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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2002 - 9:57 pm: I have been unfortunate enough to loose two of my babies in the last month, i have asked for the blood works of all my horses but this is of little use as i have no way of knowing what they meen. Is there any site that gives you what each point means in reference to how what ever reading affects the horse? Alternitavly if anyone is feeling keen i can fax them to you to look at if you wish.Thanks for any help you can provide. the hardest thing is not having a black or white answer as to what has killed them. |
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2002 - 10:27 pm: Oh so sorry Julie. What a sad time for you... Did they die with similar symptoms? What did the vets have to say about it? Could it be environmental poisoning? or do you think it might be some sort of illness?I am sorry to say I can't help... What about using Dr. O's help line where you guys go one on one... Just a thought. jojo |
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Posted on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2002 - 10:40 pm: They had similar symptoms but the first was about 15 yo and the second was 4yo. Fast weight loss esp in the 4yo TB, dehydration, the TB got rain scald. diarear (sp) Autopsy of TB found mass hemroging of bowl and parasites (cyathostmes) and it was believed that we may have Ivamectum resistant worms but tests on manure of other horses does not comfirm that. Kidney and liver ok. inability to absorb administerd fluids.The vets did not look into the first very well and just wrote it of a possibly cancer or inflimation of the bowel, if they had looked harder in the first place i may have not had to bury two. The blood work on the others vary and my Baby 1yo who was company for the 4yo came back with the worst. but not much in outward symptoms other than dull coat but has picked up again. we don't realy know what is going on and i have just discovered that there were two racehorses at the nearest track 30min drive away that died in the last 3 months of same thing except no weight loss, uni vets who attended these have no idea. could not be more scared if there was a loaded gun to my head! |
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 17, 2002 - 8:09 am: Whoa now lets slow down. Since we do not know what your horses died from or the ones 30 minutes away died from, it is unlikely they are the same thing particularly since the clinical signs are different. I know you are panicked over this but we need to start at the beginning and work through this carefully.It is unlikely the answer to your question of "why" is in the blood work. Blood work tells you what is going on inside the horse but almost never tells you the why. The answer will lie in the history, clinical signs, and necropsy findings correlated with the blood work. If you will write a complete but concise report on each of the two horses I will be glad to review it. Keep the two case reports separate, include the information I ask for above, and date the information keeping it in chronological order. Include all lab findings, normal and abnormal, and vet reports that you have. Try to be calm and we will work through this. DrO |
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 17, 2002 - 10:32 pm: All right ill try and discribe what i can,First horse: Amethyst- 15yo mare QH owned her for two years, always hard to get weight on and she would scour (except when the vet would come, vets wrote it off as she was possibly a weed eater, always getting absesses in the one foot. about 3 monts ago she got a bad one that swelled her leg and burst above corenet band so she was put in another paddock with the yearling as company to be treated and to be fed up, wound healed extreamly well and she began to gain weight. then all a sudden she started to DrOp weight very fast i upped her feed and as worming was almost due i wormed her and the others incase it would help. she continued to not improve though her coat was great from all the oily food and suppliments she was getting. Visually she looked like hell she lost weight from her back end first, very dehydrated looking. she had swelling above her eyes where you get sink holes on skinny horses, there was also a smell that was almost rancid/dead skin. vet took blood and stomach tapp, when results came back he said that it could either be cancer or imflamation of the bowel, either way he felt there was no way of getting her better. we put her down to stop any possible discomfort (though she showed none)her skin was a mess as the flys were very interested in her and the repelants did little. she was strong enough to pull me to a clump of long grass in the house yard on the way to the paddock the vet was to put her down in. Barthel 4yo TB G in a matter of 3 weeks he went from leaning off due to the grass DrOpping from DrOugt, he was put in with 1yo as friend to be fed up, developed rain scall and kept DrOpping, as before he was fed heaps with little effect. moved to other paddock that had more grass gave dinner ate well,noticed swelling above eyes like ammie had and also the smell was going to call vet next day to ask about it, next morning 7am went out to feed breckie and he was down, smashed up lipps from trying to get up and would smash into ground HARD. called vet. gave 30ltrs of IV and painkillers blood from him and yearling sent to lab to check for possible plant piosoning. stayed with him all day and all night till 5am when i could nolonger get him up on his briscit, her was not interested. he was running while laying on his side. vet did autopsy at 9am and found mass hemroging along bowel liver nad kidney ok, found large infestation of cyathostmes and alot of fluid in cavity. diagnosed as possible bad reaction to infestation. Got others blood tested and yearling was put on antibiotics, all wormed again with ivametum wormer as lead up to worming with strong non ivamecum wormer which i am to do tomorrow. fecies sample from another horse that is not doing too well showed 0 egg count and vet said was not ivametum resistant. (???) thats all i can remember at the moment, if you wish to see the blood work i can fax to you. |
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 17, 2002 - 10:52 pm: Also, If you can make any suggestion on proping the others up to help them compete with what ever it is i would be greatly appreciative, i have been feeding well for a few weeks and all bar one are picking up (getting fat) well. the one that is not is now on vitabolt forte; a strong multi with an anabolic but no miricles yet. Will try to find way to weigh food tonight so i can give accurate feeding detailes. |
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