Wobblers.. pony seems to be going down fast?!

[Dolliebobs]

Looking for some advice.

My girl was diagnosed with Wobblers 3 weeks ago. Shes 13 and we’ve had her 3 years and in those three years she’s always tripped. We assumed it was because of muscle weakness but it was steadily getting worse. She was sent to an equine treatment centre and had all testing done. She has wobblers, a few issues with her hocks and the spine between her back hips.

Shes been put on retirement

She had steroids put in her neck.

She struggles with the cold weather but it was warming up and it’s got cold again.

Iv noticed her going downhill the last week and so have the people on the yard (she’s on full livery).

She has a ramp Upto her stable and Iv noticed she’s struggling with that. She’s became very slow and even more confused in herself. I turned her around and she full on stood on her back foot and nearly fell over.

They said it took ages to turn her out the other day because she was walking so slow and seemed confused.

Is it normal to go downhill so fast?!

I’m absolutely heartbroken

Very sorry to read about your mare. There’s no cure for Wobblers, and yes, they can deteriorate fast.

What makes it deteriorate fast?

So sorry to hear this, I've only been involved in one confirmed wobblers case and in that one deterioration was very fast too I'm afraid and the horse had to be PTS quite soon after diagnosis.

Why that is, well in my non veterinary expert understanding - wobblers is a neurological condition in which bones/vertebrae push on the spinal cord - basically you don't ever want to be messing with the spinal cord, in a horse or a person or any other animal. Even a small increase in pressure from the bone (because of growth or shifts in the spinal positioning) onto the cord causes quite dramatic effects in balance and nervous system functioning - sometimes the symptoms can come and go if the bones/pressure is shifting as the horse moves around, and I know in some mild cases it's possible to operate to remove the bone that is causing the pressure, but in severe cases there will nearly always eventually be permanent damage caused by the pressure on the cord and things won't then typically improve.

Again really sorry, it's a horrible thing to have to think about but I do wonder if you need to be talking with the vet about what quality of life she has now and how likely it is it will deteriorate further - personally I would hate to risk her going down and not being able to get back up as that's so distressing for them.

Thanks all. I rang the vet this morning and they said they don’t usually go down hill since she’s had some steroids put in her neck but I’m not sure :(

The yard messaged to say she’s came in lame/stumbling and sore today

We had a horse who had wobblers a couple of years ago. Very sadly he went down in the stable when my DH was putting the saddle on. It was horrific. We kept him for another few months but we then had him pts. We were devastated, it’s a awful thing to happen.
When the vets scanned his neck and showed us where the compression was they said that they see an increased number of warmblood horses with neurological conditions. He was incredibly well bred and now I wonder if that was really the problem the intense breeding. Anyway I digress, I’m so sorry for you.

if we could have kept him as an ornament we would have and in fact we were hopeful until we saw the scans.