Update on horse not drinking, with a more serious turn of events.

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be positive

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He is doing ok still not drinking as such but no worse.

This morning I was back on the computer, google has been working hard recently but until now not being much help, I typed in NSAIDs dehydration in horses and there it was a dehydrated horse should NOT be given NSAIDs due to potential renal failure, how I missed it I have no idea but he has been on high doses of danilon for 2 months, while away he had 3 daily plus iv bute once as well as sedation 3 days in a row 2 of those fairly large amounts, he came back dehydrated to be on 2 daily for 2 weeks.

I have spoken to 4 different vets about his drinking, or lack of, 2 have visited but not one mentioned that it was possible his kidneys were struggling to cope:(.

I have stopped the danilon, he was cutting down and is now comfortable, he has been flooded today with very wet feeds every 2 hours to try and really hydrate him and flush his kidneys, he is looking brighter and had drunk sugarbeet water when I went out at 8pm with feed number 7 so hopefully we are making progress and once he gets everything washed out of his system he will finally be on the mend.

I will be on the phone in the morning, some serious words to the vets:eek:
 
Does kidney failure normally result in refusal to drink? My horse had it and he drank a lot more than a normal horse, not less. I wouldn't be too quick to get cross with your vets. Though maybe they should have stopped the danilon when you told them he wasn't drinking, but it depends on what he was being given them for, I guess?

I hope your horse is better soon.
 
cptrayes said:
Does kidney failure normally result in refusal to drink? My horse had it and he drank a lot more than a normal horse, not less. I wouldn't be too quick to get cross with your vets. Though maybe they should have stopped the danilon when you told them he wasn't drinking, but it depends on what he was being given them for, I guess?

I hope your horse is better soon.
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You are right it seems to usually mean they drink more but combined with a serious mouth wound which probably made him reluctant to eat or drink while he was away, I think he had started to shut down. He has been kept just hydrated enough by feeding and this has hopefully stopped it progressing, it is the fact that none of them mentioned it as a possibility that I am having an issue with.
 
Fingers crossed no damage has been done, poor boy's got quite enough on his plate, as have you!

Cptrayes, I think patience with these vets is understandably thin due to the many and varied balls ups they've already made so far!
 
The long term effect of any painkiller, is that they loose their effect over time. Then when the human or horse's body gets used to it, the temptation to either up the dose or change meds, which can sometimes lead to the body actually creating the same symptoms your treating leading to dependency on Pk's ( a very human problem, but when do we say no to additional pk's for horses?).
In that case, reducing and eliminating that type of pk, can eventually stop the symptoms originally thought to be the condition you were originally treating.
 
TwoStroke said:
Fingers crossed no damage has been done, poor boy's got quite enough on his plate, as have you!

Cptrayes, I think patience with these vets is understandably thin due to the many and varied balls ups they've already made so far!
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Ah. Not good. Sorry you've had such problems BePositive, I hope you can get some recompense and your horse is sorted soon.
 
cptrayes said:
Ah. Not good. Sorry you've had such problems BePositive, I hope you can get some recompense and your horse is sorted soon.
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Thanks, this has been an ongoing series of bad judgement , with so much lack of communication and the horse has suffered needlessly, I sent you a pm a while ago about ligament damage that was diagnosed, there was no ligament damage, just the splint which was overlooked:eek:
 
Good job you googled!
You could order some Milk Thistle powder and give him a week or two of that too, clears out liver & kidney toxins, so once he's rehydrated it might be worth giving him some.
Hope he's well on the mend now you've started getting him right - well done :) xx
 
Redequus said:
Good job you googled!
You could order some Milk Thistle powder and give him a week or two of that too, clears out liver & kidney toxins, so once he's rehydrated it might be worth giving him some.
Hope he's well on the mend now you've started getting him right - well done :) xx
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Thanks I would like to give him a safe detox once he is through this, pure milk thistle would be a good idea rather than anything too harsh, will get onto it.
 
be positive said:
Thanks, this has been an ongoing series of bad judgement , with so much lack of communication and the horse has suffered needlessly, I sent you a pm a while ago about ligament damage that was diagnosed, there was no ligament damage, just the splint which was overlooked:eek:
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Oh I've had that! 25 years ago. The vet told me to ride the horse at walk. She didn't get any better and eventually chucked a groom who was on her into the road, so I turned her out to see what happened and after a month she came sound with a whacking great splint. In retrospect, there never was the slightest sign she had damaged tendons and I've no idea where he got that diagnosis from!

I forget names, I'm terrible at names and faces, sorry I forgot you'd already PMd me :o
 
cptrayes said:
Oh I've had that! 25 years ago. The vet told me to ride the horse at walk. She didn't get any better and eventually chucked a groom who was on her into the road, so I turned her out to see what happened and after a month she came sound with a whacking great splint. In retrospect, there never was the slightest sign she had damaged tendons and I've no idea where he got that diagnosis from!

I forget names, I'm terrible at names and faces, sorry I forgot you'd already PMd me :o
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I missed out a word in my last post, it should read splint fracture, by the time it was xrayed it was badly displaced:(
 
^^^^ Horse quenchers are great. Mine wouldn't drink while on lami box rest, with them I got enough water into him. If you have any fast fibre that can be watered down loads in a feed to get more water into them too.

Hope horsey gets better soon! Bad vets!
 
I am new so am not too up to date on the matter with the horse...somy suggestions may be moot.

Have you tried any molasses or apple juice in the water?

The product suggested does work well but you could try the other first to save money.
 
If he has been passing good amounts of normal coloured urine, you probably don't have too much to worry about. If you are worried you could ask them to run some renal and liver function tests, but i'd probably save my money.
I do agree with you though that vets ( and doctors ) should let their customers know the correct dose, when and how to take medication, its effects and potential side effects and contraindications. It's a poor show for you to find this info out from google when you've spoken to 4 vets.
Katex
 
Hopefully you can now start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Poor boy. I think vets sometimes suffer from tunnel vision and don't always look at the whole picture.
 
I would ring the vets this morning, sudden changes to medication can bring their own set of problems.
 
Natch said:
I would ring the vets this morning, sudden changes to medication can bring their own set of problems.
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Already done, they are coming out to take bloods so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and at least either find something to get on and treat or rule out any issues and just continue as I have been getting almost all fluids in by his feeds.
 
Good luck with the vet visit and I hope his mouth is now healed. There's one point that I notice, if he is getting so much fluid through feed he may well not drink much. At some point, provided he's well hydrated of course, I think reducing the water in feed may well be something to consider to get him back to a more usual eating and drinking pattern. Just a thought and of course the vets opinion is crucial here.
 
I'm having problems with HHO, so can't read back through your posts, so apologies if you have already covered this...
If vet is coming to do bloods anyway, I would certainly be wanting liver and renal ( more liver ) function tests.
Also, see if they can check electrolyte levels, esp sodium and potasium. These 2 don't need to be out by very much to interfere with the thirst drive.
Also, don't try and hydrate with water alone, that slows down the rehydration process in horses, if your horse is dyhydrated try giving him electrolytes, syringe them in if needed.
Hope your horse recovers soon.
Kx
 
The other thing is do consider adding plain salt to his feed. I know it sounds counter intuitive but if his potassium levels are high he needs plain salt to balance it. I don't know in depth but high potassium, or rather, salt deficiency is common in horses.
 
be positive said:
I missed out a word in my last post, it should read splint fracture, by the time it was xrayed it was badly displaced:(
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Cripes! You would have thought that they could diagnose that with a bit of squeezing, surely? Would the horse not have leapt into the air if they pressed it on the fracture????

I hope he's OK soon.
 
cptrayes said:
Cripes! You would have thought that they could diagnose that with a bit of squeezing, surely? Would the horse not have leapt into the air if they pressed it on the fracture????

I hope he's OK soon.
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Had a frank discussion about it with senior vet today when he came to do bloods.
He was leaping in the air, although trying to be brave, it was considered to be just sore from the damage and inflammation to underlying tissue and it was very swollen, probably because it had moved , I did not think about the splint bone but they should have done:(

Waiting for results.
 
Littlelegs said:
No useful advice but got my fingers crossed for you.
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amandap said:
Good luck with the vet visit and I hope his mouth is now healed. There's one point that I notice, if he is getting so much fluid through feed he may well not drink much. At some point, provided he's well hydrated of course, I think reducing the water in feed may well be something to consider to get him back to a more usual eating and drinking pattern. Just a thought and of course the vets opinion is crucial here.
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Circe said:
I'm having problems with HHO, so can't read back through your posts, so apologies if you have already covered this...
If vet is coming to do bloods anyway, I would certainly be wanting liver and renal ( more liver ) function tests.
Also, see if they can check electrolyte levels, esp sodium and potasium. These 2 don't need to be out by very much to interfere with the thirst drive.
Also, don't try and hydrate with water alone, that slows down the rehydration process in horses, if your horse is dyhydrated try giving him electrolytes, syringe them in if needed.
Hope your horse recovers soon.
Kx
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amandap said:
The other thing is do consider adding plain salt to his feed. I know it sounds counter intuitive but if his potassium levels are high he needs plain salt to balance it. I don't know in depth but high potassium, or rather, salt deficiency is common in horses.
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Thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts:) Some have been tried and others will be once we get test results.
 
micramadam said:
I can totally sympathise with your situation as I am also struggling with a sick horse. Huge (((hugs))) from me. Hope that you eventually find out the reason for him not drinking and all will be well.
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I really hope your mare has had a good day and you can find out why she has been getting colic, thinking of you xx
 
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