Poorly pony

Parksmum3

Parksmum3

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We have had a good run, after 14 years this is the first time my boy has been 'properly' ill. Thought yesterday he seemed a bit off colour, quite compared to normal, just put it down to it turning so cold. Got him in from the field at 3.30 yesterday and he was very lethargic. Checked up on him about 11pm, ate some of his tea but not really touched his hay, unlike him he's normally a piggy.
Rang the vets this morning, still no change but will happily graze in hand. Just not himself at. Vets came out, thinking infection somewhere. He had a heart rate of 54bpm and a high temperature 39.7 vet gave him anti inflammatory injection and antibiotics, got some oral for the next few days, bloods sent off to lab now just got to wait and see what comes back.
He's been grazing ok this afternoon, brought him in about 4.30, looks a tiny bit perkier but still not normal. Just been down now and he hasn't touched hay, eaten half his tea. Just popped a rug on him as he was slightly shivering (he never normally has a rug)
Just hope he is ok, feel a bit useless at the moment but not much I can do other than keep checking on him. Sorry to vent but it helps to write it out to people who will understand. Going to check on him again about midnight then again early morning
 
Sounds exactly like my friends horse same symptoms. Vet thinks virus no other horses seem to have it and recovered within a couple of weeks. He was off his hay and food but within a couple of days with the antibiotics he was eating again. Vet ran bloods and something was off can't remember what but bloods back to normal within a couple of weeks.
 
Thank you. It's just horrible seeing him like this. Yes my vet said there has been a few horses he has been to recently that has just been 'not normal' my older Welsh pony who is 21 is absolutely fine. Glad your friends horse is ok now SO1
 
My 8 year old gelding was like this last October. First thing I noticed was that he was very laid back on a hack and at a competition - not his normal style! Then quiet in his stable and less keen on food. Called vet. High temperature over 40. Later developed a cough and a runny nose. Blood tests negative for all the major things like equine flu, strangles. Took ages to get over it and back to normal silly self, but it seems to have been a virus. One of my other horses got it too but to a much lesser extent. One of my horse friends said it was equine covid but I'm not sure that is even a thing!

Hope he feels better soon. It's awful seeing them ill like that, isn't it.
 
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Thank you everyone, your support is much appreciated. My partner checked on him at 2am and he had stopped shivering but still looking down.
At 7am this morning I gave him his oral medicine and put his powder in his feed and he is looking brighter but only picking at his feed, I'm going to try and grate some carrot in it as he just picked out the slices of carrot I put in to encourage him to eat jt. Still has a high temperature but it's not gone up anymore so hopefully that's a good sign.
 
Marigold4 said:
My 8 year old gelding was like this last October. First thing I noticed was that he was very laid back on a hack and at a competition - not his normal style! Then quiet in his stable and less keen on food. Called vet. High temperature over 40. Later developed a cough and a runny nose. Blood tests negative for all the major things like equine flu, strangles. Took ages to get over it and back to normal silly self, but it seems to have been a virus. One of my other horses got it too but to a much lesser extent. One of my horse friends said it was equine covid but I'm not sure that is even a thing!

Hope he feels better soon. It's awful seeing them ill like that, isn't it.
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Vet said friends horse might be Covid. One of the people who helps look after him had Covid just before the horse got poorly. OP has anyone on your yard had Covid recently?
 
Sorry to hear your horse is poorly.
Could it be strangles? Not sure what area you are in but it's rife in the New Forest at the moment.
 
No one has had COVID recently, I'm at my own private yard in Suffolk, just me and my 2 boys. I have just had a call from the vets and blood results are back. It shows he is slightly anemic, high white blood cell count and very slightly raised liver enzyme. He said it all indicates to an infection. He has been refusing feed so vet said to mix the antibiotics with water and syringe it which seems to have worked. Luckily yard is about a mile from home so spending the day back and forth checking on him
 
They are such a worry. I've known a few with this sort of mystery illness, including my own gelding about 17 years ago. It is frightening and sadly you don't always get answers. I find that if you can get the antibiotics and maye steroids in, they do tend to find their appetite quickly. Maybe ask for injectable antiBs and steroids if your horse won't eat them.
 
Monday I was quite happy with how he was doing. His temperature was down to 37.7 and he had eaten a tiny amount of his pony nuts, still not touched hay, grazing quite happily during the day. Still quiet compared to normal but looking more alert and interested in surroundings.

Yesterday i wasn't so happy as didn't see any progress if anything he was just standing in the field not grazing no where near as much as Monday and Sunday. Over night last night hasn't touched his feed or his hay.

This morning he ate a bit of grass in hand and I have kept him in this morning as the weather is horrid but going to see if he will eat some more grass this afternoon in hand.

I have tried dry hay, soaking his hay. He has a metal corner hay rack, I've put hay in there, on the floor, in a haynet. I bought some bagged hay incase the bales I've got are not to his liking (other pony, normally fussy is eating it fine) just to try and get him to eat in anyway.
His evening feed is just pony nuts, fast fibre, vitamin and mineral supplement and turmeric. He turns his nose up at it everynight.
I tried just giving him pony nuts one night he ate about a mouthful then left the rest. Then I tried just fast fibre which he completely ignored. I spoke to the vet Monday and said to ring today (Wednesday) if he still isn't eating any hay or feed and they are going to come back out to him.
I don't really no what else to do but am worrying about him as I can see he is loosing weight and not himself
 
Sorry he's still under the weather, I've found apple juice (Waitrose No.1 with no nasties, pony is a princess) wonderful for getting her to eat medication.

When mine was at the vets they were picking her fresh grass to eat, maybe add that to the stable buffet to try and encourage eating.
 
I hadn't thought about EHV but that is something I'll ask the vet to check for, thank you. I'll also try picking fresh grass and putting it with his hay, thank you to everyone for the support, I love having my own yard and have always been a bit of a lone wolf, but times like these it's nice to vent to horsy people who understand. Will update when the vets have been again x
 
Sorry to hear this. I presume you have checked his temperature again to make sure a fever has not returned.

It might also be worth getting him scoped to check he has not got any blockage or ulcers. My pony started going off his hay and it turned out to be a gastric impaction he was still pooing normally and eating hard feed. He started colicing though but he went from being greedy to being fussy. We scoped for ulcers and found the blockage and it took a week in the hospital to clear. Sadly his stomach was no longer working properly and it was blocked again with food being seen in his osophegus within 5 weeks of being cleared when he went for his check up despite a no hay diet during this time. My pony was 20 and I had had him for 15 years.

Is your pony drinking ok? Maybe also check for Cushings.
 
Sorry to hear that your pony is unwell! Must be harder to deal with than a pony that has an obvious wound or physical issue. It sounds like he is in good hands with your care, but I am surprised the vets haven't identified the cause yet. It has been quite a few days.
 
The vet had a good look at his teeth yesterday and a good check of him all over. Can’t find anything wrong in his mouth, temperature fine, heart rate fine, lungs sound nice and clear, there are gut sounds but just quiet. Done a sand test with his poo and no sand found. He’s got some more antibiotics because I messed up a bit! When the vet came last Friday he gave him an injection and I was meant to give him a whole sachet twice a day, I miss understood and was giving him half in the morning half in the evening. The vet is happy with how he is looking as he looks so much better in himself, he thinks maybe (with my mess up) we hadn’t hit the infection hard enough, so now he is on Bute and 2 sachets a day of antibiotics. Hopefully his eating will pick up now he is feeling better, luckily I have a lot of grass still so he’s not overly worried about the hay or feed, he did have a look and smell the hay, nothing obviously wrong with it, he actually said how good it smelled/looked.
He did say there have been quite a few cases the same as his, some have bounced straight back after some antibiotics others have took quite a bit of time to get back to normal.
 
My friends horse has just had basically this exact same thing, the vet also put it down to a virus. Thankfully she loves to eat so once the antibiotics were in she recovered quickly. No other horses at the yard got it. Best of luck for your boy ❤️
 
Parksmum3 said:
The vet had a good look at his teeth yesterday and a good check of him all over. Can’t find anything wrong in his mouth, temperature fine, heart rate fine, lungs sound nice and clear, there are gut sounds but just quiet. Done a sand test with his poo and no sand found. He’s got some more antibiotics because I messed up a bit! When the vet came last Friday he gave him an injection and I was meant to give him a whole sachet twice a day, I miss understood and was giving him half in the morning half in the evening. The vet is happy with how he is looking as he looks so much better in himself, he thinks maybe (with my mess up) we hadn’t hit the infection hard enough, so now he is on Bute and 2 sachets a day of antibiotics. Hopefully his eating will pick up now he is feeling better, luckily I have a lot of grass still so he’s not overly worried about the hay or feed, he did have a look and smell the hay, nothing obviously wrong with it, he actually said how good it smelled/looked.
He did say there have been quite a few cases the same as his, some have bounced straight back after some antibiotics others have took quite a bit of time to get back to normal.
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Sounds quite promising OP. Fingers crossed for you both.

Thanks very much for updating. x
 
SO1 said:
Sorry to hear this. I presume you have checked his temperature again to make sure a fever has not returned.

It might also be worth getting him scoped to check he has not got any blockage or ulcers. My pony started going off his hay and it turned out to be a gastric impaction he was still pooing normally and eating hard feed. He started colicing though but he went from being greedy to being fussy. We scoped for ulcers and found the blockage and it took a week in the hospital to clear. Sadly his stomach was no longer working properly and it was blocked again with food being seen in his osophegus within 5 weeks of being cleared when he went for his check up despite a no hay diet during this time. My pony was 20 and I had had him for 15 years.

Is your pony drinking ok? Maybe also check for Cushings.
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This sounds similar to my mare, she was perfectly normal in all respects apart from smelly poo and lethargy, I suspected ulcers after her KS surgery and they found her stomach wasn’t emptying properly.

Lots of medication and 3 weeks later she is feeling much better ridden.

Re-scope next week to see if her stomach is emptying 🤞

She too is a mature lady

@Parksmum3 mine are at home and it’s times like this I miss venting with fellow liveries! I’ve found the vets so useful for bouncing ideas off and very kind when I’ve ugly cried on the phone!
 
Update....
Poorly pony is doing much better, he has had his last lot of antibiotics tonight so will see what he is like a couple of days off them. He is back to normal personality wise, pushing little old pony out the way with a flick of his ears because he wants that blade of grass old man was going to eat. He has decided he wants to eat soaked hay off the floor and still leaves everything else so last night I just have him what he has been choosing and he ate about 90%. Still leaving half his tea but that will come in time. All in all looking good 😊 see how the next few days go. And now got a lovely bill just before Christmas. Oh well they are worth every penny
 
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