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  Discussion on Treatment for chronic infection
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Member:
aletao

Posted on Thursday, Aug 27, 2009 - 10:57 am:

LG ("Little Guy") is an early May colt, who was born after 354 days of gestation. He's a Thoroughbred. His mama is my most valuable mare, and this is her second foal, the first for me. Although small, he seemed healthy for the first 6 -8 weeks of life. When he returned from the breeding farm (where he was foaled), he was exposed to Rotavirus, which my two other foals dealt with for 7 to 10 days. He seemed to be affected for only 2 or 3 days. I was amazed and wondered if his younger age (the other foals are February and March babies) had something to do with his rapid recovery.

A few weeks later, he slid into a non-specific funk. His symptoms resemble hypoproteinemia, which I read about on this site. The veterinarian suggested the diagnosis without bloodwork being done, but said that he has a similar patient who is a few weeks older. I put him on SMZ tablets two weeks ago. I called the vet to update him today.

The foal has shown a 20% improvement, if I can quantify it. His ears are now erect, as opposed to "handle bar" level. His baby coat is finally shedding out, and he is less lethargic. His appetite is still poor, though (he is still nursing and has access to a creep feeder).

Without much more improvement, the vet suggested a few things.

1) an appetite stimulant (which I could not for the life of me figure out what he was saying for the name)
2) change meds from SMZs to either doxycycline or Baytril.

He suggested that I look both up and let him know which course of meds I'd like to choose, as both have side effects.

Question: Which of the drugs would be best? There are others listed under the article on hypoproteinemia...should I suggest one of those instead?

Thanks in advance.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Aug 30, 2009 - 4:03 pm:

Hello aleta,
Without examining your colt I cannot know which (or if any) antibiotic is indicated. I will say I avoid using doxycycline in foals because of the possibility of skeletal and teeth problems. Baytril, as with other fluoroquinolones has an even worse reputation of damaging the joints in young horses. You can read about both of these in the Antibiotic section.

I am a little confused as the description above suggests you think that hypoproteinemia is a "disease". Hypoproteinemia is not a primary condition except maybe as some genetic disorders that I have not heard of. It arrises from a number of different diseases most often parasitism and/or protein loosing enteropathies (diseases of the bowel). I suggest if your horse is believed to have hypoproteinemia that specific dianostic steps be taken to first identify the condition positively how serious the decrease in proteins is and then diagnostic steps taken to identify the disease causing it. Only then will you know what the proper treatment is.
DrO
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