Sadness for Lindsey & Charity

We received an update from Lindsey in Georgia, regarding her horse Charity. The hole in her tongue is because of cancer. And Charity will be euthanized. Charity is lucky to have Lindsey for a horse mom, and now Lindsey will have Charity watching over her all of the time. We are very sorry for your sadness, Lindsey.
any questions or comments, email Darci, DoubleHP Shelter Manager, doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

Hole in horse's tongue

Photo of Star. Tyree's Gold Star AQHA. Almost exactly a year ago (I remember because it was soooooooooo cold, as it is now), one of my mares, Star, had a hole in her tongue.I blogged about it,
http://doublehphorseshelter.blogspot.com/search/label/Star
including photos of the cats Newman and Ralphie helping me with the meds. Star recovered completely and we will never know how she got that hole in her tongue. Tonight, I received an email from Lindsey in Georgia. Her horse has a hole in her tongue. Hers sounds bigger, probably more serious. They are waiting on biopsy. here is our communication so far.

Dear Darci,

I read your article about Star the horse who had the hole in her tounge. My horse is a 25 year old mare, she has been drooling nonstop, she eats so slow, and she is very off balance. I called the vet and he came out to check her. He opened her mouth and there in the back was a hole that went all the way through her tounge. He said she may have tounge cancer, and he is going to do a biopsy, and will let me know. My question for you is what exactly happened to Star, did she get diagnoist with tounge cancer? Is she still alive? If she did have tounge cancer, what did you do to treat her? I am very appreciative to any information you could give me. Any advice since you have gone through this. I just recently lost one of my other horses and I dont want to put down Charity, if that is the case, so anything at all you could tell me. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you for listening Darci.
-Lindsey

hi Lindsey,

My Star had a strange hole in her tongue that was very hard to find. It was underneath. The Vet could feel swelling and so looked and looked and looked and finally found it.
We will never know what it was. poke from something??? even a big sticker or stick or something might cause an abscess etc.
or sometimes they can even bite their tongue and cause things like this.
We were lucky. The vet flushed it several times and said if things don't improve in a few days we would need to xray her tongue to see if there was something in there.
Star began to eat again. and made a full recovery.
so if there was something lodged in there, it must have come out in the flush.
her hole was not all the way through. More like a big poke from the bottom up.
where are you? who is your vet? can they exray the tongue?
also, are her teeth ok?
I'm just trying to think of everything the vet told me and asked me and looked for when this happened here.
also, my Star could eat some soft hay while this was going on. I had some really soft orchard grass hay that she could eat kind of.
but she absolutely could not eat course stemmy stuff while this was going on.
do you care if I put this on my blog? people will be interested in this.
thanks, Darci.

Thank you for your prompt response. I dont mind at all if you put this on your blog. I am in the Atlanta GA area, and my vets name is Dr. John Elliott of Horner & Nash. Her teeth are in good shape, and he has done xrays on her. The hole is about a golf ball size, and I can stick my finger all the way through. He also flushed it, but that didnt seem to help. Charity cant eat any hay, or grass, she has a horrible time trying to swallow it, and ends up spitting it out. It takes her about three hours to finish breakfast, and another three for dinner. We are waiting on the biopsy and hopefully it will be good. If you have any further information that would be great. Thank you so much

Lindsey
 
oh wow, that sounds much bigger than what my Star had going on here.

are there any kind of hay pellets that will get soft with water, that she can eat?
sorry, I know you and your vet have probably covered all of this. I will put this on the blog.
oh, I hope it is just a really bad injury and not cancer.
stay in touch.
Darci.

any questions or comments, please email Darci at doublehphorses@alliancecom.net

Update on Star's tongue

Star's tongue situation seems to be all better. I gave her her medicine for a week just like the Doctor ordered. After 2 days Star seemed entirely back to normal. No drooling, no sliming, normal eating, no more moping. I have been instructed many many times by the Vet though, to continue the meds. for the entire prescribed time. They will fight off infection etc. I believe the day the Vet came out and flushed the hole in Star's tongue, she must have flushed out whatever was in there causing the problem. It was a bit of an unusual situation, but Dr. Jensen got it right again! Star's temp. was normal throughout this ordeal. She was pooping normal. She was not eating normal though. and the drool and slime certainly was not normal. None of us likes Vet bills. But it's important that we, as horse owners, notice what is Not Normal in our horses. Monitor the situation closely. It never hurts to call the Vet right away and tell them the symptoms. Learn to check temp. and other vitals. And know when the situation really does require a Vet appointment, like this one did. There was no way anyone could have found that hole on the underside of Star's tongue, without the Vet equipment to hold the mouth open and shine the light in there.

Anyway, Star seems back to normal with the herd.

These photos were taken yesterday. It was still plenty cold, but the sunshine warmed things up enough for a romp and sunbath. Before the below zero temps set in again. Then it was back to the barn for supper...and breakfast this morning. All 16 are still in the barn. But it's climbed slightly above zero now, at 11 a.m., so I think we'll do lunch outside. It's a sunny day again!

Below, Star in between Rocky (well, part of his hip anyway) and Hiroki (Hero), 2 rescued horses.

Star has a hole in her tongue

Let us have an educational type of blog today.

About a week ago I noticed something wasn't quite right with Star. She is not a rescued horse. I owned her before we started DoubleHP Horse Rescue. Anyway, she would nibble on her food, go stand in a corner, and drool. And slimey stuff would come out of her mouth. She would hang around the barn when the others were out. She just wasn't normal. But her temp. was normal. There was nothing coming out of her nose, her breathing sounded good. Just the slimey stuff and a little bit mopey and not eating quite right. I called the Vet. He said maybe she bit her tongue, maybe she had a bad tooth, maybe something lodged in her mouth somewhere, maybe a poke or scrape or scratch. But the fact that she had a normal temp, was eating some, was drinking, was pooping, we didn't figure it was an emergency. I kept her in because I didn't know for sure what we were dealing with. I didn't know if she had something the others could catch. It didn't really seem like that, but you never know. Two days later things were about the same, so I had the Vet come out. It took a while, but they found a hole on the underside of her tongue. Dr. Jensen looked hard for something, because right away she thought her tongue felt "thick" like swelling. The hole was maybe not quite as big around as the tip of my pinky finger. And not real deep. But it was evidently sore. So we still have no idea what happened. But at least we found what is probably the cause of Star's abnormal behavior. My instructions from the Vet: 2 grams of bute daily, and 16 tabs twice daily. Observation, and if things are not improved in 2 days, bring her in to X-ray her tongue. To see if there is something in it. Dr. Jensen flushed the hole in Star's tongue while she was here. But there was no way to know really if there was/is anything stuck in there.

That was yesterday afternoon. I let Star go out with the herd for a while today, and she is in her stall with neighbors tonight. I do think she ate better tonight, and I really didn't notice any slime except for when I gave her her meds. Tomorrow I will observe closely. And if she does not eat well, or if I notice slime, I will call and make an appointment to take her to the Vet to have her tongue X-rayd. The hole is on a place on the tongue where I couldn't have found it myself. The Vet tranqued Star, put that metal device in her mouth to hold it open, rinsed, and shined her light in there. That is the only way the hole would have been found. I encounter horse owners all the time who say something isn't quite right with their horse. They are hard to bridle, or they don't want to do anything but walk or back up or rear up once they do have the bit in, or they seem skinny or sad or they eat real slow or this or that. I always suggest dental checks. People with young horses often think this is crazy. They still think dental checks are only for old horses. Bah! My young horses need dental work more often than my old guys do! I can't remember the exact percentage, something like 80 or 90 some percent. That professional trainers agreed upon. Whenever there was some sort of behavioral issue during training, it is related to a dental/mouth issue 80 or 90 some percent of the time. That's a lot! That's worth having checked out!

Anyway, here is how we try to give horses their meds. here.

We try to work with all of the horses here so they can be handled by their nose/head. I can lead most of them around by their head. Many of them, including Star, would not have to be haltered for this type of activity. Though there is certainly nothing wrong with putting a halter and lead rope on. And it is safer that way, if you or the horse is not used to this type of thing.

But here's how it is with Star:

Here are the pills she has to take, 16 of them, twice a day.

Here, Ralphie demonstrates the size of one pill.

While Newman guards the bottle.

Here's the type of tool that works best for me as a "pill giver." It's just a big syringe with a hole cut out of it. Make sure it slides fairly easy but that it stays in place until you want it to slide/push.

This size seems to work about right for me. It's 35 ml. and you can see about how much warm water I put in it. Looks like about to the 15 mark.

Then you just drop in all 16 tablets (in Star's case it's 16 twice a day, your Vet might prescribe a different amount for your horse.) and as long as the water is warm, they dissolve right away. And it will look like this.

This is the way I like to approach the horse for this activity. Same thing if I am deworming with paste dewormer, or giving bute paste. I am right handed, and this is what works best for me. Although almost everything else I do with the horse's head, like putting the halter and bridle on, etc., I like to do from the left side. It all depends on what my right hand needs to be doing. Of course when you are doing any of this you have to make sure you don't get hit by the horse's head. Or stepped on. You should always have an experienced person help you with any of this stuff the first few times you have to do it.

I like to rub the end of the syringe on the horse's side of nose and corner of mouth. I make sure she is okay with it before I go sticking it in. I really don't want to waste it all just because the horse is afraid of it.

Then I go ahead and insert it in the very corner of her mouth
and as long as she stays calm about it, I slide it back pretty far and gently push the medicine out and into Star's mouth. I might even want to lift her head up just a little, so the medicine doesn't all just fall back out. You want the stuff to stay in the horse.
Once Star has taken her medicine and I know she has swallowed it, I rub her nose a lot or wherever she likes to be scratched and tell her "good girl." I am not a big treat giver, but this might not be a bad time for a little bit of a treat. That medicine tastes icky, and something that tastes good will help them start eating their hay. I have noticed that after I give a horse bute or something that probably tastes pretty bad like that, they don't want to eat right away.

Anyway, here we are petting and saying "good girl."

and I might even rub the "pill giver" on her a little bit more, just so I know for sure she's going to be okay with it the next time we do it too.