Bud, my food sensitivity horse, is still improving. He has had several setbacks in the last few weeks but he has gained overall. After coming through his severe relapse of gut inflammation last month he rebounded and was back out eating grass full time with my horses and eating all he wanted of low starch Kool and Kalm, beet pulp and lightly cooked carrots and sweet potatoes.

On Christmas eve, Bud seemed a bit colicky so I spent some time working on his abdomen releasing internal adhesions. He liked this and seemed to do very well. The day after Christmas, however, he had a setback. The evenings were very cold and Bud may have gotten chilled. He started having severe, loud rumbling in his gut and was in some pain. I had to give him small doses of banamine several days in a row to keep him comfortable.

Despite the banamine his gut continued to rumble and he was not able to eat much at all. With the very cold temperatures he lost weight quickly. I changed his homeopathic remedy from rhus tox to pulsitilla and this helped with the rumbling but Bud still did not want to eat. I felt the stress from his last setback was taking its toll on him so I decided to greatly increase his Eleviv.

I had been giving Bud 2 Eleviv twice a day but I jumped him up to 4 three times a day, mixed with 1 pack of bluegreen alage, probiotics and enzymes and 1 ounce Xango juice. With this program, Bud’s appetite returned. I did not want to take a chance of overloading his weak system so I put the muzzle back on him when he went out to graze. Rather than resisting the muzzle, Bud seemed to welcome it and put his nose in willingly. I think he understood it would help him.

I also started putting a small amount of coastal and alfalfa hay in a small hole hay net for him to work on during the night. I went back to rhus tox as a remedy and slowly Bud’s appetite came back to normal. He is back now to banging his bucket for food and this is music to my ears. I have brought his Eleviv back to 4 twice a day and I am wanting to see how Bud handles the really cold weather that is predicted for the next few days.

I believe stress is what triggered this entire syndrome in Bud and I feel the Eleviv is helping to balance the stress hormones that have wrecked havoc on his system. My plan is to keep Bud as stress free as possible so he can stay in a healing mode long enough to gain back his weight and build back his strength. Madalyn

For more about Bud check out these posts:
Setback for Bud
Bud’s food sensitivity explained
Bud gets a muzzle