Tess report
May. 2nd, 2006 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoThanks 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.
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.
