CASE STUDY

‘He was bashing his head on the wall’

WHEN her warmblood gelding Korenbloem Royal Rebel (Reg) started walking circles and falling over, Lottie Flinn feared the worst.

“He had come in from the field with a stiff neck and we thought he’d pulled a muscle,” she says. “But when he began bashing his head on his stable walls, we knew it was something neurological.”

Reg was rushed to hospital, where basic neurological tests pointed to a brain problem. A lumbar puncture confirmed a diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.

“The lumbar puncture takes cerebrospinal fluid to identify bacteria,” says Lottie, who was told that the chance of recovery was about 2%. “Reg was given antibiotics and steroids, but was disorientated and kept collapsing. At one point, he wasn’t expected to survive the night.”

Amazingly, Reg pulled through. After five weeks in hospital he began a lengthy recuperation at home, returning to dressage at prix st george level the following year — with no apparent after-effects. The condition is incredibly rare.

“Fewer than 0.2% of adult horses with neurological diseases have bacterial meningitis,” says Rosie Naylor, explaining that entry of bacteria to the central nervous system results in a marked inflammatory response. “The signs are thought to be a result of this inflammatory reaction and subsequent neuronal (nerve cell) damage. Changes in blood flow can also lead to increased pressure and swelling within the brain.

“The two main sources of infection are the spread of bacteria in the blood from other sites of infection within the body, such as the sinuses, or penetrating wounds, such as fractures of the skull, that become contaminated.”