Another New Horse - It's Bo!

Can you go to the clinic, load him in your trailer and drive down the driveway or a mile down the road til he poops? Then return to the clinic for inspection and the all clear?

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Goodness! Jingling for a normal poop ASAP

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Bo - why are you torturing us like this?! Please poop so you can come home!

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Maybe it’s a form of blanket revolt?

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“Shingles”?

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No! That is painful and possibly nerve damaging…

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:joy::joy: well he is sure teaching us! Blankets or manure - you can only have one! Silly Bo. I hope he is back to feeling himself and showing his stuff on the lunge line soon.

Non-update… no word of poop yet. Still holding out hope for coming home today, but maybe he’s trying to run out the clock so he can stay another day.

I busied myself bathing and body clipping Elmo, so at least I haven’t truly been waiting by the phone.

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This.

My husband’s horse, you would just have to drive over there and lead him toward the trailer and he would probably produce a really nice pile!

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Evening update, just got off the phone with the vet. We’re not getting off the rollercoaster yet, folks.

Still no poop. Appetite is waning, he’s just picking at things now. His HR is slightly elevated again. They redid his bloodwork (luckily having the ones from Wednesday morning to compare to) and his total solids are increasing (9.3) and his globulins are also high. His ultrasounds have continued to be good, things are still moving in there, rectal exam produced manure but he’s just… not pooping. They gave him oral fluids and electrolytes.

Vet is consulting regularly with their internal medicine specialist. They are going to attempt another belly tap in the AM, because there is clearly still something going on and the signs point to some sort of inflammation or cancerous process, is what she said. Being able to test fluid from the abdominal cavity would be helpful, but as of yet they have not been able to get any.

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Oh my. I wish the news was better. I hope tomorrow brings good news as in something treatable on the belly tap.

Massive jingles for Bo and ((((hugs)))) for you.

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Oh no. That is not the update I wanted to see. Many, many jingles for Bo. And many hugs for you.

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Oh bubby…

Much love to you Heinz. Good to keep busy. My lucky rabbits foot is back out!

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We are all a little dumbfounded that food is going in, but nothing is coming out? :thinking: BUT I also have no idea how much they are feeding him. Not that that’s a good reason for no poop in over 24 hours, but if he’s not actually taking much in there wouldn’t be a lot to come out. From the sounds of it, they’ve given him hay even though that’s not part of his normal diet or something he can actually eat. I wonder if it is distracting him from eating his grain. At home, I do not give him any hay. He grazes between meals and gets a minimal amount of grass swallowed, but I found that he would rather stand at a pile of alfalfa or coastal, gumming it up and spitting it out, all day vs eating the grain meals that provide substantive nutrition. His brain still says hay is better.

Back when I first got him, he ate really well for the first ~4 days and then went off his food, almost completely. Shortly thereafter is when we went to the vet and then I went all out with the crazy buffet of feeds to find The One. I also dosed him with a syringed B12 (because the vet didn’t give the B12 shot that I agreed to, at her suggestion), which I had to repeat the week after, and I think the week after that because his appetite would wane after 5 or 6 days. I then switched him to a daily B12 supp (Ultracruz), which he’s been on since and has had a good, consistent appetite - enough that I was able to add Renew Gold and ground flax + Vit E (10k IU natural) and actually get him to eat it, all of it. I don’t think I included that info on his intake paperwork, and I’m guessing this is something more complicated than ‘he’s not getting his supplements’, but perhaps it’s worth mentioning anyway. I know the B12 thing is not hard science and they might scoff at me, but it seems to work for Bo. It was a hail mary the first time I tried it. It may boost his appetite, although who knows if that will solve the pooping problem.

Anyway, apologize for rambling a bit as my brain tries to figure this all out. If I hear from the vet early enough before school gets out, I might ask about going to visit him tomorrow. DH flies in midday (yes, he’s been gone since Wednesday, before this all occurred!) so maybe I can at least get him to do school pick up or something, so I can go visit.

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Ugh. How awful for you to be going through all this and with DH out of town on top of it.

I really hope Bo starts feeling better soon. I’d mention the B12 to the vet at the very least as a “this horse has had appetite issues before and this has helped” kind of way. Ditto the info re the hay distracting him from eating.

I hope they are able to get the fluid they need for testing or he resolves on his own pronto.

Jingling

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Not a vet or doctor. Just trying to think logically.

  1. You have taken this horse from almost starved to a decent weight happily trotting around on a lunge line. What has changed? The rabies shot. Nothing else. I don’t know why they would mention cancer. He had no symptoms or problems eating since you put him on the B12 and he gained weight. If it were something cancerous, why would he only start having symptoms now after the vaccine?

  2. They are giving him hay when he doesn’t normally eat hay. He’s in a strange place and not moving around as he would at home. His whole normal has been upended. This is all stressful. I would be surprised if he were pooping normally at this point. Can they not give him a B12 shot, then try feeding him small amounts of his normal food? (My vet recommended B12 shots for my old guy when his appetite would wane and it always helped).

I’m so sorry you’re both going through this. Jingles and prayers continuing your way. Hang in there. {{{Hugs}}}

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Prayers and jingles winging their way to Texas!

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This happens all the time with dogs or cats who experience diarrhea. It’s just because they literally emptied out their entire GI tract so it takes some time, especially if they aren’t eating normally, for the food to make its way through again.

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Thinking of you and Bo. Very much hoping to wake up to a better update. :chains:

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