Vet visit

Baasha has had loose stools the past 6 weeks. I tried treating it with YeaSacc but that did not help. Since nothing about his feed changed, and he's been wormed on a tight schedule, I was at a loss for what to do. It seemed to occur with the weather change. (BTW in this photo you can see my tracks in the dewy grass as I wander the field looking for manure.)


He's had this before but it never persisted, so I had the vet out. His poop doesn't look that bad, but it does get in his tail, and it smells like death. The first time I smelled it I assumed an animal had died nearby.

Baasha is as cheerful as ever, (today he galloped across the entire field to greet the fish guy, Bellis close at his heels) but I wanted to run tests and try to find a cause.

I took a stool sample but when the vet got here tonight he said it's very unlikely he has worms, or for anything to show up in a float for this. He said if worms were causing this, he'd show other symptoms.

His temp is normal (37.5), his gut sounds are normal, his teeth are in order. My man held the plastic "bite down on this" piece for the inspection. I was happy to have my man there as translator and horse holder.

The vet did look at my worming records and my husband mentioned, "It's more often than normal, isn't it?" and the vet agreed, "Most people in Germany worm twice yearly." But he obviously agrees with my once per season routine, he gave me two tubes of Praziquantal for December's tapeworm treatment. (You must get wormers from vets here, and if he had a problem with my schedule, he would just refuse.)

The vet told us some stories. He's a government vet, and last week he had to oversee Halal slaughter for Ramadan.  He said that German law requires stunning animals before bleeding, but I know that not all Muslims request veterinary oversight, so I was curious. He also told us about 3 horses who were stabbed horribly about 30 minutes from here, he said it's amazing how the horses let themselves be attacked and didn't run away. He said he had to put down two of them. He also said that 3 horses burned to death in a fire in a little run-in shed just like ours, and get this, the doors were open (like ours) - and the horses did not leave to save themselves! I always thought I was safe because my door is always open.

I need to mention that after bribing Bellis with a bucket of grain to get her into the stall to get her out of the way, she was very frustrated and leaning her head over the wall (she has to stretch, she's short) and bobbing it up and down, for attention. My man laughed and said, "It's like on Shrek, that donkey saying, 'Pick me, pick me!'." We all laughed and the vet gave her some attention too. I also stood by her when I could, and she rested her chin on my shoulder, begging to be let free.

The vet said a blood test was recommended and I would have requested it anyway. So the vet drew 3 different vials, all mixed with different chemicals in the vials, for testing. I have a hard time understanding the German when he tried to answer my questions about the chemicals.

Baasha is so good, he loves his vets. He kept trying to get closer to the vet, straining toward him affectionately.

The vet left me with two medicines that should help in the meantime. Before he left, he cuddled and patted Baasha a lot. Despite believing that horses are not smart enough to save themselves from peril, he sure does seem to love them.

Bentonite (sodium montmorillonite) and Stullmisan (fir tree extract) are the meds. Both are natural aids against diarrhea in livestock (I guess in people too?).The vet said that the YeaSacc had no chance to work because the bowels are functioning too fast and need to be slowed down for anything to help.

While researching (I always have to read about whatever medicine I give my animals), I found a quote on Chronicle of the Horse that made me *ROTFL* so that my man came to see what was the matter with me. Here's the quote:

"Both horses had outrageously gorgeous manure while on it, beautiful, it was a pleasure picking it daily, I would marvel at every pile :)"

I say, where's the photo to go with such a claim? *lol* I won't put photos of poor Baashsa's poop here, but I expect things to look a lot more...um..."gorgeous" (and less smelly!) soon.

(The photos are from a walk we took on Sunday.)