Thickened colon

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Showjumpinganna

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Has anyone successfully treated their horse with out steroids?

My horse started losing weight, showed low albumin 27/28 in his bloods, so he was referred for and abdo scan which showed thickening of the colon at 6mm.

My vet sent me home and told me to adjust diet, have tried multiple diffferent things (speedibeet/ copra coolstance / oil / linseed) (gradually over a few months) … and he unfortunately blew his lid and went mental so took him off everything.

I have now started him on sainfoin pellets, gut balancer, pea protein and general daily balancer. He has also been struggling with grade 3/4 ulcers which are taking their time to heal.

I asked my vet about steroids and he wants to wait till we clear the ulcers but I feel it’s been a while now and I feel helpless!
He’s now starting to show high creatinine in his bloods which is dehydration.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
I believe @TPO had this as part of a bigger issue with her gelding - there is a very extensive explanation of what went on in a thread on here if you can search it - albeit I might be remembering wrong
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Yip, that was me. We're 2yrs in now <touching wood frantically>

Here's my saga

Any experience of low albumin in blood / conditioning feed recommendations / WWYD (no doubt will end up being long!)

Basically I don't know what's going on and please talk me off the ledge Further to this thread https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/masseter-myositis-autoimmune-disease.829556/#post-15235386 I'm no further forward. This will be long, I have no idea how to be concise and condense it so...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk

His was thickened to 11mm. Vet said steroids were the only option and reducing the inflammation was the priority over everything.

When he was scoped a few new grade 1 or 2 ulcers were found. There were directly caused by his illness rather than being a before or as well as iykwim. He hasn't been scoped since and has been fine. Hospital weren't concerned at all. He's fed high fibre, low starch, adlib forage.

In my experience we were on a low dose of steroids when we got down to 6mm. I think we started on 22 tablets at his worse.

Feed wise he gets saracens releve, progressive earth pro balance +, natural vitamin e, pink mash condition, grass nuts, grass chaff, salt, oily herbs and mycosorb a+. At his worst condition he also got Outshine rather than pink mash.

Horses for courses but Releve worked wonders.

His albumin went down to 20. His CK, and usually AST, have been high throughout but hospital have never been concerned. He has never tied up, doesn't have pssm and isn't dehydrated. Just seems to be part of the package.

I'm assuming you're a genuine new poster and not a reincarnation of the banned one who also posted asking the exact same question looking for feed suggestions for a thickened colon with a jumping horse with grade 3/4 ulcers that was still being ridden?
 
TPO said:
Yip, that was me. We're 2yrs in now <touching wood frantically>

Here's my saga

Any experience of low albumin in blood / conditioning feed recommendations / WWYD (no doubt will end up being long!)

Basically I don't know what's going on and please talk me off the ledge Further to this thread https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/masseter-myositis-autoimmune-disease.829556/#post-15235386 I'm no further forward. This will be long, I have no idea how to be concise and condense it so...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk

His was thickened to 11mm. Vet said steroids were the only option and reducing the inflammation was the priority over everything.

When he was scoped a few new grade 1 or 2 ulcers were found. There were directly caused by his illness rather than being a before or as well as iykwim. He hasn't been scoped since and has been fine. Hospital weren't concerned at all. He's fed high fibre, low starch, adlib forage.

In my experience we were on a low dose of steroids when we got down to 6mm. I think we started on 22 tablets at his worse.

Feed wise he gets saracens releve, progressive earth pro balance +, natural vitamin e, pink mash condition, grass nuts, grass chaff, salt, oily herbs and mycosorb a+. At his worst condition he also got Outshine rather than pink mash.

Horses for courses but Releve worked wonders.

His albumin went down to 20. His CK, and usually AST, have been high throughout but hospital have never been concerned. He has never tied up, doesn't have pssm and isn't dehydrated. Just seems to be part of the package.

I'm assuming you're a genuine new poster and not a reincarnation of the banned one who also posted asking the exact same question looking for feed suggestions for a thickened colon with a jumping horse with grade 3/4 ulcers that was still being ridden?
Click to expand...
Hi,

Thanks for your reply, sounds like you’ve been through it.

My horse is just looking a bit slender and I keep thinking in the back of my mind whether he should have just gone on steroids. However I think if it was that bad my vet would have done the steroids.

Again I’m looking for similar experiences to mine. Are steroids really that bad for horses?

Also his CK is slightly high but creatinine is also high which is my concern.
 
Steroids saved my horse's life so I don't think that they are bad at all!

Ah sorry, yes creatinine was high initially too but improved as he was treated.
 
TPO said:
Steroids saved my horse's life so I don't think that they are bad at all!

Ah sorry, yes creatinine was high initially too but improved as he was treated.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info, I’ve just started reading through one of your posts and another poster commented how their horse only goes on steroids if the albumin goes below 26, so I wonder if that’s why my vet is keen to stay off them for the time being.

Such a minefield! And stressful to say the least.
 
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