Today my big Paint mare exhibited entirely new symptoms. In her paddock in the morning, she had twitching shivery involuntary tremors in her major muscle groups, haunches, upper arm and neck. I handwalked her out to a holding pen to let her roll, then tried to get her to drink salt molasses water, and they eventually abated. I don’t know obviously if this is first time or if she’s been doing this for a while without me there.
Big muscular Paint, now 17, who has always been slow to warm up and sometimes pissy under saddle but forward once she is warmed up. Needs a rest day at least every 5 days for optimum happiness. Very healthy generally, great feet.
Diet for years has been 15 to 18 lbs of good Timothy in 5 feedings a day. Small beet pulp and Alfalfa mash with a cup of flax and a vitamin mineral supplement. Very enthusiastic with her salt block. Weight is good. No metabolic syndrome symptoms.
This past week, she got Wednesday and Friday off because of rain, got attended turnout and refused to move much in turnout. Thursday and Saturday she was very forward under saddle. Saturday, yesterday, we did a big power march walk 2 hour plus trail ride at home that included about half an hour grazing new spring grass under the powerlines. Today Sunday I was going to trailer out, she was excited to see the trailer, but I cancelled when I saw the tremors.
She did not drink much over night, cold Spring weather. I have recently switched her VMS to a much stronger formula. She has also developed a taste for banana peels and has had one almost every day for the past week. I will link to the VMS in case anyone sees an obvious imbalance in the mineral ratios.
I’ve honestly sometimes wondered about HYPP or PSSM with her, but never had any concerning symptoms other than slow to warm up. Is there anything else I should watch for? I will talk to my vet about the panel tests when we do teeth and vaccinations.
Here is the new mineral supplement I started last month. We have been slowly working up to about 3/4 the recommended dosage. The product in general is about twice the values of everything in my previous VMS.
https://madbarn.com/product/omneity/
We are in a low selenium region. The hay is not tested. We are on city water so it is low iron.