Ginn
Well-Known Member
Posting on behalf of a friend so bare with me...
A good friend has just bought a lovely new horse, 9yo exracer who has been reschooled over the last few years as an alrounder/dressage horse. He was vetted prior to purchase and no respiratory problems were found.
Unfortunately, just before collecting him a family member passed away and she had to fly out to Canada for the funeral so only had him home for a few days. While she was away we noticed his food was coming out his nose, even bits of carrot fed from the hand.
When she returned she immediately got her vet out who scoped him and couldn't find the problem so referred him to Langford with a suspected abcess or cist on the epiglotis.
Langford did further investigations and diagnosed a cleft palate with the suggestion of careful management not surgury (as surgury carries far greater risk than colic surgury).
Now the difficult bit! This seems to be a very rare condition and friend is totally unsure how to manage it. So far she has discovered he is much better eating food at chest height, not off the ground but that is it. Horse is also underweight (probably due to not swallowing half of what he eats) but she has no idea what to feed him... obviously he needs hard feed and lots of decent forgage but what? She is wary of chaff for fear it will end up in his trachea and being quite a sharp horse doesn't want to shovel lots of cereals into him either. She hasn't been able to get hold of previous owners to find out what they did but is trying to track down his trainer to see if they have any ideas. Vets haven't been terribly helpful either except to say she'll have to experiment and see what works best for him.
Any ideas/advice very much appreciated.
A good friend has just bought a lovely new horse, 9yo exracer who has been reschooled over the last few years as an alrounder/dressage horse. He was vetted prior to purchase and no respiratory problems were found.
Unfortunately, just before collecting him a family member passed away and she had to fly out to Canada for the funeral so only had him home for a few days. While she was away we noticed his food was coming out his nose, even bits of carrot fed from the hand.
When she returned she immediately got her vet out who scoped him and couldn't find the problem so referred him to Langford with a suspected abcess or cist on the epiglotis.
Langford did further investigations and diagnosed a cleft palate with the suggestion of careful management not surgury (as surgury carries far greater risk than colic surgury).
Now the difficult bit! This seems to be a very rare condition and friend is totally unsure how to manage it. So far she has discovered he is much better eating food at chest height, not off the ground but that is it. Horse is also underweight (probably due to not swallowing half of what he eats) but she has no idea what to feed him... obviously he needs hard feed and lots of decent forgage but what? She is wary of chaff for fear it will end up in his trachea and being quite a sharp horse doesn't want to shovel lots of cereals into him either. She hasn't been able to get hold of previous owners to find out what they did but is trying to track down his trainer to see if they have any ideas. Vets haven't been terribly helpful either except to say she'll have to experiment and see what works best for him.
Any ideas/advice very much appreciated.
