The Horse

MAR 2018

The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.

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23 March 2018 THE HORSE TheHorse.com "Although owners did recognize the terrible discomfort their horses were in, recall that horses were the primary means of transporta- tion in those days," says Stephanie Valberg, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, ACVSMR. "Time off from tying-up was a major problem, effectively grinding the transportation system to a halt." Horse owners didn't realize the condition's severity and, so, carried on with their riding and driving as the symptoms cleared. Now, we know Monday morning disease is actually the muscle disorder exer- tional rhabdomyolysis (ER), more commonly referred to as tying-up, and it must be managed carefully. If you've ever witnessed a horse actively tying-up—sweating, refusing to move, with spasming muscles—the level of discomfort far surpasses that of the usual aches and pains associated with hard work. This is because horses suffer- ing from ER actually have sustained severe muscle damage. In fact, the term exertional rhabdomyolysis is defined as a breakdown or destruc- tion of skeletal muscle cells associ- ated with exercise. "Tying-up is referred to as a syn- drome because it simply describes a collection of clinical signs describ- ing a disease process," says Valberg. "There are actually many different causes of tying-up, one of which is polysaccharide storage myopathy, or PSSM." Valberg, currently the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine STACEY OKE, DVM, MSC F or the past several hundred years horse owners have struggled to care for charges afflicted with "Monday morning disease," a crippling condition that affects horses after a day off from work.

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