Small Intestine Problems

[Valley40]

Has anyone had any experience of of problems in the small intestine? I have a 19 year old pony that is prone to laminitis at the drop of a hat. Fortunately he has been clear for over a year with the help of the vet, a nutritionist and a good farrier. He developed constant diorrea over the past 2 years but has lost a significant amount of weight for the vet to take action. He went in to the vets for the day and the vets fed him glucose every half an hour and took blood to see how much glucose the small intestine is absorbing. The vet left a voice mail message saying that the bloods were abnormal and the the small intestine is not functioning as it should, I have to phone the vet on Thursday to discuss treatment. Has anyone ahd any previous experience with this type of problem?

 

[catembi]

Any news on your pony?

 

[Valley40]

Aww thank you for asking. The vet suggested steroids as a last resort but my pony gets laminitis at the drop of a hat so I am going to speak to the nutritionist to see if we can tweak his food to try and maintain his weight rather than the weight loss I am experiencing. He is only allowed 5 kilos of forage which is divided into soaked hay, horsehage timothy hay and hi fi lite plus his supplements so I am very limited.

 

[catembi]

So you didn't get a definite diagnosis then? One of mine had protein losing enteropathy once, & I had everything crossed for you that it wasn't that.

Really hope you manage to get your boy sorted. Diet can sometimes make all the difference. My old girl picked up tremendously in 3 to 4 weeks on a change of diet, & she's twice the age of yours.

Good luck!

T x

 

[Valley40]

Thank you for replying. The vet said that he could carry out scans and or biopsys but treatment would be very much the same. I have contacted the nutritionist so we have increased his ration of Timothy horsehage and put him onto Topspec.com rather than the anti lam which is what he was on. Thanks again.