Back in late 2011 several our standardbreds became sick with an unknown illness...Moose was one of these. He became a very sick horse with muscle weakness in his hind end, his eyes became cloudy and he was very lethargic. Vets where at a loss as to what was causing our horses sickness. We decided to self treat due to the fact that one horse had already been taken to the University to be treated however they couldn't diagnose and he became violently ill within 4 hours, it was decided to euthanise him as his body started to deteriate rapidly. Several weeks passed I finally got hold of a dear old friend of mine whom over the years has treated my horses. As soon as he saw Moose he knew how seriously ill he was. He took blood and it was very runny and dark, he had very little oxygen in his blood. Blood was tested and although nothing exactly could be pointed at, his blood did show he was very sick and could have been severe tick paralysis.. however we will probably never know. We gave him an injection and 2 treatments of a herbal remedy, as well as a back alignment and massage. Within 24 hours I noticed an improvement, he was less wobbly on his legs and seemed more alert. Treatment continued for 2 weeks with daily oral doses of the remedy. I also treated him with 80mls per day of double strength garlic and B1 apple cidar vinegar over his tongue, Mega Minerals where added to the diet including seaweed meal, brewers yeast, rosehip and other herbs. He was slowly gaining weight and his coat started looking healther, his eyes showed improvement and he was now able trot around. However he platued at this stage and left us still wondering why he was so sick. After a phone call from a lovely lady that had purchased one of our other geldings I was left with another possibility. Geldings are prone to what is called a "Bean" and if the horse had been unwell and not recovering from treatments, still had hind end weakness and urine was not healthy etc then it was quite possible this could be another factor in his illness. So on went the gloves, baby oil is not advised , so I used warm water and soap. Note to self...when doing this make sure no neighbours are visible..lucky for us we have none close ;) After finally getting Moose Jnr to come out and meet Mrs Hand I finally found that he indeed had a bean and it was very large. Moose was not impressed and made it difficult to clean, eventually I was able to get it out, it was big and easily blocking the top of his uretha area, it was like grey/white plasticine and it stunk... so make sure you have a strong stomach when attempting this. It would have easily been the size of a small plum.. poor baby. Needless to say all geldings have now "bean" checked , only one other had a medium size one, the rest where very minute. We normally clean geldings every 6 months as it's strongly advised due to infections and bean build up..most people are unaware that this can happen, so I am going to have a page in the health section with information and how to clean properly. Update on Moose's condition to come since Bean removal........