Liver issues causing neuro symptoms

[poiuytrewq]

I’ve read about liver issues causing symptoms that are very neurological.
Does anyone have any experience of this? Did you know the horse had liver problems?
What was the outcome?

 

[meleeka]

A friends horse had this. She wasn’t aware anything was wrong until the horse went very quiet and then walking in circles or just looking wobbly on his feet. He was PTS.

I had a pony with liver issues, but colic was his main symptom. He would literally walk through fences and was obviously in a lot of pain. He had a couple of instances of this but he did recover enough to be happy. He was pts with unrelated colic two years later.

 

[MissTyc]

Unfortunately this was the first symptom of my 12yo ISH's liver disease/failure. Well, he did lose a bit of weight that winter but he was a hard keeper and he put it back in with a change of feed. He also got a bit spooky out hacking but we attributed that to the change of feed Then he started losing weight again - the vet had checked him over while on the yard and frowned a little but decided to wait a week or so to pull bloods as he seemed super cheerful. The next day he looked a bit wobbly on the back and I got really worried. We hauled him to the clinic and within days he was pressing his head against the wall and tripped over himself. Lost him 14 days later .

Hid bloods were actually super ambiguous. Apparently that can happen, they suspected every organ and multiple organ failure etc etc. Liver confirmed on PM.

 

[PurBee]

It makes sense chronic liver issues to cause neuro symptoms, as the liver needs to process all toxins and toxic by-products of metabolism, shunting these to the kidneys for flushing out of the system.
A poor working liver won’t be so good at doing this (as well as all the numerous other jobs it does) - and eventually these toxins build up in the body and via various mechanisms degrade the neurological network.

Just like with cases of acute liver toxicity from very toxic plants or bacteria - the neuro functions are hit hard and immediate neuro symptoms are evident.

Like with humans, the liver is a real ‘work horse’ of an organ, and it’s amazing that only when it’s really damaged, with over 50% of function limited or cells dead, do symptoms show up.
Mild-medium liver issues are very difficult to detect as the symptoms are not overt. Its an organ that truly keeps trying its best!

One mild symptom that could suggest past or current liver damage in horses is photosensitisation, in an otherwise healthy horse.

 

[scats]

Yes. Pony was diagnosed with liver disease in her early twenties and we lost her aged 27 to liver failure- she suffered from one seizure (that we knew of) and became very wobbly, excessive salivation etc

 

[mavandkaz]

Yes I was gifted a pony who turned out to be in liver failure. Bloods were taken after I noticed she was wobbly on her feet, would walk with her nose to the floor. Her winter coat was also hiding a very scrawny pony but with a pot belly.
In the very final stages I was warned about head banging. There is a tendency for them to literally bang their heads against a wall. My little one was seen one day with her head pressed against the hedge. By the time the vet got there she was stood with her head wedged into the corner of the field shelter ?

 

[spotty_pony]

Yes. Pony was diagnosed with liver disease in her early twenties and we lost her aged 27 to liver failure- she suffered from one seizure (that we knew of) and became very wobbly, excessive salivation etc

out of interest did your become wobbly as in difficult to pick out hind feet? Like a loss of balance?

 

[scats]

out of interest did your become wobbly as in difficult to pick out hind feet? Like a loss of balance?

More like she lost her coordination really. Like she was mildly intoxicated. Sometimes she would seem fine but other times, you’d lead her out and it was like she had no idea where her feet where going to land. We had her put to sleep within a week or two of this starting. The seizure happened a couple of months earlier and we never witnessed another, but the loss of limb control started about 8 weeks later.