Advice , yearling, infections

carthorse

carthorse

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Our yearling has had the vet this morning. We have had her since May and occasionally she has had slight swellings around her jaw, nothing major and put it down to teeth. She is an excellent eater and always happy.
In Sept. she had a mark on her jaw which looked like a puncture wound. It swelled and her temp went up the vet came and thought it a simple puncture wound but also took a blood sample to test for strangles. We confined to barracks and it came back inconclusive. No other horse showed signs and we took temps twice day. She had no discharge or cough. We had a second test which came back the same and she had got better anyway. The test was the same so we were told it was all ok.
Today she came in from the field with a closed eye and a broken leg strap on her turnout rug. Thought she must have been scared by fireworks and ran blind into some thing. Called the vet but by the time he came she had a really bad discharge from her nose on the same side.
He thought they might not be related, her chest was completely clear and sounded great [ his words]. Her eye was dyed and he couldn't see any problems. He has taken a swab of her discharge from her nose. She is on antibiotics and bute and awaiting results.
Question , does this ring any bells with anyone. He mentioned herpes, please tell me anything about this and if I should be panicking. Will the swab give me the answer. She is eating very well and seems well in herself , as always , and was perfectly well yesterday.
I ask about it being contagious and was told not to worry but of course I do.
Thanks
 
Not yet, thank you for mentioning it. Just seems funny that it has all been on the same side of her face and would love it all to be linked as have an insurance claim for the first treatment
 
I'd certainly speek to your vet about it. Sometimes an infection can underrun the teeth and just quietly feed away at the bone. Ocassionaly flaring up.
 
So today she is perfectly normal , eye fully open and bright and no discharge what so ever. She is on AB and bute so they must be working very quickly, just hope it is not something that will flare up again as soon as she comes off them
 
I would persue the sinus/ teeth angle. My youngster had what was thought to be sinuitis on and off for two years. It would clear up with Ab's, but the time between treatments became shorter and shorter, and eventually did nothing.

It turned out he had a congenital malocclusion, and the repeated infections had made a mess of his sinus. He ended up having surgey, and 2 teeth out as a 4 yr old. There were other probs too, although he eventually made a full recovery.

Ask them to scope your yearling and take x-rays to be safe.
 
Sinus comes to my mind, too. I've known a few horses that had "episodes" of discharge but in between they seemed fine. I presume the cyclical nature came from the body's defences suppressing the infection for some time only to have it flare up again under stress of some sort. In at least one case the infection had invaded the bone and so the original protocols of systemic antibiotics followed by flushing through holes drilled into the sinus didn't touch the underlying problem but merely contained it for some time.

Interesting about the herpes. I had a horse to ride years ago that used to get corneal ulcers with some regularity. Each time he was treated successfully but it happened much more often than one would expect by coincidence. Our vet at the time was a super scientist (I suspect she had Asperger's and once she got on a mission there was no stopping her until she found an answer) and she investigated every avenue, finally settling - successfully as it turned out - on the very rare diagnosis of a systemic herpes infection. (Cold sores are herpes - one of those viruses that can live in the body forever, even without obvious symptoms, and flair up intermittently, usually because of stress or other illness.) They treated the horse aggressively and to my knowledge, he made a full recovery, never having another problem.

Interestingly, he had a few other "symptoms" that, in retrospect, might have been connected. He was THE most sensitive horse I've ever met - to light, sound, cold, everything - and extremely nervous but more in a "the world is too much with me" way than temperamentally. His full brothers and parents were not like that at all. The vet who diagnosed him said herpes can cause neurological problems as well and I've always wondered if that wasn't at the root of some of his problems.

It's possible your filly has something very simple and you'll never see a problem but I have to say, in both the sinus and the herpes cases, proper diagnosis took a long time because there were so many more common explanations. I can't say in the herpes situation but certainly in the sinus cases, earlier intervention might very well have resulted in a quicker solution.
 
I don't know whether the jaw and the virus are related in anyway but I think your vet may just be checking all scanarios and the fact that EHV (Equine Herpes Virus) is common in foals and yearlings and is a respiratory type of virus this is why he may be going down this road. Usually but not always EHV1 can cause ataxia (wobbliness and lack of coordination). The trouble is that an EHV swab will take many days to get a definitive answer as the virus needs to be cultured. http://www.canr.uconn.edu/ansci/ehvfaq.pdf
 
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