Illness and antibiotics

[valevenus]

Hey all,

I have a warmblood who before Christmas had a bacterial respiratory infection, he felt so poorly he wouldn’t eat and nearly colicked thus having 2x tubings! He then had lymphangitis which was a secondary infection! 2 lots of antibiotics (karidox) and 1x metacam later he was fine! After a day of finishing all meds he became quiet and over the days became more lethargic and appetite was all over the place! Vet came out all vital signs good, eating not as much as normal and urinating, drinking and droppings normal! Bloods taken all came back as normal, but he still isn’t right, so quiet, looks depressed, doesn’t greet me, doesn’t kick off for hay!! Vet suggested we bring him in for further investigation but where would they start? Seems odd how he was fine until all medication stopped !!

 

[be positive]

Karidox is pretty strong stuff, when one of mine was on it the vet also provided probiotics as a precaution and if I use any antibiotics now I use probiotics at the same time just in case, yours has been through the mill, had a fair amount of drugs as well as the karidox so I would suspect ulcers and would consider a course of gastrogard, possibly without scoping first if he is already depressed, a course of probiotics would be worth doing as a first step as well as managing as a possible ulcer horse.

 

[valevenus]

Karidox is pretty strong stuff, when one of mine was on it the vet also provided probiotics as a precaution and if I use any antibiotics now I use probiotics at the same time just in case, yours has been through the mill, had a fair amount of drugs as well as the karidox so I would suspect ulcers and would consider a course of gastrogard, possibly without scoping first if he is already depressed, a course of probiotics would be worth doing as a first step as well as managing as a possible ulcer horse.

Thankyou, this is what I was thinking after doing some research, would any kind of probiotic be ok? He certainly isn’t doing anything typical of ulcers but he had an episode where he looked uncomfortable for 2 days but wasn’t colicky a couple of days off the medication! Xx

 

[be positive]

Protexin is the one I use and seems to get good reviews on here, the first time I used it I phoned and they advised the best one for the circumstances although that horse did end up on GG as he suddenly started cribbing, totally out of character, so he went on the GG without scoping, the cribbing stopped within 24 hours, he was a very complex situation as he had been on box rest for several months, had a lot of drugs, a wrong diagnosis, an op, more drugs and his tummy was not really thought about with everything else that was going on, lesson learned that the whole horse needs to be cared for not just the obvious issues.

 

[racebuddy]

If not hundred percent would investigate further xxx