It is Friday!!

Thank you all for asking about Slick.

He is a bit better.

Hubby succeeded in his duty of filling a bowl with soaked and very wet beet pulp pellets and a scoop of psyllium 3 times a day for Slick while I was away.

When I would call to inquire about Slick, Hubby would say, “He ate it all!  He was very hungry!”

Me:  Did you notice if he still had runny stools.

Hubby:  Uhhh.  No.

Me:  Did you notice if his breath still was rank and infectious smelling?

Hubby:  Definitely didn’t get that close…

Me:  Did he seem like himself?  Was he uncomfortable at all?

Hubby:  What do you mean?

Me:  Did he look like his stomach hurt?

Hubby:  No.  He seemed exactly like himself.

Me:  Has he gained any weight?

Hubby:  In two days?

Me:  I mean, has he filled out any on his topline.

Hubby:  His whatline?

Me:  Is he still alive.

Hubby.  Yes.

 

And so it goes.

I cannot really tell you how he is other than he is still alive and eating well.

However, tonight when I arrived home, I ran out to his paddock to check on him.  With my trusty headlamp, I could see that he was indeed, still alive.

Also, he was head-butting me for food so he seemed to be his normal self.

And, when I lifted up his tail (which he hates), I didn’t see any signs of new runny manure.

So, I think he is better… but I’m guarded because I don’t think nighttime reviews are very good.

VET DIAGNOSIS

For all of you that don’t know Slick’s plight, the vet thinks he has sand in his gut – for the first time ever – and his advice was very sloppy wet and soaked beet pulp with psyllium.

Sand in gut was the first issue…

We know Slick is Cushings and older Cushings horses often develop abscesses and infections.  The vet thinks the awful smell in his mouth is a sinus infection from a tooth.  Whatever the bad smell is, it is unrelated to the sand in gut problem, but it happened suddenly at the same time.

He thinks Slick is losing weight because of the sand mostly and maybe due to the tooth – although Slick is eating vigorously.

Once the diarrhea has stopped and Slick gains some footing, we will look into his mouth and figure out what is going on visually or with Xrays.  From there we will decide what to do.

The next immediate step is to get a handle on his Cushings.  When he was younger, his Cushings didn’t seem to be an issue… but now, clearly, it is.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow, he and Norma will be started on Prascend.  It is what they use now instead of Pergolide for Cushings.  The vet felt that since Slick is Cushings, his entire immune system is compromised.  When the immune system is compromised, infections and abscesses happen more often.

Since Norma had a horrible abscess last year, the bell inside my head rang.

Hmmmmm.

They are both Cushings.  They are both older (19/20) and they have both been very sick recently (Norma last year and Slick now).

I decided to try the Prascend since clearly Cushings has been knocking at the door.

I am also aware of many natural supplements for Cushings and I will get some Heiro for Slick as I liked what it did for Norma.  I also have supplements from Omega Alpha that are used for regulating sugars for Cushings so I’ll start him on Adren-X.  I love all of the Omega Alpha products so I have high hopes for Adren-X.  (I originally had it for Norma.)

Once Slick is looking stable, I will have the vet and his Xray machine out to check his head for whatever is causing the bad smell.  I’d sure like it to be simple that would clear up with antibiotics.  The vet has already told me all about extracting teeth, etc.

Ugh.

SLICK

For now, Slick is acting like himself.  He was banging on his gate when I just went to visit him.  He snaked his neck when he saw that I didn’t have any treats and then he head-butted me.

He is such a little criminal, thank Gawd he isn’t bigger…  ;)

I want to make him healthy so I have many more years of his pony-abuse!

 

 

 HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

 

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