Tess report

[altivo]

Thanks to everyone who has expressed concern, support, or offered advice.

Tess is back to normal this morning, at least behaviorally. Of course, she is taking bute now, and that's a pretty effective pain reliever for horses and could be masking the symptoms. But it means she will walk willingly and I should be able to easily follow the part of the prescription that requires regular, deliberate walking. Yesterday she was very reluctant to take more than a few steps at a time.

The bute is in powdered form. I've used it before as a paste that you squirt into their mouths, and they don't much like it. I assume it is bitter, but haven't tasted it because I understand it is toxic to humans. Anyway, the white powder is "apple flavored" according to the label on the jar. To me it smells quite enticing, but not like apples. It reminds me of opening a bag of fresh marshmallows, sort of vanilla and sugar smelling. Anyway, Tess is quite willing to eat it when sprinkled over a little food. The isoxsuprene is in tablets the size and color of aspirin, and she gets 15 of them twice a day. We mix them with the food pellets and she just eats them, no problem so far.

The vet also suggested having her stand in buckets of icewater, but I don't know if we can manage that. I may try it if any more symptoms appear. At the moment it looks as if we caught it soon enough. The issue is the horse's digestive system. It can take up to three days for what they have eaten to pass all the way through. So if the upset was triggered by food, there may be more lingering in there that could cause further problems. I suspect not in this case, though, because we know she has had nothing but hay since Saturday morning.

Another remedy in more severe cases is padding the hooves. I'm hoping we won't need that. Unless she has a relapse in the next few days, it shouldn't be necessary. It's a beautiful sunny day out today, though, and I feel bad that she can't be out in the pasture.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I would think that its not so much toxic to humans, as being mixed in concentrations that are designed for the higher BMI of a typical horse.

Mid you, chocolate (or rather its active ingredient theobromine) is lethal to dogs, so I could be wrong. I'd not risk it personally, regardless of how nice it smells.

Glad to see she's getting better anyway.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bute is completely banned in a few countries because of the human toxicity. It's a sore point with some of us. The reason for the ban is not that they fear humans will take the stuff directly, but apparently because it leaves a residue in the horse's flesh so that if the horse is slaughtered for human consumption the drug will reach the human food chain. My solution would be to stop slaughtering horses as food, but in several European countries, this is accepted as a matter of course and they will not give it up.

When used properly for equines, bute is a very effective and inexpensive pain reliever and anti-inflammatory. It is much like aspirin for humans.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Ah. I do believe I have heard of this particular cultural problem. Its the reason for the EU wide equine passports that have caused so much upset (mainly due to their expense) here in the UK.

I am still not 100% sure how a substance can be so deadly to one creature, but not to another. I suppose that 5% or so difference in genetic make up makes all the difference.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yup, it certainly has to do with genes and enzymes and stuff like that. Humans apparently enjoy theobromine as a recreational drug. It is found in tea and maté as well as in chocolate. Birds often eat certain berries with impunity that can be highly toxic to us.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

For those in countries where Bute is banned, there is a very similar-in-effect drug called Buteless. I used it with great success when Diana suddenly had her entire right hindleg stiff and in pain.

I'll look up who makes it next time I'm near the bottle.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Buteless is a liquid formulation of devil's claw and yucca, marketed in the US by Equine America. Tests have found it to be reasonably effective, but it does have side effects and risks just as any drug does. The price, in the US at least, is as high as or higher than that of phenylbutazone, but it is available without prescription and appeals to those who prefer "natural" remedies.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

... Or I can just wait for Tivo to look it up. ;-) Yes, I remember the Devil's Claw/Yucca combination now. Thank you.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

I think the issue with humans and Bute is that it's pretty concentrated and can eventually cause some liver damage, just as taking tons and tons of Ibuprofen can do.

I've gotten the powdered stuff on my hands and unthinkingly wiped my hand against my face and gotten some on my mouth before. It wasn't an actual taste, though. Just got a hint of something sweet. Probably like getting powdered sugar on your lips.

We've gone to the powdered stuff at the barn, both because it's a lot easier/faster than crushing the big pills and because the horses don't seem to mind the taste.

As for standing in buckets, perhaps it would be easier to use a low, wide container, like a litterbox, rubbermaid pan, or even a rubber feedpan?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've already brought in two large rubber feed tubs that normally have water in them out in the pasture. These will work if we have to do the ice thing. If that is necessary though, she will be in pain again and unwilling to lift her feet, which was my concern. She can be very stubborn about that.

I guess once they experience the relief of standing in the cold water, most horses are real cooperative about it the second time, though.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

This is my experience with ice water buckets, too. Yes, the wide rubber tubs. Yes holding them and keeping having to put their hoof back in after they take it away. They are very simple souls and it is up to us to talk to them and make them bid our will, sometimes.

I know better than you type thing. I love you and want the best for you type thing. From my experience with dogs and horses, they ultimately actually seem to understand and cooperate. Just stick in there with her and it will work out. I have no doubt. Yet I understand how you feel and wish the best and also ready and able to offer any helpful comments I might muster.

Tess is a living doll.

[kildoo-lonewolf.livejournal.com]

As every thing you want to teach a horse, you will need patience, self confidence and to repeat it again and again and again...
I would suggest you to do it early in the morning (when you are at your best) or after their last meal at night when everything calms down. I would also suggest to that you do put some nice music that will help you to remain calm and focus while she'll test your patience. ;)

That is one of the thing I miss the most from my old job, the time at night I was taking care or the injuries. The bounds that are made there are so much stronger and it always made me feel good to be able to ease their pains.

Even if you won't need it, I wish you the best of luck.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I know about patience, that's for sure. She's doing so well that the ice water will probably not be needed unless there's a relapse.

[kildoo-lonewolf.livejournal.com]

At one time they were using bute for humans (and is still listed in many drug books as Butazolidin) but they founded better drugs with less sides effects. The main side effects for humans with the bute are ulcers, rashes and renal failure and the maximum dosage was 600mg a day (divided in three or four doses). And to have taste it, I can say that it doesn't taste much but it freezes your mouth quite good.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

My gut tells me (ok, fine, my heart) that Tess will be just fine. After all, she has a real man willing and able to take care of her.

I am very jazzed that you have all these horse-owning and loving friends to help you, just as you all do for me when I have these problems. This is what this forum is really for.

Sure, we can bitch all we like about gas prices and politics, religion and all the stuff we really should not bitch about at work type thing but, also, we can help each-other and support and find a sort of friendship there is no other place to really get this close to ourselves.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hooves crossed, but it looks like pretty clear sailing from here.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

You can also take the big horsepill tablets of Butte and put them into a ziplock plastic bag and smash them on the countertop with a hammer until it is a powder and then mix it with something like applesauce and put it into a saved syringe and squirt it into their lip pocket when they are least expecting.

Done that many a time in spite you sometimes have to hold (Selene's) head up high to prevent them from spitting it back out (usually all over you).

Grin.

Now I am thinking of a letter in one of my horse magazines years ago, from a young lady/girl who had a horse she loved with diahrea and how she spent many nights covered in horse gooey shit but she went through it with a kinda smile because it was for her horse. Or my sister sitting with a sick and poop-squirting pig all over her because it was something she just had to do.

We have our big concerns (politics, societal ills, religion) and yet we have things we simply have to do. It is interesting that women are better at this when it matters and yet we guys can do it also when it matters.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've never actually seen the big old horsepills. :)

I think women may be better at it because of the mother-instinct. They do it with children too (eew!) As for myself, I'd much rather get horseshit on me than engine grease, grit, and oil, yet most men don't seem to be bothered by that at all. I'd rather walk that colicky horse around and around and cry with relief when things break loose and she passes a huge sticky, smelly mess. (Now that will gross someone out.)

For all that I love the things we can do with computers and communications today, in many ways my soul seems to belong to a time before infernal combustion, when the horse was king and we knew it, and everything took time but we knew that too.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Thank you for bringing me back to Earth.

Yes, there is nothing like being close to a horse. Nothing.

[chakawolf.livejournal.com]

Good to hear she's on the mend.