Monday, March 8, 2010

It's Only Been a Week and We Take Our First Emergency Trip to the Vet!!!

I feel like in purchasing a new horse one of the most uneasy feelings for me comes from not knowing their complete medical history. I mean sure we ask the person we are buying the horse from for all the information they have but maybe sometimes it isn't enough... So when we made our recent purchase of Krissy the Hubby's and mine's "kind of" joke was that our luck she'll break a leg as soon as we get her home! But in all honesty I fear the switching feeds on a horse, forage and whatever "grain" they get. Krissy was fed alfalfa hay and a 14% horse feed. Here we are feeding her brome hay and a different brand of 14% horse pellets.

So today the goal was for DD and Krissy to get some practice time in. So this afternoon the Hubby went to pull her out of her corral and then comes in and says "Krissy has welts all over her neck and shoulders".....GREAT, she has hives! So I head out to take a peek at her and sure enough she has broken out in hives, I give her a thorough check over on everything else and she is good except for she felt as though she was a little hot. Then she started having a mix of regular and watery stool. So I call my AWESOME Vet & friend and we agreed Krissy needed a dose of Dex so in we went.

Krissy waiting to leave...



By the time we got there some of the welts had gotten a few inches big and started to move back past her neck onto her body. Dr G gave her a good examination and decided that this was a simple case of an allergic reaction so she got the Dex and some Tri-Hist granules to take 2 x daily for 3 days. While I am glad she is fine, I am a bit annoyed that we likely won't figure out what caused this allergic reaction... I am definitely praying that this is the end of it! On a positive note I did learn that Krissy could care less about needles sticking her so that makes my future stick jobs that much easier!! Nothing worse than a horse with a needle phobia!!

Don't ask me why I didn't take any up close shots of the hives....Brain malfunction?! If you click on this picture you can see a few of the welts



Poor baby!!!





14 comments:

  1. I'm not familiar with Dex. Is that like an equine Benadryl? Glad she's okay. She sure is pretty.

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  2. Ahhh, that figures, huh?! She is really such a pretty horse! Glad ya'll got her squared away, and you might wanna keep some Dex on hand in the barn!

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  3. She sure does have a nice head and is so pretty. Just hate when you have these kind of issues with animals. Just wish they could talk! Hope id doesn't happen again.

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  4. Oh dear, how annoying! When we first got Zak one of the other horses kicked him on his first day with us and it cost seventy pounds for the vet to do antibiotics etc. Not happy. Hopefully she will soon settle down. She is lovely, though.

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  5. She's got such a pretty head! I have a horse than has never hurt himself (knock on wood) and another horse that is perpetually getting cut or scraped or something. Or course the latter one is my halter horse and the former in the ranch horse.

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  6. I just still can't get over how cute she is!

    Maybe fly spray? Did you guys use a product on her? Hopefully its nothing she ate.

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  7. did you bring home some of her other hay to slowly mix with yours? could be the hay? jess does well with tri-hist. never heard of dex either. it is always a mystery, i know...one time jess was grazing underneath these pine trees at a boarding farm and she broke out into huge welts...now i don't graze her anywhere near pine but who knows what causes these reacctions...good luck!!

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  8. Oh boy, don't even talk to me about allergies! I could go on for days about my mare and her allergy problems! We have a bottle of Dex on hand always, and oral benadryll works well too, you just have to give a crapload of it. Good luck trying to figure out what caused it too. The crazy thing about allergies is something can set them off once, and then never again. So frustrating. BTW, she is just gorgeous!

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  9. Bummer! I hope she gets better soon and you can figure out what caused it so it doesn't happen again. Poor girl. She sure is a beautiful girl, though.

    I've got a new horse home now, too. It's exciting, but also worrisome.


    ~Lisa

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  10. Well doesn't that just suck.. good thing just allergies though.

    ~Jeni

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  11. Interesting...I wonder what it could be? I guess if you keep her on the same feed and she breaks out again, you'll know it was that. Are you using any particular kind of shavings in her stall/shed?
    She is sure a pretty horse! I'm glad she is feeling better.
    Oh- I have one of those needle-phobe horses and yes, it's awful! :)

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  12. Animals.... it sure would be easier if they could talk...And yes she had some welts! Tell DD she is beautiful!

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  13. Hope she is better soon.She sure is a beauty.

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  14. Leah~ Dex is Corticosteroid (aka steroid hormone).

    Steph~ Nope no fly sprays or anything of the sort!!

    KK~ No we did not bring any of their hay...I wasn't really concerned with it because we were switching her from alfalfa to brome so it doesn't have that sudden increase in protein which can cause them problems..

    Mama H~ I will definitely be keeping some on hand!

    PG~ Basically yes, we will continue to feed her the same. No she doesn't have any shavings etc as she is not in a barn..

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