What illness or ailment do you fear most for your horse?

Question

The one thing I dread is pneumonia in foals (a third die regardless of treatment) or MRLS (mare reproductive loss syndrome). Was curious what other owners, breeders, trainers feared most going wrong with their animals and if or what preventative action you take.

Answer 1

Have to go with colic. Seen too many horses die from it. Last season was one of the scariest for me, came back from lunch break a little early and I always walk down the aisle to look at all of them. Found a baby thrashing. We all carry radios & I called the office to get the vet back on the farm (he was done with breeding duties & had left) The breeding manag. drove down with the anti thrash, I already had banamine but couldn't get it in her- I was hollering on the radio for them to just drive the golf cart down the aisle The scariest part of the ordeal was seeing that baby throw her self down so violently over & over, she was oblivious to me when I yanked the mare out & went in to try to keep her up, took 3 of us to subdue her on the ground to get meds into her. There was no keeping her up, just tried to keep her still. The vet came back about 1/2 hr later & declared her twisted, which was pretty obvious. I'll just never forget that baby thrashing so violently & colicking that badly so quickly.

Answer 2

Probably more horses succumb to colic than anything else. It is definitely one thing I NEVER hesitate to call a vet on EVER. Preventative actions on my part are a regular worming schedule, feeding at the same time every day, making sure my horses are properly hydrated, maintain a consistent quality of hay and slowly integrating new load of hay into the feeding schedule when it is different from what they have been eating. Laminitis is also a big worry and the less you know about it the faster you need to call the vet as well. I always monitor the pulse in my horses feet whenever he is going through any kind of illness, since an increased pulse is a precursor to potential problems. Eye injury and moon blindness are also things that need immediate attention and the adherence to a strict schedule of round the clock application of medicine. More horses than you think do actually fracture limbs in paddock accidents but other than making sure their turnout environment is as safe as possible there is not much more you can do. The best thing you can do to protect your horse is to really know their habits, normal behavior, and pay close attention when they alter that behavior.

Answer 3

Like so many others here, my biggest concern is colic because it happens so frequently and can be deadly. Whenever a horse gets over a mild bout, I breathe a sigh of relief. I've lost one good mare to a twisted intestine and I really don't want to go through that again.
There are other diseases that can also be deadly, but they happen much less frequently.
As far as broken bones, there is little that can be done to prevent an accident even in a safe pasture. I once saw an older TB break his leg while running and playing. He just put his leg down wrong.

Answer 4

i would say laminitis/founder and navicular. if the horses feet go, there isnt much that can be done. for founder all you can do is med them once they have it and wait. it can be caused by preventable things, but can also be caused by a total fluke (ie. swelling from a bug bite, or other countless sources of toxins). i would say colic is pretty scary too, i have never had to experience it with a horse, but i feel there is a lot of good treatment for that including surgery in serious cases, but surgery is rare for founder cases. i guess horses are probably the only animals that could find a way to hurt themselves while being in a padded room.

Answer 5

I fear I will never figure out the true answer as to why my 2 perfectly broke and 100% sound healthy horses are unrideable..................

Second to that, I worry about severe colic in all of them, because I do not know that I would truly follow the surgery path.

I worry about laminitis in the pony & mini very much... my whole life is revolved around making sure those two never develop that condition.

And I worry about the deep digital flexor tendon rupturing in my older horse with navicular, as that will be his last day of life. :(

I used to worry about strangles until 2 of my horses (oddly enough with no contact with other horses) developed it. It wasn't so bad. About 10 days worth of anitbiotics and it was done. I was picturing big draining holes in their lymph nodes and really ugly sores for a long time.

I don't think much about WNV or encephalitises just because I vaccinate and my horses don't really go many places to be in contact with other horses/barns.

Answer 6

with the 1 mare i have right now, i don't fear much with her, except her getting stolen. she's very unique and beautiful in color. but she is lazy, so no galloping around to step in a hole and snap a leg or running into a fence. she's so lazy in fact that she will never over eat her feed. if i accidently give her too much, she finishes her normal amount and moves on. she may come back in a few hours to finish tho. but colic. colic scares me so bad, so many things can trigger it in any horse, of any age or breed. I especially worry about ponies and colic. Really anything that threatens my baby girls life is something i dread and worry about. like right now it is raining, and I worry about my mare standing outside, will she get a chill? will she stand in water too long and her feet rot? will she slip and hurt herself in the mud? will she get hit by lightning? will her run in shed collapse for no reason? will her pasture flood from the pond overflow? will the wild dogs take advantage of this dark and stormy night and go after her? the worries are endless for me.

Answer 7

For me, I worry about colic and founder most.

We're about to move my kid to a new farm and I worry a bit that he'll colic from the change. He's a sturdy horse but I still worry about stuff like that. I've known 3 horses to die of colic and I've seen the results of founder, too, and they're both just ugly illnesses!!


I also have a completely unrealistic fear of my horse snapping a leg. Its very rare to actually happen, but... its a bad fear!!

Answer 8

For my 26 year old pony who has previously gotten laminitis - a recurrance of laminitis, of course. I use a grazing muzzle on him in the spring and fall as prevention.

Arab/QH gelding - going blind in his second eye. I just realized this year that the one eye was blind (confirmed by a vet). I thought the other one was relatively safe since the first was probably from an injury 2 years ago, but the vet said losing sight in the other eye is still a possibility.

The 14 year old mare and 2 year old pony - no specific worries for them, just general "hope nothing happens" vibes. Especially the pony. We just got him a month ago and my 6 year old son is in love with him.

Answer 9

With my Minis I worry constantly about founder and colic. Thankfully both are very healthy so far, but I keep a close eye on their diets and what they have access to in the pasture.

Next to that serious injury worries me...my mom's QH mare escaped the pasture earlier this year and broke her knee somehow. She's healed now and is enjoying semi-retirement as a racing mule broodmare, but it was a frightening and long ordeal to get her healed.

Answer 10

The one thing I fear is Colic. It happens so often in horses...yet can be fatal. I have a 25+ yr old Arab gelding so I worry alot about that because I am not sure if he would pull through it. There is so many things out there that can affect a horse..it is scary!