Gut issues / IBD / thickened colon

[ChelseaGostomska]

Looking for advice, I recently bought a new horse and he started to drop weight and become slow and lethargic.

He was scoped and had grade 4 bleeding ulcers, he hasn’t picked up weight in the 2 months he was treated and his oompf still lacking.

He was re scoped to show still grade 3 ! He had bloods done which came back as low albumin at 28 and low iron serum at 97.

He went Liphook to have abdominal scans, they were unable to find anything other than slightly thickened colon at 6 mm.

They advised me to add oil to his diet and worm him again a month after the previous worming (which was carried out on the day of his first blood test)

Two weeks later, he has another blood test and his albumin is 30 and serum iron is 109.

I’m just looking for any advice or help on what I should do. I feel incredibly hopeless. Not knowing what has caused it is a horrible feeling. I have been advised to redo bloods again in two weeks.

He has been on glucosamine which I am thinking of taking him off due to other peoples experiences on this forum.

 

[TPO]

My horse has IBD. His albumin was down to 20 g/L and he lost over 70kg.

The whole saga is here https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/...-wwyd-no-doubt-will-end-up-being-long.830163/

I don't know what caused it either. He had a poor start to life, until the age of 2, and I don't know if that was a contributing factor.

As per my thread I had a real issue with a beyond equine vet who did even more damage by prescribing more and more bute and not listening to anything I said [or correctly recording the symptoms].

A healthy duodenum is 4mm, my horse's was >11mm at his worst (2x). The inflammation was treated with steroids.

He was scoped and they only found a few new ulcers (grade I or II iirc) undoubtedly caused by the bute and prolonged periods of an empty digestive system (due to missed colics and delayed gastric emptying). I changed vet practice and got a dame day referral to hospital. My horse was in 5 or 6 days in 2023 and initially they didn't think he'd make it home. They weren't concerned about the ulcers at all and he hasn't been scoped since.

I've had ELISA tests done for encysted redworm instead of worming. I do FEC and saliva tests through the year anyway. He hasn't been wormed or vaccinated since he got ill because his system hasn't been strong or stable enough.

I don't know anything about iron serum but your albumin is within the healthy range which is 29 - 40 g/L, and fluctuation is normal.

I am not a vet but it sounds like albumin levels are pretty normal and thr slightly lower readings are possibly due to losing g protein/blood through grade 4 ulcers.

Liphook are thr experts so I'd contact them with any questions. I went to Edinburgh vet hospital and they have been so helpful and supportive whenever I've had questions.

I feed high protein and calorie because of the low protein in his bloods and because he lost so much weight. Saracen Releve, Baileys Outshine and micronised linseed worked for me along with supplements that possibly make no difference but make me feel better (milk thistle, yea sacc, brewers yeast and oily herbs).

There are posters who replied in my thread who have experience of digestive issues and that might help you too.

How are thr ulcers being treated? When are they being rescanned? How is your horse kept and does he has 24/7 access to forage? What level of work was he in and what's his nature ie does he get stressed and anxious?