FelicityCottonsocks
Active Member
Hi All,
So, my horse has managed to completely stump the vets, therefore I am appealing for your help...
In August my horse seemed a little lethargic, so I thought I'd have some blood analysed prior to fiddling around with his diet. He had slightly high liver enzymes, mainly bile acids. We did several months on a high steroid dose and antibiotics. They actually got worse, so he was treated for liver fluke twice. His bile acids improved afterwards on both occasions, but got worse again between the first and second treatment... Hence the second treatment. He has been scanned from head to foot and scoped. His liver size and shape appeared normal, so no biopsy was taken. He had some mild ulcers in his stomach which the vet felt were secondary to something else and have since been resolved. He also has one adrenal gland 2 cm larger than the other. 😞
He seemed to pick up and be back to his normal self after the second fluke treatment in October, but then started to have this strange episodes where he would flare his nostrils, breath very rapidly and heavily and look as if he had spasmodic colic (lying down, looking at belly, kicking/stamping). These lasted a few hours then he'd be completely normal or the high respirate would last for a few days, either or. He has been hospitalised twice due to these episodes and antispasmodics/pain relief did not relieve his symptoms. I've had two medicine diplomat vets on the case and my vet bill is already at the £8,500 mark 😱, however still do not have any answers.
My poor boy was tested for Pheochromocytoma (adrenal tumour) and this has come back negative, thank goodness. Things were starting to look brighter as well as he hadn't had an episode for almost 5 weeks... My Christmas wish had come true! But then on Boxing Day he randomly had a respirate of 51! No other signs, continued eating throughout. Then the following morning he was still flaring his nostrils and started to show signs of discomfort. This lasted an hour and he's been OK ever since. I obviously had the vet out and more samples have been taken for another Pheochromocytoma test 😥. Back to square one and I feel devastated. His lungs have been scanned and are having further analysis next week. He has some fibrosis in his right caudal lung, but no other lung symptoms... His chest sounds fine even after restricting air flow (one of the vet tests). I've taken him off everything other than roughage, which seems to have helped as the episodes are not as frequent. But none of this makes sense to me (or the Vets) and I'm starting to go mad... Desperate for answers! He's so up and down. Charging around one day and being completely normal then breathing strangely at random intervals (never after exercise).
I know it's a long shot, but have any of you witnessed random, sporadic increased respiration rate (with no other symptoms perhaps)? Or heard of/seen horses with similar strange symptoms?
Thanks for reading this far!!!
☺️
So, my horse has managed to completely stump the vets, therefore I am appealing for your help...
In August my horse seemed a little lethargic, so I thought I'd have some blood analysed prior to fiddling around with his diet. He had slightly high liver enzymes, mainly bile acids. We did several months on a high steroid dose and antibiotics. They actually got worse, so he was treated for liver fluke twice. His bile acids improved afterwards on both occasions, but got worse again between the first and second treatment... Hence the second treatment. He has been scanned from head to foot and scoped. His liver size and shape appeared normal, so no biopsy was taken. He had some mild ulcers in his stomach which the vet felt were secondary to something else and have since been resolved. He also has one adrenal gland 2 cm larger than the other. 😞
He seemed to pick up and be back to his normal self after the second fluke treatment in October, but then started to have this strange episodes where he would flare his nostrils, breath very rapidly and heavily and look as if he had spasmodic colic (lying down, looking at belly, kicking/stamping). These lasted a few hours then he'd be completely normal or the high respirate would last for a few days, either or. He has been hospitalised twice due to these episodes and antispasmodics/pain relief did not relieve his symptoms. I've had two medicine diplomat vets on the case and my vet bill is already at the £8,500 mark 😱, however still do not have any answers.
My poor boy was tested for Pheochromocytoma (adrenal tumour) and this has come back negative, thank goodness. Things were starting to look brighter as well as he hadn't had an episode for almost 5 weeks... My Christmas wish had come true! But then on Boxing Day he randomly had a respirate of 51! No other signs, continued eating throughout. Then the following morning he was still flaring his nostrils and started to show signs of discomfort. This lasted an hour and he's been OK ever since. I obviously had the vet out and more samples have been taken for another Pheochromocytoma test 😥. Back to square one and I feel devastated. His lungs have been scanned and are having further analysis next week. He has some fibrosis in his right caudal lung, but no other lung symptoms... His chest sounds fine even after restricting air flow (one of the vet tests). I've taken him off everything other than roughage, which seems to have helped as the episodes are not as frequent. But none of this makes sense to me (or the Vets) and I'm starting to go mad... Desperate for answers! He's so up and down. Charging around one day and being completely normal then breathing strangely at random intervals (never after exercise).
I know it's a long shot, but have any of you witnessed random, sporadic increased respiration rate (with no other symptoms perhaps)? Or heard of/seen horses with similar strange symptoms?
Thanks for reading this far!!!
☺️
