What are some causes for...?

[eventchic33]

A horse to drop dead? The woman I used to work for had a mare(in foal) drop dead sometime sat night/sunday morning. I know the first guess is heart attack, anyeurism(sp?) next. But what else? She was in relatively good health.
She did have bad pasterns that made her permanently lame. But that was the only health issue that I knew of. When she was at the track she was prone to colic but I had not had an issue with colic since she came home. I can't say whether she had any since July but......She was NOT on a bute diet, she only got that when she was super lame.

I feel really bad because this was a favorite horse of the owners and they spent a lot of time and money to get her to where she was.
They didn't do a necropsy so I was just curious to possible causes.

[talkofthetown]

Did anyone see the mare the mare in the hours (or days) leading up to her death? For example, if she ate something toxic, you would KNOW something was wrong, if you saw it. And after following the "Am I too suspicious?" thread, if the mare did have something that could be spread, you might want to take a closer look.
And in my experience with equine heart attacks (which is fortunately limited to just one), the horse didn't drop dead. From his first symptoms till we finally had to end it for him, was 7-8 hours. Of course, this horse was fighting it tooth and nail, and I'm sure every case is different, so I guess it's possible to have an immediate death, but...
Just my two cents.

[Blondie22]

When I was a kid, my first QH mare dropped dead while turned out in the indoor on a particularily cold winter day. She did have an autopsy and while it was inconclusive, the vets suspected a brain aneurysm. I have heard a couple of other incidents of this happening over the years. Sounds like it could be a possibility in your case.

[eventchic33]

I have suspicions that there was some not so good care for the horses. They were fed well but the guy taking care of them just didn't seem to pay attention to them like I did. I know on another occasion that he somehow managed to miss an eye wound that the owner finally found when the eye was nothing but a pus ball and it required surgery. So my thought is that she probably had something going on and he just didn't notice it. I wish I still worked there some days....... The worst part is that he acted like he didn't care. didn't seem to be upset or worried or anything. I would have been freaking out and well heck I am freaking out and I don't even work there any more.

[Laurierace]

There are obviously thousands of reasons a horse could drop dead, but with an in foal mare colic or ruptured uterine artery would be very high on the list. Without a necropsy its just speculation unless you can see something obviously like a torn up stall or pool pf blood.

[eventchic33]

Thank you Laurie I didn't think about ruptured uterine artery. She was in foal to Black Tie Affair(sp?) too.

[Laurierace]

That's too bad, he is a nice stallion. I lost a mare to a suspected uterine artery years ago. We were just speculating as well because I opted not to do a necropsy, but that seemed to be the most likely cause. She looked very peaceful, there were no signs of a struggle, so it must have been a relatively good way to go.

[eventchic33]

I am on my way over to their barns at Charles Town to give the owner a big hug. Maybe I can get a little more info.

[Jealoushe]

Poor horse, permanitely lame AND carrying the weight of a foal?:(

[Bluey]

There are obviously thousands of reasons a horse could drop dead, but with an in foal mare colic or ruptured uterine artery would be very high on the list. Without a necropsy its just speculation unless you can see something obviously like a torn up stall or pool pf blood.

Uterine artery breaking in a heavily pregnant mare that rolled around or played hard is not that rare.
That too is what I was thinking, as it happened to us with a broodmare.
With her, there was blood all over where she dropped, but maybe your friend's mare didn't bled externally with that, so no one would have noticed, without a necropsy.

We also had one broodmare that must have run hard and had a tear in the peritoneum, where some intestines strangulated.
That was very long ago, before colic surgery was an option.
We found it on necropsy also and today she would have been the kind of horse where surgery is succesful.:(

[Bluey]

Poor horse, permanitely lame AND carrying the weight of a foal?:(

Yes, that too, I was thinking of that, but then thought we don't know how lame she may have been, so we can't say if it was right to breed her or not.

[Woodland]

It happens. It's the way of things. I am so sorry for her loss. In reading Tony Hillerman's memoir he had a gentle thing to say that his Mother always said to him;

"Offer it up." "Mama would say when life seemed awful, unfair, or cruel. She would remind us that that this was just a brief trial we had to endure, a race we had to run, a test we had to pass the best we could. "

Somehow his words have reached my soul and comforted me when I have felt let down or saddened by life.

[Simkie]

I knew a mare that was fine at night check but dead in the morning. They did a necropsy and found a large tumor in her belly that had invaded a large blood vessel and caused her to bleed out internally. There was no blood outside of the body at all.

[Jaegermonster]

I saw one drop dead of a heart attack while undersaddle. At first we thought he was colicing, he tried to lay down. His rider booted him, he took a step, she started to get off and he fell right out from under her. Then it looked like he was seizing, and in a matter of seconds he was dead. The whole thing took longer than it took to type this.
There was an equine vet there on her horse and she came right over as soon as it started, and he was gone.

[Iron Horse Farm]

The first barn that I worked at had a 5 yr old QH that got turned out after breakfast, trotted happily out into the field and just crumpled. He was dead before we got to him. Necropsy was heart related.

Same barn had a gelding roll in the pasture and break his own neck.

We had a brood mare bleed out last year. Awful awful thing. Less than 2 minutes, but because she was bleeding into her abdomen, there was no external blood at all. God I miss her.

[KSAQHA]

I would also suspect a ruptured uterine artery.

After owning a mare for 10 years, an acquaintance bought her to use as a broodmare. The mare (11yrs and maiden) settled fine, but upon standing up once she foaled, she dropped like a rock and died almost immediately. No external bleeding, either. A necropsy determined the cause.

Fortunately, the foal survived.

On the other hand, the sire of the mare dropped dead in his stall. He was Impressive bred and although they weren't doing testing way back then, he was most likely H/H and died of heart failure. My mare tested N/N once testing became available.