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  Discussion on Rescue mare with muscle wasting
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Member:
mrose

Posted on Sunday, Aug 26, 2012 - 6:27 pm:

Hi Dr. O,
Our rescue mare, Hope, hasn't had any more episodes of choke, but does have a lot of muscle wasting. Earlier this summer she had gained weight and even had dapples in her coat. Her flanks, while always thin, were looking a lot better. The last couple of months however she has been getting thinner again and her hips and flanks are very sunken in looking. It looks like she has no muscle and looks like she hasn't had anything to drink ( from the sunken in look of her flank area.) I took her in for blood work about a month ago, and the only thing the vet said (after doing blood work and an exam) is that she has signs of renal failure. I realize you'd like to see her blood work, and I'll try and remember to get it tomorrow and post it.

I was told to not give her alfalfa, but grass hay instead. She is currently on good grass pasture most of the time, coming in at night where she is given Purina L/S ( low starch feed) and grass hay. We started giving her 2# of L/S with vitamin/mineral supplement added; and now have double that. She also has a plain salt block.

She is an extremely slow eater, and it takes her a couple of ours to eat her feed. Sometimes she is faster, sometimes slower; sometimes she doesn't eat it at all, but just stands there in front of it. She seldom eats her hay, but sometimes will clean it up. There are times when she barely drinks water at all for a couple of days. Some nights though, she will drink the entire bucket. When she is turned out she does have water in a trough, though I seldom see her drinking out of it.

We believe she is in her late teens, but aren't sure of her age. Do you have any ideas what could be going on with her? And, what we could do to encourage her to eat more? Does renal failure cause muscle wasting? She moved ok, although I'm not sure I've ever seen her do more than a fast walk. When she moves, imo she seems a little wobbly, like from weakness. But, she can be a little push and moves right along when she's headed out to pasture. Today, the other horses are all eating, and she appears to be just standing around, following her favorite horse around, but not really grazing.

Her eyes appear bright and normal, her coat looks pretty good ( finally got rid of all the rain rot!) She gets a thick coat in winter, but it seems to shed out - at least it did last spring. She does have an old knee injury and is very sway backed.

Thanks for any input.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012 - 9:47 pm:

Hello Sarah,
Yes renal failure certainly could account for all these signs and be a reason to avoid high protein diets.

I look forward to the lab work. In the meantime fat based calories and low but high quality protein feed indicated. Alfalfa supplementation, at levels that do not allow total protein to exceed 10%, might well be helpful in achieving these goals. Other calories from carbs and fats should not cause a problem but if lots of empty calories are provided to maintain weight, be sure to use a good quality vitamin supplement.
DrO
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