Ebony... At wits end :(

Pidgeon, I just looked at gs but she has no sweating or muscle tremors, I will mention it to my vet though, thank you
 
Jeez , this is a complicated one!I wish I could just wave a magic wand and sort it out. But this is a puzzeler. I also wondered about liver function as we have had a complete puzzle with several horses with very elevated liver enzymes.No Idea of the cause,vets stumped. When you dont know the cause ,go back to absolute basics, treat the symptoms and keep the management and diet as simple as possible. There has been a lot of problems with forrage produced last year, Everyone I know has had hay that horses wont eat, even though it looks fantastic. I suspect high nitrate levels due to the drought. This is not generaly a british problem but it is well known in the usa.Incidentaly ,what area do you live in?
 
In Cornwall, right down in helston, there have been a few cases of gs down here but don't think it's that, if it was it would be chronic gs and she is still lacking a lot of the symptoms, she has no problem swallowing, no problems breathing, no nasal discharge, gut movement is not slower than normal... It's pretty active as per usual, not sweating. As I said I'll check with vet but I suspect it's not that. Grass has been slow to grow here so supplemented with hay, I'm going to go through the initial blood report With the vet again tomorrow and see If there is anything we can do in meantime, lymphocytes... Think that's what they were, were slightly raised... So could indicate a virus but could equally just indicate her body is struggling, nothing was way above or below what it should be... Just a couple of things at the high or low end of the norm. The next blood test will be checking for indicators that could indicate cancer, worms, and anything else they want to check. Im going to discuss whether it might be worth pulling a fresh sample from her now and looking for any differences??
 
Also mike, Im really lucky, my partner grew the hay, Its some of the only stuff I'd have, the horses couldn't get enough of it, and I actually always go for 2nd cut... I'd rather it not be too full of the good stuff, good quality but not too heavy duty. The hay last year was some of the best for a few years and there was also nothing bad in the fields, no ragwort, bracken, just decent grass. It's a mystery! I'm also hoping its not a throwback with regards to get worming history before me :(
 
Four horses have been in that field Ben is grazing with her and no symptoms, also she hasnt been on there for 2 weeks, her stools are normal... With poisoning there would be diarrhoea and her eyes are really perky and bright even though she is listless and tired although yes her gait is a little off kilter.
 
Get it checked ,if only to cross it off the list . Cornwall has a serious problem with Arsenic,particularly with horses getting their water from streams.
 
I will talk with them tomorrow, we have no running streams, only mains and the land has been grazed for years by cattle and last 7yrs horses, but I will get it checked I promise! I have an ever growing list of things to discuss with vet tomorrow am :) thank you all for your ideas, suggestions and support, you've been amazing, wish I could post pictures, will try to steal my dads computer tomorrow and put some pics on here and I promise to keep everyone posted x em
 
Hope we arent scaring you with too many ifs and maybe s, we are just trying to help.FWIW, it doesnt sound like GS and I have seen GS .Remember, when in doubt, go back to basics. Hope all will be well soon.
 
Thanks mike, agree about gs, yes it's damn scary but nope I'm all for suggestions, the more we eliminate the greater the chance of finding what's actually going on and fixing it if at all possible, with the weight loss she hasn't got forever to be diagnosed, so all suggestions welcome, I really appreciate it x
 
Oh no! Just caught up with this thread, I had seen the last one with her improvement, and am so sorry that she has gone downhill again. Hoping the vets can find something soon, but nothing more constructive to add. Keeping fingers crossed for you both. xxx
 
Hi QB, just some thoughts for you. Was the Equest you used, 'eequest' or 'equest pramox'? I think there is still a chance her problems could be parasite related. All wormers have some resistance, panacur guard has quite highly reported resistance, equest much lower, but it is possible that the worms she has are resistant to both, or that the equest hasn't caught encysted small redworms which have since erupted and if she had/has a high worm burdern caused a lot of damage in her guts. If she wasnt treated with equest pramox it is possible she has a high tapeworm burdern, but that is more likely to cause colic than other problems. I would have to look it up to be sure but it is possible she has liver fluke or a.n. other parasite like a protozoa which the wormers you have used don't target. It may also be that damage from a previously high worm burdern has caused scarring and that is why she is not absorbing well. Long and the short of it is that the vets can do ELISA blood tests to assess both current and past worm burderns for each likely parasite.
 
Queenbee, this is the response from my friend:

Horse lost a lot of weight but was still eating but had no energy and coat really dull etc. His blood count wasn't as it should be so he was on red cell and a pick me up 30day supplement from the vet, they never really got to the bottom of it and it did take a while for him to be back to normal, so not sure if it was viral!

Hope it might help.
 
Hi everyone, thank you x naturally, yes I did use pramox, I will chat about the tests with the vet, I was worried about past worm damage from before I got her too. Amy may that's interesting, I was thinking of putting her on some diet of blood supplement or tonic, I'll chat with the vet, as someone else said at the moment it has to be a case of treat the symptoms
 
Just to add, QB - that friends horse was so ill, it was on the verge of being put down. But is now 100% back to his old self. So don't despair.
 
Thank you amymay that's a positive, I'm glad your friends horse pulled through x when I began to weight tape her she was 426 ( in the worst photos) she slowly crept up to 440, last night she measured in at 414 but this
Morning ( without the grass in her system. 404) think I've got the numbers right but can't be bothered to unwind the tape to check! She doesn't actually look worse than she did in the beginning but back then she was more tucked in, vet should be calling back in a few mins
 
Just a few thoughts - I agree it doesn't sound like grass sickness, but given that she is off her food, losing weight and therefore has no energy, but can still swallow, would it be worth syringe feeding her, just to keep getting calories in?

I did it with Gully when he had GS - I soaked Baileys conditioning cubes and racehorse cubes in hot water and stirred them to a slop, added loads of vegetable oil (for calories and to help move food through the gut, but I guess it might cause scouring in a horse who's gut is functioning, so check with vet), then got the biggest plastic syringe I could find from a farm suppliers (60 ml-ish), cut the end off and sucked up the soaked food from a bowl into it. Tied Gully up super tight, then pushed the food into corner of mouth. Did this about 3 - 4 times a day. Aloe vera juice (health food shops) is also supposed to be very soothing for the stomach, so might help too - I fed it to Gul.

Some vets advise not to syringe feed, as they worry about food trickling into lungs and causing pneumonia, but I have known a few people do it now without problems and if she has a good swallow then shouldn't be a problem, the epiglottis should do its job. Might be worth considering? It certainly saved Gully from his grass sickness. Getting his energy and weight back allowed the other aspects to recover in time.

Good luck x
 
Hi all, just spoken to the vets, he asked lab to check liver functions, he then wanted to do protein levels if that came back all clear, but I have asked him to run them both so there is as little wait as possible. She is going off haylage again and after raising the issues of ulcers and stressing what a nut job she has been in past years combined with her reluctance to eat hard feed and hay and her preference for grass, he agrees that ulcers could be a possibility, I am going to do the palpitation thing (thank you Oberon- think it was you who sent me the links) and going to get some a&p fast fibre, he is sorting out a blood tonic for me to pick up and something to stimulate her appetite. Someone on here said their horse was prescribed with some ball bearing looking pellets (begins with m) so I'm sending him the name of these, also going to leave her out on grass overnight, since that's what she is preferring to eat. Finally we may put her on something for ulcers once the bloods come back to see if this helps at all. Thank you all. It really feels like a team! You guys with all your suggestions and info have meant that I can really have some input into her treatment, and there are 4 vets and the lab specialists all bouncing ideas around!! She doesn't seem in any pain but horses can be deceiving, i will monitor closely but if it is ulcers the best thing I could do is not give her bute, so she is off her meds for now until we know better, just fast fibre, probiotic and blood tonic.
 
Poor you and poor Ebony. I would be pushing the vet to scope in your position. The fact she's reluctant to eat hard feed would make me very suspicious of ulcers. My boy had no real symptoms of ulcers except for struggling to keep weight on, being a tiny bit girthy and not feeling quite right. Vet rolled her eyes at me and did it to humour me, and he had quite a bad case. All sorted now though :)
 
No suggestions to offer, just lots of caring thoughts - you must be going through hell. Best wishes with it all, keep the updates coming and hope yu have a turning point soon xx
 
Hi ghostie, tbh if we go down the ulcer route then I think we will probably go straight for treatment and see if that picks her up, that would be all the diagnosis i need and a lot less invasive, plus there are some areas that the vets just can't scope. I'm still debating this with the vet, as he suggested if it comes to that we should scope, but if she responds to treatment for ulcers surely that would be confirmation enough? Anyway about to trawl through some posts for the names of these appetite stimulants, god it never ends :(
 
A friend of mine, her horse recently lost a large amount of weight. Her horse looked shocking. The horse has been diagnosed with bleeding ulcers in the hind gut (not typical acidic splash ulcers) - these need antibiotics as well as gastroguard to treat.
What was the timing like when she was treated with AB's for suspect peritonitis? Did she improve?
I'd get her gastroscoped pretty quickly personally
 
Nope, she is a bit pale and her count is down slightly but nothing drastic... Although that was 10 days ago but she hasn't got worse, I did wonder about having the vets take a 'now' sample for a more current picture
 
I hate work, she improved a bit, but that she also started to get more and more picky over food, she would be brighter in the morning but exhausted in the evening, and she did pick up in appetite for a couple of days but this started to faulter, initially thought it was the taste of her meds, and after they had gone out of her food a couple of days later she was munching on her tea, but she can't eat more than about half a scoop of feed at once and it's not holding her attention, if something distracts her she forgets it and won't go back to it. So she picked up a little bit in energy, spirits and appetite but this started to faulter even while she was still on the meds. Not long ago she was on 3 meals a day each consisting of 2 scoops, she was still losing a bit of condition (much slower back then) but she had a fierce normal appetite.
 
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