Tässä on nyt tällainen kertomus siittä mitä Larelle on kuulunut ja miten se on voinut ja voi nyt. Teksti on kirjoitettu englanniksi sillä se on minun Personal Project, mutta ajattelin että se olisi kiva jakaa teidän kanssanne.
My point in doing this report is that my original personal project idea got ruined, since my horse’s stomach. All of this began in 2014, 15th of August when we bought my horse Mc Claren. My point in all of this is to explain how it all began, when and where and how it affected my personal project that then how it forced me to stop because I was not able to train due to two different things, but his stomach was the problem that then made me quit totally.
We bought Mc Claren, everything was okay his stomach was okay and there was no problem with is manure being loose, the only problem was that his skin was itching, but at this time he was still eating fresh grass, the itching came from the fact that he ate food that contained, oats and he is allergic to it.
Everything was mostly under control, except the fact that he was way too slim, for being an Irish Cob that is supposed to weigh 500kg not 300kg like he did when we bought him. In every way, he had not been taken care of really well until I started to take care of him at the end of 7th grade, but then I didn’t have any power over anything. We took him to the vet for a check, just to make sure that everything is okay, and the vet had nothing to say about his stomach, he only said that he needs a lot more muscle, and that comes by getting more weight and that he had some small mistake in is teeth, but everything else was okay. At that point, the previous owner of the horse told us that we should get his stomach properly checked, but we didn’t because at that time everything seemed okay, and we found out what we needed to know from the vet, about his past visits, so there was nothing suspicious. At this time, he ate Racing Regular, Minerals, Heu Cubes, Flax, Hay and fresh grass.
There was still no sign, of a bad stomach. Everything was going really well, with training except a few flaws like he was bitten on the lip and nostril, by another horse. There was really nothing much to say about September, we were moving on pretty well and he started to gain weight and muscle. At this time, he was still able to eat fresh grass in his “paddock” the size of a postcard and was daily let eat grass for at least 30 minutes. In October, there was still no change to the situation of his stomach, but we changed his feed from the one that included oats, to an oat free one, that took the itching of the skin away, that was really good. Especially for his pathetic mane, because it was so short, and it became shorter every day because he scratched it. So we changed his feed Derma Vital pellets, Minerals, Heu Cubes, Flax, Hay and fresh grass.
November was a total mess, not because of any issues, with his stomach, but other reasons. He started itching again, and none of his food contained oats anymore, except we found out that a new set of minerals had come in that contained a bit of oat, but he had never got any. So after a bit of investigation, we found out that the pellets used for the bedding of his stall contained oats, it was the first ingredient, so that got dealt with. We had moved away from our old stable, which then just made my life harder. His stomach stayed the same, throughout the whole of November and December, there were no problems anywhere, except some flaws at the stables we were at, and the fact that my horse didn’t really know what to do anymore, because of the way things changed. So every day when I went to the stables I was a target of getting killed by my horse. His feed only changed that he didn’t get fresh grass in the winter.
January to August 2015,
There was nothing wrong, except the fact that my little idiot baby decided to hurt his shoulder blade muscle, and was out of work for two weeks, that was not bad at all. We had a really nice time since there was nothing wrong with his stomach. He was totally healthy unless you count in one or two scrapes somewhere, me being kicked four times by my horse and then one really scary situation where I thought that he had severe colic symptoms, but they thank god went away. Then during the beginning of summer, I think about two months of school left, he went on some type of eating strike, and he refused to touch anything else, expect hay and fresh grass. He also went away for a month to just chill at a huge pasture, where his skin started itching again, but this time from a different reason. We also fed him psyllium for 7 days to get any possible sand out of his stomach, because he has a tendency of eating everything from the ground, even sand and small objects like plastic spoons. During this time he’s feed didn’t change much so he ate, Derma Vital pellets, Flax, Heu Cubes, Oil, Electrolyte, Not So Sweet Itch (for a month or so during the summer period), lactic acid bacteria, hay and fresh grass (during the summer)
September to October 2015,
This was the first time, his stomach started to show signs that everything was not okay. But at this time, his itching was getting worse, so we concentrated more on getting it better. His stomach was not even so bad, and we got to the conclusion, that his bad stomach was because of the fact that he had just come from only eating fresh grass, and then he started getting normal hay alongside the grass. Then in the beginning of October, we had our yearly vet check, where he gets his vaccinations and they look at his teeth. So at the same time, we asked about the itching, and the vet said that we could give him Histec to help the itching. So then we decided to, try it out if it would actually help. It did help the itching, but it made his stomach so much worse, that it got us to the point to where we are now. We didn’t change his food in any way at all, during this time period.
November to December 2015,
His stomach just got worse and worse, so then in December, we talked about my grandmother, who was a vet. And she then contacted one of her old friends, who told us to go to Yliopistollinen
Eläinsairaala, where she worked at. So we went there, or I didn’t nor did my mum, but a friend took him there. There they did a bunch of tests, and found that there was a little bit of sand in his stomach, but they said that it shouldn’t do effect this much. They took all the blood tests and they all came back with really good results. So then they told us to give him Gastrogard, for ten days, and see if it helps. But with no surprise it didn’t work, so then we continued on riding like normally because that was one of the instructions. At that time, I had more complications with my personal project because I couldn’t practice it, for the reason that people would just “over power” me and not care about the fact that I had booked the indoor ring. After we then had read the vets paper again, we realised that we should change his feed a bit. So then he started eating, Derma Vital pellets, Heu Cubes, Alfa Alfa Oil, Flax, Electrolyte, Biotin, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Darm Fit, Oil, and Hay.
January to February 2016,
The stomach got a bit better after we changed his feed, and we started giving him some food always before riding. But then in February, we were back to square one, and the stomach was bad again, so we once again read the vets instructions and changed is food a bit. So that he started also getting Yeasac that comes from beer, so it should somehow help calm down the stomach. With no surprise, it didn’t work either. I was already giving up because nothing seemed to be working, or then it only worked for a day or two. Then when my grandmother came back to Finland my mom talked to her, and they found out that we should change his food a bit again. So then he started eating Progrut and Alfa Alfa pellets, that both should help his stomach with all the other foods he was eating. We then took out oil and the Derma Vital pellets ran out, so we stopped giving those to him.
March 2016,
We had time to see a really good period and it lasted for about two weeks, but then it started going down the drain again. But then it got better again for a little while, and then it was on off good and bad. But well we continued on doing normal work, except that for some reason, I was not allowed to do proper dressage nor show jumping training. Now just in the past week or so, we have seen a few good days, but then also many bad days. At this moment I at least feel that I’m lost, because there is nothing that I can do because we at least have to go through April still, before we can go see the vet again.
So all of this has affected my personal project that is still a dressage program for my horse. So we still don’t know what’s wrong and have to wait a month to see if anything changes before we see the vet again, but my guess is that the Histec did something to the stomach that then caused all of this, but I can’t be sure because I’m not a vet.
