Equus Case Report

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CASE REPORT+6){,(?-

Thecase f he rembling elding\{hen a normallyrambunctious orse uddenly

becomes eluctant o move, he searchforanswers eads o a surprising onclusion.

FAST FRIEXDS: Theauthor nd Docnow have special ond, orged y crisis.

\

quivering neck. My stomach lippedwith fear as I walked around to inspecthim. He didn't bend his neck to followmy movements, but kept it stiff andstraight as I checked his legs, his,torsoand underhis belly. I didn't flnd anypunctures,wounds orscrapes, ofastened he halter and asked him towalkforward.

Reluctantly, he followed me. Ona normal day, Doc would romp andplay n the pasture, charging straightdown this hiil. That evening, howeveq

he took slow steps on shaky legs.At the corral, I tossed a flake ofha

on the ground five feet n front ofDoHe didn't move to eat the hay; in fadidn't even arch his neck or swishtail to chase he flies from his rum

knew Doc was in serious trouble aso was I: My husband, Ed, was in thSierras on a packing trip, and I alowas in charge.

Aperylexing roblemDoc was one of the flrst horses we

owned, and while he was friendlykind, he was also nervous and likespook at the slightest noise or movment. He also had a bouncy, uncomfortable trot and "more go than whoDoc was the one horse in our corraldid not ride, because lacked the cdence o handle him. However, nonthis mattered now as I ran to thehouse to call the veterinarian.

"\nVhat o you mean he's shakinourveterinarian asked me on thephone. I described the trembling abest I could, and the veterinarian arived at our place within 20 minuteAs he examined Doc's body, big blflies collected on the gelding's rumYet Doc did not swish his tail. And

although he chomped haywhen Ioffered t by hand, he would not strhis neck to the ground.

We were facing a mystery. Wecould flnd no evidence of injury onDoc's body; n fact, there were nobruises or bumps of any kind. Nordid the gelding show signs of colicDoc's only problem seemed o be

By oy Silha

T was walking up thegravel road

I to our hillside pasture that warmIJune evening ast summerwhenI stopped n my tracks. Doc, my hus-band's spirited 16-hand chestnutOuarter Horse, was standing on aknoll, shaking all over, as ifhe hadjust seen a ghost.

I squinted against the evening sun.He was not moving his limbs but hismuscles twitched and his body trem-bled. My jaw tightened and my flstsclenched as I raced to the corral,grabbed a halter and sprinted up thesteep hill.

Doc stared at me with wide eyes andupright ears as I put my hand on his

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z

s

I{ARDKXOGKS:f a horse iolentlysomersaults,ears nd alls ver ackward.or has sim ilar ishap, he rushingorceson he withers re ama y ausehe pinousprocesseso racture, situationnown s

"sheared" ithers. ecausehe withers ieat a confluence fmuscle, igament ndbone, hese njuriesend o be quite ainfulat irst, ut hey sually eal within ourto sixweeks.

at 10 that night. As I approached hecorral, I heard thumping and sawgo down, roll on one side, get up ango back down on the other side. Feel-ing helpless, climbed into his corrsat n the muck and, as Doc camedown on his right side, positionedmyself behind his head and petted

him. I reached across he white blazon his face, and ran myhand downhis cheek.

As I continued to rub under his cand down his neck, I could feel hismuscles relax. He was breathing heaily, almost groaning. He lifted his hand looked at me as I placed my chnext to his, and rubbed between hears. He relaxed nto the muck again,and so did I, feeling my jeans dampas I shifted myweight. I continued to

massage down his neck, overhis withers and onto his back. Suddenly, hlifted his neck, staggered up andbrought his body down on the otherside. I scrambled around and startedmassaging his body on this side.

We did this forhours, changingsides every 10 minutes. I talked inquiet soothingvoice, he groaned nrhythmic breaths. This jittery tenshorse had his head n my lap as I ntured him like a sickchild. At 3 in

morning Doc relaxed and stoppedgroaning so I shuffled into the housripped offmy clothes and stood una hot shower.

Still no answersI woke from a restless sleep a few

hours later and ran up to the corrals. Igasped when I saw Doc ying flat.other three horses and our mule weremilling around, ooking down at Dtr,Vhen e didn't lift his head, was suhe was dead. watched him from a distance, and then took a halter andopened he gate. The clang ofthe locdidn't stir him. As I inched closer,his eye was open and he was breath-ing. I lifted his head, ied the halterand held the rope tight, urging himto get up. He pushed his weight onthis legs and struggled up, but imme-diatelywent back down on the other

this odd shaking and stiffness.Perplexed, he veterinarian gave Doc

painkillers and intravenous fluids tooffset any shock. An hour later, Docstopped rembling and began reachingfor his hay. The veterinarian told mehe had seen a horse shake for threedays afterbeing bitten by a blackwidowspider; given the spiders and rattlerswe had seen around the ranch, thatseemed ossible. Butwe couldn't indany swelling.

Still without a flrm diagnosis, butwith a happier horse, relaxed a bitand the veterinarian left for the night.At midnight, I checked on Doc one lasttime-he looked ine-and went to bed.

losurg giroundThe next morning Doc ooked stiff

and would stand in one position for along time without moving. At noon, theshivering started again. In an effort tocomfort him, I wrapped my armsaround his vibrating neck, but hequicklypulled away.

?A Equus 323

The veterinarian had left twosyringes of Banamine0, nd as I inject-ed one nto his neck, he jerked away.The syringe went flying to the ground.With my left arm, I pulled his ropetighter, grabbed he second syflngewith my right hand and stabbed him.Doc tugged harder and yanked mesideways. The rope flew out of myhandas the gelding retreated n a sideways,almost crablike. walk to the other endof the corral.

He stood across rom me with hishead down, snorting and pawing. I feltterrible. I had gotten one shot into himbut I was not going to try any more.

The shaking stopped, but I placedanother call to the veterinarian to lethim know Doc was still not right. Hereturned early that evening to drawblood for tests. As he set up an [V andtookblood, could sense his concernbyhis uneasytone and manner. Hetold me he'd call me the next morningwith results.

I went to check on Doc one last time

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side. He was shivering all over.With myheart racing, dashed o

the house and called he veterinarian,and at his suggestion dialed myfriend Terri, looking for a way tohaul Doc o aveterinaryhos pital.Ed had the truck in the Sierras, owas left without a trailer. When Terri

answered, choked out Doc's condi-tion. I knew I was asking Terri to dosomething she was not comfortablewith-haul a sick horse or three hourson the frenetic Los Angeles freeways.She said she would hitch up her trailerand come right over.

The veterinarian arrived 20 minuteslater. As he gave Doc more painkillers,he told me that the blood ests evealedno toxins. That uled out our spider-bite theory. Do you know if Doc s

connected o the Impressive gene?"he asked. had heard ofthe inheriteddisorder called HYPP' hat can causemuscle weakness and seizures, ut Iwas not familiarwith Doc's ineage.Given he vet's question, imaginedDo c dying ofa horrible seizure rslowly degenerating.

I felt so helpless. us t as I tu rnedto ask the veterinarian what we shoulddo, heard him talking on his cellphone o the Alamo Pintado EquineMedical Center

n Los Olivos,Califor-nia. He provided he status of thehorse and arranged orus to see ErinByrne, DVM.

As I headed o the house o gatherthings, Terri pulled up. I led Doc downthe hill to Terri's railer. This was hetest of whether our trailer-loadingexercises would work in an emergency.Doc walked up to the unfamiliar trail-er , sniffed, paused and took one stepback. held the rope steadyfora ewseconds nd to my relief, Doc stifflyclimbed n.

Terri drove with ease hrough themorning traffic, demonstrating a confi-dence she didn't even know she had.When we arrived atAlamo Pintado,jumped out, climbed on the wheel ofthe trailer and peeked hrough theslats. was relieved to find Doc stand-ing, Iooking back at me.

Fifteenminutes ateByrne eappeared, oo

relieved. We oundproblem," he said. D

cracked is withersleast ive places."

"We've ound he problem"Dr. Byrne had been waiting f

and ed Doc-who was still walkvery stiffly and would move onlyurged-to a huge examining rooAs I recounted he events oftheday, she gave Doc a thorough exThe big horse appeared hocky

Byrne started ntravenous fluidsbecause uch physical stress cato colic, she ubed him with oilpreventive measure.

We were still discussing whaknew-and didn't know-whennoticed Doc's withers looked swWhen Byrne went to touch themflinched and stepped away. She lifted his tail and commented onlimp and "dead" t felt. I explainhad been rolling all night, and B

immediately suggested we x-rayand led him away.Fifteen minutes later, Byrne re

appeared, ooking relieved. "Wethe problem," she said. He cracwithers in at least five places."

"Cracked withers? How?Whathis mean?Will he be paralyzed?

Byrne showed us Doc's X rayspointing out five vertebral procesthat were lying horizontally insteof standing upright in their usuavertical position.

Each broken bohad splinters coming off of t. Onbone stood out as being particulamangled. Byrne then explainedthe stationary nature of withers -don't move-means they usuallywell on their own, similar to our rItwould, however, ake six full mfor the bones o calcify and repairthemselves, nd there was nothin

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we could do to speed up the proce"The shaking?" asked. \{hy t

shaking?""Trauma ... and the pain," she e

plained. I haven't seen a lot ofit,some horses react to pain and trauwith shaking."

"What about the paralysis?r'

Doc wasn't paralyzed, Byrne saHe simplyfound it too painful to mThe withers anchor he muscles anligaments of the neck, so a hugeamount of weight is pulled acrossarea with every movement. That's wDoc wouldn't lower his head to eatwas reluctant to walk, which requihim to use his head orbalance. Abegan o heal, said Byrne, he'd momore freely and, even n the time wbeen at the clinic. I could see hat

seemed more comfortable.

HowandwhyMyquestions kept coming: Ho

does his happen?" Byrne speculatthat Doc probably fell. She said shsees a handful of cases of brokeners everyyear, usually in horses whhave somersaulted over a jump orreared and fallen over backward.then I recalled the familiar imageDoc and our mule,Iimmy, going utheir hind legs and forming a horsp1'ramid. twas majestic and captiving but if he had done that on the side it would have been easv or hilose his balance.

Finally, I nervously asked my mimportant question: "What's the loterm prognosis?"

Byrne was reassuring. "Once hfractured bones heal, Doc shouldgood as new-if a bit flatter acrosswithers." she said. She added hatDoc's imp tail had concerned erbroken tailbones can lead to nervedamage and local paralysis-butXofthe area revealed no fractures.Instead, she said, Doc had probablwrenched his tail during the fallit, too, would heal in time.

Terri and I hugged each other.relaxed for the first time in two daDoc, our sweet, open-faced, oving


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wa s going o be fine. He u,ould tay atAlamo Pintado br anotherweek othey oukl walth him. \fter that . heride home $ould be much more co mfortable br him.

The nert da y my husband ame ou tof he backcountryand alled.Hisvoice vas elaxed. FIiHoney. How are

you?" e asked."Oh. ine ." huked. r1 ng, o t t - raiarm him.

"What's vrong?" e mmediatelyaskecl. t 's amazing ol vpeople lose ous can hear hings ve don't say.

"Well,Doc had an accident, ut he'sokay." he vords choed n m1, 2p5...."He's okay.... e' s okay...."

A r'veek ater, Ed and I went to getDoc rom the hospital. s we walkedn it h th e veterinarian o he outsidecorral,Doc urned vith his head highand came rotting n m1, irection,whinnying. B1'rne urned o me anderclaimed, He recognizes oui"

"O fcourse," said, hinking ofwhatne'd been hrough ogether. ap -proached, pened he gate, nd huggedhis neck. This ime t was strong an dsti1l.Do cn'as back.

f ' ! ir months ater. stood lone n the).-)middle f our rorrnd en natchingDoc ope around he perimeter. knewit r'r,as ime to ride him, and I rvantedto be he first. pttt he saddle on ,n'atched im gambol and buck as heacljusted o it, and hen brought hi minto he micldle f the pen.

I ptrtmr foot n the stirrup. if terlrny'self p anrl eased nto he saddle.IIe clicln't ove. nstea(t f his constantfontard motion, he u'as solid and calm.He u'aited or m-v ue. First ve walked,then r'r 'e rotted ancl inall,v ve brokeinto a lope. His body moved n thatsteady ocking-horse hythm, and asive lew around he corral, felt capable, confident nd ree.

I rirle Doc almost every clay ow,andwhen come up the hill, he runs togreet me . Ancl,vhile Ed s Doc's ofTi-cial owner and s gratefitl e is aliveand well,we botl.r now hat n somevery cleep ay, Do cbelongs o me . C

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