Minimor
Well-Known Member
I didn't have time to post this earlier--this fall has just been too hectic for words--but back on Sept. 18th our 2 year old stallion Classy came down sick. He was fine the night before but that Friday morning when I fed he refused his oats. He looked a bit depressed and I assumed that he had a touch of colic so gave him some banamine. I checked his gums and they were normal color at that point. The banamine did perk him up for awhile, but by later in the day he had gotten worse again. When I checked his gums this time they were bright red, and were very inflamed and sore looking around his teeth. It was as if he'd eaten something that irritated his mouth, but I couldn't think what that would be--he's in a corral in the side yard--no weeds, no nothing that he could get into, just his daily ration of grain and nice soft, top quality hay. His lips were also looking a bit swollen by this time. He wasn't interested in eating anything and seemed very depressed. I gave him another dose of banamine which had no effect at all. I was going to give him some Pre-def 2X --the swollen lips suggested some sort of allergic reaction so that's why I was giving the Pre-def....but discovered mine had expired awhile ago so I called the vet & had her set a bottle aside--I had to take my mom back to the hospital anyway so when I took her in I stopped at the vet clinic & picked up the Pre-def. As soon as I got home I gave him a dose of that.
Next morning--Saturday--Classy's lips were a little less swollen & his gums a little less inflamed but he still wasn't eating or drinking much. By then I knew it wasn't just a simple colic, or rather not even colic as the principal problem at all, though I do believe he had some gastrointestinal upset going on, this was more than colic--his refusal to eat seemed more like he was reluctant to move his mouth...I checked him for a jaw injury...nothing...he could move his mouth okay, it just seemed like it was sore. As I went to walk away from him I looked down at the ground and that's when I figured out what was wrong! I was just SICK because this was my fault--something so stupid, and simple, something I am so vehement about, and I had totally overlooked the potential problem!
Whenever someone suggests creosote as a means of stopping a horse from chewing wood I always say no, I have to caution against creosote, because horses can be poisoned by chewing on creosote treated wood (and some horses will still chew on it--yuck) or get burned by rubbing on freshly treated wood. It's something I never use and never will...which is why I just never expected this to happen to one of my horses.
At one time we had a pole with a yard light on it--it was here when we bought the place and when the light quit working, instead of getting it fixed we just had Hydro install one on one of their poles on the other side of the yard. A friend cut the old pole down several years ago, so it's been long gone. That big fat old pole was heavily soaked with creosote, goodness knows how long ago. There is now a corral around where that old pole was located and this fall a neighbor was here cleaning corrals--when he scraped that one corral he exposed the "stump" of that old post--it was sticking out of the ground 2 inches, at most. Because it was so low to the ground I just never thought about a horse chewing on it, and beyond hoping that someone didn't step on it wrong & hurt a leg (unlikely, really, because it was just inches away from the fence, not in a spot where it was likely a horse would be running across it) I didn't think anything of it. Until that morning when I walked away from Classy and looked down to see that old post stump....with one side of it missing!! What had been a perfectly round post stump had been chewed down & squared off--Classy had chewed/eaten a fifth of that post. I just stared at it in horror for a moment, because I instantly knew what was wrong with Classy--creosote poisoning.
That explained his bright red, inflamed gums, his depression & reluctance to eat. I went in & checked my vet book & saw there is little that can be done other than supportive treatment. In case of severe burns corticosteroids may help....so the Pre-def had been the right thing to do...I called my vet & told her what I had discovered, and asked how often/long should I give the Pre-def. She said once a day for 3 days, and then we'd see from there. If there were no improvement in several days we could do blood tests to find out if there was organ damage, but for now she said just continue on with whatever I could do to encourage him to eat.
Saturday he would eat almost nothing other than some green grass that I pulled for him. Saturday night he finally drank a little bit. Sunday he would again eat fresh grass and some fine alfalfa hay that I gave him--Sunday night I found that he had eaten all his fine alfalfa and some of his regular grass mix hay that I'd given him Friday night and he'd never touched. By then he was starting to look a little less depressed, but still wasn't himself and he still wouldn't eat grain of any sort. He wasn't moving very fast nor even very much, but once when he walked toward me his rear end swung way off to one side like he was really off balance...I thought he's seemed unsteady previously, but it hadn't been that obvious. I was very worried; even though he seemed better overall he still wasn't right, and incoordination is a symptom of creosote poisoning...I was hoping that since it was only a one time ingestion and he was somewhat improved, that all symptoms would disappear given more time--and that he wouldn't suddenly start having seizures or something!! I was also concerned by the fact that he had apparently consumed the wood he had chewed--there were no bits of it lying around so he had to have eaten it--and I wondered if he'd swallowed any large splinters that might turn the wrong way and get stuck, even while I was hoping he'd chewed it up well before swallowing!! Monday or Tuesday he started eating pellets and after another couple days was back to eating his oats--everything seems normal now & I'm thinking that given the amount of time that has now passed he can be considered safe--thank heavens!!
The post stump is now buried; if any of it gets exposed again I will be taking the axe to it & chopping it out of there.
Classy is not normally a wood chewer and I don't know what possessed him to start eating that foul old post, but he won't be getting another chance to sample it again, nor will any other horse get a chance to gnaw on it.
So, there is my new reason for always speaking up to warn people not to use creosote--find some other way to stop a horse from chewing wood. While creosote may deter some, there will always be a few horses that will chew on it anyway, and some may end up in worse shape than Classy!
Next morning--Saturday--Classy's lips were a little less swollen & his gums a little less inflamed but he still wasn't eating or drinking much. By then I knew it wasn't just a simple colic, or rather not even colic as the principal problem at all, though I do believe he had some gastrointestinal upset going on, this was more than colic--his refusal to eat seemed more like he was reluctant to move his mouth...I checked him for a jaw injury...nothing...he could move his mouth okay, it just seemed like it was sore. As I went to walk away from him I looked down at the ground and that's when I figured out what was wrong! I was just SICK because this was my fault--something so stupid, and simple, something I am so vehement about, and I had totally overlooked the potential problem!
Whenever someone suggests creosote as a means of stopping a horse from chewing wood I always say no, I have to caution against creosote, because horses can be poisoned by chewing on creosote treated wood (and some horses will still chew on it--yuck) or get burned by rubbing on freshly treated wood. It's something I never use and never will...which is why I just never expected this to happen to one of my horses.
At one time we had a pole with a yard light on it--it was here when we bought the place and when the light quit working, instead of getting it fixed we just had Hydro install one on one of their poles on the other side of the yard. A friend cut the old pole down several years ago, so it's been long gone. That big fat old pole was heavily soaked with creosote, goodness knows how long ago. There is now a corral around where that old pole was located and this fall a neighbor was here cleaning corrals--when he scraped that one corral he exposed the "stump" of that old post--it was sticking out of the ground 2 inches, at most. Because it was so low to the ground I just never thought about a horse chewing on it, and beyond hoping that someone didn't step on it wrong & hurt a leg (unlikely, really, because it was just inches away from the fence, not in a spot where it was likely a horse would be running across it) I didn't think anything of it. Until that morning when I walked away from Classy and looked down to see that old post stump....with one side of it missing!! What had been a perfectly round post stump had been chewed down & squared off--Classy had chewed/eaten a fifth of that post. I just stared at it in horror for a moment, because I instantly knew what was wrong with Classy--creosote poisoning.
That explained his bright red, inflamed gums, his depression & reluctance to eat. I went in & checked my vet book & saw there is little that can be done other than supportive treatment. In case of severe burns corticosteroids may help....so the Pre-def had been the right thing to do...I called my vet & told her what I had discovered, and asked how often/long should I give the Pre-def. She said once a day for 3 days, and then we'd see from there. If there were no improvement in several days we could do blood tests to find out if there was organ damage, but for now she said just continue on with whatever I could do to encourage him to eat.
Saturday he would eat almost nothing other than some green grass that I pulled for him. Saturday night he finally drank a little bit. Sunday he would again eat fresh grass and some fine alfalfa hay that I gave him--Sunday night I found that he had eaten all his fine alfalfa and some of his regular grass mix hay that I'd given him Friday night and he'd never touched. By then he was starting to look a little less depressed, but still wasn't himself and he still wouldn't eat grain of any sort. He wasn't moving very fast nor even very much, but once when he walked toward me his rear end swung way off to one side like he was really off balance...I thought he's seemed unsteady previously, but it hadn't been that obvious. I was very worried; even though he seemed better overall he still wasn't right, and incoordination is a symptom of creosote poisoning...I was hoping that since it was only a one time ingestion and he was somewhat improved, that all symptoms would disappear given more time--and that he wouldn't suddenly start having seizures or something!! I was also concerned by the fact that he had apparently consumed the wood he had chewed--there were no bits of it lying around so he had to have eaten it--and I wondered if he'd swallowed any large splinters that might turn the wrong way and get stuck, even while I was hoping he'd chewed it up well before swallowing!! Monday or Tuesday he started eating pellets and after another couple days was back to eating his oats--everything seems normal now & I'm thinking that given the amount of time that has now passed he can be considered safe--thank heavens!!
The post stump is now buried; if any of it gets exposed again I will be taking the axe to it & chopping it out of there.
Classy is not normally a wood chewer and I don't know what possessed him to start eating that foul old post, but he won't be getting another chance to sample it again, nor will any other horse get a chance to gnaw on it.
So, there is my new reason for always speaking up to warn people not to use creosote--find some other way to stop a horse from chewing wood. While creosote may deter some, there will always be a few horses that will chew on it anyway, and some may end up in worse shape than Classy!
