Advice Please - Equine Anaemia

[susan_w]

Can anybody give me some advice on how to deal with this. The vet came as Mars has been a bit off recently, and then his back legs swelled. He did a blood test, and said that he has spectacular anaemia (amongst other things).

Now I'm not sure how to deal with this - what should we be feeding him, how much exercise should he be having etc.

Any advice would be welcome. Thanks

 

[kerilli]

umm, surely your vet, having been out for this problem, should be happy to answer all your questions about it! that's what s/he's paid for, after all.
i used Red Cell for an anaemic horse, years ago. i just wonder what type of feed you've got him on, because i used to use a well-known feed manufacturers products, and my horse became anaemic... as did a lot of other local horses fed on same products. changed manufacturer, never had the problem again...

 

[susan_w]

My vet is happy to answer all the questions, but he's belgian, and I can only have a conversation on the phone with him, and am struggling to understand him. That's if I can get hold of him on the phone (six phone calls before I finally spoke to him). As I work away all week, and only come back on a friday night, and leave again on Sunday night, I'm very short of time to organise things, and have to leave it all to my daughter who has got her head up her *rse!!

Just thought one of you wise people on here would be able to help.

 

[Judie]

Don't be too alarmed..it is actually quite common this time of year, some horses show more signs than others - I've just had the blood results back for mine and he is also anaemic, he has been before. Aneamia is bascially reduced red cell count and is usually found in the following: poor nutrition, work burden or deficiences of iron, vit B12. Although my horse is on a very tight worming programme I have put him on 5 day panacur guard course and he is to have redcell at a high dosage for 6 weeks, I will then do another blood test when I'm expecting it to be back to normal. I usually put him on redcell as a matter of course during the winter but with it being so warm and him staying out 24/7 longer I was a bit slow of the mark - bad mummy!

Other than that his work load and feeding regime will stay the same.

Hope that helps.

 

[susan_w]

Your post made me realise that I haven't wormed for a while. Our yard has been taken over and there was a very tight worming programme, but realised that since new management, I don't think we've wormed. (Gosh it must be about 12 weeks!).

I think that it'll do no harm if I put him on the Panacur, and get some redcell.

My vet told me to stop feeding him haylage (but I think that's related to the swelling problem), so we are feeding him low nutrition hay (soaked) and just nuts and chaff morning and evening. My daughter is riding him every day for about half an hour and only in walk and trot as he seems quite tired. She competed him two weeks ago, and he was absolutely fine and was jumping double clears, but he is a naturally fizzy horse, and has maintained his energy level up until this week.

These things are sent to worry us.

Thanks for your help.

PS. How much is Redcell (just so that I don't faint in the tack shop).

 

[Judie]

Redcell: I've just paid £25.95 for it, so not too bad as far as these things go.

Yes I think the panacur would be a good idea in view of your management change over. I still feed haylage but I don't have any other issues going on, but his circulation will be poor if he is a bit under the weather, hopefully you will be able to re-introduce it when he's back on form, hopefully that won't be too long as you seem to have picked up on it quite quickly.

 

[vicijp]

Panacur is next to useless at this time of year. You would be best off to use soemthing like Equimax, then Panacur or Equest next time. A serious worm problem would have shown up on the blood.
What else did the blood show? If a few other levels are out he could be anaemic as a result of a virus, if thats the case it may be a good idea to give him an easy few weeks to totally get him over it.
Any of the blood products will do the trick; Red Cell, Naf, Zynolix.

 

[jumbyjack]

I've recently gone through this with my mare, vet's opinon was that she would have a low level virus at some point which had not thrown up any specific symptoms. She was put on Bute, twice a day for 4 days and once a day for 8 days, she also had two courses of Visorbin. I was advised not to ride her at all for two weeks and then only gentle hacking because there would be the distinct possibility she would tie up if worked harder. Further blood tests were carried out at two week intervals, it was six weeks before she was back to normal. Her initial symptoms were that she seemed tired and listless but did not have the swollen legs problem. I feed Simple System so I didn't need to alter her feed but if you feed cereals these should be dropped from the feed. I hope this is of some use to you and that your horse improves as quickly as mine did!