I really wish she'd sent them a few days ago, before I ordered the liver stuff. Because she made a mistake when she gave me his results: his ALT is normal. His AST is the *only* low liver enzyme. Furthermore every bit of research I've read says that AST isn't clinically significant in horses. In fact, in the UK the reference range starts at 0. The clinically significant liver enzymes in horses are ALP, GGT and another one I'm not familiar with. His ALP was normal; the others weren't tested.
It wasn't his potassium that was low; it was his calcium. So salt was ok, but the electrolytes are what got him drinking.
I just did a search on his clinically significant lab results: low serum protein, albumin and calcium, plus anemia. I came up with Right Dorsal Colitis which generally occurs as a result of bute. He had a *lot* of bute while recovering from his injury last winter. Never overdosed, but I did have to push it to the maximum dose a couple times.
Overt symptoms are mild chronic/recurrent colic, dehydration, weight loss, depression. But he didn't show any problems with it back then other than loss of muscle mass, which I attributed to atrophy.
He was psychologically very stressed shortly before this whole episode when Dahli knocked him off his feet grabbing at all the hay. He got right back up and was uninjured, but was shaken up and appeared afraid of Dahli for a while after that. His symptoms started appearing within a week or two. I think he was eating dead grass instead of hay to keep from being in close quarters with her.
Treatment is dietary and includes eliminating or reducing hay -- which he has been doing himself -- and ensuring good hydration. Also corn oil and psyllium mucilloid may help the mucosal tissue heal. Grass will help come summer.
Suddenly everything fits. If this is it, then it says 4-6 months to heal.
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