Help!

L

lolaandskye

New User
Joined
5 March 2012
Messages
6
Visit site
hello, i was just wondering if anyone had any ideas of advice on what could be wrong with my mare. she is a 9 year old welsh section D X and until last year was competing and doing everything asked of her however gradually at the beginning of 2011 she began to change. firstly her behaviour went rapidly down hill and she became a complete horror in the stable to the point where we couldn't even catch her in the stable and she also changed a lot whilst ridden and began to refuse at jumps and became lethargic and resistant. she was diagnosed with an abscess in her intestine which had caused her stomach to rupture in July 2011 after several bouts of colic and this healed successfully and we began to bring her back into work in October. since then she has not been right she had "good days" and "down days" where she was either a complete maniac or would refuse to both, kick out and go backwards. she was sent up to Bristol where they did every test possible, and are convinced that she has something wrong with her although they are not sure what. they treated her for gastric ulcers and since coming off the medication she has improved but still has these "up" and "down" days- we are literally at are wits end and we and the vets are running out of ideas so any suggestions or knowledge of anything similar would be much appreciated (btw she has had her ovaries checked and they were fine)
thanks you and any help will be much appreciated :)
 
Could it be that the ulcers are a more long term problem and she needs to stay on Gastroguard? I know some horses that need it all the time, although they will tolerate lower doses during their good spells.

I assume her ovaries were scanned?

Other than that it might be worth trying a calming supplement, perhaps she is more on edge because of what she has been through?
 
lolaandskye said:
hello, i was just wondering if anyone had any ideas of advice on what could be wrong with my mare. she is a 9 year old welsh section D X and until last year was competing and doing everything asked of her however gradually at the beginning of 2011 she began to change. firstly her behaviour went rapidly down hill and she became a complete horror in the stable to the point where we couldn't even catch her in the stable and she also changed a lot whilst ridden and began to refuse at jumps and became lethargic and resistant. she was diagnosed with an abscess in her intestine which had caused her stomach to rupture in July 2011 after several bouts of colic and this healed successfully and we began to bring her back into work in October. since then she has not been right she had "good days" and "down days" where she was either a complete maniac or would refuse to both, kick out and go backwards. she was sent up to Bristol where they did every test possible, and are convinced that she has something wrong with her although they are not sure what. they treated her for gastric ulcers and since coming off the medication she has improved but still has these "up" and "down" days- we are literally at are wits end and we and the vets are running out of ideas so any suggestions or knowledge of anything similar would be much appreciated (btw she has had her ovaries checked and they were fine)
thanks you and any help will be much appreciated :)
Click to expand...

Could it be that she has a physical problem. Someone put a post on her the other day how stomach problems, i.e. ulcers can have a knock on effect in the way a horse moves physically therefore causing compensatory problems.

IMHO refusing at jumps sounds more of a muscular/arthritic problem. Why not get her checked by a qualified equine physio? There may be something that the vet has missed that a physio might pick up on. Worth £40 of anyone's money.

Or try her with slippery elm powder (available off ebay) and put her on haylage balancer (for use with horses that are on hay too) and see if this makes a difference to her behaviour, then you will know its the ulcers or not. But I'd get the physio out first as to me it sounds like its a physical thing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
applecart14 said:
Could it be that she has a physical problem. Someone put a post on her the other day how stomach problems, i.e. ulcers can have a knock on effect in the way a horse moves physically therefore causing compensatory problems.

IMHO refusing at jumps sounds more of a muscular/arthritic problem. Why not get her checked by a qualified equine physio? There may be something that the vet has missed that a physio might pick up on. Worth £40 of anyone's money.

Or try her with slippery elm powder (available off ebay) and put her on haylage balancer (for use with horses that are on hay too) and see if this makes a difference to her behaviour, then you will know its the ulcers or not. But I'd get the physio out first as to me it sounds like its a physical thing.
Click to expand...

thanks (: glad to see you had the same thoughts as us as we were considering getting the physio out , good to know we seem to agree (: if not will definately consider your other suggestions thanks for you help :) xx
 
Booboos said:
Could it be that the ulcers are a more long term problem and she needs to stay on Gastroguard? I know some horses that need it all the time, although they will tolerate lower doses during their good spells.

I assume her ovaries were scanned?

Other than that it might be worth trying a calming supplement, perhaps she is more on edge because of what she has been through?
Click to expand...

yess her ovaries have been scanned and came back clear :) we have just, today, but her on a product similar to gastroguard so glad to know it is not uncommon (: he only problem with changing the dosage is that her behaviour varies day by day, do you know what could be causing that and whether or not there is a possible link to ulcers? thanks xxx
 
I was thinking adhesions too. Not too unusual to get them after colic surgery. Could account for ongoing discomfort.
 
lolaandskye said:
yess her ovaries have been scanned and came back clear :) we have just, today, but her on a product similar to gastroguard so glad to know it is not uncommon (: he only problem with changing the dosage is that her behaviour varies day by day, do you know what could be causing that and whether or not there is a possible link to ulcers? thanks xxx
Click to expand...

No sorry I don't. I just know of two friends whose horses had ulcers and which improved a lot with Gastroguard that they were forced to pretty much keep them on it although at varying doses. So if they noticed a problem they would up the dose for a few days, then go back down again.

The only other thing you may want to consider is a painkiller trial. Put her on Danilon for 2-3 weeks and keep a diary of her behaviour to see if there is a marked difference. It's not an 100% reliable test, but if you do see a marked difference then it does give you a significant clue, i.e. she is in pain, and it makes it easier to keep looking for a physical cause.
 
thankss :) yeah we are thinking we might try that (keeping her on gastroguard or something similar as gg is about £400+ a month!) we did a painkiller test in July last year, when we first thought there was something wrong when the abscess was diagnosed but actually thinking about it it could be good to do one again as it has been suggested it could be behavioural -although personally i think not. thank you very much for your help it has been really useful (:xx
 
I know! It's astronomically expensive isn't it?!!

Would a change in lifestyle be possible, e.g. 24/7 turnout?

Sounds like you have thought of most things already, sorry I can't think of anything else. Hope you get to the bottom of it all.
 
I've just been through the problem of a massive behaviour change for the worse in my mare. She was just so angry. No wonder. It turned out she had a tooth fracture and had nerve exposure and associated transcipital neuralgia (sp?). The tooth has been removed (MAJOR surgery but thats another story!) and she's back to her normal lovely self. I'm just sad I didn't hear what she was saying till she was screaming in my face. :-( I hope you find what's wrong with your girl, it sounds like she has been through a lot.
 
lolaandskye said:
i know its is such as shame :( as for the scar tissue they think not as they looked for it when she had keyhole surgery but thanks for the suggestion :) xxx
Click to expand...

You can still get adhesions and scar tissue with keyhole surgery, although of course the likelihood is less.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top