horse rapidly loosing weight and muscle..any ideas?

charlie76

charlie76

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 March 2006
Messages
4,665
Visit site
We have a horse in the yard who is looking terrible. Before Christmas he wasn't looking as well as he could and was grumpy so he was scoped for ulcers. He had mild ones and was treated with gastro guard. Once the gastro guard was finished he went onto a vet prescribed gastro supplement.
The vet advised a low cereal diet so he was put on oil, hi fi. Fibre nuts. Beet and a weight gain supplement. He also has ad lib hay and turn out.he started to look better and his work resumed and he seemed to be improving. Then a few weeks ago he suddenly began looking poor again. We upped his feed but no improvement. Then he started loosing muscles, in the space of a couple of weeks he looked like a rescue case and could hardly move his hind legs.
Vet was called and shocked at him and how rapidly he had dropped off.
He also developed a sticky rash on his quarters that was sore to touch.
The vet blood tested him, he had raised liver enzymes and a very low white blood cell count. He was put onto anti biotics and blood tonic. Still no improvement , blood taken for worms and it showed a high count for a worm only usually seen in foals. We don't have any near us so odd, his field had never had horses on until he went out there.
His liver was still bad so he had a liver biopsy. This came back clear.
We also had him re scoped and the ulcers had gone.
He has now been wormed with panacur guard and has been given a course of steroids. He is now also on a supplement called succeed.
He had a blood test last week which showed the white blood cell count improved and the liver enzymes but he is still loosing weight and muscle.
Teeth are done.
He has been in for weeks now on ad lib hay as he is has been wormed and was struggling to move his hind legs.
He is still bright and happy in himself, he eats non stop!
he has also had tests to check he is absorbing food which he is so no digestion problems.
Liver and intestines have also been scanned. Nothing there.
We are stumped. Any ideas?
 
charlie76 said:
We have a horse in the yard who is looking terrible. Before Christmas he wasn't looking as well as he could and was grumpy so he was scoped for ulcers. He had mild ones and was treated with gastro guard. Once the gastro guard was finished he went onto a vet prescribed gastro supplement.
The vet advised a low cereal diet so he was put on oil, hi fi. Fibre nuts. Beet and a weight gain supplement. He also has ad lib hay and turn out.he started to look better and his work resumed and he seemed to be improving. Then a few weeks ago he suddenly began looking poor again. We upped his feed but no improvement. Then he started loosing muscles, in the space of a couple of weeks he looked like a rescue case and could hardly move his hind legs.
Vet was called and shocked at him and how rapidly he had dropped off.
He also developed a sticky rash on his quarters that was sore to touch.
The vet blood tested him, he had raised liver enzymes and a very low white blood cell count. He was put onto anti biotics and blood tonic. Still no improvement , blood taken for worms and it showed a high count for a worm only usually seen in foals. We don't have any near us so odd, his field had never had horses on until he went out there.
His liver was still bad so he had a liver biopsy. This came back clear.
We also had him re scoped and the ulcers had gone.
He has now been wormed with panacur guard and has been given a course of steroids. He is now also on a supplement called succeed.
He had a blood test last week which showed the white blood cell count improved and the liver enzymes but he is still loosing weight and muscle.
Teeth are done.
He has been in for weeks now on ad lib hay as he is has been wormed and was struggling to move his hind legs.
He is still bright and happy in himself, he eats non stop!
he has also had tests to check he is absorbing food which he is so no digestion problems.
Liver and intestines have also been scanned. Nothing there.
We are stumped. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Cancer? Sorry to be so morbid but its a possibility. I'd suggest a referral to a 'horsepital' and get vets to consult with the specialists at Liverpool or somewhere similar. Malabsorption is not just something that affects the gut, if his liver has been compromised this could be where the malabsorption is taking place. Even if the liver seems to be functioning better I'd be putting on milk thistle. I'd also be keeping on the blood tonic and adding a probiotic protexin is one I can highly reccomend. Keep him incredibly well rugged, no work, feed a balancer such as outshine... In addition to what you are giving him. Use soaked feeds such as veteran vitality by Allen and page... Soaking the feed means he won't need to use as many calories to digest it. Also dengie healthy tummy has had some great recent reviews. Watch out for laminitis with the steroids, especially if he is malnourished, the viscosity of the blood changes when horses become malnourished and lami becomes a risk, lami is also a risk with steroids so you really need to be vigilant. Your absolute best bet is a referral, I'd also hold off on worming from here on in, you do not want to do anything to destabilise the gut health, only blood test for tape worm and work count for the rest. I'd probably look at sticking him on baileys outshine, linseed, keep him on the weight gain supplement and add veteran vitality and healthy tummy too... I'd then split into four feeds over the day, and with any ill horse feed from a door manger... It's just easier for them. I'd be stabling at night, weight taping daily, double rugging... Ebs was in a mw combo and mw stable underneath, turn out only for as long as he is eating, or if he prefers hay, tie a haynet out for him if its sunny.
 
Thanks for the reply. Tbh we have had a chat as to the possibility of cancer. The bloods were taken to lip hook. He was ok for tape worm.
The panacur Was in the vets advice. The vet has also said to leave him in and hand graze him for now so that's what's been done. This means he can have ad lib hay.
He has three rugs on at night and two during the day.
I will tell them about the feed suggestions too. He is only seven yrs old and ex race horse.
 
Has sub acute grass sickness been discounted? Acute form the vet would recognise (I hope!) and of course the animal would not survive teribbly long. But sub-acute is recoverable and can fly under the radar. The symptoms appear to match.
 
Sorry to hear about your boy; I'm afraid I don't have any good suggestions, but just a couple of brief thoughts:

- if he is losing muscle, it's definitely important to feed high quality protein in the diet (although if his liver is compromised, it's important not to go too high on the protein). I'd opt for something like Topspec Comprehensive balancer which has good amounts of lysine and methionine, which are the two most common limiting amino acids (ie the ones which limit how much protein a horse can use), but do give some of the feed companies a ring and check their advice

- I'd have thought for a horse that was seriously losing weight, that grazing would be absolutely the best thing to help weight gain, rather than box rest with hay? But maybe there are reasons I don't understand for keeping him in? If you're not sure why the vet suggested box rest, then I'd definitely ask them for a clear answer on that, and see whether you are happy with the reason.

- If he is on just hay, and no grass, it'll be important to give him vitamin E (it it's not already present in a good level in whatever balancer you choose). It's really important to have good levels of vit E as they help minimise cell damage, especially at times when the body is stressed in any way. Vit E is present in good quantities in grass, but degrades in hay.

Hope you find a good way forward with him.

Sarah
 
Hello,
FOR WIDGET!
Just out of interest how did your vet diagnois liver fluke? Id lost 6 of my pet sheep to this last yr and the vet did a general liver function blood test on all the horses. None showed any abnormalities. Since my mare has had peritonitis with swelling in abdomen (see thread on it) and suggested parasite from the tested white blood cells. Did you dose with fasinex? Sorry to gate crash this post.

I really hope your boy gets better - I can sympathise my mare being very ill and in the hospital for 3 wks!
 
Does anybody know the outcome with this as I have a very similar situation with my 3yo old ex racer at the moment and it is literally a race against time for my vets to work out what is wrong before she literally fades away before my eyes :((((
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top