Page 794 - The Veterinary Care of the Horse
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• playing with water rather than drinking it
• fatty, foul-smelling diarrhoea
VetBooks.ir • jaundice
•
bad breath
• abortion
• head-pressing blindness, convulsions, coma and death.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis is confirmed by taking a blood sample. The plasma looks milky instead of the
normal clear yellow colour (Figure 17.18); this is due to the high amount of triglyceride
present. A normal pony has a triglyceride level of less than 0.35mmol/litre. Animals with
levels of 1–5mmol/litre are at risk and anything above 5mmol/litre is considered to be
hyperlipaemic. Severe cases have levels between 20–80mmol/litre.
Figure 17.18 Lipaemic blood samples: the sample on the left is normal; the sample in the middle is slightly lipaemic; the
sample on the right is very lipaemic
Blood tests are also taken to assess the degree of liver damage and any developing kidney
