# Muscle tremors/trembling



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Maybe time to have the vet check her. How much salt is she getting? You need to offer her loose salt, such as iodized table salt or pickling salt as well. Horses who use a lick don't take in enough salt. Put a cup in a seperate bucket and keep an eye on it. I mix both salts. The horses prefer the coarse pickling but it isn't iodized. My lick is 4 yrs old and only half gone yet I've gone thro many pounds of the household salts.


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## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy - CVM - UMEC, University of Minnesota

Id treat her like a PSSM horse and change her diet and see what happens.


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

thanks for your replies. she has a free choice salt lick but the others seem to use it more. I'll try loose salt in her feed, have used electrolytes in the past but wasn't paying much mind to see if it correlated. may get a blood test to see if she's deficient anywhere. as for PSSM, the symptoms don't seem to match up but I have kept her on a similar diet. hmmm


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## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

The other option is to try supplementing magnesium. Is this horse overweight/chunky? Easy keeper? Even if the horse doesnt have all the signs of PSSM, you can still do the test and make sure. NOt every horse will show the same and the sweating and tremors as well as anxiety during stress and work are two signs of PSSM.


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## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

One other thing...I just noticed this is a Draft cross. (Im assuming you meant Belgian draft horse?) Crossed with what? HYPP could be a possibility also.


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

thanks...she is a Belgianx, with QH, although you wouldn't know there's any QH in there! I thought of HYPP as well but again her symptoms didn't seem to match up to anything I researched. Didn't see that about PSSM...as far as the anxiety and such. I am supplementing her with magnesium, which I was doing before and then stopped so I was wondering if that was part of it. Of course I can't really test her yet as the ground is a mess.


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## franknbeans (Jun 7, 2007)

Keep in mind that no 2 horses, just like people, are necessarily alike, so she may not totally "match up" with internet symptoms of anything. I would suggest you send in tail hair for many of the genetic diseases-you never know, and it is pretty reasonable. It is winter, and you have the time. You may just come up with an answer, and if not, you will have that as extra info if you need the vet to come out and help diagnose her.


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

I do realize that and of course the internet can be a double edged sword when it comes to self diagnosis. But you peaked my interest with the tail hair? where do send a sample and how pricey is that?


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## paintedpastures (Jun 21, 2011)

With the your horse's breeding & symptoms, Agree that I'd want to check for PSSM & Hypp. You just need to pull mane or tail hairs & send in { usually $30-35 per test} popular lab to use Site Map


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

thanks. i'll look into that. what still has me perplexed though is that she seems to only show signs when she's under duress and this only just started this past fall. wouldn't she have shown signs all along when working? I've had her since she was 10 months old and have trained her exclusively myself...she lives at home so I don't miss out on much.


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## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

Well besides blood testing and getting a vet involved, there isnt alot more to do except test for HYPP that I can think of. If she is crossed with QH I would absolutely test for HYPP. An N/H horse could indeed possibly show small symptoms as you describe although im not sure the sweating fits. But if she is N/H, you NEED to know. The test is cheap and easy and one thing you can rule out. 

PSSM I believe needs a blood test after work to check for muscle damage. I would call your vet and bounce some of this off them as well. Its good to check into things like this and stay ahead of the game. You just never know. Better to nip it in the bud if it is something you can control with diet.


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## paintedpastures (Jun 21, 2011)

ponyxpress said:


> thanks. i'll look into that. what still has me perplexed though is that she seems to only show signs when she's under duress and this only just started this past fall. wouldn't she have shown signs all along when working? I've had her since she was 10 months old and have trained her exclusively myself...she lives at home so I don't miss out on much.


Stress & diet are the biggest triggers:-( Horses can go long without showing anything & then bang one day symptoms can appear having the right trigger set them in motion:-(


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

thanks you guys...good to bounce stuff off others sometimes. I'll pull some hairs tomorrow and get going on this. I'll let you all know what I find out!


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## Trinity3205 (Dec 21, 2010)

GL! I hope it turns out to be nothing or just something simple


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## Kilokitty (Dec 2, 2012)

While you're waiting though, I would take your horse off of any potassium-laden things, including alfalfa, as this triggers muscle twitches in HYPP positive horses. Just a precaution


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

Might be PSSM! I have a PSSM horse who was perfectly fine until she wasn't. :wink: We did endurance for two years even. Nothing. One day we went on a little trail ride and BAM. Full prone tie up. Almost killed her.

We thought it was a one-off thing. Until stuff kept happening. This time it was a lot like what your horse experienced. We were in a stressful situation. She started to tremble and sweat. She would short stride in a back. This happened a couple times. These episodes weren't exactly "tying up," but it wasn't something I took lightly. I called me vet again and we discussed how this could be a chronic problem. The vet said it might be PSSM, probably Type 2. My horse had actually been showing signs her whole life. She couldn't canter, had muscle atrophy on her top line and hindquarters which increased the more I worked her, and had a mysterious shifting hind leg lameness. Occasionally, she even had stringhault like symptoms. 

We changed her to a little low NSC grain and added fat, supplemented vitamin E and selenium, kept her turned out 24/7, and put a grazing muzzle on when the grass was green and sugary. She's a whole new horse now!

PSSM type two can't be found with a tail hair test. Only type one can be tested for that way. Type two has to be diagonosed with a muscle biopsy. I didn't opt for the biopsy. It's expensive and a little invasive. My mare was diagnosed based on her response to treatment.


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

thanks for the info Brighteyes. that's been the hard thing to figure out with my mare, that she hasn't shown any major signs until this past fall and we've done a lot of long trails, camping, hunter paces etc.... I plan to cover my bases and do the hair sample test plus call my vet.


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## ponyxpress (Feb 25, 2012)

sent off my tail hairs the other day...now just waiting for the results!


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## SaddleOnline (Oct 20, 2011)

I would second the Hypp or PSSM possibilities, especially if it is becoming more and more frequent...keep in mind sometimes it is easier to treat the sypmtoms to get your diagnosis, like brighteyes said, just changing the diet and environment and seeing if it makes a difference can be less stressful for horse and person


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