Vet pulled blood this morning to run a CBC and check kidney values. Of course, I searched and everything said EMS or Cushings, and I am worried.
Horse is coming 9 years old this summer, always been a good drinker (and hay dunker), used to eat like a growing teenager but now needs a more normal diet to maintain weight. We have had management change at the barn, and there’s been a learning curve/adjustment, and I’ve caught some mistakes in the forage feeding, but nothing huge or like he missed food for many hours (I think). The grass is growing like crazy, but he’s on a mostly dry lot. He nibbles some through the fence. I also do a light amount of hand grazing. No change in any of this over the past few years.
He did get his hocks injected last week (and 2 doses of Banamine with that), and I had him on Nexium as a preventative since injections in the past have caused an ulcer flareup. He is super sensitive about anything having to do with his gut, and I’ve got him on a tightly curated mixture of GI support supplements (fore and hindgut) that through trial and error keep things manageable for him. But sometimes he’s a little extra gassy or something and easily gets upset about that.
He also has a history of back pain which just seemed to tie in with his gut neuroses. In that he’d be prone to a parked out stance and sometimes would fuss because it seemed like he didn’t know if he had to poop or pee or pass gas or if his back or SI hurt or all of the above. He has never been good about pooping on the move, but his back has improved a lot, and so he is getting less neurotic about it all. He usually pees before he starts work.
Yesterday, he wouldn’t eat his dinner grain/supplements. He would eat the grain without supplements. He’d eat beet pulp plain. I tried a freshly mixed up batch of supplements, and no dice. Occasionally, he’s a little fussy about the Platinum GI when we get towards the end of the bucket, so I thought that might be it (maybe the flax gets rancid?), and I fed him just his TC senior plain to get him to eat something. I called Platinum about this as well to adjust the size of bucket.
But the past couple of days, he’s also been drinking more than usual and peeing a lot more volume, all pretty healthy streams, no straining or anything, but clear and a lot. He even peed on the cross ties yesterday which he never ever does–he’d rather run you over to get out to soft ground than do that (which has happened once or twice when heavily sedated for something and the sedation made him have to pee). No fussing or anything, just had to go and did. Very weird. I’ve checked for a bean.
He is eating his hay normally. Not acting ulcery other than being put off by something in his grain. Very calm and actually maybe a little more sweet than normal to handle. Temp normal. Heart rate normal. Pulses normal. Sound. Manure normal if anything maybe more formed balls today than average (can get a little soft sometimes and he often passes manure quickly in more of a mound). Seems to be passing a normal amount of manure.
A couple weeks ago, he was maybe drinking slightly less than normal, and I noticed his pee was a little more cloudy than average (they want him to pee in a bucket, not the arena footing), but he eats alfalfa and so I figured it was just calcium secretion more visible in a more yellow, concentrated pee. Never seen anything that looked bloody or anything like that.
Vet says he may need a urine sample depending on what the blood shows. Is there anything I’m missing? Vet seems the most concerned about kidneys. He hasn’t had any history of metabolic anything, is kind of young for that, doesn’t have any weird fat pads and if anything looks fairly lean right now. Vet says with the extra drinking he seems to be trying to diurese himself, but why? He’s had the same salt blocks in his stall for a while now–he does like salt, but it’s not like he just recently went to town on a new block or anything.
