Re-visiting Stringhalt

Revisiting Stringhalt

As anyone who is around horses a lot knows, they are walking potential disasters; American Curly Horses are no exception.  In over a decade of owning Curlies we have experienced disasters, both small and large. One of the most extensive problems, although having occurred over four (4) years ago, still attracts attention.  I thought in today’s blog on my Curly horses I would talk about it again, and bring you up to date.

My long time readers will know that way back in October of 2007, my daughter’s Curly gelding, *Red Running Star, developed a case of stringhalt, seemingly over a matter of hours.  He and *Beau had been in their pasture.  At noon when lunch hay had been delivered, all was fine.  It rained a bit in the afternoon, and when Chuck went down to give them some hay a bit after 5 o’clock *Red could barely walk.  We were devastated and brought both boys up to the arena, and stalls, immediately.

Over the course of the next week or so we consulted with, or were visited by, our regular veterinarian, Alison Cornwall; an herbalist Kelley Robie; another vet who specializes in lameness, Randy Franz; and a biochemist, Linsey McLean.  On Linsey’s recommendation we began to video tape *Red to better see the progression of his recovery.  His first video is here on YouTube.  There are a total of six (6) videos, but the first has had over 32,600 views!  In fact, that first video has been referenced by websites with questions and/or answers about stringhalt.  One was a site written by a long-time vet to help veterinarian students study for their tests (unfortunately I didn’t bookmark it and have now lost the site) and just recently I found this reference.

We never did find out exactly why *Red developed stringhalt, but we think that it was a combination of injury and possible malnutrition due to malabsorption.  We learned that stringhalt can be triggered by a lack of, or inability to absorb, magnesium.  So, besides just giving him time, our primary treatment was a change in diet.  We still follow this diet.  I touched on feeding in this recent blog.

Over the course of time, *Red has had some small relapses.  I learned that by increasing the magnesium he would stop “high stepping” rather quickly, and so for him, he gets the vitamin/mineral supplement I use with everyone in the morning’s feed and then in the evening’s feed I give him a bit of extra magnesium.  I’m happy to report that in the past two (2) years he has not had even one incident of that high stepping gait.

I have had many, many people contact me and ask what we did for *Red; how we cured him.  I always caution them that what we did may not work, but that it is worth a try.  I am happy to be a resource of information and a source of hope that their horse may be cured as well.  This is why I chose to re-visit the topic, as well as to say “thank you” to the vet student who recently stopped by that first video and sent me a message telling me how good the video was and that she was happy to hear he was better.

If you are interested in reading the original blog entry it is here.

*Red Running Star’s bout with Stringhalt

What is Stringhalt? Many folks have heard the word, but exactly what does it entail? A horse with stringhalt, when walking, will hyper-lift one or both back legs (as if to kick their belly for flies). It is as if the message from their brain to their leg/s goes into overdrive. The nerve that controls the lateral digital extensor muscle misfires and causes the exaggerated lift.

Additionally, the lift causes a shift in the normal walking cadence and although the horse eventually adapts to this, at first it is as if they need to relearn walking.

Why does Stringhalt occur? The causes are considered “unknown” although in the United Kingdom and Australia it is known that eating some plants can allow Stringhalt to develop. Here in the United States, it is most often the result of injury. Because the muscle lies on the outside of the leg, a well placed kick can cause inflammation of the nerve resulting in Stringhalt.

*Red’s Stringhalt developed on Saturday, October 6, 2007. Chuck had fed lunch hay a bit after noon and all was well. When we arrived at about 5:30 p.m. to feed supper he had Stringhalt. It had rained that afternoon and so we assumed that he had slipped. Because he was otherwise fine (ate, drank, bright eyes) we left him with his pal *Beau to see what he was like in the morning. At this time we knew little about this disability.

The next morning he was the same, so we brought him up into a stall. Kelley Robie, of Horsetail Herbs, is trained in herbalogy, energy bodywork, and is also an Animal Communicator. She has worked on *Red before and was in the area so I asked her to stop in. Kelley got that he slipped in the mud. But why would he have gone onto developing Stringhalt when another horse would not have? This was our mystery.

Sunday evening Kelley called me after reading through her herbalogy books and said that the plants that had been indicated in the UK as causing Stringhalt actually prevented the absorption of magnesium (so causing a deficiency in magnesium). She recommended getting him on more magnesium and said she would continue to research.

Monday, October 8, 2007.

I called Burlington Equine to have Dr. Randy Frantz come out. He is a vet and also is a chiropractor and acupuncturist who has worked on *Red before. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it out this way until this coming Friday, so I set-up the appointment anyway.

Then I called our local vet, Dr. Tom Stuwe. His new partner, Alyson (omgoodness I’ve forgotten her last name!). She came out and confirmed the Stringhalt. She said the best case scenario was that he would get over it and the worst was that he would need to have the tendon cut in that leg. She promised she would do some more research and get back to me. In the meanwhile, she had me start him on Phenylbutazone for three days. I told her that we would try every other means at our disposal before having him operated on because once cut, it cannot be uncut. She understood.

I have also contacted Linsey McNeal from VitaRoyal http://www.vitaroyal.com/ and have filled out her Horse Profile form.

This evening, Alyson called to tell me the results of her research. She confirmed what she had already told me but said that some positive results had been found by 1) using a low carbohydrate diet; 2) increasing his Vitamin E and Selenium; and 3) acupuncture. She could not find anything relating increasing Magnesium.


Tuesday, October 9-Thursday, October 11

No real change in *Red except he seems more resigned with his predicament and less angry/frustrated. His appetite remains good. Guin has taken him for short walks. On Wednesday, the 10th we did a video of him to show his movement so that we can make comparisons better. We’ll get that loaded up onto YouTube as soon as we can.