Tips and Tricks for Rehabbing a Shivers Horse

[Horse_Rider]

My shivers horse is exhausting me. Every short episode of time off (2+ weeks or longer) requires 6 months to get him back to the most basic level of fitness (I’m defining that as having no difficulty working in a large dressage ring for 30 minutes of ring work at training level difficulty/collection with typically 15 minutes of that being at just the walk). Obviously, the answer to maintaining a shivers horse is never giving them time off, but he’s also incredibly injury prone, so I usually spend 6 months rehabbing him, get him fit and going well for a few months, then he injures himself again, requires time off, and puts us back at square one.

If I had the money for a second horse, I’d retire him, as the issue is riding, so his wonkiness in the field is no different, whether fit or not, he stands okay for a hind trim by a compassionate farrier, and frankly rehabbing a horse is a fun learning experience once or twice. After four years of mostly rehab, I’m worn down and tired. But this is all I got. So, he retires, I quit riding. He can’t just poke along on a trail ride from time to time. To be fair to him, he either has to be put into full work or left alone.

I’d appreciate any words of wisdom, tips, or best practices from those who have successfully brought Shivers horses back to work in a more “normal” time frame, even twice a normal time frame. In the mean time, I’ll just keep weeping bitter tears at every article I see with a 4-6 week training schedule for getting your horse fitted up again after COVID-19 eases. You lucky ****ers.

Specifically looking to hear from people with actual life experience doing this. Just looking to see if I’m already doing all the things or if maybe there’s some little thing anecdotal thing I haven’t heard of that might help us. Plus, who know who else this might help? Shivers is a hell of a disease. Yes, I’ve read all the studies. I haven’t seen anything new in ages. These days every “How to Manage Shivers” article is just someone repeating “Vitamin E,” as though they’re the first to hear of it. Yes, I realize it might just be that 6 months is what my horse needs and it sucks to be me and I should just quit if I can’t handle it any more. That’s on the table. Looking for a Hail Mary I haven’t tried before.

[Xanthoria]

I bought a 6 month old Warmblood who started showing shivers symptoms at age 2. He was dx shivers and PSSM2. I started him at 3 and struggled to keep him sound.

After the 4th major injury/rehab at age 7 I was staring at 2 (Two!) suspensories to rehab. I started doing the math and realized his neurological defects were CAUSING the injuries - they were not just rotten luck. His proprioceptive issues meant this would keep happening. And now with 2 hind suspensories to rehab for what… a year? He’s be miserable and he wouldn’t be able to live in pasture anymore. Stall bound PSSM/shivers horse? No - not a thing.

3 vets looked at him and concurred, so I had to put him down at age 7. Necropsy showed major cervical arthritis too. There was no hope.

Quality of life is the thing. I cried plenty of bitter tears too. I’m sorry

[Argo]

It’s a degenerative, incurable disease and I encourage you to come to terms with that and find something to enjoy with your horse in the remaining time you have together. Yes, low carb diet with natural vitamin e supplement, and turnout are supportive. I saw some anecdotes about supplementing gabapentin to help with tremors that I would have explored further had I not run out of time with my wonderful schoolmaster.

[joiedevie99]

In terms of trying to rebuild fitness, it depends on what sort of time/money/facilities you can/want to throw at him recognizing that he’s still likely to get hurt again in the future. I know someone with a horse that had relatively mild symptoms. She sent him to a facility that did lots of alternative forms of exercise, like aqua-tred, twice a day and complementary therapies, like Sure-Foot pads and acupuncture, for a month. She thought it helped.

[Horse_Rider]

@Xanthoria

I bought a 6 month old Warmblood who started showing shivers symptoms at age 2. He was dx shivers and PSSM2. I started him at 3 and struggled to keep him sound.

After the 4th major injury/rehab at age 7 I was staring at 2 (Two!) suspensories to rehab. I started doing the math and realized his neurological defects were CAUSING the injuries - they were not just rotten luck. His proprioceptive issues meant this would keep happening. And now with 2 hind suspensories to rehab for what… a year? He’s be miserable and he wouldn’t be able to live in pasture anymore. Stall bound PSSM/shivers horse? No - not a thing.

3 vets looked at him and concurred, so I had to put him down at age 7. Necropsy showed major cervical arthritis too. There was no hope.

Quality of life is the thing. I cried plenty of bitter tears too. I’m sorry

That’s heartbreaking, @Xanthoria. I’m so sorry.

I can say, that up until the last injury, I don’t believe Shivers was the cause of my horse’s previous list of unlucky injuries. Lost shoes, sole bruises, hock arthritis (although that took a bit to diagnose d/t the Shivers having a mild progression around the same time), kicks and bites in the field that left him intact but injured enough to need time off for one reason or another. The last time he fractured his medial splint and chipped a medial sesamoid on a front leg. Maybe that was rough housing with the new friend and unrelated to taking a bad step, but the real setback was the major laceration he got during what was meant to be a short stall rest until he was sound. I suspect the laceration was due to the weird way he gets up from laying down and the fact that he just didn’t have enough room to do it, even in a very large stall. That injury took a very long time to close and he could not go out with that big a hole in his leg.

That was the first and only stall rest I’ll ever do for him. The treatment was worse than the disease. If he gets any future injury that must have stall rest for healing, I’ll do the kind thing and put him down. You’re exactly right, quality of life is the important thing, and he can’t have that if he has to be cooped up in a stall for any length of time.

[Horse_Rider]

@Argo

It’s a degenerative, incurable disease and I encourage you to come to terms with that and find something to enjoy with your horse in the remaining time you have together. Yes, low carb diet with natural vitamin e supplement, and turnout are supportive. I saw some anecdotes about supplementing gabapentin to help with tremors that I would have explored further had I not run out of time with my wonderful schoolmaster.

Ouch. I assure you, I have come to terms with this and I have altered my plans with this horse considerably, right down to, as stated, retiring him and giving up riding. Obviously, at some point giving up riding will be a necessity, but he is still safe to ride, remains totally stable from the last time I rode him, other than the new lack of fitness which has nothing to do with his soundness, etc., and he is capable of going back to being ridden without being a danger to himself or anyone else, which is the only reason I am asking. The place where I remain selfish is that retiring means I retire to, and (I didn’t state this earlier, but I’ll divulge now, as maybe it is relevant), I too have a degenerative, incurable, progressive disease and riding is a major help in stabilizing my clinical signs thanks to the type of muscle building and fitness it supplies that my PT can’t match.

I have backed my dreams right down from prelim eventing to just being able to jump some low fences again, to straight dressage, possible bronze, to just getting around at training level dressage so we can get a work out in together.

Low carb has been shown not to be helpful in WBs and WB crosses with Shivers, but helpful in drafts, probably because most drafts also have underlying PSSM. Not helpful in my horse and he’d rather go without grain than eat a low carb, high fat diet. He remains on turnout and vitamin E and will remain on as much turnout and grass (natural vitamin E) as I can get him. I have a one hour round trip to the barn because this facility turns out no matter what the weather is and will leave him out until last, if he’s happy to wait. I haven’t tried gabapentin. I do have access to it, but he’s totally adverse to anything other than pelleted supplements so I will keep gabapentin in my back pocket for if his Shivers progresses further and I’m looking for a Hail Mary to keep him happy in the field vs. a Hail Mary to get him fit in a doable amount of time.

[Horse_Rider]

@joiedevie99

In terms of trying to rebuild fitness, it depends on what sort of time/money/facilities you can/want to throw at him recognizing that he’s still likely to get hurt again in the future. I know someone with a horse that had relatively mild symptoms. She sent him to a facility that did lots of alternative forms of exercise, like aqua-tred, twice a day and complementary therapies, like Sure-Foot pads and acupuncture, for a month. She thought it helped.

Thank you. That’s really helpful, as I was wondering if anyone had tried any alternatives that weren’t possible at the home farm. A fellow rider used an Aquatred facility for her non-Shivers horse and I recently asked her what she thought of it. She liked the facility, and I’m thinking about it, especially if things quiet down and I don’t feel I’m breaking the non-essential rule by trailering my horse there. I just haven’t found any literature, research, or even anecdotal reports that Shivers horses do well or don’t do well using these modalities, not so much for the Shivers - I know nothing fixes that - just for general legging up safely.

You’re right in that part of my hesitancy is not that it’s not doable, it’s that it’s either a lot of time, a lot of money or both and I might do it just to have an injured horse the day after I reach my very low set bar of success. Of course, guaranteed, if I do nothing with him, he’ll never get another injury, if I put him back to work, leg him up and get back to trotting figure-8s, he’ll be hurt again in no time. That’s just horses! :rolleyes:

[Lunabear1988]

OP, no advice but I just wanted to say I’m sorry you are dealing with this. You are clearly a very good and loving owner.

[Horse_Rider]

@Lunabear1988

OP, no advice but I just wanted to say I’m sorry you are dealing with this. You are clearly a very good and loving owner.

Thank you so much, Lunabear1988. That means a lot. Sometimes I feel like a big old failure. On an intellectual level I know I could be the most perfect owner in the world, throw millions of dollars at it, and he would still get worse through no fault of my own, but on a heart level my big ol’ teddy bear isn’t okay and I can’t fix it. All these chronic disease, whether Shivers or Wobblers or just run of the mill arthritis are so doggone hard.

[IPEsq]

I second the treadmill idea–aquatread or dry (or both). Provided that any future setback does not involve a major open wound again, a treadmill would be a good way to keep him going somewhat in a low stress way.

I don’t know if there would be any contraindication for Shivers, but the rehab group at the vet hospital here does a lot of in hand work with the Equicore system. Also ridden, but I’m trying to think of things you could do with just hand walking. I also used those Sure Foot pads mentioned to work on my horse’s symmetry and core strength. At first he fussed a bit but eventually he would fall asleep and sway on them. I don’t know if using the hind ones would help or hurt or if you’d want soft, firm, or angled. My guy liked the firmer ones on the front feet (or none) and the soft flat ones behind.

Anyway, these are some things you can try during the “rest” phase and also keep up with during your regular work.

Have you tried a higher fat diet? I know how frustrating it is you can’t fix him. But maybe some of these things could help you in the time you have left with him?