Hay changes all the time…I have one that went like this when he got too much alfalfa.
Thanks for all the input!
There re have been no changes in staff at the barn, and we have been here for 3 years.
No MSM in his joint supplement.
It could be that the turnout routine is varying right now due to some days being scorching hot and other days being in the 60s so they come in during the day sometimes and stay out 24/7 sometimes right now.
Could be ulcers. My normally calm horse turned into a spooky fruit loop this spring. He became increasingly more difficult to ride and was spooking at everything. We did a few weeks of UlcerGard and he was his old self within a few days.
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That’s gonna be my next route if the increased work amount and chiro doesn’t work. I had that thought myself actually, that it could be ulcers that just got more painful.
This.
My guy is the fittest he’s ever been. In fact I started a thread very similar to yours last week. We also ruled out pain from every angle but he has started throwing tantrums under saddle. Not every ride and usually about the time he thinks we should be done OR if I’m asking him to work harder than he wants. When he wasn’t nearly as fit he was much, much easier going under saddle, to the point where my BO made a comment about his new behavior.
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I know you said nothing has changed nutritionally, but it might be worth considering a magnesium supplement. A magnesium deficiency can cause muscle spasms and generally spazzy behavior.
I just tried googling a bit, but magnesium deficiency in horses … many of the calming supplements contain magnesium as well.
Good luck and keep us posted!
I can commiserate with you. My horse has gone back to be a tad nuts now too, right as hunter pace season is about to begin. I had stopped his ulcer guard and am adding magnesium. I do think it’s just a matter of a fit horse with too little work. The catch 22 is, if I work him more, he becomes more fit and needs even more exercise to engage his mind. Definitely a tight rope to walk. I’ll be curious to see if the ulcer route works for you.
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Was he scoped for ulcers? Even if it came up negative it might be worth a round of omeprazole to rule out digestive discomfort. I had one who never scoped positive but needed a round every so often to keep him happy.
Same horse went bonkers much as you described after a few days on a new batch of fat supplement. Turns out it was rancid when I bought it and I didn’t notice right away. I took him off the supplement and did a week of omeprazole and he was back to normal.
ETA: Whoops, just saw your post about treating for ulcers! I say go for it. After owning a speshul snowflake of a thoroughbred it’s the first thing I think of now.
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I’m so glad I’m not the only one this has happened to! I thought I was going crazy for awhile there
My guy had a personality transplant a few months ago. He was still an angel on the ground, but undersaddle he was a nightmare. While he’s always been a looky horse, this was way beyond that. Spooking, bolting, leaping sideways, and refusing tiny jumps became the norm. I put him on Ranitidine for a couple of weeks until the vet could scope him, and when she did, turned out he had grade 3/3 glandular ulcers and 2/3 non-glandular ulcers. He went through 28 days of GG and 21 days of Ranitidine and Sucralfate, re-scoped and ulcers were gone. I changed his feed from Nutrena Original (Perform blew his mind) to Triple Crown Sr, and he’s pretty much back to his normal self. So I’d definitely recommend scoping.
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hee hee…love it.
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Personality transplant is a great way to put it!
I would say ulcers.
the next ’ issue’ (or non issue!) we have had is increased rain. That means more grass and the grass will be higher in sugars.
We have had a ton of rain this summer too! I was wondering if that had something to do with it.
As as for now, he seems to have calmed down. However, that could be the robaxin talking. We shall see!
Just throwing in one more suggestion to keep a Lyme test in mind. I’ve personally seen two horses (in different states and different decades) go from acting a bit weird to attack-anyone-who-walked-into-their-stall aggressive with what later turned out to be undiagnosed Lyme. One permanently injured an extremely experienced groom.
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Just a thought here - get an ultrasound. My horse did not act like a maniac but did show pain over lumbar area and when I finally took her to be ultrasounded for what was eventually diagnosed as the problem (right hind suspensory injury) the ultrasound MD checked her back and she had torn all kinds of muscles in that area. It looked like the fabric they used to make lawn chairs out of - like it had been shredded. Just another step in the process of elimination?
Hope your horse gets better.
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Just to add; if you recently threw a ton of vet work/joint help/vacation time/ulcer meds/whatever at him… being exhilerated could simply be a by-product of feeling better than he has in a while.
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Around here, Lyme is so prevalent that whenever there’s a personality change it’s the first thing we think about. Ulcers is second. Easy to give a couple of days of Gastrogard or Nexium just to see if it makes a difference. Easy to test for Lyme. I can’t wrap my head around vets in the northeast who pooh pooh the idea. Most of the time if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Or kissing spines. :-p
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My sweet, sweet, dead-quiet-put-your-grandmother-on-him horse turned into a maniac this spring. I attributed it to being fresh with the cold, then to having “fixed him too good” with the chiro and bodywork I had done on him, then being overfed and underworked. By the time light finally dawned on Marblehead, he had a titer of 17,000+ on his OspF (values of >1250 in unvaccinated animals is indicative of chronic infection). In the interim he had got running in his paddock from the neighbor’s heifers being where they shouldn’t (he normally doesn’t care about cows) and wrenched an ankle.
The basic positive/negative Equine tick screen is relatively cheap (probably under 100, depending on where you are and your vet’s markup). If positive, you should do the Cornell multiplex, which is more expensive (probably $250-300 based on above. I am a vet tech and get my services at cost, which is why I don’t have exact amounts).
Minocycline, unfortunately, is expensive. I was paying (again, at cost) about $115 for a #500 bottle and giving 25 capsules twice daily for seven weeks. Standard markup is (generally, YMMV) about 2-3 times cost. There’s rumblings about mino being on back order, which also may drive up cost.
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Call a different vet please…
Test for Lyme, West Nile Cushings and EPM.
Teeth, vision and hearing exams.
Search for Ulcers. Pull shoes and put hoof testers on every square inch of all 4 feet.
Hell, do a full-on pre-purchase exam on him complete with flexions on all 4 legs
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