Tying-Up: Current Diagnosis and Nutritional Management

Researchers estimate that three of every 100 performance horses will experience signs consistent with a diagnosis of tying-up.
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Researchers estimate that three of every 100 performance horses will experience signs consistent with a diagnosis of tying-up. For many horsemen the signs of tying-up are unmistakable–stiff, stilted gaits and loss of impulsion to the point of stopping and stretching as if to urinate or paw the ground. When pressed to continue exercise, horses sweat excessively, breathe more quickly, and become so painful they might stop and remain standing in one place.

Two important research milestones transformed the way scientists now approach tying-up. The first involved the recognition of multiple causes of acute muscle pain and cramping. Speaking at the 2010 Kentucky Equine Research (KER) Nutrition Conference, held in Lexington, Ky., Stephanie Valberg, DVM, PhD, a professor at the University of Minnesota, said, "For decades, progress in understanding tying-up was hampered by searching for one specific cause of muscle pain and by the false assumption that tying-up pain was due to lactic acidosis. In fact, there is no scientific validation that lactic acid accumulates in the muscle of horses with tying-up, and many valid studies show that lactic acid is not present in high levels in horses with tying-up."

A second research landmark was the adaptation of a muscle biopsy technique for horses. According to Valberg, over the last 20 years, the use of muscle biopsies has been integral in diagnosing problems in individual horses and advancing the knowledge of muscle disease in general.

"The repository of over 3,000 muscle and DNA samples from across North America at the Neuromuscular Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Minnesota, has proved to be invaluable in further defining the histological, clinical, epidemiological, pathological, and genetic basis for specific muscle disorders in horses

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