Heat colic, crazy allergy or something else?

This concerns Dusty, my 25 year old gelding.

Sunday, Dusty was put out in the morning. When I got to the barn, I
noticed that he hadn't finished his grain (which isn't like him), so I
went out to see him.

He seemed a bit listless, and had a strange sticky, almost oily sweat
that ran down the ventral part of his neck from his cheek, to his
chest. His chest was swollen and there was edema build-up between his
front legs. The whole area was extremely hot.

I brought him in, and called the vet. He said give him banamine, he's
probably having a mild colic. I also cold sponged his chest (which he
didn't like much) and the sweat was showing as serum rather than
normal sweat: I happened to be using a white facecloth rather than a
sponge; I'd have wheat-colored handprints on the facecloth after each
swipe. I'd given him a bath on Saturday (he was fine, then) so the
obvious "it's from manure or urine stains" is unlikely.

I offered him some fresh cold water after he'd been in a while, and he
drank quite a bit. He seemed to perk up too. He hasn't been on
Stressdex but I gave him some.

Because of the swelling, the barn owner thought a bug bite might have
been the problem. No one thought much of it, and figured he'd be
better the next day.

So... Monday. I called the barn to see how he was. He had already been
taken out, but his grain was all gone, and the girl who led him out
said he didn't appear stressed. For some reason I was still uneasy
about him, so when I could slip away from work for a bit (around 1PM),
I went over.

The barn manager said that when she brought him in he was very itchy
where the oily sweat had been (it had gotten clumpy and sticky too)
and if I hadn't come over she was going to hose him off later. I went
back to look at him, and found that where the edema under his legs had
been was now red raw and almost hairless - what wasn't gone came off
when I gently wiped it with a wet washcloth. He was sore on his
chest, which still was swollen and hot. The swelling had gone down his
left fore to his knee; the right fore was a bit swollen but not the
treetrunk that the left one was.

I put in another call to the vet; this one a "frantic mother" call. I
eventually got a call-back and he said he'd be out later that
afternoon.

I took Dusty outside to hose his leg and chest down and try to clear
up some of the sticky mess while I was waiting. There was some yummy
clover right outside the door, so he was a pretty good boy about it,
even though it was obvious there was some discomfort with the (not
very strong) stream of water hitting the affected skin. When I brought
him in and put him back in his stall, after a few minutes he got more
listless and was uninterested in hay or carrots(!!)

When the vet came he had time to say "He's got hives" "allergies -
probably clover mold (??!!!!)" before the sky opened up and there was
no more communication (tin roof) for about 15 minutes. He gave him a
couple of shots of steroids, a shot of something else (on the receipt
it looks like "AH shot") and drew some blood for blood tests. He gave
us some dexamethazone pills to put him on for the next few days, and
told me to give him an alcohol and water sponge down with warm water,
which I did. Before I had to leave to go back to work, I noticed his
right rear leg was starting to swell a bit on the inside, down towards
the hock, though.

I called last night, the barn owner said he was eating and drinking
but his legs (the left front and right rear) still looked puffy, down
from the body to the joint.

This morning (Tuesday) I had the blacksmith in - scheduled for Tico
and Dusty but I figured Dusty might be a no-go.

He was: now all 4 legs are swollen the size of tree trunks, and it's
starting to go down towards the fetlocks. He is still interested in
food but barely able to move with the swelling. He'd drunk some water,
though the barn manager said it wasn't as much as usual, and he'd peed
and pooped.

I asked the blacksmith to take a look at him, and he noticed that he
was now very dehydrated (we'd done the skin check Sunday and the day
before and that had not been the case), and he suggested IV fluids
were needed ASAP. He was shocked at the size of Dusty's legs. So I
have another call in to the vet.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I'm at my wits end, and am
thinking this may be Dusty's last days.

Susan



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