Ill horse - please help!

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samlf

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basically, cut a long story short, i had a lesson sunday, she was full of it but quite good for her, wolfed her dinner down etc
monday her owner did her and she half heartedly ate her dinner but left half of it.
tuesday she didnt eat her dinner at all, wouldnt eat any hay so the vet was called out, didnt think it was very much, said to keep her in that night. next morning her owner went up and she hadnt touched the feed left in there, her hay and her water buckets were still full so the vet came back out, she was shivery and had an increased heart rate so they have taken bloods
today when i got there she was the opposite side of the field, stood on her own looking completely uninterested in the world. was trying to bite me when i felt how warm she was/lead her in. although she picked a little bit at her dinner today but only a tiny bit, literally not even 1/4 and seemed to struggle with that. weve felt she has two little marble sized lumps eitherside of her throat in her neck, they move when we touch it and things. we made up a little bit of speedybeet with warm water to try tempt her and she ate a bit of that so weve got her tablets into her to stop her skin getting bad and a little bit of liquid from that because were not sure how much shes been drinking if anything.
thing is theres no outward signs of anything wrong with her, any ideas what it could be or some way to tempt her to eat?
ps shes a horse that loves her food, shes broken fencing when ive been walking to her field with feed before..
 
I would be calling the Vet as a matter of urgency now. The horse will be getting dehydrated and ought to be off to Horsepital, she may be in need of fluids etc and closer monitoring.

Hope she improves very soon.
 
Go to the yard with pad and pen and write down everything that is currently worrying you, anything that seems a bit odd etc then observe her for a while and see if you can add anything else to the list. Then get the vet.
 
i'd keep her in for the night with a measured amount of water (not an automatic drinker) and monitor how much she drinks.
i'd try to tempt her with succulents, handfuls of feed given separately, hand-picked fresh grass - i've never seen a healthy horse turn its nose up at that. the only ones that have were colicky.
is she pooing normally? this is really really important. okay, if she's not eating much she won't be pooing much, but her tummy SHOULD be gurgling, if it's silent i'd worry.
she may be viral, this can make them utterly miserable. if there's no discharge down her nose i doubt it's strangles...
 
Hi thanks for replies.
Should have mentioned I'm posting this for a friend as she's forgotten her login and she loans the horse, so she doesnt have final say on whether to call the vet although they have been out and they're waiting on bloods. If shes no better tomorrow I think they're going to get the vet out again.

Her temperature was high tuesday, but normal now.
 
My first thought would be strangles TBH, but it could be a virus (got one of those myself right now and I can sympathize with the horse!). Have there been any new horses on the yard in the last 10 days? I think I'd assume it was contagious and isolate, either in a well sheltered field or a stable, absolutely with a rug on and take the temperature at least once a day. My horse got something many years ago, unfortunately while I was away so she was very bad by the time I got back (she was being looked after but they didn't think I'd want a vets bill :( )It turned out that amongst other things she had pneumonia and a temperature of 104.5 so she must have felt awful. She wouldn't eat or drink either and just stood at the back of the stable with her head down.
 
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