Page 7 - Autumn 23

This summer however Jo rang for help with him again. Ted was colic’ing and off food for the last 3 days. He had been wobbly, pawing, backing away from himself but not kicking. The conventional vet had treated him with phenylbutazone and taken blood, as he was worried that he looked jaundiced. The blood results showed high liver enzymes and high urea with a normal creatinine, and he thought that this was because his blood ammonia levels would be high as he was in gut stasis and started him on metronidazole as well. I first saw him at this stage.
Thursday
He was very depressed, just standing no longer colicky but not eating and passing small amounts of diarrhoea that dribbled down his perineum onto his skin and tail. His gums were very purple and there was a yellow tinge to his sclera. He was drinking small amounts of water. His coat had an odd wave pattern in it and he felt dehydrated. He still whinnied when we approached and was happy with any attention although looked very depressed. The only new things that had happened recently was a new pony in the next-door field, which he seemed quite happy with. There was no change in pasture – the month was July and the strip of grass he was on had no trees on it.
Past history since the acorns
He has been lame in back fetlock and had had a tooth abscess both about 2 years ago. None of these seemed particularly strong trigger factors. I felt he was either a Pulsatilla patient (only drinking small amount and mild
natured) but also Phosphorus fitted well with the liver involvement, so I gave him Pulsatilla 1M once daily for 3 days and Phosphorus 200 twice daily.
Friday
No more diarrhoea and beginning to graze.
Saturday
Eating again little hay and grazing with much more vigour. However his legs had started to become oedematous. It started in his right hind leg and then over the next 2 days spread to the other legs. There were small splits in the skin, where it had stretched so far, tiny bit of bleeding but nothing much. He also some ventral oedema.
Guts however were better and he had done 4 normal poos overnight. His belly also seemed distended and there was loss of muscle over his rump.
Stopped Pulsatilla and Phosphorus.
Started Apis 200 three times daily and Carduus/ Taraxacum 4X liver support twice daily.
Thursday
All the oedema now gone but started to bleed from his mouth and various little splits in his skin, where he had been so swollen. Went back to see him thinking the worst but he met us whinnying and bright eyed. Very thin but
definitely more lively. The blood was coming from the gum around the side of his central upper incisor – bright red and some clotting. There was also blood coming from the cuts on his legs and a large subcutaneous swelling over his left lumbar fossa. A haematoma?
Teds owner, Jo, was wondering, if we should put him to sleep, as the conventional vets had given up on him. But he was so bright in the eye we felt he didn’t want to die, so we thought we would go on with some remedies. I felt he looked very much like a Phosphorus constitution now, and we started the Phosphorus 200 again three times daily and kept on with the Carduus/ Taraxacum.
5 days later Jo sent me a wonderful video. To start with, no horse in sight. And then I could hear galloping hoofs. And then Ted arrived in the picture cantering from the bottom end of the hill right up to the camera! He was very much better eating well, swelling all gone and bleeding stopped. We continued treating him for 2 weeks with the remedies and he continued to improve.
What I thought was so interesting about this case was, that before going to see him with the bleeding gums my colleagues and I did a google search as to causes of haemorrhage, colic, diarrhoea and ventral oedema and it all fitted into the picture of acorn poisoning. Ted had his crisis with acorns 5 years before and had not had access to them recently. Were these old symptoms that had been suppressed before coming out or would any Phosphorus constitution horse show this range of symptoms? Or are Phosphorus horses particularly attracted to acorns?!
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