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Eye Issues – No Known Cause or Remedy
Today I started doing “energy work” on, Dolly, an Amish pony. Dolly’s got laminitis, fat pads everywhere, depressed, both eyes are swollen shut. She swayed side to side the entire time I worked with her. I know she liked the touch and got some releases/relaxation out of the treatment. More bend in the forelegs after I was done and lowered head.
Owner had the vet come out and do biopsy on eyes with no results. Vet is mystified. Owner is heartbroken.
I’m no doctor and I don’t play one on TV, but I don’t think the issue is skeletal in nature (which is what I align). I recommended the No Grain Challenge for 2 weeks to see if there’s any improvement. Horse has not been fed grain as long as she’s been in the care of her current owner (about three years) but currently is on Teff pellets. A different vet recommended straw consumption which, to me, is basically eating wood chips.
Any suggestions if working with an animal that seems to have serious issues yet all the avenues pursued have led to dead ends? I just want to steer the client SOMEWHERE hopeful. I hate to see an animal suffer.
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2 Replies
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Hi Chaela – my heart goes out to this pony!
Laminitis and fat pads would be the primary concern as this represents Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). Add to this depression and “swollen eye lids” and you have some added parts to this.
My question is this – how does a pony get EMS if all she eats is forage? The answer is in this. Remember that all starch (sugar, glucose) counts towards EMS. This includes pasture and the amount of hay (baled, pellets, etc). As with all obesity (horses and humans) there is starvation at the cell level. This causes the pony to continue to eat without satisfaction. Any excess glucose is converted into body fat and is stored for later use. This also starves the brain so the pony auto-digests their protein. I’ll bet there is no added high quality protein in her diet.
Winter is coming so the starch content is decreasing. Hopefully she will decrease the consumption of ALL hay, limit pasture, add soybean meal (protein) and maybe add Coolstance for a fat source. This may encourage the mitochondria within the cells to convert over to using fat for fuel.
If possible, there needs to be an increase in exercise – even mild walking for a few miles – if possible with the laminitis.
Losing the excess fat and adding the materials to help rebuild her systems will help to improve her attitude and hopefully improve her eyelids. Encourage her to read my blogs and, as a member, take what you are learning here and help her understand that this pony needs to lose the excess fat and increase the high quality protein to help the laminitis. Remember that laminitis always has insulin resistance (IR) and IR is always from excess glucose in the diet. Stop the glucose will stop the IR and reduce the body fat AND the systemic inflammation.
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Thank you so much! I knew there was an answer somewhere. 🙂
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