Stimulating appetite in a senior with lymphoma

Thanks so much for your kind words and jingles. :heart:. He’s never met a living creature he didn’t love. We always swore if we won the lottery we’d get him his own petting zoo because he’d love the other animals and the kids who would visit. Truly a sweet, sweet guy. This one’s gonna really hurt.

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Fenugreek?

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Brought tears to my eyes…,

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I have no suggestions, just want you to know my heart breaks for you Fargaloo. I know it’s been a tough few years. Big hugs.

I love that photo of him in the stall. He looks like a grand and festive patriarch. I hope you can find something that gets his appetite going again.

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You guys are amazing — thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and your kind thoughts. It means more than I can say :heart:

@Angela_Freda — fenugreek is a great idea; I had complete forgotten about that. Will give it a try, for sure.

My daughter visited him in the hospital today and hand grazed him for about 2h in the spring sunshine. She said he seemed brighter than even two days ago, so fingers crossed that he is starting to respond to the steroid. I’m expecting a call from the vet soon about the results of his fecal, so have lots of good ideas to discuss with her.

He comes home tomorrow and we plan to give him all the love he deserves for as long as he has.

Thanks again :heart::heart:

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Definitely try prednisone. Also, if he wants snacks, give him snacks! Stud Muffins, oatmeal cookies, sugar cubes, etc. It’s all calories. We’ve had good luck with Renew Gold, which I see you already talked about above. We used to use Calf Manna - if that is available where you are.

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Lol at this point I’d buy him a cheeseburger if he’d eat it! He’s never been a treat monster, but we’ll give him a buffet :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:. Thankfully, he’s not IR, and his ACTH came back normal, so we really can feed him whatever he’ll eat.

I will absolutely ask specifically about prednisone, and be sure to bring up the anti-nausea drug that @Simkie mentioned.

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Ii was just going to ask about IR and PPID. Whew!

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Best bet on the maropitant is to print off the papers to hand to the vet. (Or send links!) It’s a really novel use, pretty unlikely they’ll be familiar. Absolutely worth discussing, though, and I’d be tempted to try if he were mine! Could be a neat case study for the vet to publish, too.

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Thanks — will do and will report back!

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What a handsome fellow.

A friend had positive results supplementing colostrum to boost appetite in a horse later diagnosed with cancer.

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Another great idea; thank you!

And thanks — we think he’s handsome, too. We think if he had a human voice it would sound like Antonio Banderas :blush:

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I don’t have any suggestions, @fargaloo1, but I want to send lots of jingles and love for your boy :heart::heart::heart:

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Thank you :heart:. I just got a text from my farrier who said “you know I don’t really like horses lol, but he’s one in a million. A solid good animal right to the core.” And now I’m sobbing…

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Guinness is a great idea. Calf Manna, crimped oats, Guinness… all the old-school stuff that still works. Thanks :heart:

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I have had very good success boosting appetite with B12, both when I first brought Bo home from the auction and then again after he had to be in the hospital (where he refused to eat). Your vet would be able to give B12 as a shot, but I have also used the OTC syringe version successfully on my own.

It doesn’t work instantly - I usually saw appetite changes within a day or two, and had to re-dose every ~4 days or so until I switched over to a daily pelleted supplement (Santa Cruz B-12 pellets). If anything, now he thinks he’s starving all the time.

Bo is also the pickiest eater in the world (and has few useful teeth, further complicating things) - I have done the buffet, and bought a bag of nearly everything the feed store sells. :sweat_smile: I feel what you’re going through. Purina Senior or Ultium are the only things he will eat reliably, day after day (4x a day!).

Obviously every horse is different, but I hope you are able to find something he really likes to eat. :heart:

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B12 is another great suggestion— another tool for the toolbox. Thanks.

Fecal PCR came back clear, so he’s ready to be released today. @Simkie — I mentioned the maropitant citrate to the hospital vet and she was very interested— I’m sending the links to her now. We’ll see how the next weeks play out. Off to the feed store (and liquor store lol) to pick up my array of weapons. Thanks for everyone’s jingles and good wishes!

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Please keep me posted, I’d love to hear about that!

Fingers crossed for your sweet guy :heart::heart:

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So, quick update — he’s back from the hospital and SO happy to be home :heart:. He’s on prednisolone 2X daily, and we’re keeping up with the omeprazole. The great news is that his appetite seems to be back — he ate a ton of hay overnight, and he grazed loose for about 3h continuously this morning. Fortunately (?) I’m on medical leave from my job so have time to hand graze him for at least a few hours a day. He’s feisty, too — practically dragged me out of the barn this morning. We put him in single turnout in sight of his herd, and went straight to his feed bucket. His stall looks like a Chinese buffet — he’s got 4 tubs with different things, but what seemed to be the biggest hit was senior, crimped oats, and alfalfa cubes. I picked up some calf manna and will see if he’s interested. I picked up some fenugreek— dusted a tiny bit on a handful of senior and he ate it out of my hand, so that’s promising. If he can keep this up, I think we have a shot at a few good months.

@Simkie — because he seems to have picked up, we’re putting the marotiprant on hold for the moment, but have definitely filed the idea for future consideration. But my vet asked me to thank you for the papers!

Thanks so much for all your help and concern. Will keep you posted. :heart:

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sounds like it is as good as it can be. Plus your vet ( and the rest of us) has access to a possible tool for her future use not only with your friend but other horses in her care

One of those gifts that seem to happen on our journey of sharing our lives with our horses and each other here on COTH

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