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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
  
| lindseylou2290 - 2016-02-18 8:53 AM
Just a thought - Bluebonnet is good feed.
When you treat for ulcers with rantidine and omprazole - what happens in the stomach? Less acid is produced to give the lining a chance to heal. What happens in the gut? Less acid = less initial digestion which then can change the downstream hind gut fermentation that happens in horses.
If your ulcer problem is big enough, and in the hind gut, you may need to clean up the ulcers to help prevent colic. And yes, sometimes colic can present with fever and going off feed.
Pull the grain all together, get your ulcer issue fixed (30 days treatment may not have been enough), and up the quality of hay you're feeding - maybe even go to free choice forage too.
There could be a multitude of problems going on that are not all related to just the grain you're feeding.
JMTC.
Good advice!  | |
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| lindseylou2290 - 2016-02-18 8:53 AM
Just a thought - Bluebonnet is good feed.
When you treat for ulcers with rantidine and omprazole - what happens in the stomach? Less acid is produced to give the lining a chance to heal. What happens in the gut? Less acid = less initial digestion which then can change the downstream hind gut fermentation that happens in horses.
If your ulcer problem is big enough, and in the hind gut, you may need to clean up the ulcers to help prevent colic. And yes, sometimes colic can present with fever and going off feed.
Pull the grain all together, get your ulcer issue fixed (30 days treatment may not have been enough), and up the quality of hay you're feeding - maybe even go to free choice forage too.
There could be a multitude of problems going on that are not all related to just the grain you're feeding. Sometimes she paws and looks at her stomach but for most of the morning she's just standing at the stall door looking sad.
JMTC.
Thank you for your response! The alfalfa I have is the best quality that's around here (near Houston area). For treating for the potential of ulcers again, would I use the same medicine? And when you say pull off grain does that mean for now or forever.. As I stated earlier, however I change this Fillies diet is how I want to change my other mares.
For an update; she didn't want to eat this morning and has a 103.1 fever. With normal peeing/pooping. | |
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 Expert
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| Omprazole and rantidine are both good products - as far as I know, neither treats hind gut ulcers. Which, could be part of the problem here .... I am not a vet, you need to talk with your vet, explain what you see and make sure you aren't throwing antibiotics at a problem they can't cure. I saw that your vet is running a blood panel, any news on that yet?
First, figure out where your fever is coming from. You say she is pooping and peeing - GREAT! When those things stop, we get super worried.
She may have a fever from a bacterial infection, or a virus, or MANY things - You're by Houston? I'm betting it hasn't froze in a long time, which means your insect cycle hasn't been interrupted, so I'd be looking at viral infections as a huge possibility since there are many spread by insects.
What I'm getting at is that there are TONS of reasons for horses going off feed. Please don't jump to conclusions that your feed is the only reason, it may not be. Good alfalfa is not going to hurt your horse and it sounds like you have quality hay too. Removing the grain from the diet until you figure all this out is not going to change much in the near future but it certainly helps simplify things.
Good Luck - it sucks having sick horses. | |
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| Okay gotcha! Yeah my vet has been out once (she was the first to get the fever) and j have been texting her updates every 5 seconds. She said the blood work showed nothing exciting... She was the one who suggested we do the antibiotics. she really doesn't have any idea what's going on.
She's currently laying down (yes I'm the horse mom who hovers - this filly was my first foal so I'm super protective).
I can see what you mean by jt may not be her feed! Thank you so much for your input! | |
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Expert
Posts: 2457
| Ah hugs - I understand. It sucks having sick ones, animals or children.
It might be worth your while if this continues for a couple days to call up to the vet diagnostic labs at A&M .... Large Universities with Vet schools often will have more resources for testing .... When you say full blood work, was this cell counts, a viral panel, a bacterial panel, did they run diagnostics for antibody tests for anything? I'm just throwing ideas out there. | |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
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Location: Phoenix | JLBerry - 2016-02-17 11:07 AM I would re treat for ulcers. You cant scope for hind gut ulcers, so that could be the case. Also switch to Renew Gold if you can. It's amazing- I will never feed anything else again.
Same here. Renew Gold is my product of choice for Rice Bran. My horse doesn't need extra energy so I don't feed oats. I feed alfalfa and grass hay (grass hay is more of a filler). | |
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| lindseylou2290 - 2016-02-18 11:00 AM
Ah hugs - I understand. It sucks having sick ones, animals or children.
It might be worth your while if this continues for a couple days to call up to the vet diagnostic labs at A&M .... Large Universities with Vet schools often will have more resources for testing .... When you say full blood work, was this cell counts, a viral panel, a bacterial panel, did they run diagnostics for antibody tests for anything? I'm just throwing ideas out there.
Funny you say that, Im actually a student at A&M, and the vet is an Aggie grad! Im not entirely sure everything that she ran, but I know she said that the white blood cell count looked normal, and she did say she was going to look to see if its viral/bacterial. If I had to guess, the vet has already called some professors up there to see what they think lol. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2457
| achildres - 2016-02-18 11:37 AM
lindseylou2290 - 2016-02-18 11:00 AM
Ah hugs - I understand. It sucks having sick ones, animals or children.
It might be worth your while if this continues for a couple days to call up to the vet diagnostic labs at A&M .... Large Universities with Vet schools often will have more resources for testing .... When you say full blood work, was this cell counts, a viral panel, a bacterial panel, did they run diagnostics for antibody tests for anything? I'm just throwing ideas out there.
Funny you say that, Im actually a student at A&M, and the vet is an Aggie grad! Im not entirely sure everything that she ran, but I know she said that the white blood cell count looked normal, and she did say she was going to look to see if its viral/bacterial. If I had to guess, the vet has already called some professors up there to see what they think lol.
Sounds like you're on the right track with a good vet! If the viral and bact. panels come back clean - then I would start looking at ulcers, then I would look potentially at feed contaminates.
Good Luck!
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 My Heart Be Happy
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Location: Arkansas | achildres - 2016-02-18 10:56 AM
Okay gotcha! Yeah my vet has been out once (she was the first to get the fever) and j have been texting her updates every 5 seconds. She said the blood work showed nothing exciting... She was the one who suggested we do the antibiotics. she really doesn't have any idea what's going on.
She's currently laying down (yes I'm the horse mom who hovers - this filly was my first foal so I'm super protective).
I can see what you mean by jt may not be her feed! Thank you so much for your input!
How is she tonight? I'm that same kind of momma that watches over them probably too much! | |
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| Chandler's Mom - 2016-02-18 10:50 PM
achildres - 2016-02-18 10:56 AM
Okay gotcha! Yeah my vet has been out once (she was the first to get the fever) and j have been texting her updates every 5 seconds. She said the blood work showed nothing exciting... She was the one who suggested we do the antibiotics. she really doesn't have any idea what's going on.
She's currently laying down (yes I'm the horse mom who hovers - this filly was my first foal so I'm super protective).
I can see what you mean by jt may not be her feed! Thank you so much for your input!
How is she tonight? I'm that same kind of momma that watches over them probably too much!
Well yesterday afternoon I turned her out and she grazed for about 30 minutes and then went up and down about 5 times one right after another. The vet said I should probably bring her up to the clinic, so I did. She pooped in the trailer (which is good) but hwr fever went back up to 102.5, so we decided to leave her for the night.
As of this morning the vet said she had one small pile of poop over night but she's acting fine and eating. They're going to re-run bloodwork. | |
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