What WAS wrong with my pony that would not eat?

Hels_Bells

Hels_Bells

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Many years ago when I was about 11 I had a pony I didn't get on with that well. She was a welshxarab - about 50/50 and 14.1hh.

After a couple of years of trying to make her into a good pony club allrounder and not succeeding we loaned her to a local farmer's wife who just wanted a hack which was perfect for her.

We would visit her frequently and she seemed fine. Then one day my mum stopped by and thought she was too skinny. So we suggested to the loaners that they upped her hard feed. About a week or so later we had a call from the loaners to say they had had the vet out as she wouldn't eat. We went to see her and she was still too skinny. My mum decided to bring her home where we could keep a good eye on her and get our vet out etc as we only lived 15 mins away.

The vet came out and I think gave her a few shots of this and that but she wouldn't eat grass and hay or any hard feed. So we got in anything we could to try to get her to eat, carrots, apples, different hard feeds, different types of hay etc. Every time she would take a mouthful or two and they touch it again, even the next day if we offered her the same again.

She didn't have choke or anything as she wasn't showing any of those symptoms. No symptoms apart from being pretty skinny and just a small amount of very loose droppings.

Anyway, basically we couldn't get her to eat and the vet kept coming out and in the end she was PTS. But there was never any conclusion as to what was wrong with her other than her digestive system had been "messed up". She was skinny, but not extreme rescue case skinny. A few ribs showing but not really massively in at the sides etc like you see in cases of extreme starvation. More like as slightly more serious verstion of the sort of condition you see in the "is my horse too skinny" posts on here, or "how can I put weight on him" posts.

It has always puzzled me that we couldn't save her and so thought I would ask on here if anyone has come accross anything like this before and has any ideas whta might have been wrong with her?? It was about 20 years ago, but I'm sure that in this case today she would have been saved as we have much better vet tech, x-rays, scans etc available...

What I have put here is literally ALL i know, sorry it's a bit vague. I was 11 and was probably shielded from the reality a bit as it was all very distressing watching her deteriorate. But I've always wondered what might have been wrong with her. I don't think it was a twisted gut or colic or anything like that as there were no symptoms of sweating up or anything like that. Just a sad mystery, it would just kind of help put it all to rest a bit more if I could find out what "might" have been wrong with her!! Which prob seems a bit silly as it was all so long ago! But if you have any suggestions it would be interesting to hear thoughts.
 
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Sorry to hear of your pony's sad story.
My friend had an ex riding school pony a few years back now and he was always quite 'portly' shall we say but it was about March time and he started being really fussy with his food and wouldn't eat much which was very unlike him. It got to the point where he wouldn't eat anything. We did as you did back then, tried him with all sorts of food, titbits anything he would eat. Even to the point of feeding him out of different buckets in case there was a particular smell to his own. They had the vet out and it was found that Pip had liver damage possibly caused by eating Ragwort or similar from years back and his other organs were starting to fail slowly. He was around 20 though I think. The vet gave him steroids etc but nothing really altered his condition. In the end it was decided that it was kinder to have him PTS so he wasn't in pain any longer. His owners loved him dearly and everyone on the yard was so upset. It was so hard though seeing him just waste away before our eyes and there was nothing we could do to help him.
 
poor pony must have been hard for you since you were only 11

i'm no expert but could it have been Grass Sickness??
 
Did she have any blood tests done? We lost a colt yearling early in the year due to hyperlipidemea. Which is high fat content in the blood. Mostly common in donkeys and small ponies, can be cause by loosing weight or internal problems.
She sounds quite similar to our guy. May or may not be, but maybe worth checking with your vet to see if he knows much about it. Its very rare, and unfortunately there isnt anything that can be done for it.
 
Sound like either reduced liver function or even a chronic grass sickness though there would probably be more syptoms to the grass sickness
 
if blood tests were clear and hypolipid rules out then I would be thinking chronic grass sickness too.

Vet thought my big chap had GS shortly after we moved to Scotland but thankfully not.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Interesting to hear your views on what it might have been. It all happened so long ago I don't think the same vet is around any more and I don't suppose they have kept records from 20 years ago. I might ask my mum about if there were any blood tests etc done. How does grass sickness occur??
 
Despite a large amount of research over the last century the cause of the disease has not been identified. The type of damage caused to the nervous system indicates that some sort of toxin is involved and poisonous plants, chemicals, different bacterial species and viruses are amongst the possible causes that have been investigated. Grass sickness is not contagious and the cause of the disease is likely to be multifactorial i.e. caused by a combination of conditions and/or agents. Current research includes investigation of the association of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum with the disease and into the cyanide-producing properties of white clover.
There are three main forms of grass sickness: acute, subacute and chronic. The acute and subacute forms are invariably fatal but encouraging progress has been made in managing selected chronic cases of the disease
There is a theory that a particular piece of land canbe prone to it and have cases on it but there could be many horses turned out and only one gets it .If land has had a case before then that is the land that is likely to have another case. Also it often occurs at a paticular time of year and is found in horses turned out to grass. There is a theory feeding hay and stabling for a few hours a day at these times of the year on those fields can help.
No one really sees to know exactly how it occurs .
 
I thought chronic grass sickness too. It seems to be a combination of factors which cause it and, sadly, even today, horses don't always survive it. There is lots of information on the Equine Grass Sickness Fund website. It's most common between April and June.
 
thanks horselib! That's really informative and would explain why there seemed to be little the vet could do. Hmm sounds like it could well be then as a lot of people have come back with that.
 
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