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  Discussion on Yearling has tetanus
Author Message
Member:
walkingd

Posted on Monday, Jun 30, 2008 - 4:54 am:

We have a 18 month old filly that was diagnosed with tetanus Thursday. She was in training and was got out of stall Thursday morning with no noticable sign of anything wrong. At dinner the trainer got her back out and noticed her third eyelid was sticking every once in a while. Called vet which made the diagnosis. Our treatment has been, 1st day 45,000 units of antitoxin IM, 30cc Procaine Pennicillan twice a day and 4-5 cc ace every 4 hours. 2nd day on was 15000 units of antitoxin and 30cc Pennicillan 2 times day and Ace as needed. Filly is drinking and eating and shows some stiffness. She is in a dark stall and every attempt is being made to try and save her. Really no change one way or the other since Thursday night. No obvious sign of a cut or anything in last month or so. Not saying she hasn't had one as most unbroke horses generally get a nick or two when they first get started. Just nothing obvious. She was given one tetanus shot at foaling and just slipped through the cracks and didn't get anything else. I know before I get blasted it would have been much simpler to have given followup shots but this is to late now and this is what we are dealing with now. What is a reasonable time to expect to see a change and is there anything else treatment wise we can do?? I have heard Robaxin was very good to use as a muscle relaxer but dosage has varied greatly from one vet to another. We do have it on hand and if it is better than Ace would be willing to use it. Thanks Brian Anderton
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jun 30, 2008 - 10:29 am:

Hello brian,
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Methocarbomol has been used but there is no clear proof of efficacy with its use that I cn find. Instead carefully titrated barbituates have been used where promazines were not enough. For shorter action a combination of diazepam and xylazine has been effective. There is new information that I am updating the tetanus article with this morning and it should be up later today.

In general the course of the disease is very variable and the direction of the severity of the symptoms your best indication of prognosis. 4 days of no worsening of symptoms in a standing, eating, drinking horse is encouraging.
DrO
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Jun 30, 2008 - 11:45 am:

Brian those changes are up in the article and there are some very interesting changes in the treatment.
DrO
Member:
walkingd

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - 4:29 am:

Well 6 days now since first symptoms appeared and not really any change. We ran out of Ace and had to give Robaxin and filly got down and had to be helped up. Got back on Ace now at 3cc 3 times a day and she has not gone back down. Her stiffness has not changed either way but she continues to be eating and drinking and having bowel movements. We took her to our vet to leave her through the weekend as we are going out of town and didn't want to leave a problem for someone else to see about. Our vet said he has never treated one that got started on antitoxin this quick so he is hopefully optimistic. His thoughts are she may level off where she is and then in a few days begin to gradually recover. Hope this is correct. We are going to continue for 2 more days with 15,000 units of antitoxin a day and 60cc Pennicillan with Ace as needed. We did give her some Magnesium after reading your article but not a lot as the vet was a little hesitant about getting her toxic to it. I think it was one tube orally of a Magnesium Gel 300 ml with 2% Magnesium. Have ordered 4, 10 dose vials of tetanus toxoid to give all others. Wished I had done this earlier!!! Thanks Brian Anderton
Member:
canter

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - 7:30 am:

Good luck, Brian. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your filly starts to improve soon and then makes a complete recovery.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 - 7:32 am:

Methacarbamol should not be considered a substitute for the promazines the article explains why. Yes he is correct brian, 6 stable days is a good prognostic sign but it is uncertain that early antitoxin administration is the reason. Antitoxin has not clearly been beneficial in cases because it does not unbind bound toxin and circulating toxin often not present by the time treatment begins. Yes it should be used but the amount of toxin formed, removal of continued toxin production, and keeping the horse from sensory stimulation are the main determining factors.
DrO
Member:
walkingd

Posted on Monday, Jul 7, 2008 - 11:21 am:

Well we are at 12 days since first signs and diagnosis of tetanus. Filly got worse for a few days and then kinda leveled off and not really no change one way or the other. At about 9 or 10 days she had started showing some minor improvement in the fact that in the morning when she was down we could get her up prior to giving her ace. Now in the past 36 hours she has not been down any and is about 25% better than she was at her worst on her mobility. The one thing that has kept our hopes up is she has stayed on her feed the whole time through. We have not had to supplement her with any fluids. She was a nervous type horse before this happened and you can imagine what she is becoming now since we have been giving her about 10 shots a day or more. Currently we are giving 4cc ace 4 times a day and 10cc robaxin 2 times a day. We also are giving 1 gm Naxcel a day and 1/2 bottle of antitoxin but we are starting to wean off of both right now. We swapped off the penn to naxcel about 3 days ago as we had a little reaction right after the vet gave penn so his suggestion was to be safe go to naxcel. This is just what we have found seemed to work best. We may be wrong but we believe the early diagnosis and treatment have made all the difference so far. We never did find anything on her like a cut or scratch or foot abcess so who knows where she got it but the main lesson learned is to make sure all others are vaccinated. Will update later with hopefully good news as she progresses.
Member:
erika

Posted on Monday, Jul 7, 2008 - 5:31 pm:

Praying for a good outcome for you and your filly, Brian.
Member:
lilo

Posted on Monday, Jul 7, 2008 - 6:01 pm:

Good luck, Brian, to you and the filly. I hope she continues to improve. Lilo
Member:
paul303

Posted on Monday, Jul 7, 2008 - 9:55 pm:

Thank you, Brian, for the update. This is how we all learn. All the best to you.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 8, 2008 - 8:14 am:

That is great Brian and the usual course from here is ongoing improvement and complete recovery.
DrO
Member:
ekaufman

Posted on Tuesday, Jul 8, 2008 - 9:56 am:

Hi Brian,

This is good news, and a good reminder for me on my own vaccination program. Please keep us updated on her recovery. I've never seen tetanus and am learning quite a bit from your postings.
Member:
walkingd

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 5:15 am:

Filly has made a complete recovery and we plan on putting her back in training Monday. As far as how she progressed, the third eyelid deal was the first thing we noticed when the diagnosis was made and it was the last thing to clear up when recovery was complete. Thanks to all. Brian Anderton
Member:
paardex

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 6:47 am:

Congratulations! I am so happy everything turned out well.
Jos
Member:
eoeo

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 7:29 am:

So glad to hear the news. She ought to turn out to be a great horse, she certainly has fight in her to survive this. EO
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 9:40 am:

Congratulation Brian, and thanks for the update.
DrO
Member:
canter

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 10:56 am:

Great news, Brian. So glad your filly is back to 100%!
Member:
paul303

Posted on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 - 8:50 pm:

Wonderful Brian, thanks for keeping us informed!
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