At a barn were I had worked, there was a horse who had sweeney, nerve damage to shoulder, he did not sweat in that area as well as the muscle atrophied, so may well be that there is some nervous system cause to the sweating difference in the horse. Linda --- Robin <Eclectk1@...> wrote: Hi Carla & Everyone,
Carla, thanks for the post, its quite interesting to
me that you are
also noting some odd hind end symptoms. I spoke to
my vet last night
and his initial thought was that she's likely
letting ankles cock
forward to compensate for pain or discomfort
elsewhere. I believe
I'm suffering from early onset alzeheimer's myself
(JOKE!), but I
can't remember which set of tendons he was referring
to -- would have
to look at chart for insertions (when I used to know
them off the top
of my head, therefor the joke!!).
Anyhow, he said that when a horse cocks a leg and
uses a 'toe' stance
to compensate for pain, its one set of tendons that
tie in under the
coffin bone (deef flexors?). When they leave the
foot flat (as my
mare is) but cock the ankle forward its another set
(superficial
flexors? God, where is my BRAIN??!!) that inserts in
the pastern.
Anyhow for the hind legs he recommended palpating
her hind leg for
the upper insertion which is midway between the hock
and the point of
the buttocks to see if she appears tender there.
Since she doesn't seem to be uncomfortable or in
pain (I haven't
palped yet, it was late last night that he called
but she's not
shifting, normal facial expression, etc), I asked if
it might be
related to the cushings and the tendons actually
tightening or
stiffening.
Unfortunately he said it may well be, that with
Cushings horses all
sorts of odd things happen, especially in terms of
weakening/embrittled connective tissues such as
laminae becoming
weaker/more brittle, which may well be why they are
so prone to
founder. I gather these effects are primarily due
to the constant
high circulating levels of cortisol that all
cushinoids have to some
degree, but it may be from other
hormones/proteins/imbalances too,
I'm just extrapolating some here.
So I'm to try her on 2 gm bute for about 3 days,
then taper to one
for a couple of days, and see if it makes a
difference. If it does,
she's hurting somewhere. If not, then its much more
likely to be
actual changes in connective tissues/tendons.
Scary.
Carla, with your guy stocking on the left side, and
having troubles
working left, while sweating more on the right...
I'd actually wonder
if perhaps the problem is that he's NOT sweating
ENOUGH on the left?
Actually, I'd about guarentee your problem is with
the left not
sweating/working enough, and that the right side is
normal. I'm
suspecting that he's got some nerve pressure on a
major nerve branch
somewhere on that left hind side -- it rather sounds
like he's
getting some nerve impingement or loss of nerve
function which would
perfectly account for slight weakness, particularly
in that its
occassional/intermittant and/or minor, and also for
the difference in
sweating between each haunch.
Do you have a veterinary school or top top equine
clinic like New
Bolton or something anywhere nearby (that EOA again,
I'm not
remembering where you live off the top of my
head!!)? There's a
slight chance it might be worth taking him for a
workup if so -- from
your description I'd doubt even a great local vet
would be much
use... and also suspect that you could spend a ton
even at a top
clinic/school and come up with nothing, but its a
thought... Nerve
impingement can do weird things (I speak from
personal experience,
unfortunately!) -- and differences in sweating,
weakness, etc are
PRIME suspects for nerve effects. For example, when
I herniated a
disk chunk onto my left sciatic nerve, all of a
sudden I couldn't
stand on the ball of my left foot with the heel off
the ground...
(not to mention that the entire leg was in muscle
spasm, massive
pain, and you could stick a pin in the skin all up
an down the
outside and back of that leg and I couldn't feel it
because the nerve
transmission to the skin there was totally
disrupted... they can
actually MAP which nerves and branches are affected
by where the skin
is still sensitive to pricks and where its not...)
The thing is, I have no clue if they can do
myelograms or other nerve
transmission studies on horses, or if they'd even be
able to do
anything if they could find it. May be worth a few
calls to a top
clinic anyhow Carla, they're GREAT about talking to
people at length
with odd problems and letting you know what is or
isn't possible to
the extent that they can over the phone.
Of course, anyone doing this MUST realize that they
cannot
necessarily accurately diagnose over the
telephone!!! But you CAN
get great and very useful information, just take all
with a grain of
salt realizing that since they haven't seen the
horse they can only
give you their best impression and that may change
entirely once they
actually see the horse themselves, its partially
dependent on how
good you are at accurately describing symptoms and
providing all
relevant symptoms too.
Anyhow, for whatever all of that's worth, thats the
latest scoop from
the desert on this side of the continent! ;o)
Robin
Desert Springs Sport Horses
http://www.Sportshorses.homestead.com
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