Hepatic Encephalopathy / Hyperammonaemia

Veterinary care required

This condition belongs in veterinary diagnosis and treatment. Compounds are at most supportive.

Priority · vet & management

EMERGENCY — call the vet immediately. The horse is an acute danger to itself and others through recumbency, circling and convulsions; diagnosis and intensive-care stabilisation (including lowering the ammonia burden) belong solely in veterinary hands.

Possible causes

• · advanced liver failure of any cause (e.g. PA toxicosis, cholangiohepatitis, serum hepatitis)
• · a rise in ammonia/neurotoxins in the blood
• · a high protein intake or intestinal bleeding can act as triggers in an already damaged liver

Supportive compounds · supplementary feed, not medication

Prevention

Have liver diseases worked up by the vet early and avoid triggers (poisonous plants, toxins), since the encephalopathy only occurs with advanced liver damage.

Equiterna's take

Equiterna deliberately treats this picture as an emergency with no compound recommendation: in a hepatic encephalopathy every minute of veterinary care counts — supplements have no place here and could dangerously cost time.