SARAH: I'm adopting a draft horse with whom I've worked for several years.
He's a 10 to 12-year-old Belgian gelding who has a slight wobble in his head when he's
standing at liberty or while tied, as well as a stringhalt-like symptoms in his right
hind.
She's been told that his condition is called Shivers, though, to the best of her knowledge,
it's never been officially diagnosed by a veterinarian.
He appears to be otherwise workably sound and happy to do his job with the farm and
his teammate.
It's been something that we've learned to work around.
From her understanding of the condition, it's degenerative, so she's anticipating a lot
of time over the next few years, making sure his quality of life is the best it can be.
Are there any exercises, feeding programs, or supplements that will help his Shivers
symptoms?
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Oh, Shivers.
SARAH: You came prepared.
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Well, I did, I am because, of course, Newman has it.
SARAH: Of course.
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Of course.
SARAH: Like many things.
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Everything.
So the short answer to her question is "not really."
The longer answer is, for the benefit of everyone else, what is Shivers?
And so it's a disease-- it's a neuromuscular condition that's been around for centuries.
SARAH: Neuro meaning?
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Nervous system.
SARAH: Muscle meaning?
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Muscle system.
SARAH: Good one.
I tried to trick you.
DR. LYDIA GRAY: I know.
I got ya.
Yeah, I'm awake.
And so what happens is classically you see it in early stages, when horses back.
You ask them to back, and they pick up a hind leg, they take it out to the side, they hyperflex
it, over flex it, shake it a little bit, and then slap it down.
As the disease progresses-- and she's right, it does progress-- not every horse but a lot
of them, 70%, so the majority.
You can see it with the head and the neck, very common in Belgians.
You can see it maybe in the first one or two steps of the walk, not usually in the trot.
But it does affect them standing, sleeping, they lose weight, and a lot of horses, eventually,
if they go this route, do get put down for it.
Vitamin E, always recommended for neuromuscular conditions, perhaps selenium.
Turnout and light exercise usually good for this.
Always a complete and balanced diet.
There is a question of is this related to PSSM, Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy, completely
different muscle condition.
But because a lot of horses, Belgians especially, that have Shivers have PSSM, it's coincidental
at this point.
But the advice for that is a high fat, low sugar diet doesn't hurt these guys.
But I will caution her.
You've got to get your veterinarian out there and get a diagnosis, because there are quite
a few neuromuscular conditions that have a funny way of looking, a hitch in the get along,
so to speak.
And you've got to understand, you've got to know for sure what this is.
She mentioned stringhalt - different condition.
So PSSM, EPM, there's a lot of things out there.
You've got to make sure that the horse has Shivers because what if it's something else
that you could do something about.
I did go to a talk last year and what I learned from that is that draft horses it's common
in, warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, Thoroughbred crosses.
But 16.3, 16.3 hands seems to be a predisposing factor.
Tall horses.
Ponies rarely, if ever, have this.
So that was a huge piece that we added to our puzzle.
SARAH: OK, all right.
Well, that's, I think, about as much as you could hope to know--
DR. LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, yeah, it's a tough condition.