JM :>"The Thinking Horseman" column has a scary account of how
JM :>her horse
JM :>coliced (not too bad, thank goodness) -- as far as Kip can
JM :>tell, it was the bute they were giving him for his hock
I got the same issue, and lo and behold, the very next day Ms. Fiddle was 
very ouchy in the belly.  She was on 2 bute a day at the time, I moved her 
back to one.  The tummy trouble didn't last long, but it did scare me to 
death.  She's been fine on the 1 bute for the last couple of days.
I'm hoping to ease her off completely within the next week.  The vet and 
farrier came yesterday for a joint appointment and "compromised" on lowering 
her heels a little and putting on pads and shoes.  This is her first set of 
shoes!  (My baby!)  She stood like a trooper through the whole thing...you'd 
have thought she'd had it done a million times before.  It was good to see 
that all the hammering and nailing didn't seem to cause her any pain at all.
She's moving quite well today (although she did get an extra bute last night 
on vet's orders).  Time will tell, I'm sure, but she's as sound now as she's 
been in a long time.  What I'm seeing this a.m....a little girl getting used 
to her first pair of shoes!
JM :>Good luck with her, and with figuring out the thyroid
JM :>problem, or whatever it is.
Well, thyroids came back WNL again...vet says if he could figure out why most 
horses get laminitis, he'd be a millionaire!   She's losing some weight on 
her crash diet.   Handful of pelleted feed (only to keep her from kicking the 
barn down when Shiloh gets fed), and grass hay.  Since she's doing so much 
better, the vet says I can increase her turnout, which should help some with 
the weight problem (and with her going slowly loony in her stall!). I'm going 
to give her a few days, stop the bute, see what happens, etc.  Vet also 
thought if she did well, I could start riding her again in a week or two.
Conservative that I am, I'm going to take all this very slowly...step by 
ep.
Thanks for the info, Jan.  All that bute was causing me concern before the PH 
article, but that really put the frosting on the cake!!
Meg  
 
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