4 months on - blood test still Viral

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lyndsayberesford

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Right, my young horse (5 yr old) has been blood tested 4 times now, after he felt lethargic back in September.

Now his latest blood test results have come back and his Neutrophils % is now classed as Low (38%) and his Lymphocytes % and Monocytes % are High (55% and 4%)

Before anyone says to consult my vet and questions that i trust my vet, i totally do, just wondered if anyone on here has any experience with longer term virus's thats all

Now after the most recent results im starting to question the vet about this virus and if there is anything else i can do (in form of treatment) to help the recovery.

Vet suggested that as it has gone on for a longer time that it could be Equine Herpes. I have looked briefly on the internet and see that there are different varieties of EHV.

Horse looks well in himself, eating fine, he has been on Propell and Ecinacea now for about 3 months as well as rest.

It is being considered to get his blood tested for Herpes in the new year (cant do it yet because of the time constraints of Xmas post etc) and then vet discussed a few options with me if Herpes is confirmed.

He mentioned a course of Aciclovir tablets, which he said can be quite successful, also mentioned a course over 3 or 4 weeks of an injection (similar to what they give to humans for Hepatitis and HIV) which has quite good effects too.

He did say time is one of the best healers (which i appreciate) the problem being that my horse is getting pretty bored of this, doesnt enjoy being out in the field for longer than 7 or 8 hours (usually stood at the gate by the time i get to him) and i just want to help him recover and slowly bring him back into work when he is ready and fit.

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Or any other longer term viruses.
 
Aciclover is an anit viral drug. I have it when I have a shingles attack.

Can't give you any help regarding recovery etc. But if the horse is bored, can you not give him some quiet work?
 
well after his 3rd blood test there was a small improvement, so the vet suggested while he was bored, start to walk him out again and gradually try and get him back to fitness and see if the lethargy was still there. she suggested there can be a delay on blood results when they have had a virus and recovered yet the white blood cells still show a count of being "viral"

So i did a little with him, literally 10 mins walk twice a week just to stop him being so bored, hard to do much more with the nights being dark early and then i had a 2 week holiday so left him again, but then this 4th blood test the results are worse, so part of me is thinking that because he has got worse i dont want to work him at all until i know he is better, especially with him being a big 17hh 5 yr old
 
What are the absolute numbers of Neutrophils, Lymphocytes and Monocytes, as opposed to the differential (%) counts?
Has he ever had blood taken in the past (before this episode started)?
What symptoms is your horse currently showing?
 
Hi

the WBC part of the blood test (latest one) is this:

White Cell count 5.3 |5.0-11.5|
Neutrophils % LO 38 |48-68|
Eosinophils% 3 |1-5|
Lymphocytes% HI 55 |20-50|
Monocytes% HI 4 |1-3|
Neutrophils Absolute Nos. 2.01 |2.00-8.60|
Eosinophils Absolute Nos. 0.16 |0.05-0.57|
Lymphocytes 2.91 |1.00-5.75|
Monocytes 0.21 |0.05-0.69|

I have never had his blood tested when i assumed he was fully healthy. I cant say he is showing any particular under the weather signs as he has been out of work for 4 months now, so is probably far from fit, so if he was to do any work he would tire quite easily anyway.

He felt like he lost all of his "spark" about 4 months ago, and i had him tested for the first time a couple of weeks after this.
 
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Now this wont be the case

but my mare went lethargic in april i boosted up her corn and bought propell plus, even put her on ventapulmins as nothing else obvious.,


Anyway I found out later the lethargy was down to laminitis and the corn and propell accentuated the problem . That and escaping out her stable in Aug and eating barley rings, has lead us to 5 months box rest and rotation - sinking and protein loss.

I would not give the propell plus or high corn till you knw exactly what your dealing with .



I presume they have checked out your horse for other problems

back
ligament
breathing
abscess
laminitis and more .

.

My advice is find out the cause dont give loads starch or protein till you know.


We did worm count and found she had middle tape worm count which can cause leaking protein, also lethargy .



tho it takes a month for gut to heal we still dont know if its repairing.
 
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Well under the vets advice it's a viral indication from the blood. Plus there is another horse with exact same things (blood tested) showing viral same as my horse. So unless we were both mega unlucky :(
 
Lymphocyte:neutrophil ratio is pretty unreliable for distinguishing bacterial vs. viral infection even when there is other evidence of infection in the results. With a normal total WBC count, and absolute counts for the differential all within normal limits then there is no evidence of infection with anything on the bloods you posted. It is possible that biochemistry was also done which can give other clues, e.g. increased globulins, SAA, fibrinogen, CK.
I would call the posted blood results normal, and get your horse back in work.
 
FAO Alsiola

on the first screening they ran other results also

AST/GOT Hi 277 60-240
Alkaline Phospatase Lo 153 180-390
Creatine Kinase Hi 204 50-180
Total Protein Hi 71 47-67
Albumin 35 24-36
Protein Globulin 36 21-41
Urea 6.2 2.8-6.2
Sodium 140.2 133.0-143.0
Potassium Lo 2.7 3.3-5.3
Albumin/Globulin ratio 1.0 0.5-2.4
Sodium/Potassium ration Hi 52 30-40
 
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