Sonny really sick tonight

Clarissa · Sonny really sick tonight

I got home about 5.30pm, unloaded the carton of free apples & usual 20kg bag of horse carrots, along with some fruit for myself, spent 15mins putting it all away & getting changed to feed horses.

I walked around the verandah to see where they were & noted Sonny was still down by the dam which was very unusal since he is always hovering at the back gate ready for dinner.

I whistled him but he didn't move. Jude & Cassie were waiting at the fence.

My worst fears were realised.....sick horse at 6pm Friday evening!

I ran down the hill to Sonny to find him standing with head right down, eyes half closed, back humped up, feet all infront of each other, not a movement. No breathing, no gut sounds, whole body felt hot & dry, gums very pale & slow refill, skin slow to retract, fresh poo behind had slime or mucus all over it. Then he peed which was cloudy & strong smelling. I tried to get him to move but he was not able to move even 1 foot.

I quickly checked for blood from puncture wounds or swelling from snake bite but found nothing.

So I left him there & ran as best I could back uphill & rang vet who took only 12mins to arrive.

By that time I had gone back to Sonny with halter & really impressed upon him the need to walk with me & we had made some progress across the slope but he had no strength to move uphill. Movement seemed to wind him & he was almost panting.

Vet met us & took vitals. temp:- 40C !!! no gut sounds, racing heartbeat, shallow fast respiration, no pupil response. Vet diagnosed some form of rampant internal infection, administered several shots including something to bring down his temp, one to relieve the colic style muscle spasm, 2 types of AB's, valium, & something else I can't remember.

Sonny showed small improvement within minutes & began to tentatively nibble at some grass. As vet gave me instructions for night watch, Sonny came good & walked to back of house.

So I am on night watch with 2hrly ob's, last ob's taken at 1am; temp 37.5 (it's taken since 6.30 to drop to that) reasonable normal heartrate & respiration with some small gut sounds. He still is weak & 'soft', with head still down somewhat but huge improvement.

Vet will come again tomorrow morning for more tests & shots unless things turn bad during night. As the shots begin to wear off he might relapse some apparently. If I note his temp begin to rise again I have to check every 30mins.

So why is he sick? 2 unusual things have happened this last week; it's 9days since I spot sprayed half of paddocks with glyphosate (Roundup) to kill the groundsel (weeds) which also kills the grass around the weed bush. It goes very yellow & sweet which horses may eat. I have seen mine eating that sprayed grass & taken note previously but no adverse effects other than mucus covered poos for a day. When I saw that Sonny had passed some poo with thick strands of mucus over it I immediately thought he had a big gut full of sprayed grass (unusual for him but not unknown). That spray can also cause a deoxygenation of the blood.

Then later this evening I also remembered that yesterday I was slashing weeds with the machette & had the horses in that section of the old orchard. I also topped a lot of peach seedlings because Cassie likes eating them & I'm sure peach is poisonous at certain times of year. We have a weed in Aust called Poison Peach which is related to peaches & nectarines etc but doesn't get fruit. The new leaf tips have a goodly amount of cyanide in them for protection against insect attack which kills horses.

I'm wondering if Sonny picked up some of those as he grazed near me as I slashed the weeds & later while awaiting dinner last night. It is likely he was already ill this morning because the horses weren't at the back fence at breakfast time as usual. They were down at the dam. He might have been sick already & I didn't realize it. I was just glad they had finally got the message that winter brekkie of hay was over for the year since it is now summer here with lots of good grass.

Anyway they are all 'in' for the night in the new play area I built last month which they aren't accustomed to at all. So luckily I have that box of free apples to dish out all night!

Here's hoping Sonny keeps getting better. The car will have to wait yet another year to be serviced!

Vet house call after 6pm Friday is certainly an expensive event, not to mention another house call tomorrow.

cokey

Groundsel is a relative of ragwort and equally toxic, I believe.. It may well be that.

Got all my fingers and toes crossed for you and Sonny..

PasoBaby_CarolU

Oh Clarissa, that does NOT sound good at all. I'll keep all my fingers and toes crossed for him. It sounds very much like how I lost Santiago. I hope Sonny a SAVE.

You'll be in my prayers.

babs

Sending healing thoughts your way. Please keep us updated on Sonny's progress.

Clarissa

3am ob’s temp up to 38c but maybe that’s his normal circadian rhythm. There are now hind gut sounds but also some mild muscle spasm timed with the empty liquid spurt type sounds but no poos yet. I toyed with the idea of putting his light rug on him because his cool external hair & skin temp doesn’t reflect his slightly higher internal temp. But after I had leant gently against him for several minutes listening to the gut sounds & getting the respiration by moonlight, there seemed to be ample warmth coming through. I'd say the night temp is about 18c out there tonight with good moisture. His hair coat is quite dry though indicative of the slightly higher internal temp.

I had taken a very small 2 handfull feed for him but left it at the hay stack until I knew he was ok to eat high nutrient food. I decided not to give it to him because he hasn't eaten his grass hay & didn’t want to eat the apple I gave him while I took his temp. So obviously the shots are now wearing off some.

It’s almost dawn here now so I think I will take the opportunity to have an hour’s kip incase the day turns out to be really big.

Yes_But_Neigh

Oh Clarissa, I am just devastated for you. Sending healing thoughts to Sonny- I am really hoping you will be able to get some sleep and in that time he will turn around.

PasoBaby_CarolU

It sounds like he is doing a little better, but not out of the woods yet. Prayers are still headed your way....

(((HUGS)))

cheerios

Definitely will be thinking of you guys.

Sounds like you are doing everything you can for him--I hope that he'll show some improvement and that tomorrow will be better than today.

whudson

So sorry to hear that Clarissa...hope everything turns out well for you.

becdubie

Dang...hang in there Clarissa and Sonny. I'm sure it was a long night, here's hoping daylight brought some good things.

misstux

Prayers and hugs for you and Sonny.

Clarissa

Checked Sonny again at 5.15am.

He was still quite weak & temp back up to 38.5c but he had eaten his grass hay & put his ears forward to me as I aproached so I took that to all be good.

I let Jude & Cassie out & they all went to the old orchard to graze. He had a pee that was normal & poo'd normal so I just sat & watched what he ate for about 30mins. I was interested to see if he went for some other weeds I had slashed down or the peach prunings but he just was hunting out the long couch runners. I know couch roots are medicinal but can't remember what it does.

Vet came again at lunch time while Sonny was supervising me doing repairs to the old irrigation system beside the driveway. Ob's were almost normal with watery gut sounds so he just gave Sonny another round of shots & left me with some AB for next few days.

About an hour after vet left I gave Sonny the little feed I'd made for him last night with the new supplement in it & he was very keen to eat it. So I will make another for him midafternoon.

Vet just tended to think it was colic with inflamatory complication. To me that's like 100yrs ago when humans were said to have consuption! We know so much more today as to what the illness really is that is 'consuming' the patient.

He said peach leaves (cyanide) would cause liver damage causing slower longer lasting illness, the other weeds he was eating weren't toxic, he thought the sprayed grass around the groundsel bushes was too dead to be a problem now & in anycase it wouldn't cause such a firey inflamation, no part of Sonny's external body was hot to indicate inflamation. I thought of entroliths due to him having so much calcium supplement as a youngster growing up on kikuya & setaria but vet said he hoped not! lol.

I asked if the swamp cancer may have got hold of him again but vet said if a pustule had escaped the canker when he was opperated on as a 3yo, it would've done it's damage well before now. I thought about how he had played up so much during our ride on Wednesday afternoon I think or was it Thursday afternoon? I can't remember now but he did get above himself a lot & it took ages to have him settle to walk home. So I wondered if I may have bruised his kidneys trying to sit further back on him incase I was causing his backbone to hurt behind his wither. But the kidney region of his back doesn't feel hot & isn't sore to palpate.

So cause unknown. Somehow deep down I don't think it's the last. Eventually I will discover the cause, probably at great expense

The last 20hours have been very expensive, that's for sure, & as they say "the outgoings always are slightly more than the incomings!"

or as I heard it put another way by a horse person "the size of the vet's bill is always proportional to funds saved for an another reason!" lol

Anyway all's well that ends well. I need to get some sleep now too

Thanks for all your thoughts & hugs. I'll pass them on to Sonny too.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Thanks for the update Clarissa. I was just checking the forum before bed, hoping for good news about him. You've been in my thoughts off/on all day today. I know how scary these things are.

Did he say anything about maybe an ulcer? Or a milder case of salmonella?

Sometimes you know you never know.

((HUGS)) and prayers headed your way.

Clarissa

Thanks Carol.

Sonny has never been off pasture or without some sort of food to nibble on so I think that would preclude an ulcer, though one can never be sure about these things without looking inside.

But the selmonella thing is an interesting thought. That could be caused by moldy hay or grain left soaking too long or perhaps sunflower seed left soaking too long. They haven't had any hay for 2wks now & I do soak their barely & sunflower seed but only a few hours before feedtime & there's never any leftovers.

I wonder if it could also be caused from eating rotting wood which they have all been hoeing into with great gusto this last 2wks. Any type of sawn or natural wood that's soft or got dry rot has been getting the royal treatment including barks. Considering the supplements they get they shouldn't be short of nutrients. They're not getting the recommended dose (too costly) but I think they are healthy enough.

I wonder if he had a big lump of wood in his belly? He has been known to chew & swallow fairly large lumps of branch or bitten off pieces of sawn timber. He's got the chomping power of a crocodile! eek: lol

misstux

Sometimes you just never know. My dear Dusty was hospitalize at UC Davis the first time with a temp of 104 and almost no white blood cells. What white blood cells he did have were riddled with toxic bands. They never came up with a diagnosis. They told me that they'd never seen a horse with bloodwork like his go home. I told them that they were wrong. We were together another 8 years. The point is that the doctors don't always know what is wrong. Sometimes you just have to be happy when they get better.

I hope Sonny continues to improve.

thelmanelle

Wow, I just read this prayers and healing thoughts for Sonny and rest for you, Clarissa.

I know this is difficult and stressful.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Clarissa, we haven't heard any updates, and I'm starting to worry. I hope that means he is doing better and you forgot to tell us....

Clarissa

Thanks everyone for all your concerns.

Sonny is progressing well enough although tonight he didn't want to join the other horses down the paddock after feedtime! Actually I think he likes being in the houseyard because it makes him feel special! lol

Also when he's 'off' he likes to stick near & suck up to me so I know tonight he is not 100% yet.

I gave him a good old scratch all over & a bit of a massage, then told him 'goodnight' & left him. I heard him sigh heavily. Poor boy, it must be hard being a mummy's boy!

I'm sure he is still feeling a bit sick but there's nothing more I can do, he'll feel better in a few days. They'll get let into the houseyard in the morning again.

Sorry about no update today. I had to catch up on some sleep this morning, then spent time with the horses in the yard & this afternoon I had prearranged with the girl renting my cabin to do maintainence & she only had this one afternoon to help me so I didn't even turn the computer on unitl an hour ago just before 11pm. For a change because I am still tired, I just sat & watched a movie on TV...the latest remake of Dukes of Hazzard. I used to love watching the series years ago. It's original version was on TV about the same era as Starsky & Hutch. Well that's how it was in Australia.

Anyway I think Sonny will be ok in a few days once the AB's are finished. I think the reason he is feeling a bit off is that the original double barrel Ab's the vet gave him have worn off.

One thing that will be interesting to watch in a week or so is to see how badly affected his coronet bands will be from the inflamation. Particularly since it was such a quick agressive inflamation. I did feel his hooves occasionally & there didn't seem to be any heat. One thing that I did think could be the cause was a puncture wound under the hoof from riding him barefooted the other day but I found nothing. There could just be a bulge in the growth pattern of the coronet or there could be a total split in the layers.

learningthedance

That was a scary ordeal to go through for the both of you. In this case, it's good he is such a Mummy's boy. He knows you will make him feel better.

Glad he is on the mend Clarissa.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Thanks for the update Clarissa. I am so relieved. I was so worried about him and you. Glad he is on the mend for sure.

thelmanelle

Yes, Good news!

CoolsLadyInRed

So glad to hear Sonny is better! I thought about you while cleaning the barn and said a prayer for him. Thanks for the update

babs

That's wonderful that he is coming around!

becdubie

Phew....so glad to hear the Sonny is recooperating.

cheerios

Glad to hear that things are going better. I hope that he continues to improve. Keep us updated.

Clarissa

I posted a reply earlier today but it got lost as my computer had a dummy spit & cut the internet connection right when I hit submit

So I went out & took some photos of Sonny as he grazed in the houseyard while the computer did a restart & cooled it's heels for a few hours! That'll teach it!

Sonny is in the houseyard by himself today. He seems much better. He is back to holding 'court' over the fences with both Jude & Cassie on one side of the houseyard & the 2 arab mares on the other side with him on the higher part of the ridge in the middle. So all his girls hanging around ogling him as usual.

He has been asking me to rub his neck where he had all those injections so his body must be healing now.

He was right down the end of the yard at the water trough near the play area where the recent strong wind had blown the blue drums all around

Then he spotted me & had to come see what I had for him.

I have just had an update to my photo handling software with some whizz bits & pieces so I had some fun

misstux

Glad to hear and see that Sonny is doing so much better.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Awwwww, for sweet! Tell him I'd LOVE to come party with him, it looks SO MUCH nicer then here! BRRRRR

Glad he is feeling better.

bit

He is an arnoldswartenager horse! He's built! Glad he is feeling better!

CoolsLadyInRed

He's a handsome buck! Well built and solid. Thanks for the pix and update.

thelmanelle

He's quite a handsome fellow! So glad he is doing better!

thebundychick

OMG! Only just found this thread - So glad he doing better!!

Love the pics!!