liver enzymes raised

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psychick82

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hi all,
just wanted to ask if anyone has advice of what causes raised liver enzymes?
my mare is off to the vets tomorrow for a spinal xray and liver scan. very, very long story but she suffered with gastric ulcers for over 6 months in 2008 which cleared up with antibiotics and everything (behaviour, riding etc) seemed to return to normal.
but at the end of summer 2009 the same behaviour slowly started to return (severe objections to being ridden basically) until the problem became so bad i couldn't ride by the autumn.
vet did another endoscope and she had ulcers again and he also took two seperate blood tests which both showed raised liver enzymes.
she is home bred and has never had access to eating ragwort or been in much contact with other horses apart from my other two horses.

this has been such a long 'battle' but i'm just really worried about tomorrow and what might show up. the vet hasn't really said much other than the raised enzymes means inflamation.

thanks and hope i haven't been too vague.
gemma
 
Mine had them raised after being poisoned by nibbling woody nightshade. They went back down thankfully. I think they can be caused by viruses/infections but other people on here will know more than me about this..good luck anyway.
 
Generally caused by eating something poisonous. Thankfully Liver damage is reversable with proper maintinance. Generally a low protein diet.

Hope things work out ok
 
Raised liver enzymes, if definitely not from ragwort (livers cannot recover from ragwort poisoning by the way), can be from many things. Poisoning is one or infection or tumour or flukes. Hopefully, she will come back from the vets just needing supportive management until her liver heals itself. To support a liver damaged horse you need to keep it on a very low protein diet, but what protein it does have must be the highest quality you can afford or find. Feed Yea Sac to support hind gut function, which is often compromised with liver damage, and helps a weak appetite. Milk Thistle further supports the liver. Never feed oils or conditioning mixes until the liver is healed. Feeds should be little and often and the horse should be kept out of the summer sun as any pink skin will burn very badly.

How old is your horse hun? If a veteran, there could be other things going on but if a youngster, hopefully this will resolve and with supportive management while the liver mends, she will be ok. I wonder why she gets ulcers all the time? While you and the vets try to get to the bottom of that, there are several products on the market that would help, such as Coligone. Brilliant stuf. Good luck hun and do let us know how your girl is x
 
thanks for your replies
smile.gif


she is 9yrs this May and as i said, she is home bred, always been at the same yard, so i don't think she could have eaten anything poisonous.

the vet also suspects PSSM so whilst i've been waiting to take her to the clinic i've put her on the high fibre/high oil diet to see if that improves her behaviour so now i'm really worried you've said don't feed oil!! however, everyone i've spoken to who's horse has been diagnosed with PSSM says the behaviour changes very quickly when on the diet, although it has made no difference for tutti after three/four weeks.

the vet thinks the ulcers are being caused as a secondary symptom to some other primary pain, i.e. the liver or spine (he only suspects a spine problem due to when i lunge or loose school her she will always trot around with her nose to the ground).

when she first had the ulcers we tried gastrogard, we've tried many other ulcer supplements, aloe vera etc etc but nothing worked
frown.gif


i just don't understand how she could get a liver infection?? just want this morning to be over! will update later as hopefully it may help others in a similar situation.
 
It might not be an infection hun. There's lots of things that affect the liver, some ok some not. The reason for the absolutely no oil is that breaking down the oil puts a heavy burden on the liver, which makes bile to break down fats. If the liver is already struggling to cope with a normal "workload" a heavy oil input will put more strain on it. The problem for your ned is made worse by the PSSM diagnosis since the alternative to oil calories is starchy, sugary calories. Sounds a nightmare - got everything crossed for you tomorrow xxx
 
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