From: Betsy Harrison
Hi Jessica,
We have recently bought a 13 year old Arabian Gelding, General, for our daughter to show. He is a wonderful horse and came to us from a home where he was really loved, but rarely ridden. He spent the better part of 3 years in pasture, eating to his hearts content. Since our purchase of him in March, he was put into training with our trainer. Our trainer was very concerned about not working him too hard, too fast. He took things very slowly. General has lost alot of his 'pot belly', and his lines are slowly tightening up.
My daughter has shown General 4 times this year and done quite well with him. However, this past weekend when entering her hunt seat equitation class, General suddenly stopped and thumped his back leg. He just locked up! The judge stopped the class and called for our trainer and the two of them told me General was 'tied up'. My daughter immediately dismounted, General was untacked and walked back to his stall. Our trainer told me this is fairly common when horses work hard in bad footing (it was very muddy there the first two days). He said that acid forms in a horses muscles and that he'd need a day or two off before working again. He also said that his urine would be coffee colored because of it.
I'm not real clear on the causes of this and if it could happen again. I'm very interested in your comments on this matter.
Thank you for such a valuable resource with Horse Sense!
Betsy Harrison
Don't put the horse back into work until the vet advises it -- regardless of the planned show schedule! "Tying up" can be fatal, and following recovery from one episode, horses generally need treatment, therapy, and a very slow return to normal exercise and feeding. Follow the program your vet recommends, which may mean no exercise at all, and no grain, until the muscle enzymes show normal activity.
"Tying up" -- otherwise known as "Monday morning disease", azoturia, exertional myopathy, or acute rhabdomyolysis -- is a disease the cause of which is not completely understood. There seem to be a number of different factors that can contribute to this condition, but here is some general information.
"Tying up" generally begins shortly after a horse begins exercising, usually after a day or two of stall rest on full rations (especially if the ration includes a lot of grain, say 40% or more of the diet). It used to be called "Monday morning disease" because it was so often seen in horses that worked all week on full rations, spend the weekend in their stalls, still on full rations, and then were taken out and worked on the following Monday -- and consequently tied up! This is one reason that horse owners need to cut the feed, particularly the grain, of horses that are temporarily confined to a stall. It's also one reason for horses to begin each day's work with gentle exercise to warm up their muscles and increase the circulation.
The "coffee coloured" urine is that colour because it is full of myoglobin, a muscle protein that is lost in the urine when a horse's muscles are damaged as a result of "tying up." When there's enough damage to make the urine THIS dark, the horse may have renal damage as well as muscle damage -- this is quite serious.
"Tying up" is dangerous, destructive, and, sadly, likely to happen AGAIN once it has occurred. Your vet can help you develop a maintenance plan for your horse to try to minimize the danger of this happening again. He'll most likely recommend -- once the horse has recovered from THIS episode -- DAILY exercise, with no days in the stall, MORE exercise, with each period of exercise beginning with a slow warmup, and a DIET consisting of more (or ALL) hay, and very little grain.
Don't add any supplements or medications to your horse's diet until your vet has evaluated the horse and given his recommendations. Many owners and trainers try to deal with problems on their own, and it's a very bad idea in cases of "tying up." Your vet will need to know what is wrong with THIS horse so that he can work out a plan to treat it effectively. There are various treatments, therapies, drugs, and supplements that MAY help in specific cases, but don't rely on anyone's memories of treatments offered other horses in the past. The suggestions that might have been perfectly suitable for another horse at another time may not be at all appropriate for YOUR horse NOW. So please have your vet come out and evaluate and treat your horse, and if you feel that you need a second opinion, get it from another VET, not from a judge or trainer. No matter how kind and well-meaning they are, this situation calls for a trained medical professional. This is NOT a reflection on your trainer's experience or knowledge -- I feel that I am quite well-informed in these matters, and yet if MY horse tied up I would have the vet out in a heartbeat!
Good luck, and please let me know what the vet says and how your horse does.
Jessica
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