Besides pony being sick and trying to die…again…which my fat thumbs cannot fully type everything on my phone right now…
Why would his pee all of a sudden smell like human asparagus pee? Any takers/ideas?
Any new supplements or food? My lease mare’s urine stinks like that and has since we started Vitamin E.
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Nope nothing new except exceed and banamine, but the exceed was saturday and he has had banamine before. Electrolytes blueberry kind tubed into him saturday too but I figure that would be out of him by now.
Could your pony have an infection? Asking because dog and human urine can have an odor like sulfur (or asparagus) when they have a urinary tract infection or a systemic infection where the urine is also carrying the bacteria.
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Yes he does thank you!!! Some sort of infection with a fever spiking to 104 as of this morning. (Banamine brought it down to 99 in under 2 hrs though, thank God!) We don’t know what infection and no clear signs to work off of… no diarrhea, everything sounds and looks clear, hydrated, no loose or infected teeth. Yet he has a raging fever and has started with the asparagus pee smell, even with the exceed so we are switching to uniprim as of tonight.
He is prone to urinary tract infections, so that might help us narrow it down you rock! He is getting blood work, nasal swabs, and manure samples shipped off to Cornell for a fever of Unknown Origin PCR panel, it should have gone out today.
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Agree that a urine sample is in order. E coli has a distinctive odor. I could always smell it in samples I ran.
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We can’t pull a urine sample on him unless we did something like an amniocentisis (sp?) like they do on pregnant people.
That would do it. I had a horse that stunk to high heaven when we got him. He was under weight and there was so much wrong. I didn’t comment because my experience was a horse who obviously wasn’t given the proper care. That being said an infection could be the answer.
My horse was quarantined before associating with the heard so I can’t pinpoint what fixed it with how much was wrong. Infection, which I’m sure my horse at the time had, could be the reason.
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Aww I hope he is all better and healthy and happy now! Ponyboy is spoiled rotten, stall clean and accessible at all times, field picked every couple days, warm water from the house in buckets because I am too lazy to drag the hose out in the winter… he likes to keep me guessing and on my toes. I am betting uti or something urinary related though. Praying he does not have stones anywhere.
Oh that was years ago and he was happy and healthy until we needed to euth at 23. But thank you all the same
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Free catch urine samples are perfectly adequate for a basic urinalysis. In a gelding a catheter sample is also an option
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At the risk of bringing this up but it is one of his major weird born with issues…he only has a urethra, nothing to ‘drop’. You would have to go almost mid upper arm deep to feel the urethra. So any stream caught would be contaminated from sloshing around his sheath as it sprays everywhere on its way out.
Same issue with a cath, there is nothing to be seen, held, poked with the cath to get into his bladder. Where the urethra is, you can get maybe half of a whole finger in there. His urethra is maybe the size of a mans thumb. I can barely feel the “hole” his urine comes out of it is literally impossible for him to get dirt or a bean in it though pretty much. But that is good all things considering, n that’s why any type of urinalysis would have to be done poked through his bladder through his side abdominal wall which reminds me of a pregnant person having to have their amniotic fluid sampled.
Honestly I would chalk it up to infection since it’s not the norm for him.
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That is what vet and I are figuring. But the cornell pcr hopefully will either tell us what kind of infection, or rule out a ton of infections right away. If he keeps getting these then the only other thing I can think to do is take him to a major vet hospital, UT is the closest, and get as close to a full liver, kidney, spleen and bladder workup as possible. One thing is he always is yawning, even with ugard for over a month now, and constantly, consistently looking at his left side when he is feeling bad. Which makes me wonder about the stones too.
Well, this is something I’ve never heard of. Wow!
While I’m certainly not a vet AT ALL, it seems understandable that with this anomaly he could have a urinary tract infection. It would be quite easy, I’d think, for him to get an E.coli infection or something similar. The fever could be indicative of the infection tracking back to his kidneys. I sure hope the new antibiotic works!
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Yep, my vet was shocked, it is a constant subject of conversation and speculative reasoning behind these ‘bouts’ for lack of better terminology that he has been getting recently.
I wish I could help more but he had so many issues I can’t say what it was
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It’s ok, I didn’t mean to hijack or derail my own thread either lol. Just was curious about the weird asparagus pee smell more than anything. The input does help solidify me thinking for sure uti.
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I’m sorry my experience couldn’t be more helpful beyond needing help lol. My horse stunk up the barn and became one of the best horses I’ve ever known.
ETA he came to us under weight and with a dull coat. We followed my vets advice and he became an amazing spit fire of a horse. He was starved to keep him manageable. The whole thing was awful but he will always be one of my favorites.
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I had a mare like that in Oct. She only lasted about 1.5months. Multiple issues. One of which being liver failure, and I googled earlier…and checked with my vet that ran her blood if it was a possibility…I am now paranoid that my boy has equine hepatitis, fml.
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