Recovery From Liver Toxicity

My friend and client, Georgie Brown, asked me if I could help with her friend Debra McLennan’s desperately ill Gypsy Cob gelding. She had bought Jon as a weanling and had owned him for nearly a year, and his condition was worsening by the day. He was in very poor condition, not eating well and extremely low in energy. She discovered that he had been fed hay contaminated with an unknown toxin for some considerable time before she purchased him and had severe liver damage, which the vets had no answers for.

I gave Debra emergency response instructions and she immediately bought Dandelion Root and St Mary’s Thistle seed to add to his feed.

I then discussed the case with Denise Farrugia from Walkenny Park Equine Herbs, and Debra provided all the information through their consultation process. At this time Jon’s blood tests were dismal, the liver perameters were off the chart, but because of the liver’s ability to regenerate, I felt there was a good chance he would recover. And I had also treated severe cases of liver fibrosis successfully over the preceding years.

Denise and I agreed on a course of herbal treatment and natural feeding. To start with we felt it was important for Jon to only have dried herbs or non-alcoholic extracts so Debra continued with the Dandelion Root in his feed, and was lucky to find a non-alcoholic St Mary’s Thistle Seed human extract to syringe into his mouth.

Jon fortunately had access to very good quality native pasture which he enjoyed and his chaff ration was gradually added to with Rosehips, Seaweed, French White Millet, Dolomite, Raw Wheat Germ and Black Sunflower Seeds. His Teff Hay was replaced with top quality pasture hay. Horses with liver damage prefer very plain hay.

Every 6 weeks Debra floats Jon back to the vet clinic for another round of blood tests and we carefully compare the results. The liver perameters kept improving as did his energy, condition, coat quality and general interest in life.

Fast forward to January 2026, and the vets can’t believe how well he is doing and how good he looks. But he still has a few problems with his immune system and his blood so he has had a liquid prescription of human herbal extracts to improve those, and to support his liver regeneration herbs.

Jon is looking amazing and is maturing into a very good looking and healthy and happy horse, pictured above at 3 years of age.

Debra says she was very sceptical of herbal medicine, but Georgie persuaded her, and to Debra’s credit she followed her instructions to the letter to treat Jon, and now she is over the moon with the results.

A commonly asked question is whether herbs can heal a whole range of conditions. The answer is yes!

Common Equine Health Problems

Here are the most common equine health problems which horses have been seen to recover from using prescribed or well formulated herbal medicines.

Digestion – ulcers, scours, poor appetite & doing ability
Immune – bacterial & viral infections, adrenal exhaustion
Respiratory – coughs & colds, allergies, anhydrosis (The Puffs), bleeding (Epistaxis)
Skin, Hair & Hooves – abscesses, mud fever, greasy heel, Qld Itch, sarcoids, warts, seedy toe, thrush
Eyes – ulcers, uveitis, infections, injuries
Musculo-Skeletal – arthritis, tendon, bone & ligament injuries, Navicular Syndrome, chips, spurs, splints, rheumatism, tying-up (Azoturia)
Nervous System – nerve damage, Headshaking Syndrome, stringhalt, nervous behaviours
Wound Healing – first aid, post-veterinary treatment
Metabolic – Cushings Syndrome, laminitis, founder, Equine Metabolic Syndrome
Liver, Circulatory, Blood – anaemia, liver detoxification, lymphangitis, blood cleansing
Urinary – urinary tract/bladder infections
Reproductive – breeding mares – fertility/foaling problems, performance mares – irregular cycles, uterine cramping, difficult behaviour