Hyperlipemia....

[Dona]

I know a lady who just bought a mare & foal. Didn't have them very long with they BOTH came down with Hyperlipemia! She is at her wits end trying to save them. The vet said their enzymes were "off the chart" & didn't hold out much hope for them. I told her not to give up....that I knew of several minis who were diagnosed with enzymes off the chart...who went on to recover just fine.

Her last e-mail to me said....

"do you remember at all how long the minis you knew who had hyperlipemia had to be on IVs? My vet seems to think that if the mares blood work has not come back enough to be "on the chart" in a week that her liver is done. I should pull the IV. The mare is doing better but the foal is not. He is now on IVs and we are trying to wean him. This is terrible."

I don't know what to tell her, as I have no "first hand" experience.....just what I've read here.

Can someone please help this poor lady, and give her some hope?

If anyone can offer any help/suggestions, please PM me & I will put you in contact with her.

Thank you!

[SIZE=18pt]EDIT!!!! She just e-mailed me that they lost the foal.

Still need help/suggestions/info about hyperlipemia for the mare, tho. [/SIZE]

 

[Windhaven]

Oh Donna I am very sorry to hear about your friends foal. I have never heard of a foal coming down with hyperlipemia. I sure hope they get the mare back on the road to recovery.

My mare came down with it a week before she foaled. She spent 5 days at the vets and 4 days on IV fluids. They hand walked her and let her graze to help bring back her appetite. The main thing is getting them to eat. Not just a nibble here and there, but good size helpings. They sent my mare home saying she was doing good. Well she foaled that night and didn't have any colostrum because she had been dripping milk for a week. We ending up rushing her and her foal to MSU hospital when the foal was just 12 hours old. They did put the mare back on IVs for another day because she wasn't out of the woods yet. The mare and foal came back and did just fine.

I was told that they have to be on IV fluids until they are eating and drinking normally.

I hope this helps and the mare makes a full recovery.

 

[Dona]

Oh Donna I am very sorry to hear about your friends foal. I have never heard of a foal coming down with hyperlipemia. I sure hope they get the mare back on the road to recovery.
My mare came down with it a week before she foaled. She spent 5 days at the vets and 4 days on IV fluids. They hand walked her and let her graze to help bring back her appetite. The main thing is getting them to eat. Not just a nibble here and there, but good size helpings. They sent my mare home saying she was doing good. Well she foaled that night and didn't have any colostrum because she had been dripping milk for a week. We ending up rushing her and her foal to MSU hospital when the foal was just 12 hours old. They did put the mare back on IVs for another day because she wasn't out of the woods yet. The mare and foal came back and did just fine.

I was told that they have to be on IV fluids until they are eating and drinking normally.

I hope this helps and the mare makes a full recovery.

Thank you so much for this info....I have forwarded it on to my friend. Maybe it will give her some hope.

Bless you for responding.

 

[minimule]

My friend's mare came back by feeding her horse cookies whenever she wanted. They took turns sleeping in the stall with her with cookies on their pillows. After two nights she started helping herself to the cookies and after 4 days started bouncing back.

I haven't dealt with this but when we had strangles, to keep the kids eating we gave them soaked alfalfa pellets and soggy beet pulp with molasses poured over the top. It kept them going long enough to get over the strangles.

Hope the mare and foal come back.

 

[REO]

I'm so sorry that the foal died

I don't have any good info but I'm sending prayers that the mare recovers.

{{{hugs}}} to your friend Dona.

 

[Allure Ranch]

[SIZE=12pt]One of my mares developed it last year. Our vet indicated that her foal was taking her down and she was in overload. I had to wean the colt immediatly from her and she had to be given IV fluids for two consecutive day's. I was also sent home with a huge tube of calcium and it had to be given to her daily. She was also given banamine to boost her appetite. [/SIZE]

I was told to I needed to feed just like normal. She was feed her grain, soaked beet pulp and alfalfa. Plenty of alfalfa..... I keep food in front of her for the entire two an a half week period that she was in the barn. I keep her foal in the stall next to her so that neither one of them would stress and that she would get worse. Our stall's are set up so that they could see one another but the foal couldn't nurse.

 

[attwoode]

from experience, sometimes hyperlipidemia can be a secondary symptom of another illness like ulcers or abdominal pain that reduces appetite. If/Once she regains appetite her enzymes should improve very quickly. I've been told a complete feed slurry can be force fed and may help if she is not eating. I think we did intravenous feed as well as as sugar and saline fluid.

 

[kaykay]

Dona its imperative that they wean the foal immediately. I have watched so many friends go through this and they wont get better until they seperate them. Usually once weaned they immediately get better. Also be sure and tell her to hand walk the mare on grass. Fran and I begged OSU to let us walk her mare on grass and they finally did and wow what a difference it made. She finally went back to eating after that. OSU would then hand walk her 4-6 times per day out in the yard to get her eating again. I know the vet there said they were going to start doing that with all minis that came in with this.

Wanted to add that mares that do this after foaling generally always do it. Dont know why but they do seem to repeat this when they foal again so she may not want to breed her again after she pulls through.

Sending prayers

Kay

 

[wcr]

There is a very good thread on this under best of the forum.

The big trigger is that the body thinks it is starving and starts dumping the fat stores into the bloodstream which in turn clogs up the liver. The IVs are to dilute and wash out the lipids.

To turn off the dumping mechanism you need to get calories into the horse. The easiest way is to tube feed as they lose their appetite when they don't feel good and won't eat enough to turn it off themselves.

Good Luck with the horse.

 

[HGFarm]

So sorry to hear the foal was lost.... I hope the mare will pull through. Ditto was all was mentioned above... I have never had a mare with this but have known others who did. I can't stress enough about the IV fluids to keep flushing the system, and whatever they can do to keep the food going through her too.

 

[JWC sr.]

We have had two cases of this over the years. In both cases the mare lived and did well, but the baby was lost. The key for us was to get them eating again as soon as possible. Whatever it takes is fine.

One of our farm hands (Victor) took it upon himself to hand feed both mares every 10-15 minutes. This was after the Vets at Texas A & M had said they would both die. The mares were both sweet mares and would take only a bite just to be sweet we think. On one mare she took sweet feed, the other would take only a sprig or two of alfalfa.

In any case they both made it after a hard two - three weeks of fussing over them.

Good luck and stay after them,

 

[HGFarm]

John, bless Victor, that spent so much time and was persistant with your mares! It shows there is hope for this nasty condition sometimes.

 

[sfmini]

Dona, OSU saved both of our horses (two different times). Both were fed by stomach tube with a liquid diet made just for horses. My first case was the first one they used it on and it helped her turn the corner.

The second mare got very lucky, Judy had called that day to tell them to put her down and they told her they thought the mare was turning around. She did and went on to become one of our best broodmares.

Hand walk and let her graze as much as she will. The key is to get nutrition into her. My filly (the first case) had this big cart with two bales of hay, one alfalfa and one timothy and they just kept it in front of her open door. Said when she ate her way out they would send her home. She was also allowed to wander through the vet school barn. You could tell where she was by the snorting of horses suprised at the little bitty horse.

 

[Dona]

Thank you all for your help & suggestions. I have forwarded them all to my friend. She said she just got the latest bloodwork on her mare, and it's getting worse.

She said she's been eating well...just not as much as she should. She told me she has no grass....so unfortunately, that's not an option. I asked her if there was anywhere she could take the mare where there IS some grass for her to graze.

Keeping my fingers crossed that she pulls thru this.

 

[HGFarm]

Is she still on IV fluid? I sure hope she pulls through!!