Liver Damage

[rusk]

My friend's horse has been diagnosed with liver damage and the first thing which springs to mind is Ragwort poisoning. However she is very concientious about removing Ragwort and I just can't believe this is the real problem. Does anyone know of other causes?? He has had laminitis in the past and I wondered if this could have damaged his liver in any way. We are also getting suspicious about the water supply. He is not doing too well and I'm afraid it isn't looking good for him.

[cvb]

there are other things that can cause liver damage. Like not all liver damage in people is from alcohol !

I know someone who's horse had cushings and also had liver damage. Possibly as the result of a nasty illness after choking on a carrot. The liver has to filter all the rubbish out of the blood, and also break down "old" blood. So anything that could stress that process could cause damage. I think ragwort does it because it is a toxin that lingers. But repeated exposure to other toxins could also do it.

[chev]

A point about ragwort - it is more dangerous when wilted as it is palatable to most horses, so even if your pasture is free of the weed you still need to be vigilant and check hay.

Also if your friend's horse's liver damage is due to ragwort the damage could have been done some time ago - ragwort is a cumulative poison. I'm not certain but i think this could be the case with other toxins too.

I hope things improve for your friend and her horse.
Best wishes.

[intouch]

Has the vet checked the horse internally? I ask because last year my vet thought my mare had ragwort poisoning, didn't do an internal till it was too late to save her from a tumour. I sincerely hope it's nothing like this, but it would be as well to rule it out.

[measles]

Laminitis and such like are often contributed by pre existing liver damage. Liver damage could have been there for quite a while- even years, however it would only be noticed upon the onset of other ailments.

Triple Crown Horse Feeds sell a fantastic flush like product especially for liver problems. Remount, flushes the liver and rids it of any toxins which could be lurking around. For example,Laminitis toxins can still be found in the liver long after the actual attack. It sells at about £16.00 and it is a liquid course of 20 days. It is well worth a try and will not do him any harm at all even if it does not help. You can read about it on the Triple Crown website (i'm not sure of the address, i just put Triple Crown Horse Feeds in my browser).

Good Luck

[doris]

I found Triple Crown website, but they only listed feeds, nothing for flushing the liver!

[Wally]

Not sure "flushing the liver" is a valuable or recognised medical term!

If the liver is damaged it may or may not recover depending on the problem. The liver has hundreds of functions.

Is the horse very old?

[Jane.A]

Global and Indian herbs do the same product. It really is very good. See www.thenaturalapproach.co.uk. the product is called 'Restore' and costs £14.50 for 500ml. It is exactly the same as Triple crown's restore as they used to supply it to Triple Crown.
We used a course every other year for a 15 year old horse we took on with liver damage and he finally passed on last year aged 23! He had had a very active few years with us, though had been fully retired from the age of 21.
It was the liver which finally totally failed and he went down hill so quickly it was frightening. The first sign somethhing was really amiss was when he came in with a back leg so badly filled it looked like he had developed lymphangitis overnight. Prior to that sometimes in a morning his sheath area would be swollen, but would walk down so I thought little of it as he looked so well externally. i got the vet out, who unfortunately was newly qualified and not really a horse person and she was stumped, but recommended bute and antibiotics (the last thing a failing liver needs!!) The next day he was considerably worse and kept trying to wash his mouth out by dunking his nose in the water buket and slooshing about but not drinking. I called the vet again, guess what got the same girl. I asked her to take blood, (suprise suprise she didn't have a blood kit in her car and had to return later). When we tried to take the blood it was like treacle he was so dehydrated. We tried to hydrate him but examination of his mouth showed that his tongue was starting to go black. Oddly enough I remembered an article in Horse magazine that had described liver failure. I dug it out and after reading it immediately arranged to have him put down as I knew he was beyond recovery and did not want him to suffer the final agonies.
On a positive note the liver does have marvellous powers of regeneration if teated early. When we got Luke he initially had liver problems but the course of Remount and later the Restore followed up by the Remount 2( Movefree) restored his drinking habits to normal and regenerated his liver to about 65%. I would certainly give it a go. Good luck!

[doris]

Tried thenaturalapproach website - it came up with name not found. Perhaps you can email me more details. Ta

[rusk]

The vet has taken a blood test, but no results are back yet. Would a tumour show in the test? He gave him a 7 day course of a sort of booster stuff as he is pretty run down. He also gave him a 4 day antibiotic course of jags and he looks perky enough at the moment. The cushings thing rang a bell as I do know someone whose horse was diagnosed with that and he did have liver damage. We are hearing so many conflicting points of view on whether he will make it or not, we just don't know, but obviously we don't want him to suffer at all. Reading about it makes it worse as you start to think he has all the symptoms and they tell you the worst case scenario. His eyesight has been affected.

[Jane.A]

Try phonong Global herbs Ltd. They are the people I actually ordered from and they were so helpful. They also have links with Stephen Ashdown the homeopathic vet and i referred some friends to them with a horse in the early stages of cushings disease and they got some stuff off him that sorted the problem, or at least helped them to manage it till she broke her leg this last month and had to be put to sleep. their number is: 01243 773363. Hope this helps, if you want any more numbers just holloa!

[Lucy J]

my old horse's liver slowly packed in, just from old age, interestingly enough, although never confirmed with cushings disease, it was a possibility, and he did suffer a few bad attacks of laminitis. One thing to remember about the liver failing is it is generally painless. I do not know much about treatments though.