplipsy-ish triggered by single rotor helicopters. You would think that might be workable, but I lived in SoCal on the flight path of those copters from El Toro to San Diego. Boz would break out of his stall and run for miles in traffic. Nearly killed me. Vet recommended, and after 4th time, euthanasia.

Rusty: Varnish Roan Appy. God’s gift to me after Boz, had him 12 years, we did everything, until arthritis and uveitis. I suppose this might be normal health for a 25 year old appy.

Mendy: Wonderful appy/TB trail mare. Broke her leg in 24x48 sand turnout. Surgery, but she failed to stand up post surgery. I miss this girl.

Joker: Ah, my first baby, but he was too much for me. Schooled to PSG and returned to breeder for her use. I really needed a trail horse, not just an arena horse, and I was never able to find a person to help train him on trail. My bad.

Drifter: My current blue roan. 17. I have owned him 5 years. A rough start, but has became a great horse. Anaphylactic shock from bee-sting last summer. We have pepper trees, of course we have bees. I have PTSD for this summer.

Finn: My current buckskin. 5. Hasn’t taken a wrong step, just a sweet heart. Acute colic from nephrosplenic displacement last week. Fixed without surgery. But man, in 30 years I never heard of that! And now I am PTSD about that!

I certainly know of ulcers, kissing spine, ligament/tendon injuries, fecal water, regular colic, NQR, head-shaking, sweet itch, scratches, but I feel like I have a collection of weird things.

Is it just me, or does everyone else experience rarer horse maladies and are just quiet about it? After Finn’s displacement, I am surprised at the number of people who had heard of it.

[IPEsq]

Oh, oh I’ll give you just one of my horses. My current red horse. Love him to pieces because when he’s not trying to maim or kill himself, he’s just one of the best buddies I’ve ever had. But he has had…(among other things)

Mast cell type mild equine asthma;
Decided to have anhydrosis one summer;
Found a piece of rebar buried in his pasture, rolled on it and tore a pectoral muscle yet somehow managed to avoid actually impaling himself (no open wound);
Colic with nephrosplenic entrapment (also resolved without surgery thankfully) - and turns out triamcinolone injections tend to make him colicky;
Fused L5-L6;
Developed sweet itch / summer eczema at age 10;
Tried to jump a 1.60 paddock fence and BROKE HIS SCAPULA;
and now has torn off a chunk of eyelid due to his bug allergies / itchiness.

And that’s just one horse!

Also on my bingo card of horse ownership - vitiligo, two colics with complete twists, horse with nerved front feet, the gamut of sacroiliac area injuries and abnormalities, cervical arthritis, pedal osteitis, tendon injuries, ligament sprains, complete mystery swollen legs, hind gut acidosis, 5/5 (hopping) lameness of a stifle for unknown reasons (no injury), broken splint bone, melanomas, and kind of run of the mill ulcers and arthritis. I’m sure there’s more.

[BlueDrifter]

You make me feel better…

[whhisperbaby11]

I’ll jump in here. Cushings, wave mouth, anhidrosis, cataracts, looks like he may always need clipping. Since we are only talking maladies, I’ll stop here.

[Critter]

Let’s see…
TMJ before it was a thing…that horse I was able to manage and he was my heart horse.

Colic with nephrosplenic entrapment - that was a broodmare with a 2 week old colt at her side…surgery and recovered.

Small intestine twist…that was in a 4 mo old colt…surgery and recovered…but then he got pneumonia (and recovered).

S1 nerve root inflammation…did get a recovery with that after a year of rest and slow return to work.

Acute on chronic pancreatitis…mare was euthanized…the necropsy found the pancreatitis, so at least we then had an explanation for the recurrent colic and her really miserable behavior (I had only had her a few months).

Myositis ossificans in the biceps brachii muscle.

EDM…yeah, I think this was the hardest one I had to go through…stunning coming 5yo I had bought as a yearling. He was special…and so sweet…until the wiring in his brain wasn’t working and he became explosive and neurologic. So, so hard…and I miss him.

Saphenous vein blood clot…yup! In the hind leg…exceedingly rare. Trauma induced when rough housing with the horse in the next pasture. 6 - 8 inch long clot, thankfully not a full occlusion…treated with human Plavix…made a full recovery.

Broken ribs (no trauma and solo turnout)…my current gelding. He is also dealing with repeat bleeding ulcers. He’s my current medical money pit (he also had anaplasmosis twice)…good thing he’s so darn cute!

That’s just the weird stuff (probably missed one or two)…and doesn’t count the usual ortho/soft tissue stuff.

[vxf111]

Out of (at the time) 4 horses 3 had corpra nigra cysts that needed ablation (one has 3 cysts in 2 eyes, one had a single cyst that needed multiple ablations, only one had the run of the mill single cyst that responded immediately).

And after pulling all my ponies teeth for EOTRH I thought “ok that’s a weird one I got to experience once and won’t have to think about it again.” This July I get to have my TB gelding’s teeth removed for the same reason. What are the odds?!

[Texarkana]

Sending you lots of love.

And yes, my horses like to rewrite the book on unusual medical maladies.

[IPEsq]

Oh I forgot about the one time a dose of Banamine on a hot day following a routine orthopedic treatment nearly sent one of my horses into kidney failure (not the red horse, but he had a lot of Banamine for the eyelid injury I was scared he’d add that one to his list).

[Foxglove]

My opinion here --and I might be wrong or just have tunnel vision: It seems to me for the first time in history people own horses longer and expect longer use than ever before. Among the working cowboy element (actually work cows and ride fence), a horse is not expected to be working into his late teens and 20s. Sure, a few are, but as a kid growing up, I rarely saw a horse over 15-20.

I have owned horses for 56 years. Of course I try EVERYTHING to keep them sound and make them live forever --but that’s a modern thought. And I’m not sure it’s really a good idea --I have a retired 4-H horse --great horse --won tons of stuff for my granddaughter (who hasn’t seen him in 5 years since she’s an adult). He’s arthritic --just lives in a pasture --best food, best care, affection, everything a horse could want --but no work. Just . Stands. In. A. Pasture. He can’t be with other horses as he is a vicious kicker. I think he should be sent to greener pastures, but my husband likes him and says he’s fine where he is (DH does some horse work so he gets a say). The horse is 25.

I have a second 17 year old OTTB who has an arthritic knee --some days lame, some days sound. He needs regular work to —be a dressage horse --but I really don’t enjoy dressage --so like horse #1, he does a lot of being in the pasture with no job. He is $$$ with feed and supplements and special shoes for a horse that DOES NOTHING.

Then there are my two QH —17 and 25. They work for a living, giving me great joy on a daily basis. Minimal feed, no shoes, just two fun horses to ride any place and do anything with.

So my point is —we keep them well past their useful lives --and that more and more unique conditions occur isn’t due to luck so much as age and use.

One of my QH is a former cutting/sorting horse —I bought him at 10 years old --his previous owner sold him at 8 because he’d reached the upper limits of age for cutting/sorting. The horse bounced around in auctions (ranch horse auctions) for two years before I got him. At his PPE the vet pointed out that with his hocks, cutting/sorting wasn’t something he should do ever again —ok with me. I do mounted archer and fox hunt.

So I think we just keep them going —and eventually --weird stuff happens to them if they live long enough.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Just experiencing the things that aren’t unusual is enough stress! I can’t imagine some of what others have mentioned. Horses don’t have to be “old” to experience strange or even ‘everyday’ maladies either. At this point in my life with a horse who’s sometimes okay sometimes not and $$$ just to be that way, I am “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”.
But lord help us all… I certainly feel great commiseration for everyone.

[2tempe]

One mare: 4th level dressage, 10 years old when:

• Stifle issues, injected, 30 days down time.
• Came in one day with lump just below peek of withers. Next day withers hugely swollen, incredibly hot, painful. Various vet treatments, icing, poultice, antibiotics, etc. Took 8 weeks until I could put a saddle pad on her. Different vet came about 4 weeks into this, xray’d and found “irregularities in the spinous processes”. Said it looked trauma related. Absolutely no idea…
• Some months later, colic, she was bloated, looked like the Hindenburg. Surgery required, large colon displacement.
• 9 months later, rinse and repeat the colic. This time displaced to the other side. Surgery again.
• Maybe 15 months later, she’s NOT RIGHT. Diagnosis of Enteritis. No trip to the clinic but serious meds and IV fluids for 3 days. Cost almost as much as the surgeries.
• Break for maybe two years while she was leased to a friend. One day felt funny behind. Suspensory branch desmitis, BOTH hind legs. Prognosis considered poor.
• Retired the mare, maybe 5 years ago, at 16, wearing only some fancy support shoes behind. Her fetlocks have dropped, more post legged behind. Now she has cushings and some skin crud on belly that we cant get to heal…

[Shagyas_Rock]

I have a horse whose stablemate (they were living in a paddock with a two stall run-in) ran him into a wall…found him in the shed unable to lift his head. It’s a long story but it took 3 months of weekly chiro as he was jammed poll to tail…and six months of massage and physical therapy to get him sound. He is 21 now…this happened when he was around 12

[bingbingbing]

The two most uncommon issues I have had are a case of hydrops in a broodmare and a mare with hypertrophic osteopathy. Most vets will never see a case of either.

Hydrops

Hypertrophic Osteopathy

[BlueDrifter]

Oh, my guy has copra nigra, too. But we finally decided it was not bothering him… sheesh.

[adultponyhunter]

Most recent pony addition was rescued from the Amish with a body condition score of 1. There were a pair, the other died of starvation but my little guy held on. Rescued by a kind family who fed him, then sold him on Craigslist (to me -late 2021). Clearly a pretty strong willed guy to survive all that.
Less than 6 months later I come out to find him thrashing - he is so itchy he cannot stay standing. So many meds, body clips, hours and money, take him down to the vet school ASAP - verdict is allergic to Human Dander. Enter allergy shots to combat his human allergy.
About 9 months after that, massive colic that was either euthanize right now or get him on the surgery table in the next two hours. Goes back to the vet school, greeted with “isn’t this the pony allergic to humans?” - yes. On the table for a small intestine resection within an hour.
Recovers great in ICU, day before discharge develops massive incisional infection. Turns out to be essentially the most stubborn, resistant incision infection the vet school has seen in a very long time -takes 5 months to close. Now here we are.

Also have a draft horse with a giant prolific optic neuropathy growth in his right eye. My vets were floored looking in his eye the first time. His eye is claimed for research when he dies. About a year later horse develops massive aural hematoma - goes to the vet school for surgical fix but it is very abnormally sitting between two layers of tissue that make it unable to save the ear if opened up (of course). His $3500 ear. Eventually absorbs but definitely isn’t 100%.

Other draft horse - massive stubborn impaction colic. Resolves after 10 days in ICU. Does it again 7 months later. Sits in ICU for 6 days being tubed every 2 hours, IV fluids in both jugulars, rectal fluids, pulled out every single stop. Not on banamine because he’s not painful. Finally becomes uncomfortable, starts to displace and we euthanize. Necropsy showed 6ft long impaction in large colon - absolutely unheard of that he wouldn’t be painful through all that.

Lastly my pony we’ve always called a medical anomaly - but after all the above it really doesn’t seem so bad. Recurrent ulcers, mild colic, IBD, sensitively to sugars, horrific hock rads, etc. Bought him his own retirement farm and he’s very stable.

[BlueDrifter]

There needs to be a “caring” icon. Yikes.

[Amy3996]

My late WB gelding:

• Heaves/RAO
• Sidebone (Fine right up until it wasn’t)
• Chronic choke
• 3” laceration across coronary band from pawing at a pasture gate. Crime scene levels of blood. Needed 10 staples and 6 weeks to close, then another year for the damage to grow down the hoof wall.
• Core lesion of LF DDFT
• EPM (we ended up euthanizing in 2020 because of the neuro decline combined with difficulty managing his other conditions).

My current 8yo OTTB gelding:
-Severe glandular and pyloric ulcers
-NPA
-Multiple casting episodes

• treated a very inflamed SI after turnout zoomies ended in an unfortunate cartoonish wipeout.
• Needed 4 weeks off this spring to resolve fetlock synovitis, also from pasture shenanigans.

Ah yes, horses. Glorified farm animals with suicidal tendencies.

[Kyrabee]

My mare has been pretty darn healthy. We had a weird one last summer though.

I got to the barn and she was down. She didn’t get up when I arrived which was weird. She finally got up and downed her pre-ride Outlast. I checked her temp which was normal. She seemed fine. Normal pulse & normal breathing so I saddled her up. Nice work session with a willing and forward horse. We are doing our cool down and she stops and poops. Unusual as she normally doesn’t poop under saddle (for shorter rides anyway…30-60 min). I dismount and lead her to the gate to get the manure fork and she has blood in her tail and down her backside . It was rectal in origin. She is a 20 yo gray so I immediately go to internal melanoma.

Of course I don’t have the truck and have to go home and get it. Call the vet and say we are coming.

Get back to the barn and can see she has had another BM with blood. While I am giving her a quick brush and fly spray she does 3 more episodes of evacuating 4-5 normal green poop balls then a squirt of blood. I would get one mess cleaned up and turn around and she had done it again. After the first mess in the aisle, I thought to take pictures.

Thank goodness I did because by the time I got her to the vet, there was nary a drop of blood to be seen. She got a thorough exam and there were no masses or tears. The consensus was a hemorrhoidal varicose vein that ruptured. Thus far (almost a year out) she has not had any recurrence (thank goodness).

Only my horse and her ‘rhoids’.

Susan

[JB]

You’re not alone!

First horse, the real JB, just had a couple of abscesses in the first 15 years I had him. Moved to our farm, and in the first couple months developed a nasty abscess on his elbow which required a drainage hole and and lots of abx. Then 4-5 months later, I had him put down on the operating table due to a strangulating lipoma having killed many feet of intestine, and the odds of a quality of life for years was pretty low.

Rio:

• 7 months old sliced his LH and needed stitches, T-giving day.
• 2 years, found an unknown object and poked a hole in his cheek which required stitches, Saturday morming
• 2.5 years, developed locking stifle issue which put him as the only horse on the farm in full time turnout
• 3 years, tore a flexor tendon sheath, thankfully just a Winter of pasture rest
• 4 years, severed an extensor tendon sliding into one of 3 t-posts on the property, which were put up to make a temp fence to keep him from bothering the stalled-at-night horses while he was on full time turnout
• 6 or 7, ruptured his peronious tertius tendon
• 8-ish, strained an ab muscle
• 10-ish, unknown injury in his RH somewhere, likely high and deep, which would get better, then worse, as I continued to try rehab with him, until finally around 15 or so it was clear it wasn’t going to improve again, and which ultimately led to his demise at a young 21

homebred:

• developed uncommon complications from gelding
• shoved a stick horizontally through the back of his frog which resulted in an “abscess” that wasn’t resolving until finally his body started shoving the stick back out
• new abscess which came out both the toe, and the coronet, which has resulted in a permanent defect in the wall which causes all kinds of issues if I’m not trimming regularly
• currently working on canker

Then there’s the mare who’s scratched her eyeballs twice, and the now 33yo who is blind in one eye due to uveitis we fought for about 9 months, cause unknown.

[RhythmNCruise]

My current Appy has: “asthma” (not exactly sure, never has been enough of a problem to investigate, but he’s loud when he canters…especially in hot/humid weather…not roaring loud, but noticeable), anhidrosis, severe insect allergies, thin-soled feet, arthritic hocks, has had ulcers (successfully treated), needs Equioxx daily, plus ulcer prevention, plus hoof boots (just as a precaution in the woods with lots of stumps and roots), plus Adequan 2x/year, plus ample amounts of magnesium, plus a million other things. Feeding him (at least to suit me) requires nearly a PhD in equine nutrition. This is a horse I bought for $500 as a yearling and raised/trained myself. He was wormy, malnourished, and living in a mud lot on a round bale of not-so-great-looking hay. Oh yeah…hay. He can’t eat Coastal Bermuda (which is the most prevalent hay where I live). He’ll colic on it. So I pay twice as much for tim/orchard mixed that is shipped in.

But HE is nothing compared to my now dearly departed QH gelding. I’ll list his issues in chronological order:

• Both front legs were positioned back instead of pointing forward when it was time for him to be born and as a result, his mother had a difficult time, but with the knowledge of the BO and a lot of help, he was born. I was there and saw it. I didn’t own the mare, I was just a boarder at the barn with another horse (who had a noneventful life). Little did I know just who I was watching being born.
• As expected, he had contracted tendons both from his positioning and the fact that he was a huge baby. He couldn’t stand on his own to nurse and had to have help. Needed daily exercises to help stretch out his tendons safely and get him steady on his feet.
• Mother retained the placenta and contracted E. coli which then transferred to the colt. So now he gets his daily exercises for his legs and medicine.
• I went on vacation and thought about him. Came back five days later and he was walking around with nice, straight legs and healthy. Bought him.
• Did pretty well during his first year of life. But his yearling year he cut his nose open on a nail (needed stitches) and then attempted to jump out of a round pen and cut both stifles. More stitches.
• His two-year-old year is when things got serious. He tried to jump a high tensile wire fence, got his right hind hung on it, and sliced it to the bone including the artery and the extensor tendon. Altogether he had about two months (split into two stays) at the vet school and two surgeries.
• Amazingly, he became a good show horse, and though the leg had to be managed and did give him some issues now and then, he did well.
• He retired early and was never campaigned hard anyway, and his main issue with the leg was occasional bouts of cellulitis.
• When he was 22, I walked outside one morning to feed him and found him with that same leg, severely broken in several places. I loved him so much and it took a while to get over it, but he was euthanized there in his pasture, and the horse that had literally been trying to die since BEFORE he was born, was laid to rest.