The continuing saga of ML
| May 19, 2016 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Sometimes the continuing commitment to honesty, transparency, and telling the “whole” story – at least as much as any one person can get past their biases and be honest about their mistakes – on this blog really sucks.
Let’s talk about MerryLegs.
Frankly ML looks like shit. Skinny. Way too skinny. Way too skinny for too long.
I’ve had all sorts of excuses over the last 18 months. She was recovering from pigeon fever. She was getting pushed around by Farley. She was putting on a lot of height all at once. She was young and just taking a while to fill out.
I think I was fooled this winter by her winter coat – I actually thought that even though she didn’t look great, she was looking better and we were finally turning a corner.
Yesterday I took a look at her, all shedded out in her slick summer coat and couldn’t hide from it any longer.
She eats as much as she wants and her nutrition is appropriate, Farley doesn’t push her around any more. She hasn’t had a growth spurt in a while and instead of filling out over the last year, she looks skinnier than post-pigeon fever. It’s not worms, it’s not dental problems. It’s not ulcers. She’s also gotten a little bit more lethargic over the last month.
There is *something* wrong.
I ran bloodwork yesterday and got the results this morning.
Based on the changes my top differentials are
- malnutrition
- Less likely: intestinal parasites, ulcers
- protein losing gastroenteropathy/IBD/malabsorption syndromes
My sinking gut feeling right now is that it’s the third one. The only treatment is a combination of antibiotics and steroids to manage it. It’s a long term condition and if not requiring continuing medication then at least repeated medication courses are likely. Steroids are bad news in horses with endocrine disorders and laminitis complications common. There’s practically a zero chance that she would be an endurance horse, let alone a 100 mile horse with this condition.
And there’s the crux of the matter.
She’s my next endurance horse. If she can’t be that, where does that leave us?
I do endurance. I’m not interested in doing something not endurance as my main activity even if she could (which is not entirely certain at this point).
As much as I adore the sweet little pony, she isn’t Farley. She hasn’t earned her right to laze around and do nothing or do some other side sport ’till the end of her days if that’s what is required.
But what do we do? She’s FOUR.
The first thing I’m going to do is make darn sure that it isn’t something easy and fixable. Worms and nutrition shouldn’t be an issue, but just in case something weird is happening she’s going into her own pen ASAP with a fruit bin that will have a bale of hay in it 24/7 and getting wormed.
In 30 days I’ll repeat bloodwork and if she still looks skinny and isn’t putting on weight I’ll do an intestinal biopsy and anything else that seems warranted to see if I can once and for all get to the bottom of this and be able to make an informed decision.
That sucks, I’m crossing my fingers for you and hoping for a positive outcome.
That sucks. I hope separating and worming works.
After further thought I guess it could also be lymphosarcoma. *sigh*
Damn. Are any of these things results of the pigeon fever? Has the hay been tested? Could it be that she needs more (insert nutrition thing here) than just the hay is providing?
But don’t jump to “never an endurance horse” yet. Wait and see. But I’m anxious with you…
the hay has changed several times and I’ve supplemented with different stuff over the 18 months and it’s never gotten better. It’s worth saying that thirty other performance horses of various ages are on the hay and are doing fine. I keep thinking its Got to be related to the pigeon fever, but my research on the subject doesn’t point to anything specific. During the period that she had pigeon fever it wasn’t exactly typical and me and the vets kept discussing whether “something else” was going on. We never decided one way or the other but she’s not bounced back afterwards. The pics I’ve posted here in the past don’t do a good job and showing how thin she was – who wants to post pics on purpose that make their horses look like crap? But now it’s pretty obvious even in pics.
I really really hope it’s fixable and something stupid bits just getting less and less likely in my opinion as this drags on. I was a little embarrassed how skinny she was which is why I haven’t posted on this…..and waited until now. I really want this to be a success story. But now I’m just thinking about sunk costs :(.
Oh I know. Stay positive Melinda. Time to give myself a little peptalk. It’s not always the worst thing, it just seems like it is with your animals. Oh sure you see lots of bad things happen every day but really what are the chances that Mary legs has anything going on besides just a little transient thing? Her bloodwork could’ve been worse. Put it in better true, but definitely could’ve been worse.
Gosh, so sorry to hear of this. Glad you are trusting your gut and have a plan of action. Would the intestinal biopsy confirm option #3? Are there other tests that would?
It might – a “positive” test is more helpful than a negative one. I’m trying to remember actual percentages but I think it’s about forty percent of the time the biopsy is diagnostic in horses with clinical signs? Or maybe twenty eight percent? When I read the studies k remember it being lower than I wanted lol b
You’re right to fix the easy stuff first: separation, worming. You’re sure about the ulcers?
If she has ulcers they are unresponsive to treatment. My feeling is that if you are suspicious than put on a treatment regime and watching response is probably more helpful than scoping, because the ulcers can be in the hind guy etc. where you can’t see them so even if they scope negative I still recommend treating. No response. Which I guess is good and bad news.
The older vet that I work for believe strongly that it could be worms and so I’m currently using one of his old school deworming protocols. I hope he’s right
It’s hard to stay positive, when I’d guess that most of us who’ve had horses for any length of time tend to jump to the worst case scenario, as it FEELS like that’s usually the result. I really hope it’s something simple with sweet ML.
As a confirmed micro-manager, I’ve had really good results using ABC’s Plus Pellets. After watching
the weight fall off a horse when my supply ran out, I made a concerted effort to never let that happen
again. Since I board and don’t have control over the primary forage, I appreciate that this product
supports effective digestion and efficient nutrient uptake. Just my limited-rat study….
BTW- had one horse i suspected might have encysted strongyles and started the recommended
treatment at the recommended dosage ….. i won’t ever do that again.
Hugs to you and the people and ponies in your life….
Ooohhhh now I’m really curious. What happened with the deworming?????
Keeping in mind this was over 10 yrs ago, and perhaps/probably recommendations have
changed- AND my memory has faded. However, by the 3rd day of that particular protocol,
I had a filly who was not eating or drinking, was colicky and looked like she wanted to die. I
will say *I don’t know* if it was worm load die-off or the treatment itself.. but i’ve never used
that product again….
I’d like to comment on the other point of your posting — the “what do I do if”…. I board my horse, so that means $$, and I love endurance. No matter how much I loved my horse, if he was unable to do endurance, I would have to find another home for him. I wouldn’t be happy having a pasture ornament, nor can I afford to board >1 horse. I doubt I’d be happy doing just easy arena work or walking trail rides. Some people make me feel “guilty” when we have talks about the subject, but that’s my reality. So if it comes to that for you (and I sure hope it doesn’t), I hope you are not made to feel guilty for trying to find a more suitable home for ML, and you go out and look for another endurance prospect. Long time reader, first time commenter!
Welcome and thank you for the comment! You echo my feelings exactly and it’s something I’m hoping to be able to have an open conversation about if it turns out ML won’t be an endurance prospect after all. I board as well and while I wouldn’t be looking to sell Farley if she couldn’t be an endurance mount for me any longer, a younger horse without the history is a different story.
Hang in there. I know how you feel. I recently had a scary experience with my gelding. He lost a ton of weight in a short amount of time and had a low grade fever and right hind lameness for a long time. It took almost a month of work-up and the vet finally diagnosed him with a mass in his abdomen that was painful. Her differentials were an abscess or lymphoma (or some other neoplasia). I believe it ended up being scirrhous cord—even though he was gelded FIVE years prior. Thankfully, he’s doing better after 5 weeks of chloramphenicol with another 3 to go. It’s awful though, the not knowing. And not knowing how long to give them or how much to ask of them or how much you can put towards it financially before it’s too much. 🙁 Fingers crossed that you find your diagnosis without too many sleepless nights and that the treatment is simple and affordable.
You Hit the nail on the head about what to ask of them and how long to wait and how much money to spend. Glad to hear your pony is doing better. That’s crazy that the cord would be causing a problem all this time later!
🙁
I feel for you!