Increasing horse's appetite?

Sorry, I wonder if taking him in and having them feed him by IV with a ton of fluid and take him off all feed to get him completely cleared out would be beneficial. I would probably do another us to see if he's got a spot where he is getting hung up.

It sounds like he feels better right after a tubing, so it makes me think the large bulus of fluid is pushing the gas and or feed through we're it's getting trapped.

We had a really rough go with the guy that we had the displacement on... we were tubing him a 3 times a day to get the gas out and push fluids through.... in the end it paid off. The fact that this guy is coming back bright is a good sign, he still has fight in him.

 

Oh does he have fight! So she made a meal for him of 1/2 lb. senior soaked in a gallon of warm water and then more water was added when she served him and she added about 1/3 of a cup of oil to it as well. You'd think she tried to poison him!! Oh my gosh, he was MAD!!!!! He HATES oil and he took that bucket and dumped it right over so it was all over the floor of the stall and I swear he gave her the death stare! LOL So yeah - he has fight!!

The surgeon is away for the weekend but Monday morning she's going to see if there is anything else they can do to help. Fortunately it is the weekend and she's home so she's feeding him 1/2 lb. senior soaked well every hour or so in order to keep that bolus smaller. We're hoping that while he might have up and downs, he will start having more ups than downs and eventually can get past all of this!! It's getting so frustrating!

 

So it seems feeding every 3-4 hours and adding certain things to his feed is doing the trick. He is now getting a full pound of senior every 3-4 hours soaked to make a very thin soup and some other stuff to help the gas (baking soda), and to make the manure much thinner - just about diarrhea - so that it is easier to get through the surgical site. We think that the reason he kept colicking was because it was hurting as manure was going through. So by keeping it watery, it's been MUCH better for him. I took him for a 20 minute walk today with a couple of nibbles of grass and he's doing great. He hasn't colicked since Thursday! His owner may be on the right program for him. Tomorrow she will bump the feed to 1.25 pounds for a few days. He's as skinny as all get-out but hopefully he'll be gaining soon.

 

Poor baby. He sounds like he is making progress, hang in there.

 

An update on the boy: There are days he does great and eats like a horse (LOL) and other days he just turns his nose up at it. Today was one of those days. His owner texted me and told me he just refused his grain and stood in the corner. He wants his hay badly and is happy to get it but if he gets too much, he gets uncomfortable. Our suspicion is that it is uncomfortable when food passes that connection in his belly and while it is getting better, it may just not feel right yet. At least he stopped losing weight! The vet said it takes 3-6 months to get back to normal and this week is 7 weeks since the surgery so I keep telling his owner to just watch carefully, go with the flow with him and know that by the end of the winter, he should be better. Oh and he is so ravenous for hay that she gave him a handful of hay in a slow feed hay net inside of a nibble net - and he literally ate the hay net!!!! All that was left was about a foot of the drawstring and the metal rings and clip. Fortunately that was over 2 weeks ago and he's had no unusual effects from that, the jerk. The vet tubed him and we waited and we don't see it in his poop but like I said, he's no worse from it all so maybe he chewed it enough that we just didn't see it. OY!! This guy's poor owner is loosing her mind over him each time he doesn't eat but what else can you do? If it is uncomfortable, you've got to let him do what he needs to do! He's on Ulcerguard now too so if there is an ulcer, that will help. She got the results back from pathology on is colon and it seems he had IBS pretty badly! Crazy!

 

I was wondering how he was doing.

With the IBS, it might be worth doing a trial of Teff hay or Teff pellets with him. The Carbohydrate has a different molecular chain. I started feeding Teff last year when we got a mare in with hind gut acidosis in, it was a miracle feed for her. The hay can be hard to find, but Equis makes a Teff Pellet that your feed store might be able to order in for you.

 

Final update, unfortunately.

My friend's horse was not doing well yesterday on and off. He was down and moaning when her mom went to feed at about 10:30 and she asked if I could go over. I did and he was up and whinnying and looking for food. I hand walked him, let him graze a little and gave him about 1/3 lb. of senior to give him something and he gobbled it up. Didn't give him hay though. I left and he was on and off all day. Last night around 10, my friend called the vet to see if there is anything else she could do - maybe give him a sedative along with banamine to get him through he night (he wasn't "colicking" but he just wasn't right. As she was talking, he suddenly arched his back hard and had a spasm and stayed that way, suddenly sweating like he ran a race in 90 degree weather. The vet came and felt a big pocket of gas and they tried everything to get that out - even trotting him in the ring (he would be cleared to trot today from the surgery). His pulse on the sedative was over 80 and there was a puddle of sweat on the floor. There was really no other choice. He was put down around 1 am.

I told my friend that NO one else would have done what she did and she gave him every chance he had to make it. He just had too much wrong inside (they think the IBS was in his small intestines too - and it was some sort of food allergy but they never could figure out what it was). He was just 8 years old.

 

I am so very sorry. Please give my condolences to your friend.

 

Oh no. Your poor friend, she tried so hard. . . Sending good wishes her way.

 

Very sorry, but I hope she rest assured that she did all she could for him.