Montyforever
Well-Known Member
My mare had an impaction colic on Sunday, she was taken to the vets hospital for more tests and to be tubed and luckily the impaction cleared over that night and she was able to come home the next day.
When the vet first came out to the yard she had a high temperature (39.7) and a suspected impaction which doesnt fit together. So the vet suspected peritonitis. She wasn't thrashing around/rolling she was just quieter than usual and you could see some spasms in her stomach etc
Once she was taken to the vets clinic, they ultrascaned her stomach and intestines/colon etc and although they couldn't see the impaction (could just about feel it when doing a rectal) they could see a lot of fluid in her colon. She had a belly tap which came back as normal, was tubed and had and blood tests which came back as normal but with raised liver enzymes. Obvious answer was has she eaten anything toxic but the hay is all home grown and I've not seen anything in her field or on the verge just outside the fencing although obviously I'm going to double check now.
She pooed overnight at the vets and bloods were redone in the morning and came back as high again but vets told me to take her home, have her retested in a week and watch out for exhaustion/depression/uncharacteristic behaviour as that would point to liver issues.
She's not herself at all, she's quiet. Been seen lying down in the field a lot (very unlike her!) not pooing as often as normal as she's off her hard feed (fast fibre) is only picking at hay/grass but will eat dry pony nuts although obviously that's the last thing she should be eating alot of as she's laminitis prone and dry feeds not the best thing after the impaction.
Thought she had colic again last night as she's not pooing as often as she normally does so walked her round for a while and she did a poo which was softer than normal. But just confirmed something's not right as she's normally on her toes at the best of times so being walked round the school which she's only been in twice before, at 10pm while the rest of the horses were settled down for the night and she was just plodding along she's also weeing a lot more than usual but wasn't dehydrated at the vets and isn't now. Her temperature last night was 36.4 and the peritonitis/colitis was ruled out in the hospital when her temperature went back to normal and bloods/belly tap came back fine.
Sorry if I'm rambling, the vet is coming Friday to take more bloods as it will be too early to retest until then. All the vet can say is it points towards a liver problem and to keep her warm and try and get her eating until we know more.
So if anyone's had a horse with liver problems does it sound similar to yours? As I said she's under the vets care but I figured I may as well do some research as its something I've never come across before.
When the vet first came out to the yard she had a high temperature (39.7) and a suspected impaction which doesnt fit together. So the vet suspected peritonitis. She wasn't thrashing around/rolling she was just quieter than usual and you could see some spasms in her stomach etc
Once she was taken to the vets clinic, they ultrascaned her stomach and intestines/colon etc and although they couldn't see the impaction (could just about feel it when doing a rectal) they could see a lot of fluid in her colon. She had a belly tap which came back as normal, was tubed and had and blood tests which came back as normal but with raised liver enzymes. Obvious answer was has she eaten anything toxic but the hay is all home grown and I've not seen anything in her field or on the verge just outside the fencing although obviously I'm going to double check now.
She pooed overnight at the vets and bloods were redone in the morning and came back as high again but vets told me to take her home, have her retested in a week and watch out for exhaustion/depression/uncharacteristic behaviour as that would point to liver issues.
She's not herself at all, she's quiet. Been seen lying down in the field a lot (very unlike her!) not pooing as often as normal as she's off her hard feed (fast fibre) is only picking at hay/grass but will eat dry pony nuts although obviously that's the last thing she should be eating alot of as she's laminitis prone and dry feeds not the best thing after the impaction.
Thought she had colic again last night as she's not pooing as often as she normally does so walked her round for a while and she did a poo which was softer than normal. But just confirmed something's not right as she's normally on her toes at the best of times so being walked round the school which she's only been in twice before, at 10pm while the rest of the horses were settled down for the night and she was just plodding along she's also weeing a lot more than usual but wasn't dehydrated at the vets and isn't now. Her temperature last night was 36.4 and the peritonitis/colitis was ruled out in the hospital when her temperature went back to normal and bloods/belly tap came back fine.
Sorry if I'm rambling, the vet is coming Friday to take more bloods as it will be too early to retest until then. All the vet can say is it points towards a liver problem and to keep her warm and try and get her eating until we know more.
So if anyone's had a horse with liver problems does it sound similar to yours? As I said she's under the vets care but I figured I may as well do some research as its something I've never come across before.
very high fibre diet, she's around 2.5/3 when condition scoring and she's pretty hard to keep weight on for a welshie so I have suspected something's going on for a while but she's been bright and her normal self so her liver was the last thing I was worried about. 