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Toe Dragging
If your horses pick their back legs up very high and walk in a peculiar
exaggerated fashion, are unable to move, and there is wasting of thigh muscles,
then they might have stringhalt.
The Australian stringhalt occurs in outbreaks in Australia, New Zealand,
California and Washington states, is associated with grazing of poor quality
pastures containing the weed Hypochaeris radicata.
Hypochaeris radicata, or common catsear, also called flatweed and false
dandelion, is a perennial weed primarily of turfgrass and lawns that resembles
dandelion. Found in the eastern United States as far north as New Jersey and as
far west as Mississippi. It contains unknown toxin which causes degeneration of
the nerve tissue, especially of the larger myelinated fibers and neurogenic
muscle atrophy.
With early diagnosis and treatment, some horses may recover while others,
more severely affected, may not.
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