worried :S

[loz9]

Im hoping someone out there may have had experince of this condition & maybe able to shed some light on it.

My veteran pony (30something) went off his feed last saturday. He has very few teeth & his hard feed maintains his weight well. So as you can imagine this was a huge worry, he was quite withdrawn, which would be expected as he gets his energy from his feed. He was still munching at grass/hay even though he can hardly swallow any, which is perfectly normal for him & has been kept like this for 4ish yrs.
Anyway we bought several different feeds incase it was an off bag, etc. Eventually got him eating sugarbeet on thurs which is slowly being mixed back with his other feeds. As you can imagine he has lost a lot of weight although he developed a bloated belly (started noticing it around weds). On friday he came in from the field with large oedema on his sheath which has since spread along his midline. He is still bright, alert, eating well & even had a little trot around the field today. He is urinating as before, but his poos have reduced (again understandable with the reduced intake of feed).

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the oedema?

We are perfectly aware that this is probably the beginning of the end with him & will not keep him going if he is suffering, which at present he isnt (Trust me im sporting a very large bruise where he slammed me against the door to have a good head scratch!). Just hoping someone may have experience this before.

Also vet has told me to treat with bute & antibiotics & see if it helps. Will run bloods on monday if no improvement.

Thankyou!

 

[YorksG]

No direct experience of the odema etc, however we had a veteran who got bored of certain feeds and contrary to all usual advice we had to ring the changes with her! (She had never read the horse keeping books throughout the 20 odd years we had her ) She got virtually no nutrition out of grass or hay for the last three years of her life. We made the decision in the autumn of her 33rd year (we think). She had stopped maintaining weight and was getting tired. Good luck, but I suspect that you are right and this is the beginning of then. The time between the realisation and the end is the most bitter sweet.

 

[glenruby]

Have seen 3 horses with sheath/limb oedema in last few days. Two have had temperatures(one of these also became acutely sore on one limb) and one is perfectly ok aprt fom the swelling. Bute/flunixin and ABs forall 3 - unfortunately one had a rare complication from the infection and has been PTS.
At your horses age I would have been inclined to blood sample prior to putting on bute and ABs. Most likely problem is either liver dz or neoplasia id say.