Has anyone got any experience with low albumin levels?

olop

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Sorry long post!

My 19 year old gelding back in February was bitten by a tic and came in with a huge abscess. Vet drained it and told me to keep an eye.

In March another abscess came up in a different place and again was drained. A month or so later after that abscess was drained he went “off colour” and the vet was called who ran bloods querying Lyme disease. The results came back as deranged liver function and borderline low albumin of 28. I was advised to put him on milk thistle for 6 weeks and to re-test.


He was retested and the liver function has returned to normal but his albumin has dropped from 28 to 19!

He is currently on Prednisolone 95 tablets a day and waiting for the vet to retest again next week.

My vet is pushing for surgery but horse not insured and I don’t want to put him through surgery.

Apart from him being off colour back when the first blood test was done he is showing absolutely no symptoms. He is eating fine and actually gaining weight (he is still in work as he is putting on so much weight!) and he has normal poops.

Has anyone on here got any experience with this? He has had a normal worm count but abnormal tape worm count in that time, however I have been advised by Westgate labs that I have tested too soon as he was wormed approximately 6 weeks prior to the saliva test which I wasn’t aware could give an abnormal result.

Had anyone had a steroid trial and the results returned to normal? Has anyone had a horse with low albumin which showed no symptoms?
 

dorsetladette

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i didn't want to read and run, but I have no personal experience with the condition. so I have had a quick google. And only found pages about he condition in humans. Mostly suggesting the you increase protein in your diet. It sounds like its something that needs to be well managed

Can I ask what surgery the vet is pushing to do?

The only useful thing I can add (probably already covered this) is has the vet tested his kidney function? i read that if you have issues with your kidneys you could lose albumin in your urine.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but hopefully my comment will bump you thread and someone more experienced will be along soon. Good luck x
 

olop

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i didn't want to read and run, but I have no personal experience with the condition. so I have had a quick google. And only found pages about he condition in humans. Mostly suggesting the you increase protein in your diet. It sounds like its something that needs to be well managed

Can I ask what surgery the vet is pushing to do?

The only useful thing I can add (probably already covered this) is has the vet tested his kidney function? i read that if you have issues with your kidneys you could lose albumin in your urine.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but hopefully my comment will bump you thread and someone more experienced will be along soon. Good luck x

Thank you! The vet wants him to have bowel and intestine biopsies but he needs a general anesthetic for it which I am really not keen on. She seems to think it is gut related rather than kidney so I have had no kidney tests done yet apart from bloods.
 

Mrs. Jingle

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I have been through a long drawn out and very expensive and extensive tests with a horse presenting very similar to yours.
About 2.5 years ago my then 18 year old mare became in the first instance extremely random dangerous behaviour in the field and handling, totally out of character. She appeared to be in a trance like state and would suddenly literally snap out of it and just explode. Very scary and very random. Within a couple of weeks she became increasingly more depressed, but no more dangerous explosions. You could not work her, her energy levels were so low and she was obviously very unwell for some reason.

Anyway long story short, liver function tests, a myriad of blood tests repeated over and over, countless worm tests, lots of 'just in case' treatments, ulcers, liver problems, low red blood cell counts, low white cell counts you name it we threw it at her. Including 28 days treatment with two different antibiotics.

The most likely scenario that our vet here in Ireland came up with, after sending all the results to a vet in Uk who is an expert in the field, it was concluded she had or had had Lymes disease. To a certain extent she recovered well, but constantly had below ideal albumin levels and white blood cell counts. I am sorry i cannot recall those figures but will try and find them if you would like to know what they were.

She was still having blood tests monthly after the initial 12 months and on various meds, but nothing life threatening going on and at this stage very happy in the field so with mulling it all over with my vet we decided now was the time to retire her as it was clear she would never return to the energy levels she had before. The UK did suggest further fairly invasive investigations but to be honest by this stage it was pointless. We felt she was many times better than when she initially became ill, was living a happy and relatively healthy life and I was quite happy to let her enjoy what years she had left as a pasture bunny. She still has her Xcell tonic every day - a few herbal supplements for her occasional stiffness and that is it, nothing special.

If it was my 10 year old I probably would have has more investigations done with a view to him coming back into work, but frankly my mare owed me nothing and had earned her retirement, and by the time we made the decision she was 19 anyway. I do hope you get to the bottom of it and only you can decide if you want to go down the route of further investigation - what is the prognosis if you don't, have they said?
 

olop

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I have been through a long drawn out and very expensive and extensive tests with a horse presenting very similar to yours.
About 2.5 years ago my then 18 year old mare became in the first instance extremely random dangerous behaviour in the field and handling, totally out of character. She appeared to be in a trance like state and would suddenly literally snap out of it and just explode. Very scary and very random. Within a couple of weeks she became increasingly more depressed, but no more dangerous explosions. You could not work her, her energy levels were so low and she was obviously very unwell for some reason.

Anyway long story short, liver function tests, a myriad of blood tests repeated over and over, countless worm tests, lots of 'just in case' treatments, ulcers, liver problems, low red blood cell counts, low white cell counts you name it we threw it at her. Including 28 days treatment with two different antibiotics.

The most likely scenario that our vet here in Ireland came up with, after sending all the results to a vet in Uk who is an expert in the field, it was concluded she had or had had Lymes disease. To a certain extent she recovered well, but constantly had below ideal albumin levels and white blood cell counts. I am sorry i cannot recall those figures but will try and find them if you would like to know what they were.

She was still having blood tests monthly after the initial 12 months and on various meds, but nothing life threatening going on and at this stage very happy in the field so with mulling it all over with my vet we decided now was the time to retire her as it was clear she would never return to the energy levels she had before. The UK did suggest further fairly invasive investigations but to be honest by this stage it was pointless. We felt she was many times better than when she initially became ill, was living a happy and relatively healthy life and I was quite happy to let her enjoy what years she had left as a pasture bunny. She still has her Xcell tonic every day - a few herbal supplements for her occasional stiffness and that is it, nothing special.

If it was my 10 year old I probably would have has more investigations done with a view to him coming back into work, but frankly my mare owed me nothing and had earned her retirement, and by the time we made the decision she was 19 anyway. I do hope you get to the bottom of it and only you can decide if you want to go down the route of further investigation - what is the prognosis if you don't, have they said?

thank you for sharing! Although I really don’t want to retire him as yet as he is a bit of a pain and gets himself in to trouble if he isn’t worked!

he didn’t show any behaviour problems just not something quite right about him, he was a bit down and miserable and not striding out when walking (almost tied up looking). But he is completely fine now and you would never know anything was wrong with him.

my vet has basically said if I just leave it and don’t treat his levels will just drop so low and eventually he would get so ill he will just die which is obviously not what I will let happen but without finding out what’s causing it I’m stuck in a hard place.

pleased to hear yours is still with you xx
 

Mrs. Jingle

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I suppose in an odd sort of way I was lucky - she could be quite sparky to ride and not great if left off work, like yours. Since her illness she couldn't care less and is delighted to just stroll around the field keeping the others in their place lol! So the decision to retire was easy for me plus my vet did not give me such a grim outlook so I guess her levels must have been more reasonable.

I really hope you get a good conclusion whatever you decide. :)
 
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