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gpm · #6 (**permalink**) 18th May 2002, 02:11 PM

Anna,
I don't know about thyroid cartilage causing the crest on the neck. I would doubt it because the crests are generally quite a lot larger than I would think a swollen thyroid would be by itself and this is on the top line of the neck.

I really don't know that her past foundering has anything to do with this episode, specifically, though all things are related. She was foundered many years ago. I don't believe founder (laminitis) can be translated into human terms because I think it is a species specific dis-ease. I was using only the disease name to search which only offered one rubric in only one Rep, the Complete that produced : ange-s., calc., cortico., cortiso., flor-p., kali-c., levo., rib-ac., sulfa., thiop.

I then just used "thyroid" and compared the results. Calc sounded most like her. Afraid I don't know enough about thyroid, hyper or hypo, to be able to search correctly. I actually wouldn't be able to do it correctly anyway. (Did you kind of guess?)

What I was trying to do was give a remedy thinking she was "hypothyroid" and not doing good case taking. In the horse, symptoms are intolerance to cold, slow shedding, long rough coat, overweight with cresty neck(could be underweight with poor body tone), lethargic and what they call tying up ( Azoturia, Paralytic Myoglobinuria, Monday Morning Sickness...a result of being worked hard for an extended period and then laid up abruptly). Of these, she has (for several months) all but intolerance to cold and tying up. I felt Calc covered those symptoms.

During the 8 days on Calc LM1 the only changes were discharge from one nostril and the stopping of the rather long standing lachrymator. And then the intense body heat and sweating the other night. She remained warmer to touch over her kidneys throughout the following day but with no other symptoms of anxiety, pain or sweating.

Her physicals are: big mare, bright chestnut, voracious hunger, tendency to fat, aging, long standing ring bone (calcium deposits at top of hoof [pastern] caused by banging her stall door demanding more food and leaving her walking back on her heels, causing strain on her her front leg tendons.

She is "breedy", "typy", meaning no matter how lame she may be she has that something extra that causes her to snap out those front feet, whip up her tail, arch her neck and float across the field. Like you see well schooled dressage horses do. She loves attention. She loved being shown in hand (first shown as at 4 months, winning the State Breeders Futurity) and really put on the dog for the judges. She is lonely, I'm sure even though the goat tries hard to be with her every moment.

She is kept (and has been for years since she was foundered) in a small field without much good grass (has free choice mixed hay but not rich alfalfa) and only allowed a few hours a day in the big pastures. Normally she would be waiting expectantly for the gate to open but after starting Calc, she has lost that consuming desire. She still craves her grain even though she gets very little.

Divina,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Very interesting about the correlation to human double chin. With horses, that layer of fat on what would be the back of their necks, may already exist but will usually turn very hard when founder is eminent. Does the "double chin" harden in humans as the condition advances?

Peculiar that the cresty neck is a symptom for both founder and hypothyroidism.

I apologize for not posting back sooner. Very busy couple of days in the wildlife department, including a call for a 5 foot snake removal. Not one of my favorite events. Thank you both very much.