Bonkers black pony has bad news

[BBP]

We have been monitoring his blood enzyme levels since April when a little pony over the road died of liver failure. In May his GGT was 100 (they say normal is 50ish). Vet said to rest him, so did very gentle games and that was about it, all good as nice hot summer chilled him out. End of August we re-tested. GGT was 220. No panic, we discussed the possibility of not really knowing the natural fluctuations and just monitor him regularly. He showed no symptoms, bright eyes, good weight, full of energy, shiny coat, never lethargic or off his food. Vet said ok to exercise as I saw fit as long as not strenuous. Pony goes wild in cold weather so would only gallop around the field daily if not kept in work. So I rode him, schooling, hacking, even jumped him a little but never enough to work him hard (basically never pushing him, but if he wanted to canter letting him). I would consider it a light maintenance workload. His little field buddy who is 27 and a haffie was blood tested in April, levels were around 80.

6 weeks after last blood test, bonkers black pony GGT is 566, triple his results from last time. The haffie is at 677. She has been on field rest as retired, he has been in work. Both are on the same hay and grazing as each other but different to the ponies over the road, one of whoms GGT is up at 900 and has been since June. He is on rest and treatment with antibiotics and steriods. His has been identified as infection in bile ducts and his bile acids have been raised. Ours are normal with normal liver function.

Next step is a scan and sending vets a full diary of pony management. Then biopsy as last resort (haffie doesn't travel well and mine would find vets very stressful)

He is still 100% bright eyed, shiny, great weight, loves his food, full of energy and bounce, never lethargic. this mornign he was bouncing aorund the arena chasing his football with not a care in the world. We have three great equine vets working on it between us and they are all totally confused. None seem to think it is liver fluke but i don't think this has been tested for and I don't know why not.

I'm so sad over it all, I was so sure his results would be better. The funny thing is, had littleun not died, i would still not have had him blood tested, we would still be working as normal.

For those who don't know him:

 

[Silverfire]

Sorry to hear your pony is getting worse. If you are worried about liverfluke then why don't you discuss with your vet about maybe treating one pony for liverfluke and then test its liver enzymes in a month to see if its improved. Treatment is with Fasinex (not licensed for horses but has been tested on a few horses by the drug company). You dont need a prescription for Fasinex.....i bought mine from my local agricultural feed merchant, it cost £55 for 2.2 litres and you treat as sheep doseage. My horses have had liverfluke, not tested but all got better after treatment, they have regained weight and bloods tested normal. Only one tested with raised liver enzymes and only just at 51 but her enzymes are now down to normal. She had mild anemia. Two others bit more anemic with raised fibrinogen, all were fat with shiny coats until they came under stress when they lost weight over their ribs and couldnt regain it. They all foaled. Had they not had foals i would not have known they had liverfluke. Another horse dropped a bit of weight after covering a couple of mares, very unusual for him. Didnt improve weight until treated with fasinex. His liver enzymes were tested by vet a couple weeks ago as 16 ( week before friend took some blood from him, she could only test couple things but one was Alkaline Phosphate which was above normal at 555 which she said could be from liverfluke so i'm just going to treat him with fasinex again as he only had one dose, the mares two). It has been a bad year for liverfluke apparently. Other stuff i have read about liverfluke says they can have high liver enzymes, i thought my horses couldnt have it because their livers enzymes and albumin were normal.

 

[BBP]

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate any information and experiences. The more I can piece together the better at the moment.

 

[flintfootfilly]

My gang of 6 ponies showed raised liver enzymes last year, which was picked up as I was monitoring muscle enzymes through regular blood tests. They looked really well throughout, despite one pony having compromised liver function (especially alkphos). During last summer, I sent around a dozen poo samples in all to be tested for liver fluke. From all 12 samples, there was only 1 sample which was positive for fluke. One egg! That was from the pony whose liver function was affected, and whose GGT rose to 2,300 at its peak. It was at that point that I sent the final batch of poo samples for checking, and that was when one fluke egg was found. I dosed all ponies with Fasinex on David Sutton's recommendation (he's at Glasgow uni, and has an interest in liver fluke in horses - well worth your vet speaking to him). It was very palatable, and I just measured it into their feed, and they ate up fully. Retreated two weeks later. About 5 weeks after the first treatment, the worst pony's GGT was down to less than 700, and the others had reduced too.

We looked for possible causes of liver problems, but couldn't really find much. My land is not overly wet. There's no standing water. It didn't seem a likely fluke habitat. However, I cannot deny that all ponies improved after the Fasinex treatment.

Personally, I would push to be able to dose them with Fasinex now. Although it's not licensed for horses, I was told the only side effect was sometimes a little mild colic soon after giving it. My ponies showed nothing like that. If you're drawing a blank with any other options, then it's worth a go, I'd have thought.

Sarah