Cause of death????

[chicknmania]

Just curious about this. A friend's friend acquired an ex-racehorse about a year ago. He had been living in Kentucky in an open pasture with a loafing shed. He had one other (three y.o.) horse for company. He was VERY quiet for a tbred, especially one off the track; had good conformation and was shaping up to be a good riding horse. Mother's Day weekend was cold and rainy. They went out to feed the horse Sunday night, and found him lying dead in the field. What would cause a sudden death like this? He had no prior visible symptoms, according to them, and no marks on the body. Someone else said horses don't have heart failure, unless it's an aneurysm while excercising, or strokes. Is this true? He was less than ten years old.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

There are several plants that will kill a horse almost instantly if eaten. One is a japanese "U" (No idea of the spelling) or something like that. A friend's horse nibbled at ONE dry leaf and dropped dead a few minutes later. This branch had blown in from a neighboring yard and the whole thing was just an unfortunate accident. The horse was too young to know any better.

I have heard of horses having "heart attacks", but only after excessive hard work. I'm sure there are numerous reasons for a sudden death in a horse. Did they talk to a vet about it? I too would be interested to know the cause of death.

 

[ChickNLittle]

Ex-Racehorses can have heart trouble. However, there is also EEE going around in horses. We have had several just in my neighborhood dying, and they announced on the news that they confirmed some horses in FL with EEE that have died as well.

 

[GwenFarms]

There is just way too many things to name. Its too late now, but she could have had it sent off. Then again a friend had a horse die like this and she had it sent off and it was in unexplained total organ failure. There were no symptoms and we had all gone on a long ride a few days before. So, it will just always be a mystery as to what caused the organ failure.

 

[chicknmania]

Apparently they didn't have any money for a necropsy, and didn't see the point in calling the vet. We wondered about lightning, as it was a rainy day; d/k if they had storms, but we did here.

 

[Chirpy]

Lightening would be my first guess, if it was a stormy day. We had people near us lose two horses in one summer to lightening strikes .. it can be very hard to find the actual strike point on the horses body.

I'm sorry for their loss ... it seems especially hard when you can't find a reason for losing a pet.

 

[WrenAli]

You sould be able to tell if it was lightning. There would be scorch marks on the ground.

Horses, expecially TBs tend to have bigger hearts and are likely to have heart issues.

I would also call colic or a torsion of the gut a likely cause.

But it could have been any number of things, cancer, poisious plant, colic, etc.

The first question I would ask is did the horse look like it just layed down and died, or thrashed about before it died?

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
maybe he had collic.

 

[chicknmania]

That was the first thing I asked too, about the thrashing. And the answer was, there didn't seem to be any evidence of that. That is why we thought of lightning, because they just drop dead, there's no struggle. I have read that a lot of times you will see the scorch mark running down the animal's leg, and then there will be a mark on the ground, too, but I don't know if they saw anything like that. You would think they would notice signs of colic, but who knows...the barn was not close to the house, and I doubt they went out there much during that cold, rainy holiday weekend.

 

[Florida chick]

Apparently they didn't have any money for a necropsy, and didn't see the point in calling the vet. We wondered about lightning, as it was a rainy day; d/k if they had storms, but we did here.


Did they not have shelter for the animals? If they don't have money to take care of their animals they shouldn't own ANY! That horses death should be reported so it can be checked for WNV and EEE! Poor thing probably wasn't vaccinated to boot! I just can NOT understand why people have animals if they will not take care of them in death and in life!