Sufficient Self Forum

Ok, a break from the history.  I'm scared.  I have my horses over at a friend's house.  Yesterday, I noticed that there was something really wrong w/one of her minis.  I helped her w/him yesterday, and she tried to get a vet out.  There's 3 equine vets in this area.  1 is almost impossible to get out.  The 2 is almost as impossible, and the 3rd will come out right away.  She called vet #2.  She's used him for years, and he's a friend of hers.  He never came out, just told her over the phone what he thought it might be based on they symptoms.

He was no better today, but worse, so she called vet #3.  He came out.  There are 3 things it might be. He's leaning towards West Nile, and took a blood sample.  But, the earliest we could get results is Thursday.  The other possibilities are tetanus, encephalitis, and the 4th is the one that has me scared, and is the first thing I thought of, and that's rabies.  For those of you that pray, please do so.  If it is rabies, the owner, the vet, another friend and myself will all have to get the rabies shots.

I'm sorry, DD. I hope everything will be okay.

What are the symptoms? 

Rabies usually involves lots of scratching licking around a wound site (nose is most usual) later they start stumbling, slobbering and drooling.  It is ALWAYS fatal. 

West Nile on the other hand IS recoverable.  My sister had a mare that contracted West Nile.  The weird thing is she contracted the disease AFTER one shot in the original series.  The rest of the horses were immunized the second time and all was well with them.  This mare had an awful time, but she did recover.

When I was young I had a pony die from tetanus.  It was not pretty either and had we had a lick of sense back then (which we didn't) we should have immediately put her down.  She got a really stiff extended neck and then all of her legs stiffened up and finally she died. 

Another possibility with similar symptoms to explore is lead poisoning.  Horses that contract lead poisoning often get it by cribbing or chewing on painted wood surfaces.

Ok, I just looked up the symptoms of West Nile, and it does sound like what he's dealing with.  But yet at the same time, we won't know for sure for a few days yet.  I'm more hopeful than I was.  And, if it is West Nile, I don't think we need to worry about it in any of the other animals.  We've had 2 nights now that went into the 20s.

Yikes.  Keep us posted.