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  Discussion on Rhodococcus - Mode of transmission
Author Message
Member:
judyhens

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 - 7:45 pm:

We have a foal who was diagnosed with rhodoccoccus about 10 days ago. He was hospitalized while we were out of town and is home now and apparently fine. He is no longer running a fever, is running and bucking, and eating well. He is to continue on meds (which he loves and laps right up) for 3 more weeks. A baby in an adjacent pasture coughed once today. My husband heard it and stayed with the other baby for about 45 minutes and didn't hear any further coughing. Foal is frisky and nursing well. How contagious is the baby that had Rhodococcus? What should we do if we hear any other baby cough? The infected baby was not pastured with the older foals at the time of onset (observable onset). I am more worried about the little ones that were housed in a pasture adjoining the recovered foal before we knew we had a problem.

Prevention? Modes of transmission? How to decontaminate paddocks and stalls? (We have taken all the sand and bedding out and replaced it with new sand, chloroxed the dirt under the new sand, walls, waterers, door frames, etc.) We clean stalls and paddocks routinely two times/day. The problem is that it has been hot, dusty, and windy. The stalls and paddocks are sandy. Until we can put the little guy out with the others, he is not on lush grass. Unfortunately the dam was moved from a lush pasture to the sandy foaling stall (bedded with hay) only 2 days prior to foaling. She wasn't due for 2 + weeks, bagged up over-night, and we had to move her in closer to foaling than we like. Probably didn't have time to develop antibodies to the organism to pass to the foal through the colostrum.

Any help with prevention/ isolation measures would be appreciated. Also, is Gallium something we should consider in the future? We have foaled out numerous mares since the early 90's. This is our first case of foal pneumonia.
Praise the Lord!
Judy
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 - 8:52 pm:

Judy almost all these questions are directly addressed particularly mode of transmission and diagnosis.

If you have read it, review it carefully again and I think you will find your questions answered. Just to help with some of the less clear stuff because they are "not information": you cannot sanitize dirt and horse to horse transmission is not thought to be a important source of infection. If after reviewing the article it there are still some points you are not clear on bring them here.
DrO
Member:
judyhens

Posted on Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - 4:17 pm:

Thanks! I read the info quickly once. I didn't see info on Gallium, but I might have easily over-looked it. I will re-read your article much more carefully! Will repost if I have further questions!
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