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  Discussion on Help with Flu-like symptoms
Author Message
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Monday, Apr 30, 2007 - 11:56 pm:

On our Friesian board, one of the members lost their mare to some unknown disease. Now the mare's foal has come down with a fever and is off feed. Apparently, several horses in the area have been sick. Here are the symptoms. Their farm is in Texas. Any ideas?

Her text:

Here is a run down of the symptoms we have been seeing across multiple breeds, all feeding different things, some horses on pasture, some boarded, not all horses at a barn or pasture get it.

horses stop eating
depressed attitude
no abnormal CBC or blood chemistry in the beginning
most often first presents like a choke
some horses have green slimy reflux
sometimes diarrhea (about 50% of cases)
slight anemia
some spike fevers of 103.9
some have only slightly elevated temps
in most cases bute or banamine restores their desire to eat
a wide variety of antibiotics have been tried with no effect, including penicillin and gentomicin; horses on antibiotics recover no faster than horses given nothing
horses exposed (direct contact) to other horses with the illness seem to come up with it about 10-14 days later
most horses recover within 3-4 weeks

Peculiar to my Friesian mare: she started drawing on her bodily fat stores and her liver became infiltrated with fat which caused liver failure and death very quickly with final blood work showing off the charts elevated white count (60!!!)

All of my horses have been eating the same feed from the same feed store, same brand for almost five years, and everyone else here so far seems fine. They also get Omega horse shine starting last year, but my vet says a horse could not ingest enough fat to do to their livers what happened to Guinevere's.
Member:
scooter

Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 6:51 am:

Do they have potomac horse fever in Texas? My mare years ago went thru something very similar, and other horses around the county had it too. The best they could come up with at the time was Potomac? I wouldn't think that would affect the liver tho, and it seems a little early in the year for it, but you are warmer in Texas.
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 9:32 am:

Of all of the symptoms, this seemed to match the best. I agree.
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - 10:56 am:

Well, apparently the vets tested for this, and it was negative. So back to the drawing board.
Member:
scooter

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - 5:17 pm:

Could they be eating some weird weed or tree? I hope you able to figure it out. Good Luck
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2007 - 11:49 am:

Well, they are at different ranches in the area, so I wouldn't think it would be ingested in this way.
Member:
scooter

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2007 - 7:08 pm:

You might be surprised, most weeds or trees are the same in most pastures. This fall my horses were all acting like they had the flu 2 were worse than 1 of them. They went off their feed and acted very depressed. They were peeing way more than usual. One horse broke out in a cold sweat and started shaking. They laid down more than usual, but didn't act colicy.

I called the vet and he said they probably had some kind of bug....but they never leave the property and no new horses had been here for mos. I searched the pasture and discovered the wind had blown black locust pods from the neighbors pasture into the horses pasture. They were eating them, and after searching the net and this website I discovered they were poisonous to horses. I raked them all up and gave the horses banamine for a day and they have been fine since. I guess my point is black locust are all over up here and they could have gotten into them in most any pasture in the county. Some horses seem to stay away from such stuff and others don't. It did present as a flu type virus.

This time of year all kinds of things are growing and it is hard to keep pastures/hay completely weed free...it might be worth checking...GOOD LUCK
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