This Chapter
Good horse owners get to know their horses very well. They see them every day and come to understand all their behavioral nuances: how they eat, how often they lie down, how they behave under saddle. Good horse owners figure out how their horses act when they’re feeling fine — and how they act when they aren’t.
In this chapter, we alert you to
behaviors or conditions that you may notice in your horse if he’s under the
weather. Your horse can’t talk, so all he can do is demonstrate his discomfort
in the following ways. Pay close attention. Your horse is depending on you.
A Fever
When a horse is feeling well, his
temperature is usually between 99 and 101.4 degrees Fahrenheit. If he’s
battling an infection, whether bacterial or viral, his temperature is either
below or above that range.
When a horse has a fever, he may
exhibit some or all of the following behaviors:
- Lack of appetite
- Lethargy or depression
- Heavy breathing
A horse with a fever may have
other symptoms as well, depending on what’s plaguing him. The fever may be
accompanied by nasal discharge, coughing, or diarrhea. Or, it may be completely
void of symptoms other than those previously listed.
Remember
If you suspect that your horse has a fever, take his temperature by using the directions we give in Chapter Sizing Up a Healthy Horse. If the fever is below 97 or above 102, call your veterinarian immediately. If it falls between 97 and 99, or between 101.4 and 102, wait a few hours and take the temperature again to make sure that this was just a normal variation and that it hasn’t gone up or down in range.
Diarrhea
The equine digestive system is an
efficient tool that’s good at processing difficult-to-digest plant material. Bacteria
located in the horse’s gut are instrumental in breaking down cellulous plant
fiber and turning it into a nutritional element.
When the delicate bacterial
population in the horse’s gut becomes imbalanced, she can develop diarrhea.
Other issues can also cause diarrhea, and may include:
- Salmonella
- Potomac Horse Fever
- Clostridium colitis (irritation of the colon caused by the Clostridium bacteria)
- Cryptosporidia (a protozoan parasite that affects the digestive system)
- Blister beetle poisoning
- Drug toxicity
- Sand impaction
- Intestinal parasites
- Oak and acorn poisoning
Remember
If your horse develops diarrhea — very loose stool that’s watery — possibly accompanied by lack of appetite, call your vet right away. Diarrhea can rob your horse of valuable nutrients and minerals, and cause severe dehydration and malnutrition in a very short amount of time. (See Chapter Sizing Up a Healthy Horse to find out what normal manure looks like.)
An Inability to Pass Manure
One of the most dangerous
conditions for any horse is an intestinal impaction, which can cause an
inability to pass manure. A horse with an untreated impaction won’t live long.
You can tell that your horse is
having trouble passing manure if you see one or more of the following signs:
- Lack of normal amount of manure in his stall or pasture
- Signs of colic, including stretching out, biting at sides, pawing, or rolling (see Chapter Tackling Common Ailments for more about colic)
- Difficult passage of hard, dry balls of manure (Chapter Sizing Up a Healthy Horse explains what normal manure looks like)
If you see any of these symptoms,
call your vet right away. He or she can treat your horse with medications that
provide a laxative effect and can get the manure passing through as it should.
Tip
Always keep a source of clean, fresh water available to your horse. One of the leading causes of intestinal impaction is lack of water intake.
Heavy or Noisy Breathing
Horses are athletic by nature and
have large lungs and substantial airways. So if you hear your horse breathing
noisily, or if you see her breathing hard even though she hasn’t been
exercising, something is amiss.
Noisy breathing during exertion
can be a sign of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), also called
heaves. This can be similar to asthma in humans, and is often allergy related.
Horses with this condition can be treated with medication and environmental
changes to help them breathe better. (See Chapter Tackling
Common Ailments for more about COPD.)
Heavy breathing without exertion
can be a sign of a high fever. It can also be an expression of pain and stress.
If your horse’s breathing changes
from its normal pattern to something faster or noisier, call your veterinarian
so that he or she can figure out what’s going on.
Weight Loss or Gain
If your horse’s diet has been
consistent but you notice a dramatic weight loss or gain, something is going on
with his health. (Chapter Sizing
Up a Healthy Horse can help you determine a normal weight for your
horse.)
Weight loss can be caused by any
number of health problems, including tooth problems, digestive troubles, kidney
or liver disease, Cushing’s disease (a metabolic disorder), parasite
infestation, or cancer. Only your vet will be able to help ascertain the cause
of the problem, so you need to get him or her in the loop.
Weight gain can be the result of
a lack of exercise and too much feed. If your horse’s food and exercise routine
has remained the same and your horse is putting on weight, he may be suffering
from a metabolic or endocrine disease. If you have a mare who you recently
acquired, she may be pregnant. Again, only your vet can help you figure out why
your horse is putting on weight.
Limping
If your horse is limping, she’s
considered lame. This diagnosis means that she’s sore on one or more of her
feet or legs, and isn’t carrying her weight evenly on all four legs. Lameness
can be apparent at the walk, trot, or canter.
Lameness can be caused by
something as minor as a rock lodged in the bottom of a hoof, or something as
serious as a bone fracture. Other causes of lameness can include:
- Hoof abscess
- Laminitis (a condition where the coffin bone rotates inside the hoof)
- Muscle soreness
- Navicular disease (a condition affecting the navicular bone inside the hoof)
- Arthritis
- Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) (a disorder affecting joint cartilage)
- Tendonitis (a damaged or injured tendon)
Lameness can be very obvious or
almost imperceptible to all but a very trained eye. But if you learn to really
know your horse, you’ll be able to spot even minor problems before they become
serious.
Tip
When your horse is doing well, feel her legs to determine what’s normal so that you can spot any subtleties in heat, tenderness, and swelling early on. Start at the top of each leg and run your hands down to the hoof. Notice the temperature of your horse’s legs and hooves, and the look and feel of all the nuances of her normal bone structure.
If your horse acts lame when
you’re riding her, stop and get off. Check her hooves for signs of a foreign
object. If you see something minor like a stone in her hoof, remove it and see
whether that solves the problem. If you find something that’s gone deep into
her foot, or if you find no visible problem at all, put your horse back in her
stall, and call your veterinarian.
Remember
Many horse owners are tempted to just let a lame horse rest in her stall for a few days in hope that the lameness will disappear on its own. But without a vet’s involvement, you have no way of knowing the cause of the lameness. Your veterinarian can provide treatment as well as recommendations for rehabilitation. Remember that untreated lameness can often worsen and become even more serious.
Lethargy or Depression
Horses are generally cheerful
creatures, acting alert when new stimuli are added to their environment and
enthusiastically accepting good training. When a horse acts lethargic or
depressed, something is bothering him. In some cases, the trouble is physical.
Pain and physical discomfort can prompt a horse to act depressed and void of
energy. If your horse starts acting depressed, suspect a physical malady.
Psychological issues can also
cause a horse to act depressed. Unlike humans, who have complicated
psychological problems, horses usually have simple issues. They’re lonely,
bored, or unhappy about the way they’re being handled. They don’t like their
living conditions or they don’t get along with their herd mates. Any of these
things can cause a horse to become depressed.
Tip
A veterinary behaviorist is your horse’s best friend if something like this is bothering him. Have your horse checked out for a physical problem first. If your vet gives him a clean bill of health, contact a behaviorist through the Animal Behavior Society. (See the appendix for contact information, and check out Chapter Connecting Your Horse’s Behavior to Health for details on the connection between a horse’s mind and health.)
Aggression
Some horses are nasty because
they have dominant personalities and have never been trained to treat humans
with respect, but these horses have shown this behavior for a very long time.
Normally nice horses who start acting mean are letting you know that something
is wrong with them.
Horses who aren’t getting enough
to eat can become nasty, trying to bite their handlers and other horses with
the least provocation. Horses who suffer pain from a poorly fitting saddle can
get aggressive when they’re being taken from their stalls.
If your horse suddenly becomes
mean and aggressive toward you or any other human, ask your vet to examine her
to see whether she’s experiencing pain or discomfort somewhere on her body.
Misbehavior under Saddle
Imagine having to carry weight on
your back while it’s being pinched. That’s what a horse with a poorly fitting
saddle has to go through. It’s not long before many horses in this situation
start to rebel.
Misbehavior under saddle is often
a clue that something is amiss with a horse’s body. Bucking may be a sign of
back pain when being ridden, as is refusing to go forward. Refusing to hold the
head in a normal position may indicate mouth pain. Neck, shoulder, and croup
pain can be demonstrated in any number of ways.
Some horses are nonspecific in
their protest, behaving in an uncooperative manner the entire time they’re
being ridden because they’re uncomfortable. If your horse starts to misbehave
when being ridden, have your veterinarian give him a complete checkup. Before
you call in a trainer for help with bad behavior, be certain that it’s not the
result of pain or discomfort. (See Chapter Connecting
Your Horse’s Behavior to Health for more information about equine
misbehaviors.)
Additional Signs of Pain
Remember
If you get to know your horse well, you’ll be able to recognize whether she’s in pain. The signs of pain depend on where the pain is coming from. Here are some guidelines to help you determine whether your horse is feeling pain in a particular part of her body:
- Leg: Limping, holding it up, not bearing full weight on a limb (we talk about limping in more detail earlier in this chapter)
- Eye: Squinting, tearing, holding it closed
- Ear: Holding to the side, shaking head
- Mouth: Dropping food when eating, resistance to having bit inserted
- Head: Tilting while chewing, shaking while being ridden
- Abdomen: Rolling, pawing, kicking, and biting at belly, pacing
- Back: Flinching when pressure is applied, pinning ears or threatening to bite when girth is tightened, misbehaving when ridden
Some horses are hard to figure
out because they don’t show you where it hurts by doing the things in this
list. Instead, they’re just lethargic or irritable (we discuss both conditions
earlier in this chapter). In these cases, you need a vet to help you figure out
where the pain is coming from.
Warning!
Avoid the temptation to give your horse any painkilling drugs (like phenylbutazone or Banamine flunixin meglumine) before a veterinarian examines her. These drugs can mask the signs of pain and make it harder for the vet to make a diagnosis.by Audrey Pavia with Kate Gentry-Running,DVM,CVA
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