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  Discussion on High fever every morning
Author Message
Member:
dakotab

Posted on Saturday, Aug 13, 2011 - 8:11 am:

My horse has been running a high fever (104-105) for three days. He won't drink or eat his grain if I add anything to it. The blood test from the vet show nothing. I have been giving him bute twice a day, he is on SMZ in case of infection.
Cimetidine for his stomach, which is almost impossible to give him. The Vet said to give him electrolites to make him drink, he usually drinks a lot of water, but is not intrested in it. He will not take anything (water or grain) with eletcrolites in them.
The only way to get the fever down it to cold hose him three to four times a day. The fever spikes again every morning. Is there any way you can tell me to get these supplements into him with out the daily fight?
I have tried applesauce, applejuice in his water,
I have tried to mix with juice and put in a syringe. I am at the end of ideas.
Member:
mrose

Posted on Saturday, Aug 13, 2011 - 9:10 am:

I can't comment on the fever; I'm sure Dr.O will do so. However, I would be concerned about giving electrolytes to a horse that isn't drinking. I would try loose salt instead. I belive the electrolytes can cause an imbalance without enough water. Is the correct, Dr.O?

They make a flavored SMZ powder that you can just dump on his feed. Of course, if he isn't eating the feed, that won't work. You mention mixing drugs ith juice in a syringe, have you tried applesauce instead? You do have to make the syringe tip larger, but the sauce is more difficult to spit out and most horses like it. I've also mixed drugs into peanut butter as the peanut butter sticks to the roof of their mouth. Also, I have seen specially designed "bits" in catalogs that are made for administering wormer, which I think would work for other drugs. If you do a search on this site you will probably find other ideas as I recall a couple discussions about difficulty getting pills and drugs into a horse. Good luck and I hope your boy recovers soon.
Member:
canter

Posted on Saturday, Aug 13, 2011 - 8:15 pm:

Have you tried molasses? Many horses love the flavor of it and it's strong enough that it may mask the taste of the drugs. I hope you find a solution and your horse feels better.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Aug 13, 2011 - 8:38 pm:

Hello Hilma,
I do disagree with the idea of forcing down electrolytes "to get him to drink water". It also requires he take in more water to balance the extra salts. The question here is why is your horse's temp running high? Does your veterinarian believe you are dealing with environmental temperature problems or are you dealing with a infection. If an infection is this a virus or bacteria. Your vet must make some decisions here to move forward with proper treatment. I must say many common viral infections will look like this and generally get better with good nursing care. For more on this see HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Respiratory System » Colds, Influenza, and Upper Respiratory Infection.
DrO
Member:
dakotab

Posted on Sunday, Aug 14, 2011 - 11:28 pm:

Good news his fever broke this morning after 4 days.
The vet could not find anything respiratory,no swollen lymph nodes,nothing to indicate bacterial infection. I took him off the electrolytes and he ate all his grain since yesterday, with the SMZ in it.
He was bugging me while trying to clean his stall, so I know he feels much better tonight.
Almost wish we had found something, at least we would have had a reason.
thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it.
Member:
mrose

Posted on Monday, Aug 15, 2011 - 12:22 am:

Good news indeed!

We had a young mare several years ago that ran a fever of 103 - 104 for several days. The only other symptom was that she didn't look "right." Sometimes I think they are like kids; they just get weird viruses sometimes. We had our mare on antibiotics as a precaution since we didn't know for sure the cause, and on bute for her fever.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Aug 15, 2011 - 7:29 pm:

Hilma, you have a common reason for such a problem: a transient viral infection that the horse's immune system has now rejected. Which virus I don't know but I suspect influenza or one of the less common herpes viruses.
DrO
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