Does everyone else have unusual horse maladies, or just me?

[PonyApocalypse19]

It’s been a rough couple of years for my crew. Some unusual stuff, but I consider myself unlucky too.
12 yr old chestnut:
-weaned very early due to serious colic with mom. So life didn’t start out well
-stitches on pastern from a nasty cut from a gate as a 2 yr old
-4 yr old large sarcoid requiring two treatments - now has heart shaped scar on neck
-diagnosed with fecal water syndrome - treated with metronidazole.
-2018 stringhalt surgery right hind - tendon had multiple adhesions so mostly a mechanical stringhalt. But took 18 months to recover.
-2021 OCD in feltlock on left hind. Surgery and recovery went well.
-multiple bouts of cellulitis following the surgeries and one incident of getting seriously cast in his stall.
-now dealing with a mild lameness - suspect SI pain.

Wanting to not be left out - 13 year old gelding last October horrible colic - opened him up and found nothing but some inflammation in the small intestine.
The 13 yr old is also unique in that he broke the cartilage off of one of his hip points. He has a massive scar there - never found out what actually happened. And it doesn’t effect his performance.

In December, 24 yr old retiree coliced and opened him up too - strangulating lipoma - let him go on the table knowing what the recovery was like for the 13 year old who was abundantly healthy otherwise.

Now have mom’s hony diagnosed with ulcers.

Thank goodness for insurance and care credit.

[BlueDrifter]

For your current Appy – I was just reading of success with astma/respiratory issues on the Apoquel for Horses post – using Apoquel. Gets rid of itchies, too.

[RhythmNCruise]

Ooo! I’m going to that thread right after I mow the grass! Thank you!

[theresak]

Chestnut gelding with typical sensitive skin…

• After several years of cellulitis happening occasionally in different legs, showed up with hives on the second to last dose of IM penicillin - the horse is now allergic to penicillin (sort of luckily since I am allergic and would have to find/pay someone to give the injections)
• Comes in from turnout blood all over his front legs and blanket but nothing visible is bleeding, even after taking off the blanket and checking chest/elbow. I started checking his teeth, etc. and see a huge gash in the roof of his mouth. I walked the pasture to check for something he may have picked up in his mouth and find the pool of blood where he had obviously stood while his mouth was bleeding. I still have the picture, it was huge.
• General allergies and some eye ulcers likely scarred his tear ducts so he would often need a few days of eye ointment every few weeks during the summer.
• Three splints on different legs, one of which was huge but none of them ever bothered him.
• Cracked molar where half was removed and the more firmly seated half is still in his mouth - he’s terrible for doing teeth so we left it there
• Stopped laying down in his stall after stall rest for an injury and developed sleep deprivation; he would fall asleep standing up and fall down. He ended up with chronic sores on his front fetlocks that had to be wrapped (I would buy cases of elastikon).
• He was retired early due to knee arthritis from a kick when he was younger - I suspect the kick hyperextended his knee but it took a long time for the remodeling to start/impact him. He moved to a retirement farm with cows, chickens, pigs, etc. and loves it and started laying down again and sleeping.

[luvmyhackney]

My sweet little pony has heaves, cushings, allergic to pine. He has had a tumor removed from his neck so missing a 3” chunk of mane. We had a ligament issue took 7ish months to heal, major kick injury to chest like lost a 6”x7” piece of flesh 1” deep.

Before I purchased him he was a starvation case and missing a big chunk of tongue. Thankfully a lovely lady rehabbed him and I purchased him when she moved down south.

Wouldn’t trade him for the world and would buy him a thousand times over.

[sweetsalute]

I literally just posted a thread about my mare’s escapades lol. She’s generally super low maintenance, lives on air etc but when she does something, she does it good.

Staked her neck on the singular uncapped t post, wound wasn’t even that bad but it triggered a severe, acute laminitic episode (despite being a fat pony, never had laminitis previously and never again since!). Minor pedal bone rotation, but she was cleared to come home after a week in the hospital. Kept colicing in a stall, so they had to put her in a paddock despite that being the last thing they like to do for laminitics like that.

That morning, vet calls to say they need to keep her in, they ran discharge bloods only to find something that indicated liver failure?!?! Another week in hospital, daily blood tests that were $400 a pop, only for pony to be totally, 100% fine. That was 7 years ago, its still their head scratcher of a case.

Same pony diagnosed with some sort of neuro issue in 2020, she was 19 and I decided not to go the expensive diagnostic route. Was told I’d never ride her again. She came good, bumped into the vet six months later and was like yeah we’re out galloping on the trails etc and she just went wtf (same vet who treated the laminitis).

Pony just had a recurrence of the neuro symptoms…only this time she’s passing all the neuro tests so at this point, I give up lol.

Oh. Nearly forgot. 3 eye ulcers last year, never had an eye ulcer since. Can’t workout how she did that, in both eyes!

[BlueDrifter]

It is nice to hear some are indestructable despite their attempts…

Laminitis from a wound is a new one for me.

[sweetsalute]

That’s our best guess at least, because there was no other reason for her to have such a sudden, acute bout. Vet thinks something about the shock of the neck wound just playing havoc maybe…there’s a reason it’s still spoken about at the practice as a mystery!

[Fancy_Free]

Horse 1: 8 yr old OTTB gelding mystery lameness just always not right, tried everything under the sun, decided to turn him out for the year, day 5 of vacation find him in the pasture with a severely bowed tendon.

Horse 2: buy a 3 yr old wb gelding to train up and replace horse 1, find out after a year he has a very symptomatic case of PSSM, (dangerous under saddle and severe cases of tying up) still lives here as pasture pet/baby sitter

Horse 3: 4 yr old OTTB mare , couple weeks into restart pops a big splint, requires surgery. Surgery recovery seems to go well but after starting back she is not sound. Blocks out to foot, decide not to proceed with MRI etc due to cost and unknown potential of said mare, goes to be a surrogate brood mare at a friends farm.

Horse 4: not mine but was a temporary boarder, found him at morning turnout in a pool of blood - guttural pouch mycosis, owner rushed him to the vet but he sadly did not make it.

Horse 5: my current gelding that came up with an unexpected case of laminitis - young healthy horse in a smallish grass pasture (yes he was always previously turned out on grass)

Misery loves company lol

[BlueDrifter]

I am there, with ya.