Weight loss and diarrhoea in elderly horse

[Leanne]

For the past 2 weeks my 25 year old gelding has had diarrhoea and is now very underweight. It started off with cow pats but the past few days has been liquid diarrhoea and severe weight loss. He's eating his hay but today won't eat his hard feed. Thankfully he's still eating the hay and i'm syringing the herbal stuff in.
He was wormed with equimax about 2-3 weeks ago. I didn't see any worms.
He has been diagnosed with cushings and had a blood test score of 79. A few days ago I started him on restore and cush aid gold, as he didnt seem so bad and I wanted to start off on the minimum.
But after the past few days I am thinking of putting him on pergolide as he's got a lot worse. But I don't know if this is being caused by the cushings which my vet thinks it isn't causing the diarrhoea, but maybe the weight loss. But I'm thinking it would give him a head start now
Tonight he has done his first firm droppings for the past 2 weeks, but there was blood in them. His bowels have been constantly rumbling. He's unsettled but sleeping a lot.
He's been blood tested to check his kidneys etc and I will be taking a dung sample in next week. I'm wondering if its worth getting him scoped for ulcers.
He's been off the grass for the past week as the grass has become lush and I thought this may have caused it. Has anyone experienced this before? He's IR and had loose droppings before but nothing like this.
I don't know if its an improvement that his droppings are firm as at the same time he's lost his appetite for hard feed and the blood in the dung.
He's having his teeth done in a week.
I've had him 16 years and I've never seen him so bad, its heart breaking. I will do anything to help him.

[happysnail]

Sending a hug Leanne - you must be so worried just now. What does the vet say about the consistence of droppings and bloody dropping?

[portiabuzz]

Agree, sending hugs xx I would be speaking to the vet what's their opinion ? Poor Lad xx

Sent from my SM-G800F using proboards

[Leanne]

Sorry I should have said my vet thinks it may be the grass or liver etc problems-which the blood tests are for. It could also be worms, salmonella etc which will be checked in the dung sample. I haven't asked about the blood in the poo yet as this was only last night.
I checked him this morning though and his appetite is back. He ate all his breakfast and his poo was normal again.
Maybe he's passed through what was bothering him, hopefully.
He whinnied to me and was demanding his food again.
I can still hear a lot of gurgling but its still an improvement.
Thank you for your replies.

[portiabuzz]

Well that sounds more positive x hugs xx

Sent from my SM-G800F using proboards

[VeronicaF]

I brought some stuff for Zulu once, it was like yea sacc but it was for older horses, to settle their tummys,it worked

[happysnail]

Glad he's feeling a bit better. I knew an older horse with a dodgy liver who seemed much better on milk thistle supplement. Let us know how he gets on. x

[Lisa in Plymouth]

Hi Leanne

Sorry your boy is not too well but it does sound like he's on the mend.
I wouldn't be rushing into scoping for ulcers - be guided by the results of the blood and dung test. Has the vet given an idea of when the results will be back?
Was his temperature normal?

Hope you get to the bottom of the problem soon.
x

[Leanne]

Hi thanks for the replies. The blood tests came back, he's got severe liver damage. We took to an equine hospital tonight for a biopsy to find out the cause of the damage.

A few weeks ago I was still riding him and he was full of life, we were having fun together. He looked great and was fantastic. He travelled really well, the journey was 1.5 hours and he was fine. He's settled in and eating well. He'staying there tonight and will be having the tests tomorrow.

[happysnail]

Hugs x

[portiabuzz]

I hope he is ok xx Big hugs xxx

Sent from my SM-G800F using proboards

[Leanne]

The ultrasound showed that he either has inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer I'm devastated, I wasn't expecting that and neither was the vet.
He has a lot of abdominal fluid and high red blood cell count and losing protein.
He's on steroids, hopefully if he responds to them and its ibd,the outcome is promising.If its cancer he may only have as little as 6 weeks left.
A sample from his rectum was taken to find out what it was.
Whatever happens I'm going to treasure the time I have with him and have so many wonderful memories.My dream since I bought him, was to have him at home and give him a happy life with a companion.
I managed to achieve that last year and now I'm going to make the most of it,whatever happens. It just shows dreams can come true, and my beautiful boy will spend his days spoilt and loved however long that may be.

[southerncomfort]

Leanne I'm so sorry. What a terrible shock for you. You are clearly a very loving, caring owner.

Thinking of you and your old boy. x

[chestnutboy]

More hugs, thinking of you xxx

[taklishim]

The ultrasound showed that he either has inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer I'm devastated, I wasn't expecting that and neither was the vet.


unfortunately I have experience with both. The thread on here with the warning about grazing is very important.

I started getting problems with 2 horses a couple of years ago. Taklishim got colic. He already had a large melanoma so he was a cancer candidate. I got him through the colic and a week later Rupert also got colic.Rupert was a young healthy horse and there was no reason for it. In hindsight there was and now on my third session with Rupert I am pretty sure it is mycotoxins in the grazing. The same field has been responsible for everything.
2 years ago Rupert's problems started mid Oct one week after worming for no reason. His colic went on for several days and during that time I put him out on the grass in his better spells. Bad mistake. After about 4 days he was taken to horse hospital as an emergency as he was down and we didnt think he had much longer when he could travel. They looked after him, no real treatment as I refused steroids and they ultra sound scanned him daily. Inflamation of the bowel wall which didn't improve. Same blood tests as you, I remember the low protein problem. He came home, local vet bloodtested him until the levels returned to normal of their own accord. He no longer had colic as such but was very touchy behind and around his guts etc. Clinic decided not to scan for ulcers and their ownly conclusion was either worms or grass. I didn't think it was worms, tapeworm test was negative and I have worm counted every month since to make sure he doesn't have a worm problem.
Then last Oct same thing happened, Rupert started with colic. I got him off grass that time and stopped it pretty quickly. Fast forward to this year, almost to the day and Rupert started with colic again!! Off the grass and again stopped it quickly. Had to put him back on the grass for a short period last week end and colic comes back, only mildly but I am getting good at recognising it.

Looking back with Rupert with hindsight I am now pretty sure that originally it was the grass that caused the problem, most likely due to mycotoxins. The wormer made the situation worse, it wasn't the wormer destroying worms but the wormer agravating the gut wall which was already weakened by the "grass" problem.

Since then I don't worm but count.

I am one of the people Jan W refers to trying mycosorb. No idea if it will work and I would be too worried to turn him back out on that field anyway. Mycotoxins don't affect all horses equally. Will the field was deadly for him and probably Taklishim I have 5 hill ponies happily grazing it.

Taklishim recently got colic. Same grass and I very much suspect that mycotoxins tipped him over the edge. He was losing weight badly and got very bad diarrhoea. I couldn't save him (this was a couple of weeks ago) and I had wondered for a while if his cancer had spread. I suspect it had spread to his gut and the mycotoxins were the final straw.

I hope your horse doesn't have cancer and I would suggest you get him off the grass when he comes home and try and build him up with hay, gut supplements etc. I found that choosing the right feed has made a big difference to Rupert. When he came home I put him back on the grass as I didn't realise it was the problem. If I had kept him off I could have resolved it a lot more quickly.

Sorry if this is badly written, my computer is being a pig and I cannot scroll back to check it.
good luck