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On the 10th November 2022 I took  Luna, my 9yr old Cob X out for a ride.  She was feeling sluggish and lazy, which really wasn’t like her.

Later that day we went down to see her in the evening and she started showing symptoms of what we thought was colic.  We called the vet out and they treated her as if it was colic and gave her Buscapan, and said to keep an eye on her and see how she goes.  We went home and got duvets and pillows preparing to sleep down the yard to keep an eye on her in case the “colic” worsened.

We got back down to the yard and set up camp.  By this time she was just getting worse, wasn’t eating and was very fatigued.  She seemed to have difficulty breathing and appeared generally very uncomfortable. We called the vets again and they said to take her to the hospital ASAP.  For the first night, it was still treated as if she had colic, not realising it was Sycamore poisoning.
The vets said that they’d keep a close eye on her overnight and ring us if anything got worse and we needed to come see her. We went home and were worrying about her all night.

In the morning we went back down and after doing many blood tests and other tests the vets diagnosed Sycamore poisoning. She was then put on lots of fluids and fed hay, haylage, and small bucket feeds every 4 hours day and night. The vets were amazing with her.

Unfortunately her levels of the toxins were still rising more than they should’ve done. Therefore she was put on oxygen and cared for very thoroughly.

With 6 days of love, care, cuddles and kisses we were told that she was stable enough to be sent back home!
She was so happy to be out on grass again! She was on box rest for a few weeks and was then allowed a small paddock.

Luna is now doing better than ever after having 2/3 months off, and has recovered incredibly! She is an absolute miracle of a horse! I have to give  a big thank you to Donnington vets for saving her life. Later on we found out that there had been quite a few horses in the hospital (5/6) and Luna being the oldest to survive it!!( she’s only 9) Sadly not many others made it out.

Which is why Atypical Myopathy needs to be known about so that other people can be aware and hopefully not go through the heartbreak of seeing your horse so ill and helpless.