In first place I want to thank you all for helping to find out whats going on with Mikado. The last two days he was quite normal, able to work and very hungry :-) that makes me happy too, and will allow me to sleep the whole night.

In second place I'll try to answer all the questions:
I think I know enough about haylage: I know the fields, I know the farmer, I usually buy haylage in large bales for winter and small bales for Mikado and his shetland buddie for summer. I usually had both delieveries tested, I take the sample by myself, and bring the sample to lab (it's near by). I had it tested for all that's possible. I want to be sure to know all the ingredients in the haylage and want to be sure to have good quality.
I usually take a two bale sample, I don't cut holes in bales that can't be feed during the next days. To be sure that the test is allright I usually make a second test from to other bales a few weeks later.
If there is a bale that is not 100% perfect like holes in the plastic I don't feed it. Better to pay for a new bale than to pay for a new pony. The summer bales were usually feed within max. 2 days, the larger winter bales were only feed when it's cols, and were feed within 4 days. If there is something left after the 4. day, I don't feed it. There is no chance to hay because Mikado is very allergic on pollen, mites, mold and any thing else that can go wrong with hay. In his case there is no chance to help him with cortison, when he shows a strong allergic reaction.
Only symptom that fits to botulism is that Mikado is sometimes tired. I know a horse thet died because of botulism, and Mikado is not looking like that poor horse did. Botulism would kill a horse, or be cured, but would not appear every winter and disappear every summer.

I know how important a proper diet is, I found out some tricks to make Mikado eat his minerals: He is mostly very hungry after work, so he gets a small meal with his minerals after work, when he ate all of the meal he gets another bag with beet pulp without minerals. That works on most of all days, there are 1-2 days during winter when he is not eating all of this meal.

I will try to add the analysis of the current haylage, I need to have help for that, I am not very familiar to work with the computer. Sorry for that! I could also try to add his current mineral mix.
The Mikado odt is the proof for my disability to work on the computer, it was my first try to create a case history. Sandra was so kind and posted the same file again, in a readable form.

I am still feeding a teaspoon brewers yeast, without it Mikado won't eat the minerals. The manure is normal on most days, there are days with one or two pieces which are too soft. The diarrhoe only appears when he is working, and even when working not every day. He often gets better with a day off work (don't blame me, I know he shouldn't have days without work) after a bad day. When I keep him working, there is mostly another bad day after a bad day.

I had the ACTH, Insulin and glucose test made by our vet, he lives near by the barn, he usually is coming in the morning, take the blood and drive back. He needs to drive 20 minutes, the special container allows to transport it much longer.I asked that in the lab, and Mikado was the first PPID horse that my vet met, so he also called the lab, to learn how to do the test.  I had some bad experiences with having the blood tested in the equine hospital, there were values like ACTH less than 5, and insulin 1. That of course was because of not proper treatment of the blood. That is what happens to the thyroid test, I had it tested in the equine hospital, because my vet told me, that he is not used to test  a horse for thyroid dysfunction. (One thing I like the most, my vet does not only tell me what he knows, he also tell me what he doesn't know)

MIkado has absolutely the will to please, but I know that he will let me know when he is not able to work. As you can see in my older postings, he sometimes does not seem to realize that he is getting out of energy. On the very bad day, he stárted pooping after 5 minutes, and I didnt take that for seriuos. That was definetly a huge falt. Usually he starts pooping after 15-30 min, and I stop work after the third time. When I stop work at this time, usually nothing bad came after that. Mikado hates handwalking, thats the reason why I lunge him.
As I mentioned before, there are good days and bad days. On the bad days I see him mostly walking, but he is walking with nice long steps, and he walking without any important reason, not only for food, water or shelter. He lives in a 250m long grass free paddock besides the paddock of the healthy śtablemates, and he often trotts with the other horses, he comes trotting when he sees me, when he is expecting the next meal or the visit in the other ponies paddock. ( I have him every day for about 1-2 hours with his stablemates, during his visit I close the pasture, and all ponies are together without grass. He enjoys these short visits, and he also likes to walk back to his haylage eating place.

There is no pulse or heat in his hooves, I check both ponies daily. I think he is really comfortable on his feet.

Nothing unnormal when he is not working. Only thing that is not normal is his change in appetite. The heart rate and the respiration is pretty normal. No muscle twitching ( can't remember that he had that ever before)

lowest temperature I found was 36.5 °C which is 95.9 °F, at the moment he has a temperature between that and 37°C/ 98.6°F. Normal was (all the 17 years I know him) 37,4°C/ 99.32°F. I check that about 5 times a week.

I would need some more help to add a new case history, I work with an old computer without microsoft software. I can't write a word document, and I only habe these open office, which is not compatible to the yahoo neo.
Jana in Gemany 09/11Yahoo! Groups