I saw a thread on the Internet about a "down" horse and whether it would live or not. Can you please explain what that term means and if that horse has a chance to survive?


MICHAEL A. BALL, DVM

The down horse presents special difficulties in both care and diagnosis.

The "down horse" refers to a horse which has become recumbent and cannot rise. The term is a clinical sign and is a non-specific development of a number of disease conditions; the causes can be many. Horses which are suffering from neurological conditions (such as equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, EPM) that affect the spinal cord can develop severe deficits in muscle strength and/or coordination, leading to the down condition. If the neurologic lesion is in the neck area, it will affect the forelimbs and the hind limbs, such that the horse will have little strength at either end when attempting to rise. If the lesion is in the spinal cord somewhere between the forelimbs and the hind limbs (in the area of the thoracic vertebrae: a classic T3-L3 lesion), the horse will retain strength in the forelimbs, but the hind limbs will be weak or paralyzed. These middle back lesions often result in a down horse which can sit up using the strength of the forelimbs, resulting in the so-called "dog-sitting" posture

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