Mare has hyperlipemia

A mare we just sold has been diagnosed with hyperlipemia. For those that remember the post I made last week of the mare that foaled the pretty little palomino pinto filly four days after arriving at her new home when the vet said she was 4mo along in gestation back in March, only to foal in early June. This is the mare.

She was of course, tranportated and obviously stressed, then foaled and nursing a little one shortly thereafter. Strangely, she was not nearly as big as she has gotten in the past prior to foaling although I know that isn't a necessity with this condition, it is common for them to be overweight. She is at the vet's now and I will be waiting to hear more news later from her new owner but want to know anyone's personal experience with this. I have not had a mare with this condition although, have read alot about it. I would be interested in hearing anything you can tell me for those that have experience with this. My heart is breaking over this.

Edited to say: I also wanted to ask if there might be any correlation with this condition and the vet being so far off on her gestation during her US in March? Just curious because we are still trying to figure out how that could have happened. Thanks for all your help.

Awww, Debra, I don't have any help or information for you other than to say I'm sorry. I know you love your horses dearly and I know what it's like to have one get sick even after they are sold it's terribly wrenching. I hope she makes it. I do know Nancy G on this forum got a mare through it and I believe a few others have made a recovery, as well. It can happen and the earlier it's treated, the better.

I will keep her in my thoughts, her baby needs her!

Liz M.

Hi Debra,

We had a mare with hyperlipemia last summer at Loomis Basin (916-652-7645 if their vet wants to talk to them - they do lots of minis). She was diagnosed and treated there in ICU. It was under control within 48 hours, but she also had a couple of other issues (underlying infection & collapsing trachea) while nursing a foal that she was being treated for as well.

We brought her home five days after she was admitted. They didn't think she would make it with all her problems, but she did. Her foal was less than a month old, so weaning was considered, but I feld she would have been stressed more by that. It was wean the foal, better chance for mom, but more stress.

We kept her literally in the backyard with free choice buffet (fresh grass, two types hay, dry grain, wet, beetpulp) to keep her eating, and as little stress as possible. She lost close to 50 lbs in less than a couple of weeks.

This mare wasn't thin, but definitely not as fat as some of my mares! She was new to our herd though and hadn't made her place yet. This year she's fine and being bred right now.

Thanks Liz. I have read that catching it in first day or so is important and I know she started really swelling last week. She is at the vet hospital now and the bloodwork just came back with the diagnosis. She never went off her feed as I understand it, but of course, she was transported to her new home the first of June and would have had the stress of travel plus foaling four days later then nursing the new foal. The baby is off mom now at two weeks of age, being hand fed around the clock. I can't imagine anything happening to this mare. This is just heart wrenching for everyone. She is so loved by her new owners and they are hearsick over this so please keep her in your thoughts.

Michelle@wescofarms said:

Hi Debra,

We had a mare with hyperlipemia last summer at Loomis Basin (916-652-7645 if their vet wants to talk to them - they do lots of minis). She was diagnosed and treated there in ICU. It was under control within 48 hours, but she also had a couple of other issues (underlying infection & collapsing trachea) while nursing a foal that she was being treated for as well.

We brought her home five days after she was admitted. They didn't think she would make it with all her problems, but she did. Her foal was less than a month old, so weaning was considered, but I feld she would have been stressed more by that. It was wean the foal, better chance for mom, but more stress.

We kept her literally in the backyard with free choice buffet (fresh grass, two types hay, dry grain, wet, beetpulp) to keep her eating, and as little stress as possible. She lost close to 50 lbs in less than a couple of weeks.

This mare wasn't thin, but definitely not as fat as some of my mares! She was new to our herd though and hadn't made her place yet. This year she's fine and being bred right now.

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Thank you for the information Michelle. I will be sure to pass the number on to her new owners.

Will post this here as well as on a new thread as it is important to the health of this mare's little 2 week old foal. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting her foal to eat since she has been pulled off of mom? She is feeding her goat's milk and has now added some Karo syrup to entice her. Does anyone have any suggestions that might get her to happily eat as she is upset to not have her mom to nurse off of. I am very concerned for this little baby. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We just lived through this! LONG story short...

On Wed. May 10 she went off her feed - we thought baby was on his way...but then Thursday we noticed she hadn't pooped...called the vet they came out and tubed her...I posted here...someone suggested to have her tested for hyperlipidemia ASAP - Friday she pulled blood and fond her lipids were 950++ (I think they are suppose to be below 100 :new_shocked: ) Since she was SO pg we kept her in our barn and they started IV's - Sat. looked very bleek for her - Sunday was a little better (but still not eating they tubed her 2-3 a day for the weekend) but she did finally poop. Monday she was a tad more chipper and I had read to try to give her applesauce I did..she loved it and it really seemed to up her energy..then for whatever reason she started munching on grass and by Wed was off the IV's and finally grazing and pooping. Had the baby Saturday at noon in the pasture.

Another part to this saga was that she rejected her baby (2nd time she did that so at least we knew it could happen) We tried everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) he had to get the fake colostrum by syringe. And by Monday was on goats milk and drinking out of a bucket. He is now on the powdered milk suppliment and starting to eat the milk replacer pellets.

Good luck!!

If you are interested in more details I will be happy to share you can PM me :

Thank you for all your great advice and PMs. I will read through them again later as we have a realtor tour coming through our home shortly and I have to leave now. I have directed the mare's new owner to this site as I think there is alot of good information here from those of you who have gone through this personally. Thanks so much for sharing.

Debra,

I am assuming that the mare is being cared for by a vet who knows about Hyperlipemia. From what I understand, not all vets do....... (Keeping the mare as stress-free as possible and nutrients continually going through her is the most important so her liver doesn't shut down.) Lil Beginnings Health Pages addresses the topic and I think Scott Creek Farm has info on it on their health page.

So, now you are concerned for the foal, right? If possible, instead of the Goats milk, Foal Lac warmed a bit is better for the baby and I think tastes a little more like mom's milk. We also put a little Kayro on the bottle's nipple to encourage our baby to start taking it. After a couple of times using the Kayro, he accepted the bottle without it.

Find out what kind of bottle the folks are using to feed the foal with. That was the main problem we had. Our little guy didn't like the nipple! We tried several sizes and shapes before he accepted one without our "forcing". We literally were syringing formula into him to make sure he ate until we discovered the right nipple.

What our foal ended up liking was a little bottle that is designed for Raccoons and Small Monkeys! We found it at Big R.

MA

Yes, the mare is at the vet hospital being cared for. The vet definitely did not want the foal on the mare for one reason or another. She is being cared for but it is still touch and go and he said she will likely not be able to be bred again. Distressing news to the new owner as you might imagine. I have read that others have rebred their mares without problems. Is it likely to recur or is it a random thing? This mare has not had this problem before that I am aware of and like I said, she was much heavier prior to foaling last year. She has had a foal every year for many years. She loves to be a mom and is a good mom, but the owner is new at this and I too have not had one personally with this condition. She has tried a bottle with goat's milk and Karo syrup and it has been suggested she try different feeds to entice baby to eat more. She has read many websites including the information listed by Scott Creek. I have emailed her the link to this forum to view all of your replies as I think there is so much good advice here. Thank you everyone for all your good tips so far.

We have had quite a few mares to get hyperlipemia. It is a very awful thing. We have had probably around 5 or more horses to get it and the vet has never been able to save any of the. And the vet is the best miniature horse vet in North Carolina. We have had many friends that have had horses get hyperlipemia and they have also never been able to save of them. If you catch it very very early it can sometimes be treated. We lost a mare a couple years a go with it, she was at the vet because her filly was sick and after about a week there she got hyperlipemia and we ended up losing her. We lost a mare a few years ago, her foal was about 2 months old and one day we noticed she had lost a lot of weight all of a sudden. We spent thousands of dollars trying to save her and ended up losing her. We have lost a couple mares with it that have had babies and they were still born and then got it. We have had awful luck with it and i hope we never have another horse get it. I don't won't to discourage you with our bad luck but this is our experience with it. I hope for the best with the horse and hope that they will be able to save her. Aubrey

Aubrey715 said:

We have had quite a few mares to get hyperlipemia. It is a very awful thing. We have had probably around 5 or more horses to get it and the vet has never been able to save any of the. And the vet is the best miniature horse vet in North Carolina. We have had many friends that have had horses get hyperlipemia and they have also never been able to save of them. If you catch it very very early it can sometimes be treated. We lost a mare a couple years a go with it, she was at the vet because her filly was sick and after about a week there she got hyperlipemia and we ended up losing her. We lost a mare a few years ago, her foal was about 2 months old and one day we noticed she had lost a lot of weight all of a sudden. We spent thousands of dollars trying to save her and ended up losing her. We have lost a couple mares with it that have had babies and they were still born and then got it. We have had awful luck with it and i hope we never have another horse get it. I don't won't to discourage you with our bad luck but this is our experience with it. I hope for the best with the horse and hope that they will be able to save her. Aubrey

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Wow - I feel really blessed we didn't lose Minnie! Our vet really thought we would. We did catch it early - if we would have sat another day I am sure she wouldn't have survived.

What actually causes this condition??

I have one with hyperlipemia, and I tell you that is one sick horse. We are also going to try preventative measures on some others, so that they hopefully will not get it. My mare has a 3 week old foal, and right now the foal is still on her, as to not stress her anymore. Glucose and insulin will probably start today, Hopefully we can save this beautiful mare. I just got her from another farm, and I love her.

KsCowgirl said:

What actually causes this condition??

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There are a number of possible causes and if you goggle it you will come up with some good information. Here is Scott Creek's website: Hyperlipemia Info.

I am waiting to hear an update today and praying for this mare and foal.

Westwood Farms said:

I have one with hyperlipemia, and I tell you that is one sick horse. We are also going to try preventative measures on some others, so that they hopefully will not get it. My mare has a 3 week old foal, and right now the foal is still on her, as to not stress her anymore. Glucose and insulin will probably start today, Hopefully we can save this beautiful mare. I just got her from another farm, and I love her.

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I question why the vet wants the foal off her mom when so many of you have left them nursing but I have not had this experience firsthand so I don't know what the right answer is or if each situation is unique.

I wanted to update everyone...the foal is doing much better in that she is eating well out of a bucket with goat's milk and a pelleted foal milk replacer mixed together with a tiny bit of grain per the vet. The mare is not improving yet. She is on IV glucose and insulin to keep her from drawing from her fat reserves but is otherwise just picking at her food. I spoke with the vet and she is not optimistic because her levels are not going down and actually went up a bit overnight. She said the foal was taken off the mare because the foal's nursing would cause her to pull more of the fat reserves into her bloodstream in order to sustain the foal which would have been the opposite affect she was after. She said her kidney and liver tests came back off the charts. The triglycerides were not tested as the test could not be done "in house".

We are going to make the drive to see the foal and hopefully, the mare next week when my husband is back home and I am done taking care of someone's horses for them. I pray our sweet Mary improves. I don't think my heart can take much more and I know her new owner is devastated as well. Please keep her in your prayers as well.

I am very fortunate to have wonderful vets who have become personal friends through all our years of treating and breeding, ect. With my 30 odd years of medical experience we throw things back and forth and they are willing to listen to what we do in human medicine.

I had a mare who was fine hours earlier and when I did the evening feeding could hear someone in respiratory distress. Figured out who it was, called the vet and got her in right away. Treated her and I brought her home and then called first thing in the morning to get her back in. She was in ICU condition for a week total. She was in a bad way respiratory wise and had neurological signs, couldn't move her tongue to eat and she had a 5 week old baby. We weaned the baby and I mentioned on another thread I got her on another mare who had a baby. The mare was going downhill and we were talking about putting her down when Michelle at Wesco came up with hyperlipemia. My vet is the only llama vet in Southern Oregon and it is common in llamas also so we got right on the hyperlipemia and the mare turned around in a day.

My understanding of hyperlipemia in basic terms is that you have a stress, commonly a mare with foal with added stress but other cirumstances also, and the brain is tricked into thinking it is a starvation situation and starts dumping the fat stores into the bloodstream which in turn clogs up the liver. The bloodtests start going through the roof when this happens and the liver loses it's efficiency to filter the blood so toxins start building up. We were seeing neurologic symptoms which can be from an ammonia level increase. Being in human medicine I was familiar with this as we see it in liver conditions, so we took ammonia levels which are not commonly done in animals, The levels were elevated but didn't need treatment in my case. There is medicine you can give to help the body excrete excess ammonia. With my mare we started out with a respiratory condition and then the hyperlipemia came into play. We also did arterial blood gases, again not common in animals, to see if we needed to treat metabolic problems.

Our course of treatment for this mare was fluids and antibiotics to start due to the respiratory condition which was a big jump start when the hyperlipemia started. Lots of fluids to flush the liver, started treating her for colic as the vet knew this would be a factor. The biggest thing was tubefeeding her to turn off the dumping. Since she couldn't eat she got fed 3-4 times a day by feeding tube. Once we started this she turned around in a days time but still couldn't eat but was off fluids and starting to pick at food. We tube fed her for about a week until she started eating on her own. I took her home and took her in for tube feedings for about 3 days until she started eating on her own. In a week after eating on her own, she was recovered and then went out with the herd again. Unfortunately the respiratory problem came back and we have thought she might have had congestive heart failure as fast as it came on 2 times and was euthanized but we got her through the hyperlipemia fairly quickly.

I hope my experience can help others as this is a bad situation.

Kathi did an excellent post about explaining in laymans terms what Hyperlipemia is all about.

The body goes into "starvation mode" and starts malfunctioning........in a nutshell. Joanne Ross of Scott Creek told us that because of that, you need to trick the horse's system to stop the malfunctioning by supplying the body with constant nutrients via glucose. She said it's much like treating Diabedes...... By giving the mare's system a contant source of sugar/nutrients, the liver stops shutting down and resumes its normal activity.

Last time Joanne shared this subject with us, she said many vets still didn't know about Hyperlipemia and needed to be educated on the subject. From our own experience, we discovered she was right and fortunately our vet was more than willing to do some research.

Maryann/MA

We have had two mares with hyperlipemia. One was named Mundy and her levels were VERY high. She lived. Another had gone off her feed and it took maybe a week or two to get her back eating well. We gave her insulin and glucose twice a day! YES, we have bred the second one again. She was fine and so are her foals.

The first mare, after all she had gone through, got killed by a bear!! I wonder why the vet says she can`t be bred again???? She was stressed from her move and was in foal. If she has adjustd to her new home, why would she fall back into the hyoerlipemia state? I would question that, though if you have a good vet, maybe best to follow his advice? A second opinion would be nice or ask other breeders if they too have had success.

The KEY to prevenion or losing your horse, is to watch your horses carefully. ALWAYS! If they go off their feed, especially stop eating grain, it is TIME for a blood test. You must catch this immediately. If you do, they can be treated at home. I found that grass is the best you can do for feed. They will eat that before just about anything. They also love apples. Of course if you have never given your horses apples they might not enjoy this special treat.

When Mundy was so bad, people and vets told me to put her down. I didn`t and she made it. I had heard if the levals were over 1200, they can`t be saved. NOT true and Mundy was proof of that. Her blood was actually yellow. It took a lot of work and time but she did recover. There IS hope for these precious little ones. A good vet and God up above, can pull them through.

Thank you for all of your experiences. It really helps to hear that some of your mares were "off the charts" with their bloodwork and came back around. My family drove the 5 hours to the vet hospital to see "Mary" yesterday and talk with the vet directly. Mary was out in a pasture with mostly weeds and very little green grass and no hay available. I was concerned by this as it seems she should have food in front of her at all times. The vet said they are "force feeding" her by having her on the pasture 24/7. I understand this is the best thing for her but she would just sniff at the blade of grass here and there and not eat. She is no longer getting glucose & insulin. She was much thinner with her backbone showing. She acted so depressed and I was so incredibly sad to see her like this. The vet said her bloodwork on Tuesday put her triglycerides at 1400 which was some improvement from the previous 1800 she was at but still not great. I am unable to reach her new owner because she is out of town until tomorrow and my hands are of course, tied because I no longer own her. Her new owner has gone above and beyond to care for her for which I am grateful, even taking her to a vet hospital 40 minutes away because she thought it better than the one in her town. What are your thoughts on what she should have in the way of food? The only food she is getting it appears, is what is available in the ground and the pasture was really just weeds. The look of defeat in her eyes has had me sick to my stomach all day and we are suppose to be enjoying a vacation at the coast.

Why did they stop the insulin???????????? Isn`t that what helps break the fat down in their blood? By force feeding, do you mean they are tube feeding her? And NO glucose? Surely they must be giving something by tube or???????????? Is she on any kind of IV`s? From what I have learned, hyperlipemia needs immediate and AGRESSIVE treatment!