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Herbal Medicine Fact Sheet by Les Rees
Azoturea (Tying Up)
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Symptoms: Range from stiffness around the hind quarter to complete immobility, excessive sweating and muscle tremors in the hindquarters and in severe cases, in the forequarters also.
The reluctance to move is due to the release of lactic acid from muscle cells causing muscular cramp which becomes very painful for the horse. The sweating is a response to the elimination of waste, since the skin is responsible for the elimination of a quarter of the body’s waste products.
The release of lactic acid causes damage in varying degrees and in more severe cases can affect kidney function which can be observed in the darkness of colour of the urine.
This condition often occurs the day after work or when unfit horses are suddenly over worked for a long period. The feeding of high protein and grain diets are often a factor involved in this condition because the diet causes an overload of acid in the system altering the pH in the body.
When azoturia is presented, the horse must stop work immediately since the continued increase of lactic acid will cause damage to the muscles. The horse should be drenched with rosehip and celery tea to aid the cleansing of the blood and the removal of excess water and waste products. In severe cases, follow up treatment would include the use of anti-inflammatories and natural electrolytes.
It is interesting that horses particularly prone to this condition are horses with a nervous disposition and I find myself curious as to what causes what and in what order! Given that the feed is producing more than the horse’s energy requirement, is the unused energy making the horse nervous and therefore more prone to behavioural problems or are there other events of associated responses habituated in the horse’s memory that make the horse more susceptible to an over rich diet? Unfortunately, we cannot determine this since like us, each horse has a unique set of internal and external factors governing their well being.
Long term management of the problem would need to address the diet to include a lot of roughage and to reduce the intake of protein and grain especially on days off work.
Exercise should begin and end with ten to twenty minutes walking and also include some walking in between vigorous exercise. Horses that are not used regularly should be gradually built up to longer periods of work until they are fit enough for the work load required.
Finally there should be rock salt available to the horse, and dolomite, seaweed and diluted cider vinegar should be added to the diet since they provide an adequate supply of the minerals potassium, sodium and calcium which are important in the prevention of Azoturia.
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