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Original poster

Any one got any ideas

11 replies

cedmonds · 02/09/2011 21:16

Hi I have American miniature who we have had for 5 years. Apart from not being able to get her in foal she has never had any health probs.

A month ago she had bad colic and spent two nights in the vets. Since then she has never got her spark back. She keeps getting bloated and very gassy and her glands keep coming up and down. she has had the vet out and they have given her bute and anti spasmodic drugs.
Then this week on Wednesday she had full blown colic again the vet came out and gave her more drugs again and took more blood to compare from the last time.

The blood came back showing she was slightly anemic, but no infection or damage to her liver etc. Since the colic ever time we slowly introduce food again she gets very gassy and bloated. Once or twice she has been mildly colicky but we have manged to walk it off. She is being feed ever few hours and very sloppy bran mash she is being grazed in hand for 10 Min's a time any more and she gets colic.

SHe is having less droppings and they are very hard and pellet like.She is also felling the cold and has got her winter rugs on which is silly in September and when it was 24oc out side today.

Any help or ideas

Thanks

OP posts:
Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 02/09/2011 22:51

gastric ulcers?

AlpinePony · 03/09/2011 07:32

Eaten something weird? Ragwort (liver damage leading to iron loss?) Is terrible this year and I'll bet other nasties are growing too. :(

Original poster
cedmonds · 03/09/2011 10:31

Hi thanks
The vet has said possible gastric ulcers, but she doesn't think it is. They have tested her for ragwort poisoning but said she is fine. They also think that is she is eating something that is not agreeing it is not toxic as it would of shown in the blood tests.
She is looking a bit brighter today and has done a huge tar like dropping so we are now starting to think that she had a impaction but as she is so little you can not do a rectal examination.

OP posts:
Callisto · 03/09/2011 10:35

Lots of miniature ponies have digestion problems because their innards are too big for their bodies. Though if she has been fine for 5 years then this probably isn't the case. There is so little grass that it may be that she has eaten something she shouldn't - or that she has ingested too much dirt and the original colic was caused by this?

Original poster
cedmonds · 03/09/2011 14:44

HI
Yes minis so have digestion problems but she isn't one of them. Her original colic was a bit of her pigging out in the field and a bit of sand colic. She is now on sand out so she shouldn't have any problems from that. We know thing that she definitely had an impaction as today she has passed very tar like poos which indicates that they have been her gut to long. It is now finding out why she got the impaction in the first place.

OP posts:
Callisto · 03/09/2011 16:36

Ponies don't tend to drink a huge amount, which is a bit of a pain and can be a factor in impactions. Perhaps give her a very small amount of very watery sugar beet once/twice a day until she is back to normal?

Callisto · 03/09/2011 16:37

Sorry, that is a bit misleading. Native ponies don't tend to drink much, I don't know about mini's who have been bred down.

Saggyoldclothcatpuss · 03/09/2011 16:40

Does she have a wheat allergy? Apparently it's quite common in horses nowadays, and her symptoms are actually scarily similar to my coeliac DD when she eats wheat or gluten, (she was pale and anaemic, bloated, had tummy ache a lot and spent most of the winter purple with cold. And I won't tell you what it dis to her pop! Grin). There are foods out there which dont have it in, IIRC Falcon do a rice based feed, and we use their other feeds and find them excellent. It would be worth speaking to them about your options if you thought this might be the case.

Original poster
cedmonds · 03/09/2011 19:29

HI
Thanks everyone she is loads better today and we are starting to get softer poos. Smile She was having sloppy sugar beet in all her feeds but since she has been ill this week she has just being having bran soup with the sugar beet water. We are thinking she might be allergic to something but can not narrow it down to anything.
She is not drinking enough but we have starteed to on the vets advice to put a little bit of salt in her food to encourage her to drink.

OP posts:
Amieesmum · 03/09/2011 21:46

Silly question, but have you had worm counts done? A horse of mine had an impacted gut because she hadnt been wormed before we got her, or the worms were immune to the wormer.

Original poster
cedmonds · 04/09/2011 10:43

Yeah we have had worm counts done and they showed no eggs etc. The vet had taken blood for tape worm just incase but it takes a few weeks to come back

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