Protein Losing Enteropathy

[catembi]

Has anyone here owned / heard of a horse recovering from a fairly bad dose of this? Getting desperate - my horse will be put down on 16th Jan unless he starts recovering. Unfortunately this will be the only option as his weight has now gone from 690 kg to 500 kg.

He was on prednisolene for a month & recovered to the point of eating more or less normally for a week / 10 days, then the drug gradually stopped working. From Tues, he's been on a different anti inflammatory plus a ton of codeine to control the diarrhoea. Which was so bad he looked like he was weeing when he was pooing. :-( Under supervision from Rossdales at Newmarket,so he can't do better than that.

His appetite is still poor, altho the diarrhoea has stopped, but he's playing with his food more energetically rather than eating it...

Can someone please throw me a straw to cling to?? It is killing me keeping a constant eye on what he's eating & trying to convince myself that he's getting better.

 

[Llwyncwn]

Hi Cat. Im really sorry to hear about your boy, you must be besides yourself. He is obviously in the best hands. I have never heard of this condition, can you tell us more about it hun. You could also PM Star who is a vet and very helpful.

 

[wizzi901]

I have never heard of this condition either, would def get a second opinion, and speak to Star via PM.

Is it caused by any bacterial infectinal or is it a condition related to your horse ie biological?

 

[wizzi901]

Sorry I also meant to ask, did this problem come after a bout of colic or other illness? Or did it just appear on it's own so to speak?

Sorry I cant help more, just having a nosy round but you are damn right not much on it at all.

 

[Happy Horse]

I have PM'd you

 

[catembi]

OK, this is what it said on a website that I found at lunchtime, which is the most helpful thing I've found so far... Okay, it WASN'T at lunchtime & I should have been working, but what the hell, my horse is being shot in 11 days' time unless we have some sort of act of God, so after that, I'm not gonna need the job / money, am I...

'Protein losing enteropathy is a catchall name for a group of problems that can affect a horse's intestinal tract, ultimately resulting in nutrient malaborption and loss of the body's protein. A horse can develop a PLE following any colitis (such as salmonella), ulcer disease caused by bute or severe parasitism (ie worms). Here, the main concern is to treat the underlying disease. However, when the PLE appears to show up without some underlying disease, it might be due to widespread intestinal tumours such as lymphosarcoma or a condition known as granulamatous enteritis.

GE can affect all ages of horses. In this condition, different types of white blood cells will infiltrate the intestinal wall, possibly stimulated by an infection or immune/allergic type response (we don't yet understand the cause very well). This cellular infiltration, along with certain other changes in the cells of the intestinal lining, reduces the ability to absorb nutrients such as carbohydrates and allows proteins to leak out from the intestinal wall, where they are subsequently lost in the faeces.

The signs are weight loss, lethergy, sometimes diarrhoea and ventral oedema (swellings underneath the horse). Lab tests might show that the horse is low in protein, and he might fail a glucose absorption test. Sometimes examination of a rectal biopsy or, better, small intestinal biopsy samples taken during surgical exploration, will show the cellular infiltration. Unfortunately, the various treatments that have been employed (steroids, antimicrobials, resection of affected intestine) are often not successful and might only control the progression of the dise

ase for a short time.'

So basically my horse started out with diarrhoea which got progressively worse, then he gradually stopped eating, he's had 2 visits to Newmarket & a million tests including a scan which shows exactly where his intestines are inflamed, he's on steroids and also codeine to stop the diarrhoea...and he STILL will hardly eat.

Not looking good. :-(

I'd never heard of it either & jolly well wish I still hadn't...

MAYBE (my guesswork here) it was triggered either by an allergic reaction to something in the grass - he was coming in with an oddly swollen face, sometimes hugely swollen, but despite judicious use of electric fence we never did find out what. Or, just before all this started, he'd had congested lungs which was treated with Sputulosin. Maybe either thing - or both - could comprise the allergic reaction or immune problem described above?

It is likely that we'll never know.

 

[Llwyncwn]

Is this also known as 'malnutrition of the gut'?

 

[catembi]

No idea, I'm afraid...but I'm completely new to all this 'bad guts' business... As far as I can work out, he's got leaky intestines so the nutrition doesn't get absorbed... You could see on the scan the inflamed parts of the intestinal wall...they were up to 0.5 cm thick in places, which can't be good...

Waaahh... I think my next pet's gonna be a giant turtle...they live til they're 200 or so and seem to be virtually indestructible...not sure if they're any good at jumping tho...

 

[Llwyncwn]

Lol. Trouble is with giant turtles - you have to rehome them before you die which creates problems within itself!
This sounds very much like malnutrition of the gut. Only know of one horse years ago. Diagnosis could only be made on postmortem (at that time). A straw to clutch at is a very well known vet in Oxon called Chris Day. He is also well known for his homeopathy. You should be able to Google him, if not pm me and I will find his number for you.
Have you (again, clutching at straws) thought about contacting ALL the nutritionalists at ALL the feed companies - someone somewhere may know something.
Please keep us posted. Hx

 

[herbert]

Don't despair. We have a horse suffering from something very similar and are managing to control it with the use of steroids. He has lost a lot of weight but is now regaining some of it. Without steroids he does not eat and his poo is liquid however with just 8 steroids a day he eats normally and poos normally. He has developed laminitis because of the steroids but this is now well under control. He is fed Spillers Fibre nuts. Happy hoof and haylage. The vet is so pleased with him that he has just started to be ridden again. Don't give up, where there is life there is hope.

 

[catembi]

Herbert,

Thank you very much for this ray of hope... My horse is only 11 & was bursting with health before all this happened, so I'm hoping against hope that if anyone can pull through, he can...

Been to the horse food shop today to get some more goodies to tempt him with, & am just off down the field to see what he thinks.

Will post any updates.

 

[jomiln]

We had a horse last year with exactly these symptoms. It has now recovered. I will pm you all the details. It wasn't my horse but a client's but as the client was away I did all the care & treatment so got very involved.

I also have some fairly grim photos of when she was at her worst and how she now looks.