clostridium anyone? any information appriciated

[parsley]

My two had awful diarhea (SP) and colic last week. The dung samples came up with clostridium infection in one of them (stupidly I didn't ask the vet which type of colostridium!). Does anyone have any experience of this? They are both much better now after being fed founderguard. The vet gave this before we really knew what the problem was as they were getting worse but she said it would have got rid of the colstridium.

 

[Dougie]

its a bacterium which is in horses gut, i think there is always a few in the horse i m ay be wrong. its similar to E-Coli i think.

now the horse i saw with it had severe colitis and severe diarhea. it was euthanased but this was an exterme case so dont panic.

someone correct me if im wrong please

 

[Bossanova]

You need to fnd out what strain it was really. Was the vet of the opinion it has cleared itself up now?
I'd put them both on a probiotic. Are they being fed haylage?

 

[parsley]

They are both much better now and have perfect poos! I put them on dengie triple x as soon as they started getting the diareah and now they are on NAF pink powders. They are on haylege (but have been on hay while they were scouring). The vet seems to think that the founder guard has done the trick but as today was the last day I will be keeping a close eye on them. The vet said that their blood tests had slightly higher than ususal worm antibodies althgouh they are both up to date with worming so she thinks it may have been a combination of worms and possibly a bad bale of haylege. I will gradually introduce the haylege again and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Bossanova]

Sounds good- if their worm counts were up then their immune systems may have been struggling and that allowed the infection to take hold.
I'd change your wormer to one with a different chemical in case you've got resistant worms. Other than that, you're doing everything right and I hope they continue to feel well

 

[parsley]

The yard has introduced a new working regime which is different from what I have been using on Bomber - I'm not sure about the pony as we have only just got him

 

[Ferdinase514]

People get clostridium after antibiotic treatment. Not sure that's particularly helpful...sorry!

 

[Anastasia]

Not wishing to scare you.............

Unfortunately a lady I know just recently lost 4 horses in the space of 10 days to clostridium deficile. Mare, her foal, and two ponies. They think the foal brought it back from a vet clinic as it had been on broad spectrum antibiotics!! The mare died the day after the foal returned home with no symptoms, the foal and two other ponies died within days afterwards. Needless to say they were devastated about it. Once the horses had the diarrhoea it spread quite rapidly.

Funnily enough the post mortem on the mare said that the case was redworms, but the horses had been on a regular worming programme. The owners were certain is was clostridium and got further tests done. Unfortunately by the time the results came back all 4 horses had died.

According to this lady clostridium Deficile only reacts to one type of antibiotic and you have to get it in VERY quickly preferably BEFORE the diarrhoea starts up........

Not easy when most people only know if something is up once the diarrhoea starts.

I do not mean to scaremonger you here are there are several strains of clostridium.

 

[sunflower]

Do you mean Clostridium difficile ? If so it can be treated with 2 different antibiotics. Yes there are lots of different species of clostridia and some cause disease in horses but lots don't.