HELP!!! My horse is sick!!!!

Hey everyone!
My horse chucky has been not well for a few months now. We Have spent over $1200 on vet bills so far. First he had a problem with his corronet, his hoof separated from it. We got the vet and blah blah blah, he ended up on bute and biotin. I was cleaning his hooves with chlorhexidine everyday, applying neatshoof oil and wrapping them up. He was just getting worse and ended up not being able to hardly walk so we got another more horsey vet. Chucky got X-rays done and stuff and he was diognosed with corronitis caused by some toxin. His bute was increased and he was also put on some anti-ulsar stuff. He was also being stabled and only being let out every now and then. His feet ended up getting better and now he is walking with relitively no limp and his hoof has nearly completely grown out. But now he has stopped eating, become very non-energetic and has loss a massive amount of weight! He has pressure sores all over his from laying down so much! I don't know what to do. Does anyone no why he could be like this?

Oh, I'm so sorry. It sounds like it could be a lot of different things going on and I wouldn't like to suggest anything. You are describing a long timeline with vet support. I just wanted to send you my best wishes. Good for you for getting a second opinion. I hope he gets better.

Oh, honey (((((HUGS))))). I am so sorry to hear that. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe he colicked and has an impaction or maybe he has ulcers from the bute even though he was on anti-ulcer medication. Or maybe he could have foundered, I just don't know. I could be very wrong about all of these though. I think you need to get the vet back out and keep us updated on how he is.

Is he still on Bute? What anti-ulcer medicine are you giving? What are you feeding?

For the pressure sores, this is a good indication that you should have more bedding down in his stall. When you have foot/leg issues and a horse is stalled you need to go very heavy with the bedding because it helps encourage them to take weight off the bad leg as well as the good/supporting legs. It also helps prevent sores from laying down so much.

Have the vets run any bloodwork?

Hi everyone!

Northernmama- Thanks for all your support!

Smrobs- (((((HUGS))))) thanks for your ideas! Im sure it will all come together.

Ryle- He isnt on bute any more we stopped that about a week ago. Im not sure what the anti-ulsar stuff is called, I will have to go down to the shed and see and I will tell you this arvo. All he is being fed is copra and oaten hay. He isnt allowed any carbohydrates according to the vet. I went away for a few days and while I was away he was only stabled at night, that's how he got most of the pressure sores. His stable is filled with saw dust so there is plenty of bedding in there for him.

Appylover31803- The vet hasnt done any blood work.

Why is your horse not allowed carbs? When did he stop eating much? Is he fed anything but copra and oat hay?

My first concern is that your horse is very possibly not getting a balanced diet thus his overall ability to heal, resist disease/infection, etc is compromised.

Hi Ryle
He is was on gastrozol daily to prevent the ulsars. But he isnt on it anymore cause he is off the bute. He isnt allowed carbs till his feet are healed because apparently they heat up his feet or something. That's all he is fed. What would you suggest to feed him? He has eaten today proply for the first time in a week so that is good. I have started walking him for half and hour a day to try and get some muscle back cause I thought it might encourage him to stand more which I think it has. His health has been up and down for the last few months so its hard to tell if he is getting better. My only worry for him now is to get him to eat and get the weight back on him. After that he should be fine as long as nothing else happens.

The first thing I would do is talk to your vet--make a phone call with a pen and paper in hand. Ask exactly why they are saying "no carbs" in the diet. And ask exactly what is wrong with your horse. You need to know because there may be some emergency that requires you to have someone else see/treat your horse.

If he has metabolic disease then restricting carbs is very important and the diet you are feeding is likely not balanced is is high in non-structural carbs (the type of carbs you should be limiting with metabolic disease and laminitis). Oaten hay is a poor choice if you are trying to restrict carbs because it is actually high in NSC's. Copra is low in non-structural carbs.

One of the big things is that both of those feedstuffs are pretty much backwards in the calcium to phosphorus ratio compared to what a horse needs. So if this is all your horse is getting, it's very possible that he is having trouble because he is #1 getting too many non-structural carbs and #2 not getting a balanced diet and diet balance is necessary for normal body function--healing, growth, maintenance, resistance to disease.

What other feedstuffs do you have available in your area?

Wow I didnt know any of that stuff. We asked the first vet we got if that's what we could feed him and she said it would be fine. But we ended up getting another vet cause we didnt know how horsie she was.

We had a scare with the whole laminitis thing, that's why we got x-rays done.

We are looking into getting some lucern hay, we just have to find some that is good enough for horses and not rediculously priced. We have heaps of types of food for horses in the area, all the grainy stuff, mixtures and like fine ground stuff like copra. Im not sure what most of it is called of the top of my head. We do have to drive an hour to get resonably priced food but that's not a problem.

We usually get the copra, pony pellets and lucern chaff for our horses.we usually give then calcium with their food but we have run out and its not very available around here. We also use to feed our horses sunflower seeds but we don't anymore jsut because of the price. My favourite horse food to feed them though is weightlifter, it os so good for them but it is very expensive.

I will ring our vet today and let you know what she thinks. Thank you so much, you are a great help!