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Malabsorption in Horses
Chronic Weight Loss and Malabsorption from the GI of the Horse
Introduction
Malabsorption occurs when the horse's digestive system cannot absorb nutrients from the digestive track. This may be because the nutrients are not digested properly but more often we find diseases causing a break down of the absorption process. The intestinal wall is not functioning properly. Mostly these changes consist of irreversible chronic inflammatory infiltrates. Frequently when this happens, body fluids are loss inappropriately into the gut lumen along with blood proteins further debilitating the horse. We call these groups of diseases syndromes because we do not recognize the underlying cause in many cases.
Symptoms
Malabsorption is usually suspected when chronic weight loss and poor condition occur and history, exam, and laboratory tests do not reveal another cause. Most often diarrhea and increased odors of the stools would be expected but not always. In many cases the horse is not depressed and has little or no fever. Of course these symptoms occur in other more treatable diseases, particularly parasitism and malnutrition.
Diagnosis
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