Horse Care

Choke Episode Aftermath(kind of long)

Amber — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:27:22 GMT

It's been a while since I've been on this forum, but I've always gotten pretty good advice and help so this was the first place I thought of for help after my horrible morning. So, here's my situation and question.

I have my 2 horses at a self-care barn. I fed Wednesday afternoon, turned them back out into the pasture Thursday morning. Wednesday afternoon I gave each horse 2 flakes of hay and their usual grain ration(consisting of 1lb. Purina Enrich32 ration balancer and 2 quarts beet pulp). Did not get back out Thursday afternoon because my 21 month old son took a nosedive off a chair so I had to sit in the human ER all evening. To make up for them not being fed last night, I went out to feed this morning. My mare came in and ate with no issues. My 2 year old gelding came in and acted normal as he went to his stall. I walked away for a minute, and when I came back, Decka(2 year old gelding) was not eating and was circling in his stall. I left him and went to get my vet kit. By the time I got back to his stall, he was laying down and I had to convince him to stand back up. He had classic colic symptoms--no gut sounds on either side, lethargic look, wanted to roll, etc. I got my big syringe and oil bottle and got 60cc of oil down him. A few minutes later, he started coughing, complete with white, foamy goop coming out of his mouth and nose. At that point, I called a vet. That vet no longer services this area, and another vet clinic had someone on-site, but we needed to bring him in to be seen because the vet couldn't leave the clinic. My only problem with that is that I don't have a trailer. Someone at the barn had some Banamine, so we gave him that while I talked to the vet, who said it sounded like choke. I was told that as long as his esophagus or stomach didn't rupture, we could work through choke. So after nearly having a panicky breakdown, I borrowed a trailer and loaded him up--off to the vet we went. The vet tubed him and finally flushed the blockage out, which consisted of lots of beet pulp. So the vet told me that Decka cannot have beet pulp ever again and should not have coastal hay anymore either. He said he would only feed timothy or alfalfa--basically, coarser and more easily digestible hays. According to him, choke will now be a lifelong battle and eventually an episode of choke will probably kill him. Decka is on antibiotics to prevent innfection/pnuemonia, which could also possibly kill him. A trusted person told me that this vet tends to give the worst-case prognosis making it seem more grim than it really is. My question is how much of what the vet said true, probable, and possible. I know once a horse chokes, they are more prone to do it again, but how much does the hay play a factor in that proneness? The pasture he's in is putting round bales of coastal hay in the pastures in a few weeks, which would mean he'll be stuck inside with no buddies most of the winter. There is a small private turnout area he can go in, but he loves being in the pasture and I don't want to take that away from him if I don't have to. However, if coastal hay really is a bad choice for him now, I'll keep him in for the winter. I have no problem with taking out the beet pulp, I already plan to replace it with rice or wheat bran tomorrow. How likely is this to be a life-long preventative battle? I've heard of some horses that have a constant issue with choke, but I've also heard of some horses that choke once and never have another problem with it. I greatly appreciate any help or ideas anyone has to offer. Thank you everyone who read this far and has any suggestions.

Amber

hard questions

horseservant — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:50:26 GMT

I have a 14 year old mare and two other horses. I love my horses dearly and don't want to be in the situation that I am in now but here I am.

My horses have always had all of the shoeing and vet care they need. They have a good safe barn, good fences and good feed.

My problem is that this mare who is 14 is flat out running me out of money with all of her health problems. I have never had a horse who has had so many.

Here is a sampling:

She has terrible allergies and has required antihistamines, special shampoos and allergy shots.

She escaped the pasture only once and in the 20 minutes she was out she dislocated her navicular bone in one hoof and requires very expenesive shoeing. (i feel a hostage to her shoeing bills).

She has that head tossing thing which is either light sensitivity or allergies no vet can tell me which.

She has melonomas all over her. They are on her lips making eating her pellets harder for her and they are a little ulcerated. They are under her tail, on her udder on her face. She has one in her right eye. They began at age 3.

Now she either has a granuloma on her ovary or a hormone imbalance causing her to be aggressive even though her nature is to be a sweet cuddly mare.

If she has the granuloma on her ovary it will cost $1500 to remove and if I don't remove it she may become more aggressive perhaps even to myself (right now it is just geldings). I have owned this mare since she was 3 and her heats were always unnoticable but now she is in heat all of the time.

Apart from all of this she is glossy and eats well.

I am going to have to get financially creative and sell some personal items to finance this operation should I choose to do so but what will be the next thing? (ebay here I come)

I already asked the vet college for answers about the spread of these melanomas and they had nothing for me. I tried cymedine and every other quack remedy that said it would help and they are accellerating. Nothing works.

I could end up hurting myself financially and have this horse drop dead they next week of an internal tumor no one could see which is growing internally. A friend of mine had a very nice 10 year old mare drop dead in the field with no warning and a necropsy found an internal tumor in her chest wall which had chaffed through an artery. This mare had no external signs of anything wrong before her death.

My vet and my horse shoer keep telling me that they see horses all of the time with more melanomas than mine and that I shouldn't worry. What they don't realize is that I have to worry about paying for all of this. I have a job which used to pay people a lot of money but my job doesn't pay that much anymore. I am single and I have two other horses to support. The unfortunate truth in the matter is that money is what keeps things going and the whole deck of cards may come down if I am not careful and then I will have no horses.

The horse barn owners and trainers understand my issues here. I don't understand why the veternarians all want to make this such a difficult choice. My heart tells me that it is better to humanly euthanize before the horse is layed low in a terrible condition. I watched my father die of cancer and it was a terrible thing to see. I also know that I need to be able to pay my other bills too.

Suggestions? Comments?

Coprophagia

FluffyD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:21:56 GMT

yes, Coprophagia - the fancy term for poop eating. My horse is doing it AGAIN!. She is a 5 y.o. Appx QH and has a habit of this. I had been giving her the red salt block - the one with other minerals besides salt, and for the cold months switched to the pure salt block (it doesn't crumble as much - she can actually ingest more). As soon as I switched, I noticed the poop eating. I was told previously this was due to lack of minerals, mostly salt. I'm throwing this out to everyone - what have you done to combat this? (because lets face it - its gross! and promotes worms - EWW )

So, have you battled this? What have you done? Any idea of the causes? Suggestions?! Thanks!!!

Help Needed Getting Dehydrated Horse to Drink

Romeos Klassic DJ — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:54:31 GMT

Just two nights ago, my around 30-year-old senior mare colicked. My vet administered some Banamine, and she's fine now, but he said she's slightly dehydrated. I've been trying to get her to drink more. Although I'm not watching her 24/7, I know for sure she drinks very little--when I separate her from the herd and give her some water, it's usually hardly touched in the morning, if she touched it at all.

She has plenty of salt. I had provided her with a salt block, and I'm looking for a container to put some loose salt in. She gets 2 tablespoons of salt thrown over her feed, morning and evening. It doesn't seem to be working.

I tried two methods I found on the Internet, one was squirt a mixture of applesauce and salt in her mouth and she should drink within a few minutes, and the other was squirt some corn syrup (or in my case, vegetable oil) into her mouth and she should drink within a few minutes. Of course, neither of them worked.

My mare's water is the cleanest water I think I've ever seen, and I scrub it out twice a day. I am trying to find my water heater so I can offer her warm water in one bucket and cold water in another, but since I am having trouble finding it, I try and offer her warm water after each meal. None of this is working. My other three horses drink gallons and gallons of water a day, so I know it's not poor quality water she just doesn't like. She's the leader of the herd (amazingly), so I also know she can get all the water she wants if she decides to. The water is very easy to get to. It's somewhere around 100 feet from the big round bale she's usually eating at, so it's not too far either.

The only other option I can think of is to manually squirt water into her mouth with my 2 ounce syringe, but in order to get 8 gallons into her (about 1 percent of her body weight) I would have to squirt 170 syringes full of water into her mouth, three times a day. Although I'll do just about anything to get my mare her water, I don't really have time to do this.

Help!!!!

Teeth Problems! Advice needed!

Tucker_60 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:39:40 GMT

My 21 yr old mare is missing 3 teeth. She also has this thing where her teeth have dips in them where food gets lodged. I took her to the vet to get her teeth floated because she was chewing weird. The vet said we'd have to take her to Madison to have surgery, but the horse isn't really used anymore and it'd be expensive. Is there anything I can do to make it easier for her to chew, like a special feed or putting something in her feed?

Laminitis/Stroke-no hope, is there?

jillybeanroxmysox — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:57:53 GMT

So. I used to ride a Rocky Mountain mare named Fancy, she's in her late teens. In January, she got laminits, and still has it, though it's going away.

Good, right?

WRONG.

I go to the barn yesterday, and the farrier is looking at her. Turns out, he thinks she had a stroke recently-she's unresponsive on her left side, and her right upper lip twists to the right.

Is there any hope?

9 yo arab gelding..wont let me touch body..just face

savo — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:22:32 GMT

I volunteer at a local horses rescue and recently met drifter. He's a 9 yo flea bitten grey gelding. He came to the sanctuary after his owner abandoned him with a lady that was trying to earn extra cash by leasing out her pasture. The woman was not knowledgeable of horses and chased the young horse when she tried to catch him. I have been working with him and he now lets me walk up to him, and even sometimes walks up to me! The problem is that whenever I'm close enough to him, as I'm stroking his face and i turn my body to his shoulder to try and rub his back and shoulder...he turns his face to me. Is he just wary of me? Maybe he doesnt trust me enough and wants to know what im doing? I'd like some opinions please :D

What is a sound horse to you?

My Gracie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:52:17 GMT

As some of you may remember, my horse had to have pads and shoes to fix some soreness a couple of months ago. Since then she's been a different horse. All the bending and balancing that seemed so hard for her before has become easy, she has never been "off" or ouchy even a little, and she's been getting progressively softer and more energetic to ride. She has even forgiven the farrier for doing the hoof testing. Even when I bring her in to put her on cross ties, I can see how much more easily she can turn now.

So - she had a trim and new shoes Sunday, and the farrier pointed out that she did have some slight bruises showing just back of the toes of both front hooves. He said this didn't mean there was a problem now, but it was evidence of a problem in the past, and that it was consistent with laminitis. (Although he stressed that he was not diagnosing.) He put pads back on, at least partly because winter is coming on and he said pads help prevent snowballs, but also because he tested her standing on wedge pads and she seemed very comfortable. He says that in the future we may be able to take the pads off, but currently when she walks she is still landing toe first, and they want her to land at least neutral if not heel first.

I guess my question is only for curiosity's sake really, but would you consider this horse "sound" or not? I never realized there could be so many things to consider. With the pads and shoes, she can do anything I ask even when it's a new skill. We're working on consistent roundness, nice long swinging strides in all 3 gaits, and absolutely the only issue is the mental one of "I've never had to do this before." But if I took the shoes off, I bet she'd start getting footsore again. So what is the meaning of soundness? Can you only say they're sound if they don't need shoes?

Blanketing Question

MKirby559 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:57:07 GMT

I have a yearling, I'm not going to clip her, she lives in Maryland. I would like to buy a turnout sheet so she'll have a little protection from the wind and snow, seeing as how there isn't a run-in shed in her paddock. Should I buy a light weight or medium weight sheet?

parasite testing

sayyadina — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:40:46 GMT

I was wondering how I'd test a horse for fecal parasites.

I have a microscope, centrifuge, slides, test tubes & sugar solution.

I've done this before, but with alpacas. Not sure if I'd follow the same procedure with a horse, or do something different.

Bon is STILL not sweating

Princessa — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 20:53:12 GMT

Ok... so we've had bloodwork done and DID find a mild thyroid problem with Bon.. so he's been started on ThyroL, One AC, and we even did beer for awhile.. no change. Aside from the fact that he seems to be putting on weight, he doesnt sweat any more than he did. He basically doesnt sweat at all. Starting around noon everyday, he stands in front of his automatic waterer in his stall and pants. All day.

Does anyone have any ideas? Our vet is out of them. Anyone here have a vet that thinks outside the box? I'm thinking of getting Bon a "window unit" for his stall so he'll literally be standing in AC all day, or at least have it blowing on him. Is that crazy? Or a major fire hazard? Its a barn master barn, so its all metal. We'd only run it in the heat of the day.. seriously, is that totally nuts? I'm desparate!

Spray in, Leave in Conditioner? All Answers Welcome

Romeos Klassic DJ — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:05:23 GMT

Is there such a thing as a spray in, leave in conditioner? I would like to regularly condition my yearling's tail through the winter, but I don't have a blanket for him and therefore I don't want to rinse his tail regularly.

Also, is there a spray in, leave in shampoo (yay if there is!).

Thanks for all answers!

Strategy Feed

Brittany — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:33:18 GMT

Can any one tell me anything about this feed? Good? Bad? Price range?

I'm considering switching my gelding to this feed if it is well balanced enough. On other forums I have read that isnt so great but I've read a lot on here that its the best? Help! (=

How can I make my horse's coat shiny and glossy without supplements??

CowgirlinColorado — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:59:15 GMT

How can I make my horse's coat shiny and glossy without supplements?? Please Help!!!

Excesssive Draining wound Orange Sticky Drainage. HELP !!

Susan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:22:13 GMT

Well today its draining an ORange Thick Sticky serum, What is it? Its sticking to the stitches and getting really hard like candy? Has anyone ever heard of this?

My new rescue (Dakota) has recently ripped open a healing wound on her chest,She forged with her 1400 lb frame into another stall mates door,(Aggressive Mare that she Is) Vet was out and there was a 3/4 inchpuncture to her chest muscle and a two inch ripped hair line flap thatwas just flapping flesh, The vet sutured the puncture in the muscle andthen sewed the flap of hair back around, Dakota has been on heavy doesof Penicillin for 5 days now and looking at another five days she is off bute.., The woundlooks great, no swelling not to much heat, her temp is fine, everythingis fine except, The corner of the sutures are constantly dripping aclear very or very light yellow drainage. There is no Pus or signs ofinfection, just the continual drainage. My vet says its nothing toworry about, But since this is my very first big would ever, I am, Iwould like to hear from you if you have had an injury that has been sutured on your horse and continually drains, fluid.. thanks Well today its draining an ORange Thick Sticky serum, What is it? Its sticking to the stitches and getting really hard like candy? Has anyone ever heard of this?

GRRR........Abscess!

VodkasMom — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:57:25 GMT

I went out to ride Malibu today and she was dead lame on her left hind. She wouldn't put any weight on her foot and looked pitiful. I went to pull her out and take her to the cross ties and she was screaming her head off at me when she saw me. I was a bad horse mom and didn't have time to visit her this weekend. There is NO heat in any of her legs so we're treating her like it's an abscess until the vet comes out Fri or Mon. I know she is miserable and I feel pretty bummed out for her. This is our last few weeks of riding until next March and she has been going along so well lately. I'm PRAYING it's an abscess and not something else. I'm like 98% sure it is an abscess, but there is always that what if it's something else. She was a good girl and let me soak her hoof with epsom salt and took her 2g of bute like an old timer. I think that is the first time I've had to give her bute.

Okay, now on to the question. If this is an abscess and I get it healed, is there a way to prevent them? This is the first horse I have had out of three to actually get an abscess. She was trimmed last Monday and we had a huge rain storm for 3 days, so there has been plenty of mud and goop everywhere. That was the worst storm we have had in 5 years. Her paddock has had a week to dry out and is no longer muddy at all. Thanks for listening to me vent. I am soo bummed.....and worried about her. ..................This is why were getting insurance for her next month. It will give me a piece of mind knowing I can help her if it isn't an abscess.

gelding with abcess and ring bone

905987 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:37:17 GMT

I Have a 9 year old gelding, recently diagnosed with mild ring bone in the left fore foot. He has been on and off lame with this. He also has had several abcesse's in the right fore which has caused more severe lamness than the ring bone. I have had my shoer square his toes, place wedge pads, with medicated padding. This helped quite a lot. However, the abcesse'd foot grows at an alarming rate. After two weeks with the new shoes, he has grown out and lost the right shoe. Is the healing process of the abcess's causing this un-natural foot growth? And will it continue? Any one else had a similar experience? The horse is 16.2, and has been prone to abcess's since he was a 2 yr. old. Thanks for any thing you can share!

Bell Boots

My Gracie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:59:27 GMT

What is the safest way to remove bell boots? I've just started using them as my horse is now in expensive shoes (hopefully temporarily) and has been moved to the infamous shoe-sucking pasture. Putting them on isn't a problem, but when I go to take them off, Gracie thinks I'm asking her to pick up her foot for picking, so she keeps shifting her feet. I'm afraid she'll step on me. But I need two hands to get each boot off her because the velcro is so tough, so I can't hold her foot up while I do it. Is there an "official" way to do it?

plants that aid in insect control

horseservant — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:50:33 GMT

I remember once reading that you could plant along your fence lines various plants that aided in bug control. Even if it only helps a little I would like to do this next spring.

I heard that Lavender works. I know there are many different types of lavender so I don't know which one. I remember reading that marigolds are good but don't know which type of marigold to buy. There are the little close to the ground French Marigold and then there is another species whose name escapes me that is very tall.

I live near Seattle so whatever it is must not require a very hot climate.

Does anyone have any experience doing this? However it works out my marigolds and lavender will make the place smell nice and be pretty. I know both are non toxic to horses

A case of the dirty willy

crittergirl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:28:46 GMT

I have always had geldings, and I have never had problems with their you-know-whats getting dirty and cruddy, until now with Ta'ceyewi. He has an appy multi-colored willy and it just stays sooo dirty. I was talking to the vet the other day and she said that since his is lighter it will show crud and build up more, but just to keep it cleaned more. Yesterday he got gelded (poor little booger, he handled it like a pro and is acting like nothing is different today) and since he was already down, my vet looked at it and cleaned it and said it was about the dirtiest she had seen, and it had been cleaned about a month ago. Has anyone found something to do to keep it cleaner? Especially you other appy people, help! Thanks!

Some Horses Have the Worst Manners...

flakemusic — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:35:41 GMT

I was looking forward to a nice, relaxing ride on Lily today since it's been awhile. The pasture was horribly muddy, so it took me forever to get to Lily. On my way over, Libby, one of the boarders' horses pinned her ears at me and tried to get in my space (this is a recurring issue, she does this to everyone who comes to get another horse out). I did what I always do, gave her a growl, squared my shoulders, and flicked the lead line at her. It worked, as it always does, and she trotted off.

Lily was in one of the paddocks that is left open to the big pasture since it has a run-in. As I was about to walk into the paddock to get her, Libby came back, trotted up to Lily, gave a squeal and pinned her ears and backed Lily into a corner, at which point she let out two huge bucks, hitting Lily in the chest and in the side right where the girth goes.

I was surprised Lily didn't fight back right there - she's usually higher in the herd - but she pinned her ears and trotted over to where I was standing about twenty feet away and put her head by me. I took her out of the pasture to check her over in case Libby got any other ideas... no open wounds, but they were ouchy right then. I decided to just keep her in her stall for the night so Corey can check on her during his late rounds and make sure she's feeling okay. But my ride went down the drain and there wasn't much we could do since there was a lesson in the indoor and everywhere outside was a big mud puddle.

I think it's interesting how Lily reacted. She is such a sensible, sane horse, especially for her age. I was proud of her today and just had to share. It's still so hard to watch your horse in that situation, no matter how often you see it happen. My heart caught in my throat when I saw the hooves connect... just glad she was okay.

Sudden Cinchiness in My Colt

Romeos Klassic DJ — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:38:40 GMT

My colt has suddenly gotten cinchy when I saddle him. He tries to bite me, and he never did that before. I thought maybe it was just a training problem and I would have to work it out, but a week or two later I was currying his girth and first he tried to bite me, then he tried to kick me. My colt has never tried to hurt me before unless he's in pain. There are no sores on his girth, no hard lumps or heat, and the hair appears as normal as can be. I don't know what's wrong. Any ideas?

turnout blankets

lauralite — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:14:19 GMT

Any opinions on turnout blankets, brand-wise?

My two will be pastured 24/7 this winter. They have a run-in shed, but don't use it much.

I decided to get each a medium-weight blanket (we don't get very cold here -- can go the entire winter without freezing temps or snow). Of course, I'm going to get a waterproof/resistant breathable one. Other than that, does anyone have any opinions?

A former trainer told me to get one with a bellyband. That seems to limit my options -- I'm really only seeing the bellyband ones at Schneiders Saddlery (sstack.com). Are those blankets any good? They look nice in the catalogue, but seem to be much cheaper than others.

I was expecting to pay about $200 per blanket, but am finding them much cheaper than that. Is it just because I'm looking for something medium-weight rather than heavy-weight?

How Often do you deworm?

Brittany — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:13:01 GMT

Im sure it depends on the horse & time of year in some situations but I was just wondering what is "regular"

I have read that every 2 months is good but I used to being around mustangs & we would worm about 1 every 6 months & they did just fine.

Also does a pellet or liquid wormer work just as well as a paste? I use Ivermectin 1.87%

What brands do you all use?

Any tips/suggestions are welcomed! Thanks!

Saddle Sore

My Gracie — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:56:46 GMT

This may seem like a dumb question, but please bear with me. I've been given the chance to ride a thoroughbred once in a while, probably only walk-trot to start, but still a little hotter than I've ridden for several years and kind of exciting. I happened to be at the stable when his usual rider was just finishing her lesson, and as I was asking her what he was like, I noticed a saddle sore on his withers. (His withers are really high.) It was about 4-5 inches long and actually rubbed raw in one spot. When I touched near it gently he flinched badly. The student didn't seem that concerned, and I'm not sure the instructor was aware of it as she was starting her next lesson.

This guy isn't usually ridden except by this one girl and only once a week in her lesson. She did show him several times this year, but show season is over. My immediate reaction was to not want to ride him until the saddle sore is completely healed, even if I could find a better fitting saddle and pad it up well. Am I overreacting or not? If not, should I make a point of mentioning the sore to the instructor before his next lesson? I'd do it in a way that avoided criticizing the student, because I think she means well but just doesn't quite get it.