A New Disease: Because Uveitis isn't enough

Hello Old Sports,

Yup, I've got another hospital ID!

Yes, it has indeed been a while since my last post. But I have my reasons this time!
After a very enjoyable summer holiday with Spode, I began feeling a bit weird. I was hungry. Soooo hungry. All the time.

Now, to Spode that didn't seem too unusual. After all, I've always been a fan of the food (well except when Spode first met me and I had never experienced grain before. I found it a bit odd then). But this was more than my usual hungriness. I was ripping through a bale of hay a night and looking for more.

Hellooo-bring me in for my food now please!

Next I started losing weight and couldn't keep up with my workload. Just too tired! Spode called out our new vet (we miss you Evangeline!) and they got to work on figuring out what was going on. Meanwhile, I just kept eating and kept losing weight. Lots of needles, lots of blood lost to tests, lots of different feeds and supplements, lots of worming... but all to no avail. We even consulted my old Canadian vet friends! I was still thirsty, hungry, tired, and sore in the flanks.

Skinny me-an unusual sight indeed!

Ouchy flanks eventually resulted in such tightness that Spode could actually grab my abdominal muscle

As a result, I had my second trip to the hospital. The visit was much more pleasant this time around since it wasn't a four hour journey and nor was I knocked out and having eye surgery... this time it was a mere 25 minute trailer ride. That's my kind of trip!

I got to the hospital and felt a bit overwhelmed to be honest. We went to the Royal Vet College and it was a busy place! I quickly got settled though and off Spode went to consult with the vets about my history. Spode, being her typical obsessive self, had a month's worth of daily observations and weights to offer.

Which included things like swollen glands...

And swollen legs. And a plethora of details about my eating and drinking patterns. Er, and my slightly unhealthy...poo!

The next leg of the journey was to the examination room where I had my first ultrasound. Rather unpleasant. They had freezing cold liquid they kept pouring all over my barrel and I had to stand in stocks, Old Sports! Do they not know who I am?! The Great Gatsby, being asked to stand in stocks?! I quickly forgot though as I had 6 vet students around me--glorious. I was basking in their affections, and I even managed to get one of them to hand feed me the whole time. Bliss. Meanwhile Spode and the head vets looked at this weird little screen thing. Humans are quite bizarre--I don't know how they can understand any of those greying splodges. 

See? No? Well neither did Spode for the most part. Well done, vets!

The ultrasound took a while and Spode was wringing her hands even though she admitted that she could barely identify organs on that funny screen. I turned around myself at one point to have a look but it was far too confusing and the vet student's service was too good to turn down. Spode could tell when the vets were identifying some sort of issue on the screen though, so anxieties were high.
The result? My intestines, small and large, have inflamed walls. Not good news. And then on top of that, as they were carefully looking at all organs, they also noted some issue with my right lung. Nobody knows what, but yet another issue we need to be aware of in the future. I don't have trouble breathing for now so hopefully it stays that way! Basically my lung is not as full of air as it should be. Uveitis is not enough.

The intestine issue was diagnosed as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (think Crohn's Disease, humans!). I had a variety of further tests as a result including an overnight stay at the hospital. All fine, it's not my first time doing that, but this was a bit different... no food! Cruelty to animals right there! I had not a scrap of food for over 12 hours.

Is it possible to move to a stall that DOESN'T have a "no food" sign please??

Oho, but it gets worse, Old Sports. After that starvation, I had to have a tube shoved down me full of glucose! Awful experience and I was none too happy about being subjected to it, let me tell you. I then had to have blood drawn again repeatedly. They shaved off some of my hair and I just look ridiculous now. The shame of it! 

Spode told me that my results of this glucose testing were good, which was a massive relief for us both as the prognosis is not very good for IBD and poor glucose absorption. Luckily my prognosis is better. We're not out of the woods yet, but we do have a plan of action--which is also a relief really because after not knowing why I'm so hungry and why I'm losing weight it was very stressful! I also got wormed yet again as it seems I may have some resistance issues, but that still needs to be confirmed. Stupid worms are likely the cause of it in the first place, combined with my weakened immune system (thanks, Uveitis).

I'm now back home and transitioning to a cereal free diet and oil. Spode tells me I'm working my way up to 5kg of this new feed a day and I'm already getting the prescribed 2 cups of oil a day. Plus some other fat supplements once I've settled into the new diet. Yummo. If that doesn't work, I'll be back on the same steroids I was on for my particularly bad cases of Uveitis. All full circle, Old Sports. Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can. Of course you can.

So new vet is coming out in 2 weeks to see how I'm doing and if I've been able to gain any weight. So far, I've not managed to do that but I am feeling a bit more myself. I hope we can manage this as well as we managed uveitis. There's been many hugs in the stable and panicked phone calls lately, but I think we're on the mend now and relieved to have a diagnosis at the very least.

Also, is there an award for most expensive backyard horse? Because I'm winning. Spode really should have thought this through when she named me Gatsby--a book about a poor man who ended up spending millions. I'm just living up to my namesake! I like to keep the vets in business anyway.

Until later, Old Sports, and hopefully fatter...

Jay.