In memoriam Viikari

It's been a month since it was time for our angel to fly away...

We're left devastated, missing the most beautiful mind, an amazing motivator and above all, a beloved friend.

He was taken away from us far too soon. We'll never understand why. 

Viran Viekar 28.5.2010 - 2.4.2019

Viikari got diagnosed with LPE a few weeks before his death. We knew we were running out of time, but our doctor gave us hope and with that hope, we did fight until the bitter end.

It was hard to accept diagnosis like LPE. First, we were told he had IBD which was hard to understand as he didn't have any clear symptoms. When we found out what kind of IBD it was, our world came to an end. There was basically no information about LPE available but it was clear it was the worst possible kind.

Viikari seemed hungry. All the time. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would have not believed when our doctor told me, his stomach was full. He had been without any food for 16 hours, but it looked like he had just eaten.

How could he be so hungry all the time, if his stomach was always full?

Last summer was perfect. Viikari was thriving. We thought he would achieve anything, we even planned to sign him in a trotting race.

In October he won a local junior dressage championship even though he wasn't showing his own level anymore. I was getting worried.

We went to all the best clinics and saw all the best doctors in the country. But we were looking in the wrong direction. I kept saying I think there is something wrong with his stomach, but the symptoms suggested there was a problem in his legs or in his back.

He was getting worse, and it was all happening very fast. I knew it was bad but never guessed...

When he was getting all clears everywhere we finally decided to do a gastroscopy. I was sure he had ulcers.

But he didn't. He had a very beautiful stomach and there were no signs of current or previous ulcers. But there was forage, lots of it. Ultrasound showed us his bowl had thickened. It should have been under 2mm, but it was over 4mm. While doing a rectal examination, the doctor discovered a mass. This was worrying as the previous examination was clean.

At this stage, he was diagnosed with "most likely IBD". I felt we only had bad choices...Most of IBD horses still do live a fairly nice life but somehow I knew, this had to be serious as Viikari was getting worse and worse every day.

I couldn't understand the diagnosis fully since he didn't have diarrhea and he wasn't losing weight. But when the biopsy results came, I had to face it. It was LPE and we were losing the fight.


- J



Following links are about IBD and I felt they had most info while I was searching...

https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/13093/1/olofsson_k_160223.pdf
https://www.succeed-vet.com/equine-gi-disease-library/enteritis-in-horses/lymphocytic-plasmacytic-enteritis/
https://www.succeed-vet.com/equine-gi-disease-library/ibd/
https://www.msdvetmanual.com/digestive-system/intestinal-diseases-in-horses-and-foals/inflammatory-bowel-disease-in-horses
https://www.vetstream.com/treat/equis/diseases/chronic-inflammatory-bowel-disease