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  Discussion on Malabsorption ? or somethig else
Author Message

Posted on Sunday, Nov 11, 2001 - 8:00 pm:

I have a 17Yo Qh mare that has been poorly since we got her about 1 1/2 years ago, She has always had very soft stools sometimes to the point of green water.
she has now gone down hill to the point that she looks like death on legs, but she is not unhappy, i have upped her food with lots of sunflower seeds as well as the white chaff and lucern chaff and whole oats as well as livermol, folactin blue & mollassas.
We are getting a vet out to do a blood test soon. I have been searching this site and it sounds like malabsorption but i could not find anything reflecting the muscle wasteing she seems to have, when she is standing with weight on a favoured leg when resting the muscles in that leg are lax and mushy. Can anyone elaborate on anything similar? any ideas will give me a bigger "search area" to look at for her.

thankyou

Julie

Posted on Monday, Nov 12, 2001 - 8:48 am:

Hello Julie,
Malabsorption diseases always result in weight loss. Since you have worked your way down to here I presume you read the introductory article to this section, Equine Diseases: Colic and GI Diseases: Weight Loss in Horses: Diagnosing Chronic Weight Loss.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Nov 12, 2001 - 5:33 pm:

Yes that seemed to have all the symptoms bar the muscle wasting, Is this something that just comes with cronic weight loss or perhaps an indicator of something else.

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 13, 2001 - 7:46 am:

Just comes with the weight loss so all of the diseases on the rule out list for weight loss will have muscle wasting.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 14, 2001 - 7:53 pm:

It now looks like cronic ulcers, The treatment would cost 180 dollars every 10 days, I have been told by the vet that ulcerguard is the only product on the market to treat it and it is an ongoing treatment. I cannot afford this and i am looking for anything "layman" that could help her. I do not want to put her down as she is a sweetie and i am happy for her to be a lawnmower if i can just get her healthy. Can anyone give me any ideas?

thanks for any help you can offer Amethyst

Posted on Thursday, Nov 15, 2001 - 7:11 am:

Have you looked at our article on ulcers, it provides many alternatives. See Equine Diseases: Colic and GI Diseases: Gastric Ulcers.

How were the ulcers diagnosed and what are you currently feeding?
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Nov 15, 2001 - 5:31 pm:

A friend who has had alot to do with racehorses and treating their ulcers had a look at her and said that she seemed to have all the symptoms he had seen before. The only way to know for sure is to scope her but the only 3mtr scope around is at Randwick Equine and it would cost about A$200 just to get them out letalone do it.
I use a 4kg butter bucket as a scoop i feed as follows
3 Scoops wheatern CHaff
3 Scoops Lucern
1 Scoop Sunflower Seeds
3/4 Scoop Whole oats
1 Scoop Coprice Pellets (rice based good for cool fattening up)
Livermol Sup
Folactin Blue Sup
1/2 cup Linseed oil
cap full of Potassium sup
Mixed with water and Molassas
in that order no less

Posted on Friday, Nov 16, 2001 - 8:27 am:

The difference would be while ulcers in young race horses is very common it would not be in the older horse with a cushy life style. Then again, I can't say it is not ulcers...Cushinoid disease with or without malabsorption strikes me as more likely.

Would it be possible to get the weights of the various food stuffs and how often you feed them?
DrO
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