GypsyMoonMinis
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My little gelding Diego was shown at the 4H fair by my youngest daughter Summer on Friday last week. The two of them really have a special relationship, and he has one of the sweetest personalities I've ever known in a horse. So suffice it to say, he is very loved.
He also has shown a history of being somewhat nervous and having a hard time dealing with stress related issues. He has had 3 minor gas colics, all after a stressful event, such as when we first brought him home and after his first body clip. He is also a bit of a hard keeper (though today the vet said she thought he was an ideal weight, guess Im used to fat horses lol...). So to continue this story, Ill write it in a bit of a timeline so you can see the progression of events. Im also running on almost no sleep, so disregard any serious typo's
Friday - Horse show. He was at the fair for around 6 hours. LOTS of stress! we were in a barn full of cattle, lots of people, kids running and yelling, stressful events (liberty and obstacle), crowds clapping, flashing of lights in cameras etc. He had his own hay, drank two buckets of water and wasn't left alone the entire time we were there. I did spary him with fly spray before we left. I had banamine with me just in case he got a tummy ache from the stress
Sat - He was fine at home until I went to feed dinner and he did his typical, lay in the hay and not eat, bite at his belly etc. I was somewhat expecting this. Gave a dose of banamine, he felt better in an hour and started eating again.
Sun - 1 AM - he's thrashing in his stall, rolling and flipping onto his back. Scared the heck out of me! Got him walking and wasn't sure how much more banamine I could give, since it had only been 7 hours since the last dose. Call the vet and gave more banamine. He was fine within an hour again.
Sunday afternoon - He's getting painful again. I hadn't noticed much manure and hadn't seen him drinking. I suspected ulcers as he was also grinding his teeth really bad, pawing etc. He did have a bowel movement finally and it was like water. Called vet again and picked up some gastrogard (wow expensive!). Gave him a dose of gastrogard and probiotics soon as I got back home.
Sunday Midnight - thrashing, rolling again. been about 12 hours since last dose of banamine, adminstered another and walked a marathon. Had more runny stool, I was still concerned about water. My thought was that he was having ulcer pains, and that if he didn't get some liquid in him we would also be dealing with impaction colic. So i drag hubby out of bed and we start forcing water into him with a syringe. His skin was tacky, but he still had good bowel sounds, no fever and nice pink gums.
Monday 6 AM - I had now been up 2 nights in a row, walking and checking him once an hour to keep him comfortable. ANother dose of gastrogard and probiotic paste. Hes still depressed but started to eat some and lay quietly. I was hoping things were getting better. Still had runny stool and didn't see him drink (nor did the water levels change on any of the buckets). I tried to coerce him to drink with molasses etc to no avail... more syringe water!
Monday 3 AM - I am woken to thrashing and rolling again. Even though the vet told me to try and walk him through the pain (which I did try), after awhile I ended up just giving him more banmine. I dont like giving them anything unless I feel they absolutely need it. Still no fever, had bowel sounds etc etc. For the rest of the day he seemed to be turning around, was eating more, i saw him drink, he showed an interest in his surroundings. I thought we were on the mend...
Tuesday 4 AM - I'd been making checks through the night, even though monday had gone relatively smooth. he started showing signs of cramping again, so I started walking once more. This time however it was so bad, he was throwing himself down as I walked him and violently thrashing around on the ground. He was even starting to make this aweful grunting sound. I was pretty scared by this point and called the vet again. This wasn't my normal vet as she wasn't on on call, and I felt that I just wasn't getting any help from him (he'd been talking to me on the phone through this whole ordeal). He suggested one more dose of banamine (and that was scaring me too, im so leery about pain meds) and we agreed that it was probably time to bring him in.
Wed - Thankfully my normal vet is there and saw us when I brought him in. Blood work was normal, slight variations on the kidney and liver panels which suggested mild dehydration.
here is the interesting part. She said that she normally would never even suggest to look into potomic horse fever, except that a horse in the same area had it not two weeks before hand. All the same symptoms. It was discovered when they brought the horse into an equine facility in bozeman to be scoped for ulcers. Whats even more intriguing is that we do not normally have, nor vaccinate for PHF here in montana. They don't even carry the vaccine here! Even so, the vaccine isn't exactly reccomended as it has a short life span and there are some issues with it.
So, he's currently at the vets right now undergoing IV fluids. She just called and said he seems to be doing well, has had a few bowel movements and is nibbling at some hay. While there we look at some other things such as sand colic, and there was surprisingly no sand or dirt what so ever in his feces (my horses are on dry lot 24/7, but i treat monthly with Sand Clear). Some feces is being sent to a lab to be tested for clostridium bacteria and other issues so that we can safely start him on oxytetracycline. He will probably be at the vets for a few days...
ANd I just barely recovered from an 800 dollar surgery on my wolfhound when she ripped her leg open on the fence a month ago!
It seems that one of the worst potential threats of PHF is the resulting lamanitis issues in some affected horses. Also there is no real text book display of the disease, it effects all horses differently. Ill continue my research through the night. Anyone have any experiance with it?
There is still the possibility that this isn't the issue. It still may be an ulcer issue, though I would think it would have started to respond to 4 days worth of gastroguard. Regardless, I have decided to put him on ABC Plus, as well as flaxseed oil top dressing.
He also has shown a history of being somewhat nervous and having a hard time dealing with stress related issues. He has had 3 minor gas colics, all after a stressful event, such as when we first brought him home and after his first body clip. He is also a bit of a hard keeper (though today the vet said she thought he was an ideal weight, guess Im used to fat horses lol...). So to continue this story, Ill write it in a bit of a timeline so you can see the progression of events. Im also running on almost no sleep, so disregard any serious typo's
Friday - Horse show. He was at the fair for around 6 hours. LOTS of stress! we were in a barn full of cattle, lots of people, kids running and yelling, stressful events (liberty and obstacle), crowds clapping, flashing of lights in cameras etc. He had his own hay, drank two buckets of water and wasn't left alone the entire time we were there. I did spary him with fly spray before we left. I had banamine with me just in case he got a tummy ache from the stress
Sat - He was fine at home until I went to feed dinner and he did his typical, lay in the hay and not eat, bite at his belly etc. I was somewhat expecting this. Gave a dose of banamine, he felt better in an hour and started eating again.
Sun - 1 AM - he's thrashing in his stall, rolling and flipping onto his back. Scared the heck out of me! Got him walking and wasn't sure how much more banamine I could give, since it had only been 7 hours since the last dose. Call the vet and gave more banamine. He was fine within an hour again.
Sunday afternoon - He's getting painful again. I hadn't noticed much manure and hadn't seen him drinking. I suspected ulcers as he was also grinding his teeth really bad, pawing etc. He did have a bowel movement finally and it was like water. Called vet again and picked up some gastrogard (wow expensive!). Gave him a dose of gastrogard and probiotics soon as I got back home.
Sunday Midnight - thrashing, rolling again. been about 12 hours since last dose of banamine, adminstered another and walked a marathon. Had more runny stool, I was still concerned about water. My thought was that he was having ulcer pains, and that if he didn't get some liquid in him we would also be dealing with impaction colic. So i drag hubby out of bed and we start forcing water into him with a syringe. His skin was tacky, but he still had good bowel sounds, no fever and nice pink gums.
Monday 6 AM - I had now been up 2 nights in a row, walking and checking him once an hour to keep him comfortable. ANother dose of gastrogard and probiotic paste. Hes still depressed but started to eat some and lay quietly. I was hoping things were getting better. Still had runny stool and didn't see him drink (nor did the water levels change on any of the buckets). I tried to coerce him to drink with molasses etc to no avail... more syringe water!
Monday 3 AM - I am woken to thrashing and rolling again. Even though the vet told me to try and walk him through the pain (which I did try), after awhile I ended up just giving him more banmine. I dont like giving them anything unless I feel they absolutely need it. Still no fever, had bowel sounds etc etc. For the rest of the day he seemed to be turning around, was eating more, i saw him drink, he showed an interest in his surroundings. I thought we were on the mend...
Tuesday 4 AM - I'd been making checks through the night, even though monday had gone relatively smooth. he started showing signs of cramping again, so I started walking once more. This time however it was so bad, he was throwing himself down as I walked him and violently thrashing around on the ground. He was even starting to make this aweful grunting sound. I was pretty scared by this point and called the vet again. This wasn't my normal vet as she wasn't on on call, and I felt that I just wasn't getting any help from him (he'd been talking to me on the phone through this whole ordeal). He suggested one more dose of banamine (and that was scaring me too, im so leery about pain meds) and we agreed that it was probably time to bring him in.
Wed - Thankfully my normal vet is there and saw us when I brought him in. Blood work was normal, slight variations on the kidney and liver panels which suggested mild dehydration.
here is the interesting part. She said that she normally would never even suggest to look into potomic horse fever, except that a horse in the same area had it not two weeks before hand. All the same symptoms. It was discovered when they brought the horse into an equine facility in bozeman to be scoped for ulcers. Whats even more intriguing is that we do not normally have, nor vaccinate for PHF here in montana. They don't even carry the vaccine here! Even so, the vaccine isn't exactly reccomended as it has a short life span and there are some issues with it.
So, he's currently at the vets right now undergoing IV fluids. She just called and said he seems to be doing well, has had a few bowel movements and is nibbling at some hay. While there we look at some other things such as sand colic, and there was surprisingly no sand or dirt what so ever in his feces (my horses are on dry lot 24/7, but i treat monthly with Sand Clear). Some feces is being sent to a lab to be tested for clostridium bacteria and other issues so that we can safely start him on oxytetracycline. He will probably be at the vets for a few days...
ANd I just barely recovered from an 800 dollar surgery on my wolfhound when she ripped her leg open on the fence a month ago!
It seems that one of the worst potential threats of PHF is the resulting lamanitis issues in some affected horses. Also there is no real text book display of the disease, it effects all horses differently. Ill continue my research through the night. Anyone have any experiance with it?
There is still the possibility that this isn't the issue. It still may be an ulcer issue, though I would think it would have started to respond to 4 days worth of gastroguard. Regardless, I have decided to put him on ABC Plus, as well as flaxseed oil top dressing.
