Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hello Sheri,
What a bummer...if only your horse could just speak and tell you what's
wrong :-D...but instead we have to play "20 questions" and then
guess at the answers. It sounds like you have done a lot of detective
work already. Have you squeezed and palpated every inch of her head and
neck for any tender spots? Her spine might be out of whack? Mouth, tooth
or tongue injury? Poisonous something blown in by the wind? Just guessing
here and trying to help you not overlook other possibilities. Becoming
"off" that quick seems like an injury to me. Good Luck because
it's always nice to have a little. Don Huston

At 08:18 AM 5/20/2007 Sunday, you wrote:
> Hi, I am trying to get any
> information I can on what is possibly going on with my horse.  I
> have a 12 year old arabian mare that as of 4/12/07 has been ?off? (not
> her usual self).  We had some really big winds on that day and ever
> since she will not eat her supplements and is a little picky about her
> hay (she usually tears it up).  She wants to eat dirt, shavings,
> dried weeds and mostly only eats the stem of the alfalfa, not too much
> leaf and needless to say she is losing weight.  She drinks a lot and
> pees a lot and her urine is kind of clear which is unusual for her (her
> stall is a mess) but her poops are hard even though she is drinking a lot
> and blood work showed she was slightly dehydrated  She doesn?t look
> as bright eyed as usual and is a bit lethargic, doesn?t hold her head as
> high as usual, she holds it more out then up.  She usually has a lot
> of energy out on the trail but now is calm.
>
> We have pulled blood on her twice but nothing has shown up except she is
> low in thyroid so we have since put her on a thyroid medication. 
> The blood work showed her kidneys were working overtime but my
> veterinarian said that would be normal for a horse that is drinking and
> peeing a lot.  The next test I plan to have done is a urine
> analysis.  I have been told by the vet that she possibly has ulcers
> which would make since because the symptoms came on so suddenly the day
> of the high winds and she is a bit flighty.  I have also been
> told she could be having symptoms of kidney failure.
>
> She is fed some alfalfa, some bermuda and some orchard grass.  She
> is given 8 cups of Platinum Performance per day (which was ok?d by the
> maker) which she gobbles up.  I give her Natural Glo but she only
> eats some of it.  I have stopped the beet pulp because she wasn?t
> eating that mixed with the natural glo (wet) but will eat some of the
> natural glo dry.  Before 4/12 she was getting Strongid C2X mixed
> with Natural glo (rice bran), beet pulp, vitamin E & Selenium,
> Cosequin and Neighlox all mixed with lots of water but she no longer will
> eat that.  She gets electrolytes 2-3 times per week.
>
> I plan on taking her to the hospital and have her scoped for ulcers but
> wanted to get any possible input first incase someone else has had this
> problem with there horse and it was not ulcers, maybe something else or
> maybe ulcers for sure.
>
> I hope I didn?t leave anything out 
>
> Thank you very much.
> Sheri

Don Huston at cox dot net
SanDiego, Calif