Festive_Felicitations
Well-Known Member
How annoying! (that the bloods came back blank)
I hope he continues to improve and settles down soon.
I hope he continues to improve and settles down soon.
Not really CR, but worrying myself sick... and you guys know about comp horses..
- Thread starter Ali16
- Start date
cptrayes
Well-Known Member
There is a problem with intermittent use of omeprazole/Gastroguard. When you stop it, you can get "bounceback" where acid levels return to a higher point than they were before they were suppressed.
Does the timing of stopping the omeprazole because he is not competing in winter fit with what you are seeing? Mine is also on it as a preventative, but I leave him on it full time or he simply reverts to a weaving neurotic nutcase however slowly I wean him back off it.
It not only suppresses acid but it has a sedative effect on the gut. Removing that might would give you behavioural signs of low grade colic, without the colic itself, and that sounds to me as if it might be a possibility? Can you put him back on the omeprazole if he is not currently on it, and see what happens??
Does the timing of stopping the omeprazole because he is not competing in winter fit with what you are seeing? Mine is also on it as a preventative, but I leave him on it full time or he simply reverts to a weaving neurotic nutcase however slowly I wean him back off it.
It not only suppresses acid but it has a sedative effect on the gut. Removing that might would give you behavioural signs of low grade colic, without the colic itself, and that sounds to me as if it might be a possibility? Can you put him back on the omeprazole if he is not currently on it, and see what happens??
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Ali16
Well-Known Member
There is a problem with intermittent use of omeprazole/Gastroguard. When you stop it, you can get "bounceback" where acid levels return to a higher point than they were before they were suppressed.
Does the timing of stopping the omeprazole because he is not competing in winter fit with what you are seeing? Mine is also on it as a preventative, but I leave him on it full time or he simply reverts to a weaving neurotic nutcase however slowly I wean him back off it.
It not only suppresses acid but it has a sedative effect on the gut. Removing that might would give you behavioural signs of low grade colic, without the colic itself, and that sounds to me as if it might be a possibility? Can you put him back on the omeprazole if he is not currently on it, and see what happens??
That's the thing... he is on it at the moment. Given his history (ulcers were never found, but a high acid level in his bowels was) and the fact that he has been out competing recently - he's not on hols at the moment (he goes on hols after the summer and winter nationals for two weeks at a time) - he is on Gastroguard at the moment, towards the end of a 28 day treatment. This is the reason that the vet wants to monitor his through the diet change and then scope in a couple of weeks if things don't improve.
stimpy
Well-Known Member
Another thing to throw in the pot...
My TB went through a dramatic behaviour change 4 years ago, he was getting so stressed and silly in his stable he kept banging his head and cutting his eye, nose etc. His stress seemed to manifest mostly in his head, flinging it about, head shaking etc but he got so agitated that he would fling himself on the floor and thrash about like he was colicing. We initially suspected teeth but in the end it turned out that he had a blood tumors in his jaw bone. His jaw bone was literally being broken apart from the inside. The vet thought he had put up with it stoically for as long as he could but then the extreme pain has just sent him into total meltdown.
He made a full recovery but it was a difficult diagnosis as there was no swelling or heat, in fact no external indicators at all. Thankfully my vet got a hunch that it was blood tumors even though he had never seen it in bone before, only soft tissue. An xray showed decreased density of the jaw bone and once we got to that point a bone biopsy confirmed it.
I don't know that this is of any value, just another case of acute behaviour change I guess.
I really hope your boy continues to improve.
My TB went through a dramatic behaviour change 4 years ago, he was getting so stressed and silly in his stable he kept banging his head and cutting his eye, nose etc. His stress seemed to manifest mostly in his head, flinging it about, head shaking etc but he got so agitated that he would fling himself on the floor and thrash about like he was colicing. We initially suspected teeth but in the end it turned out that he had a blood tumors in his jaw bone. His jaw bone was literally being broken apart from the inside. The vet thought he had put up with it stoically for as long as he could but then the extreme pain has just sent him into total meltdown.
He made a full recovery but it was a difficult diagnosis as there was no swelling or heat, in fact no external indicators at all. Thankfully my vet got a hunch that it was blood tumors even though he had never seen it in bone before, only soft tissue. An xray showed decreased density of the jaw bone and once we got to that point a bone biopsy confirmed it.
I don't know that this is of any value, just another case of acute behaviour change I guess.
I really hope your boy continues to improve.