Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi, Bobbie,

Thanks for the info.  I've been able to find so little!  At this point, we're really treating symptoms to see if he'll bounce back.

 

He's living at Bright Valley in a 30 by 30 corral.  He gets fed grass hay (when they bother to feed him; most mornings they decide he has too much "leftovers" to get breakfast) and I give him grain hay (oat, barley, wheat, rye, orchard).  I give him a slurry with beet pulp, wheat bran, and rice bran, plus his meds and vitamin/mineral/antioxidant thing (Adeptus makes it, I think it's Augment ultra).  He also gets four or so pounds of Equine Senior and oat mo.

 

The lethargy and listlessness, I think, came on more insidiously than I initially thought.  Several weeks earlier, I'd been riding with my trainer, and she commented he might be getting an upper respiratory infection because he didn't sound right to her.  This was also after the tying up incident at 20 Mule Team, which I suspect may be related.  Then, after I'd ridden him a couple of days in a row (not long; just hour or so rides), I came down and found him laying down, and he didn't get up when I got there, which he's never done.  In fact, I've only ever seen him laying down once, and that was at 4:30am when he was 3 and I had arrived to feed.  So that was my real indication that I had a problem on my hands.

 

He seems to be on the mend.  My big worry is that I won't be able to compete him anymore.  My daughter really wants to use him, and I've had him so long, it would be very painful to part with him.  However, I know that if he really won't be able to compete anymore, the best thing will be to find him a new home.

Val

Roberta Lieberman <kindredspiritrjl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Valerie,

I'm sorry to hear this! I don't know about the medication rule with
levothyroxin, but you might want to gradually transition your horse
to natural alternatives once his numbers look better. Anemia is often
a "red herring" due to the horse's splenic storage of red cells....a
low resting hematocrit is not always indicative of anemia. I had an
aged, hypothyroid cat who recovered on homeopathics. Is your horse on
a high-level supplement with antioxidants and minerals? We feed a
Horse-Tech custom formula we are very happy with.

You can also have his blood panel evaluated by Dr Bob Goldstein in
Westport, Conn. Check out Healing Center for Animals.... it's also
important to determine WHY he became listless and lethargic, etc. so
you can eliminate the cause and prevent a recurrence. Tell me more
about his boarding stable, feeding, etc.

Hopefully more folks will chime in with good ideas for your
boy.......good luck!

Very best wishes,

Bobbie and Karl,
Bubba, Gypsy and Perle

From: Valerie Jaques
Subject: [RC] Hypothyroid & Anemia

As you may guess by the subject, I have a rather sick horse. He is
on the mend, thank goodness. Short version, I noticed he seemed
listless and lethargic. He was EDPP, but he tired easily and took
longer than usual to recover from activity. I called the vet out
(the irony at this point is, after he was looked at, everybody at the
ranch was telling me how they saw my horse laying down a lot -- that
would've been nice to know sooner, folks....), who couldn't find
anything obviously wrong. So, we drew a blood panel. A few days
later, vet called and said the horse was anemic, and hypothyroid.
So, he's on a high-iron supplement (red cell) and thyroid
medication. Now my questions is this: does anybody know if
levothyroxin (the thyroid med he's on) will disqualify him from
endurance? If I have to take him off of it to compete, how long do I
withdraw it before a ride? If he ends up taking this for life, and
he'd have to go off it to compete, I will very likely retire him
from the sport. Sad, really, since he loves it.