Horse not right, just not himself - any ideas?

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IsabelleJ

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Sidney is my 16.2h Shire/TB gelding. Since the start of the year he has not been himself, gradually getting worse and worse, and I was worrying if anyone had had a similar experience with their horse.

Symptoms are:

- Irritable in stable, especially when eating.
- Aggressive towards other horses - lunges at them.
- Agressive towards people - lunges at them as they go past stable, tries to kick/pin them when being caught.
- Lost appetite.
- Seems depressed - standing at back of stable looking miserable.
- Extreme behaviour when being saddled/having girth tightened - actual biting.
- Has become nappy - will not go near mounting block to be mounted.
- Has lost sparkle and doesn't go forward when being ridden.
- A month ago had wee like orange juice. Now has v cloudy wee that looks the same colour as lemon juice.
- Gradually becoming less comfortable/reluctant to go down hills when ridden or through deep mud.

I had the vet out last Friday, and they scoped him for gastric ulcers and said that he had a wonderfully healthy stomach, so it's not that. They also checked his teeth, and took blood samples. In the last two months he has had the back lady out and the saddler. I will be getting the blood test results back hopefully on Tuesday, and just wondering where I might have to go from there.

Sidney is the most cheerful and gentle horse, so all this aggression is very out of character. I love him to bits, and his well being is my number one priority, so I will do whatever I have to do to make him well again. He is off work for the moment, and going out all day in his field, as I think if he does have some injury, riding him will only make it worse.

Sorry for the huge essay, I am just really worried and wondering if anyone else has had the same kind of symptoms in their horse. Oh, he doesn't appear to be lame at the moment, but will obviously have that checked out when I get the vet out next.

Thanks for reading!

Isabelle
 
I had Thumper's urine tested a fortnight ago. Took 2 seconds. They use the same dip stick things that they use for people (exept for animals.....).

Collect some urine, pop it in a jam jar and drop it down to the surgery.

Good luck.
 
it could be a lot of things just hopefully the bloods will help you out. Keep us informed on how he gets on and what the bloods say!
 
We had exactly the same symptoms with a shire x TB mare who gradually over a period of time changed from a well mannered, gentle fun loving horse to a monster who refused to work in the school, struggled lifting her back feet, laboured downhill, became depressed in her stable and lost a lot of confidence if her stable/field mates wern't with her. Her final attempt to make herself heard was when she double barrelled her owner!

Our equine vets came out and and wanted to see her trotted up and then confirmed she was lame behind (hind limb lameness is pretty hard to identify). To cut a long story short, after nerve blocks and x-rays, it confirmed she had spavin in both hocks. She is now sorted and back to the fluffy ginger one again.

This may be totally off track with your horse, but this is my experience of these symptoms.

I do hope you get it sorted soon and please let us all know the outcome?
 
Thank you everyone for all the replies!

Heard from the vet this morning - bloods tested low (or high, whichever it shouldn't be!) for red blood cells and white blood cells. He has EquiSup at the moment to see if he perks up, and they said they would send the bloods to be tested further if he doesn't.

He does seem to be a bit more cheerful at the moment, possibly due to being out of work for 10 days. I had a talk to my loaner, and what I had down as nappiness turns out to be horse biting and kicking out on being taken near the mounting block. The more I look at this the more I think this is NOT a virus, but severe pain (especially when being ridden.)

I am going to talk to the vets tomorrow and see about getting more tests done - I really don't want to spend the whole summer testing for one thing at a time when my boy is in pain. It occurred to me as well that I haven't had the vet look at him for lameness, so I will be talking to them about that.

Thanks so much for all the help, it does help to know other people have been there!

Isabelle
 
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