Isabelle at the hospital
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Re: Isabelle at the hospital
I got off the phone with the surgeon a bit ago. Isabelle has pooped three times and is looking less painful so the surgeon thinks it was an impaction this time and is resolving without surgery. The impaction could have pushed the spleen out of place (starting the twist) but since things are passing now, hopefully everything will go back where it belongs.
This started just as she was allowed to slowly transition to a normal diet and feeding schedule so apparently she was not ready to handle it. I think I'll have her on soaked hay and the low forage/high concentrate diet forever. Also, I weaned Solo so she can concentrate on getting better without having to make milk. Her prescribed diet is really bringing her down and she's racehorse thin now. She's an Oldenburg, right around 16.2 hands, and weighed only 1065 pounds on the scale at the hospital.
Isabelle will remain at the hospital for observation for at least another day to make sure things are really settling down. I'm glad she's there where they can really keep an eye on her. I've got to say she does the best impression of a dying horse ever and when she's doing it, I just want her at a place where they can open her up in a hurry if they have to.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
I know!!! I need to photograph him!! He's getting so big and I'm terribly pleased with him. He's all pleasantly rounded out and very balanced and athletic. He's just starting to shed the foal fluff around his eyes, under his throat, and on the backs of his ears. Around his eyes he is about the same color as his foal coat, a red bay, but under his throat and on his ears he is very dark. It will be interesting to see what shade he ends up although he will probably not be nearly as dark as Isabelle.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
In dogs they can staple a stomach that has had a torsion, since it's being stretched often causes recurrances. :sad I would assume that a bad colic and lead to more future vulnerability. Besides feed, anything that you can do? :?
Good luck to Belle and yourself. My nerves would be tattered. :cry:
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
[quote="vneerland"]In dogs they can staple a stomach that has had a torsion, since it's being stretched often causes recurrances. :sad I would assume that a bad colic and lead to more future vulnerability. Besides feed, anything that you can do? :?
Good luck to Belle and yourself. My nerves would be tattered. :cry:[/quote]
I wondered about that since you had mentioned it before, but I assume that if it was an option for horses, they would be doing it. Maybe because of the motility the equine gut needs, it is not an option? I'll try to remember to ask when I pick her up. I do remember that last time I picked her up the surgeon told me about a mare they opened up six or seven times (each time after she had a foal) before they gave up and euthanized her.
The main thing to do for Belle seems to be feed related. She can only handle small hay meals and they want me to up her concentrate even more now when she comes home. She'll be on about twelve pounds of senior feed a day and limited hay. I don't know what I'm going to do about turnout because this latest episode occurred the day after she was first allowed into a paddock and I think playing also contributed to it.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
Sara, I am so sorry :sad - sending well wishes for Isabelle... :angel
As for the poor quality hay - you can always have a soil assessment done (call your local Ag. agent for details) and that will tell you what you will need as far as fertilizers/lime concentrations. Once you get that, you can plant a horse pasture mix seed and your pastures will be the envy of the county...lol
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
Solo did fine. He called intermittently for a few hours and settled down. It was my easiest weaning yet. He's hanging out with Grandma Tiffany for now. I think the hospital probably got the worse end of the deal because I imagine Isabelle called for longer.
Now I want her home!! They fed her a bran mash yesterday and she did okay with that... hopefully she will be released soon.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
So do you give him a bottle or is he on mash/hay?
I admit I've been thinking of weaning early as Ditto is really pulling Silo down. But she's only 8 weeks old and the earliest I've heard to wean is 3 months if you can help it. So she'll stay with mum, but I'm curious since Solo is so young how you handle that...
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
Pictures soon, I promise.
Isabelle is coming home tomorrow. Her diet has now been tweaked even more -- she may have half a flake of hay twice a day (yes, a grand total of a flake of hay, or around four to five pounds for a horse that should weigh in at 1200 pounds) and up to sixteen pounds of senior feed a day split into four feedings. She is also supposed to get a bran mash every day until she turns her nose up to it, and then bran mashes twice a week after that.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
[quote="Andrea"]So do you give him a bottle or is he on mash/hay?
I admit I've been thinking of weaning early as Ditto is really pulling Silo down. But she's only 8 weeks old and the earliest I've heard to wean is 3 months if you can help it. So she'll stay with mum, but I'm curious since Solo is so young how you handle that...[/quote]
[color=#8000BF][b]Lol I've never weaned earlier than 6 months, but my Lacey was weaned at 1 1/2 months...which i didn't approve of, but what could I do?? lol[/b]
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Re: Isabelle at the hospital
[quote="Sara"]Isabelle is coming home tomorrow. Her diet has now been tweaked even more -- she may have half a flake of hay twice a day (yes, a grand total of a flake of hay, or around four to five pounds for a horse that should weigh in at 1200 pounds) and up to sixteen pounds of senior feed a day split into four feedings. She is also supposed to get a bran mash every day until she turns her nose up to it, and then bran mashes twice a week after that.[/quote]
Can you manage that? :sad I know I would do what I could for my girl, but 4x4/day and no hay, that's quite a commitment. :(
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
I have to... I have no choice, really. After putting her through surgery to save her I have to do what I can to make that expense (for me) and pain (for her) worth it.
after 30 days I may start to add a wee bit more hay but not much, and I still have to split her feed into four meals.
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
She is getting a pound of wheat bran with each grain meal, so, four pounds a day. I'm supposed to do this until she refuses the bran... the surgeon says she'll get sick of it and that will be the time to cut back. It loses its laxative affect if it is fed every day anyway. After she refuses it, I'm supposed to go to feeding it twice a week, still with each meal, to keep her moving.
I took her out to hand graze today and she was a total freight train. The only way I could keep her under control is if I basically let her lunge around me at a walk, eating a mouthful of grass about once for each circle she made. I'm sure she walked off any calories she may have gotten from the grass. :roll: I would think she would be mad with hunger by now and ready to bury her nose in the grass and just eat!
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
Could you put the senior feed in a trickle drum feeder? It sounds like she has to have a low volume trickle going through her at all times, and if she "empties" or gets a gap in the trickle it's bad, and any "lump" or slug of heavy food is just as bad.
Our old pony Peony had to have three feedings a day all pellets and cubes (pellets in a trickle drum feeder and cubes as a mash) and rice bran and beet pulp in the mash.
Maybe a timer feeder could handle the midnight feeding? 6am, noon, 6pm, midnight auto?
I should send you a pic of our "new" pony, a bay roan welsh 12hh mare. :D
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
Yes, sadly. The estimate from the vet is that, at the youngest, she was 28 or 30. Looks like it was kidney failure following cancer. I am glad now that we had her end swiftened.
Since that March we picked up a 10hh WHITE (only little black specks on her eyelids and udder, the rest was pink) shetland, Pockette in June
Last fall we traded her to a five year old girl for this bay roan, who was way too much for her. Now that we have the princess behavior ironed out, she should last Pierce till he's 11 or 12. We altered her name from Rosie (how many roan ponies are "rosie"?!?!) to P'rose. P standing in for pretty, prissy, princess, pisshead...whatever her attititude is that day ~x(
Really, she moves like poetry, so Prose fits her, and she and Pierce have really formed a food, I mean Good, relationship :D She is great on pony/trail, and lunge or leadline. And walk-trot. We just have to figure out how to get the hop out of the canter!
(she is reportedly out of Idaho...but coming up here, three owners and a kid camp later...no papers)
Re: Isabelle at the hospital
[color=#8000BF][b]Oh gosh!!! Sending LOTS of prayers for her!![/b] [/color] :sad