Newly Rescued Miniature Horse Very Ill

[Mini Horses]

Parasites &/or ulcers can cause blood loss. This guy sounds really far gone and I wish you well but, it sounds like desperate situation since you are not "sure" of the problem. A fecal will certainly help to determine parasite load as well as blood in manure. Once they get this low on energy, their organs will normally begin shut down. He would stagger once up with no energy to his body & blood loss will cause anemia and loss of strength. Yes Enrich Plus is high protein, vit/min in a small dosage amount. I always have it at my farm and have used to top dress those on heavy forage to be sure they are getting needed nutrition but, is not for actually putting on weight. A good Senior feed will usually help with that. I use Blue Seal feeds (30 yrs!) and recommend Sentinel Senior, an extruded pellet, complete feed. Having many seniors (25-32 y/o) I can attest to the product being excellent.

An ulcer med would be a strong consideration for me. The stronger ones require a vet RX but a lighter dose can be obtained and will help some if that is the problem. It would not be something that I would consider being detrimental if ulcers are not present---I believe they probably are. As others have said, fast die off of large parasite load can be toxic in itself, esp in his condition. BUT....need treated if that is the issue an have vet help deal with the situation. It may be, as suggested, a milder type med, then stronger a couple weeks later.

As you have acknowledged, we are giving suggestions based on your description of condition and our own experience as to the most common issues we have seen/known to cause these problems, not saying other things aren't present. I will pray for this animal as he will need all the help we can offer him.

 

[llamamama]

He made it through all of the evening yesterday and last night without falling down. He's been great all of today too. I called a farm vet and they suggested UlcerGard once a day for 30 days and to call back once I received the results for his fecal test. They want me to continue with Red Cell as well. They wouldn't advise on wormers obviously because they aren't sure of the worms he has or the amount. Thank you all for the thoughts and well wishes!

 

[Kusanar]

I'm going to agree with everyone here, do the fecal count to check for worms, and please call a horse vet if you come up with a heavy load, he's small, and he's already weak, if there is a large load, it would be VERY easy to kill him with a dose of wormer if you aren't careful, so please call and see how much to give him.

I also agree with whoever said to use alfalfa, apparently alfalfa will coat the stomach and protect against ulcers like a very mild ulcer medication, so get some alfalfa or alfalfa mix cubes (cubes are better than pellets, they have more intact fiber) and soak them until they are about to fall apart. You can give him up to 0.02% of his body weight per day in pellets (weight before soaking) without worrying about it. Also, soaked pellets have a lot of water in them, so you could put the feed where he could reach it if he goes down and he can munch while he waits for you to get him back up.

Is there any way you can put him in a sling? He shouldn't weigh much, horses are designed to be on their feet most of the day, if he's going down this much, he's going to be putting a lot of stress on his circulation.

Check his feet, look for ripples on the outside of the hoof surface and feel for heat, those are signs of founder/laminitis.

Also, this seems strange, but lift his tail, see if it feels completely limp of if he has some fight to him, most horses will attempt to clamp their tail down when you mess with it, if he leaves it limp, mess around with the area under it, just irritate him and try to make him clamp it down.. These symptoms could also be neurological with the loss of balance and inability to get up on his own, he COOULD have EPM which is spread by opossums and is pretty much everywhere. I hate to tell you, unless you have a lot of money and time to sink into him, EPM will be a death sentence but there are tests to be sure. It's really hard to get a horse back from that.

Good luck, keep us posted, and let us know what's going on.

 

[Kusanar]

Greetings and welcome to BYH @llamamama Sorry to hear you're having problems with your mini... A couple of other folks who I believe may have some horse knowledge are @Bunnylady and @Kusanar

Thanks for adding me to this one, I hadn't noticed it yet. I just wrote a small book....

 

[Bunnylady]

Thanks for adding me to this one, I hadn't noticed it yet. I just wrote a small book....

And a book well worth reading.

Incidentally, I own a horse that was once diagnosed with EPM. Fortunately, she was just beginning to show symptoms when she was diagnosed, and her owner at the time was willing to spend the money; as near as we can tell, she has made a complete recovery.

 

[Latestarter]

All I can say is that it's wonderful to have folks to tag at all! There is so much knowledge and experience here that is willingly shared with others. Sites like this (and the active participants) are absolute God-sends!

 

[Apaulsen2890]

Poor little thing... Any mini I've seen has always been huge, even on a bad pasture! We don't feed our draft horse that much grain! In fact, he gets none in the summer cus shes so big from the pasture alone.
I hate to say this because I know it's expensive, but you need to get the vet out right away if you want to save him.... I'd be too worried that giving him too much medicine could hurt him more... I like the soaked alfalfa suggestion to at least help keep him hydrated. You could maybe even give him some watermelon to help with that too. Hydration is super important at this time.
Call the vet!
Fingers crossed for you and the little one!

 

[Mini Horses]

Agree with sling, also you can attempt to put him up on his sternum & prop him with a bale of hay. The soaked alfalfa is good but I caution to NOT feed him lying down as he can aspirate and then you have pneumonia or more, to deal with. So try to get him up to ea & drink, in some manner.

You can check for dehydration by pulling up skin into a "tent" and let go, if it doesn't spring back quickly but, stays up, he's in real need of fluid. This can also affect his blood flow, heart rate, stress, recovery -- so vet can IV fluid or tube into stomach if they determine he can handle that.

As others have said, several things could be going on. There is a "new" EPM treatment that I understand is VERY good. Nice thing about minis is that they need smaller doses of many meds, so what may be the cost of a week's meds for a full sized horse may be a month for a mini! (Sorry about you guys with the drafts, it goes the other way )

Do you have a trailer or a camper shell on a truck? If so, I would put him in there, ride with him & have someone drive to the vet.

 

[Apaulsen2890]

I like the hay bale idea! Definitely have to keep the hydration up.
@Mini Horses Can you tell us more about the epm treatment? I haven't heard about it. And gee thanks for the draft comment.... And our draft is big for a draft even... Hes' a terd lol
I agree that he needs to get to a vet, even if that means getting him there instead of them coming. Better to get him there and on the road to possible recovery than waiting any longer.

 

[llamamama]

Good news: he hasn't gone down at all since I've made this post. He's been getting UlcerGard for 3 days now which seems to be helping. He's continuing to get Red Cell and Probiotics. My local feed store has ordered Thrive feed for me.

Bad news: His fecal test came up with a large load of coccidia. I've had this in chickens before but from what I've gathered online, it's not common in horses. The vet had to look up a treatment because he'd never heard of cocci in a horse. He came up with Marquis but TSC & the animal health store don't sell it. I'm afraid waiting for it to get here from ordering it online would take too long. Plus it's horribly expensive.

Are there any other treatments for cocci in a horse? I will get the Marquis if I have to but if there is something else I can get quicker then I'd prefer that.