Inflammatory Bowel Disease

J

Jim bob

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My horse has recently been diagnosed with this. Wondering if anyone has any experiences of this? Management? Diet? This came after my horse starting losing weight very quickly over a 12 week period.

Any advice help would be brilliant.
 
I have a cob who suffers from this, he was diagnosed in March last year by ultrasound. He also over several years has suffered from ulcers.

We carefully manage his routine everyday, he is turned out as much as possible in a field with luckily a good amount of grass as he is a very fussy eater. He comes in of a morning for his one hard food of the day which is just grass, maintainence cubes, milk thistle, pink powder and salt. He also has access to both hay and haylege anytime he is in his stable.

When he was diagnosed he was down to 420kg, he was started on a course of 100 steriod tablets a day for 6 months and well as Danilon one a day, we did also regularly ultrasound him to make sure the steroids were working and the inflammation of the bowel decreasing. After the 6 months he was weaned gradually off all medication except for a daily maintenance dose of gastroguard for the ulcers.

He regularly competes at affiliated dressage and has qualified for several championships this year, also hacks and is back to good health. Everybody who sees him comments on great he looks and are very surprised to hear that 12 months ago we thought the only outcome would be to pts, so please take heart to know that even with the most severe cases like ours there is always hope, we do have to think constantly about his work load and routine but IBD can be managed.
 
Thank you so much for such a detailed reply :). My boy scoped clear for ulcers, he is currently on steroids for at least a month, antibiotics to fight an infection he has , decent hay and haylage and 3 hard feeds a day, though I am cutting the cereals out as my vet advised me to do this. He is a poor doer but does like his food. Vets are coming back out in a week to rebleed him :)
 
Have a word with Alex Gingell at Hack Up Bespoke supplements, they have a website. They can make up a supplement designed especially for your horse. A lot of people are having success with these products. I don't work for them just have my horse on one of their products.
 
Our boy was diagnosed with IBD in January following a laproscopy as a result of regular bouts of colic. He too was clear of ulcers. He was on a 3 month course of steroids that slowly reduced over that time and his hard feed diet changed. Low sugar, high fat, low starch, high fibre. He went onto Dodson and Horrell's ERS pellets, Alfa A oil and Defence pre/probiotoc. Lots of hay (wet if very dry) no haylage as too difficult to digest and lots of turnout.
It was hugely impotant to introduce any changes in turnout/hay very slowly as it was easy to set the IBD off.
He started to colic again in June and went onto steroids again for a month followed by a course of antacids - Sucrabest.
I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but sadly our boy didn't make it :( After a 10 month daily struggle and heartache he was PTS earlier this month.
Hopefully we were simply unlucky and that you have a more positive outcome. With careful management I hope that you are able to deal with the IBD and that your horse is able to have a long and happy life, despite the illness.
Wishing you all the very best <3
 
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