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Discussion on Strange metabolic disorder stumps vets | |
Author | Message |
Member: Gageten |
Posted on Sunday, Feb 15, 2004 - 4:18 pm: I hope someone can help me. My friend has a 10 year old Quarter horse gelding that she began to train in dressage two years ago. He became very fit and muscular and the shape of his neck changed from thin to thick. He then became lame. The vet said that the horse was too heavy for his little feet and that he needed to lose weight. My friend cut his food down, he lost some weight, but then he began to break out in hives all over his body. Despite the fact that he was put on plain oats and grass hay ONLY, he continued to break out in hives, which spread to his face and eyes and then began to rupture and ooze. The horse was allergy tested and there was not one specific thing that he was allergic to. The vet suspected a problem related to protein. However, all tests have been inconclusive and meanwhile the horse is deathly ill. He still has hives, is lame again, and has begun to rock back and forth on his feet. Now more vets are involved in trying to diagnose him and say it may be a genetic metabolic or endocrine disorder. There are slight radiographic changes in the front feet. I have seen no mention of hives as a symptom of Cushings, or thyroid problems. The terms insulin, thyroid, proteins, are all words that the vets have used when looking at him. One young vet said Cushings, but this horse is not losing or failing to shed hair, and does not have rings on his hooves, and personally, I have never thought of him as obese. My friend is beside herself with fear and thinks that the horse may die. She took him to an equine hospital this week, but they seem stumped. What causes a slight cresty neck, severe hives (oh yes, the term Uticaria came up as well) and lameness to the point of rocking? The horse is lethargic yet has been described as extremely sensitive and over reactive his whole life (gets horribly ill after injections, etc.) Any of this sound familiar? My friend says that his eyes are now so swollen that he can barely see, and she says that he can hardly walk. Please help! |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Monday, Feb 16, 2004 - 6:50 am: Molly, we avoid working on problems second hand for several reasons but I do have a thought here. I think the problem may be everyone trying to come up with a single diagnosis when 2 or even 3 problems might be occurring concurrently. There is not enough information in your post to even begin a diagnosis but on my list of possiblilities, just from this little bit of info would be: a autoimmune or severe allergic reaction appears to be happening on top of a founder secondary to Equine Metabolic SynDrOme. See:
DrO |
Member: Gageten |
Posted on Monday, Feb 16, 2004 - 7:52 am: Dear Dr. O,Yes, that is exactly what I came up with after spending hours on the internet and pouring over loads of vet manuals. I was hoping that a diagnosis would pop out, but began to think that this was a "layering" effect....one situation creating a foundation for a snowball of other complications. One thing that keeps sticking in my mind is that my friend was complaining to me about problems with a lot of geese out in her pastures pooping all over the place and shortly thereafter, the horse became ill with the hives. I am wondering if the horse ate the poop or if it leeched into the water system somehow. Her other horses are not sick, though. We are in Illinois where it is cold, but couldn't geese bring in fungus and disease from other regions? Thank you for all your help. It is truly appreciated. |
Member: Christos |
Posted on Monday, Feb 16, 2004 - 12:53 pm: Molly,Perhaps a silly thought, but has this horse been on any anabolic steroids that were abruptly stopped? |
Member: Gageten |
Posted on Monday, Feb 16, 2004 - 6:23 pm: No, the horse was not on any steroids that I know of, but the vets DID put him on a thyroid medication until they get all the tests back and he seemed marginally better. I went and saw him with my own eyes at the hospital today and I did not think that the hives were as crusty and oozy as what is described in Pemphigus Foliaceous. The few that had broken open were on his legs and sides, areas that he probably itched at, and they were more like VERY TINY dry scabs that I could feel with my fingers on the skin under the fur. They did not look like large, blister-like lesions described in Bullous Pemphogiod either. The horse was limping slightly and stepping a little short, but felt well enough to roll and play a little. He was obviously sore, but no longer rocking. He had lost a lot of weight, but truth be told he DID NOT look thin to me. He looked more the size that he SHOULD be in relation to his bone structure and small hooves. The two things that really stuck out was the fact that his neck DID look cresty and too big for the proportion of the rest of his body even though he has lost a lot of weight, and that was the first thing I noticed. It was enough to make me think, "there is definitely something NOT RIGHT with that neck!" My friend said that it could be due to the dressage training, but why would he lose all the other muscle tone on his body yet keep it on his neck? NOT possible. The other thing that I noticed was he is a sorrel colored horse and was always a shiny reddish like a copper penny, yet he had developed these strange, small dark patches of fur; almost like irregular black splotches. A few were on his rump, some on his sides, and I saw one on an inner front leg. It was very odd. Almost like dark spots that a human AIDS patient would get. |