A Little Off

[Allyson]

Our friend Faith has not been doing so well the past couple weeks. Her legs have been pretty ouchy...more than she's been OK.

Every couple days she's not eating. She'll pull apart her hay and make a nest, and dump her food bucket. This horse has never been picky about food- just treats (carrots, dumors, and apple flavored stuff OK, but not real apples, LOL).

She's been turning her nose up at her orchard, ALFALFA (normally a favorite), beet pulp + alfalfa pellets + rice bran mash. She'll still eat oats from my hand. But if she's eating 2 flakes a day, that is a lot.

So, what gives? Vet is coming this week to check on her- she's about due for a float, so maybe she's got something going on in her mouth. Hopefully that is it.

If not I need to talk to the vet about next steps. Long term pain meds? Senior feed (for an 8 yr old)? I guess we'll wait and see.

[Allyson]

Well, the blood tests are back and there is definitely something going on, we just dont know what. Vet thinks possibly ulcers.

So, we agreed to try some ranitidine to see if her symptoms subside. While the less expensive option, this is going to be a challenge. Ranitidine needs to be administered 3 x a day, every 8 hours. I talked to my BO- we've reviewed our scheduled, and there is no way to make that work. So we're going to have to try our best.

That's even if she eats the medicine. Hard to make a horse that won't eat regular food eat food that is laced with meds.

And say that all worked, and she responded to the meds. the question still remains- why did she develop ulcers?

My theory is that she's in a lot of pain and thus stressed out= ulcers.

Right now nsaids, either natural or synthetic, are not options. so if she's in pain, she cannot get relief at the moment or in the near future.

So...what's next?

[Allyson]

still off- but she is eating her meds with senior feed. i know, she's not supposed to have grain if she's got ulcers..but what the heck am i supposed to feed a horse who won't eat??