Horse with poor immune system?

StarlightMagic

StarlightMagic

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My 13 year old TB seems to have a poor immune response. I have had him for 6 months and in that time he had a septic corn within the first month, quite bad mudfever, a nasty kick to the knee which required a lot of antibiotics and creams and now has an infection/cellulitis with no visible entry point. The repeated antibiotics cant be doing him any good, so I am wondering if there is a way I can boost his immune system to try and reduce the frequency of infections? Any suggestions?
 
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StarlightMagic said:
My 13 year old TB seems to have a poor immune response. I have had him for 6 months and in that time he had a septic corn within the first month, quite bad mudfever, a nasty kick to the knee which required a lot of antibiotics and creams and now has an infection/cellulitis with no visible entry point. The repeated antibiotics cant be doing him any good, so I am wondering if there is a way I can boost his immune system to try and reduce the frequency of infections? Any suggestions?
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A good blood tonic, I personally rave so much about Haemavite B+ that I should have shares in the company but for this purpose there are a number of excellent products available. It may just be a case of getting his immune system up and running again, you know what its like, any one thing can knock it off kilter and make it susceptible, a decent blood tonic should support it and your horse :) If it were me, for this purpose i am talking purely of my experience with Haemavite here - I would feed at the maintenance dose daily which is half that of the dose for convalescing horses.

http://www.******.co.uk/Equine_Prod...qpqRBnKBj52qAEHWihWFORil1bDXGM2v1gaAst48P8HAQ
 
I had a good result with Global Herbs "Restore" brilliant stuff, my horse had massively raised fibrynogen levels in his blood - not sure why - virus or allergy - it gave him a huge boost. They also do an "old age" supplement which is a combination of Restore & Immune, it is fine for any age of horse - reasonably priced might be worth a go. Their helpline is really good, call and have a chat with them.

Also might be worth the vet taking bloods so you have a baseline to work with on his file in case you have any further problems and it might just show up a problem. Good luck
 
BethH said:
I had a good result with Global Herbs "Restore" brilliant stuff, my horse had massively raised fibrynogen levels in his blood - not sure why - virus or allergy - it gave him a huge boost. They also do an "old age" supplement which is a combination of Restore & Immune, it is fine for any age of horse - reasonably priced might be worth a go. Their helpline is really good, call and have a chat with them.

Also might be worth the vet taking bloods so you have a baseline to work with on his file in case you have any further problems and it might just show up a problem. Good luck
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I used Restore on my mare after she had an accident and was on antibiotics and other drugs I think it really helped he get back to normal.
 
I'd get him blood tested in case there's a underlying issue. If all is well, a friend has had good results fending of mud fever by choosing a feed with a high level of selenium (you can get a supplement but it's also possible to poison them if you give them too much so she didn't want to risk it, even though I think it has to be a VERY high dose for that!). Echinacea is also worth a try and is a relatively cheap supplement.
 
I second this. I have a gelding who is the same age as yours so not old and he had recurrent uveitis then unexplained hives. The vet thought the uveitis (as it is an auto immune condition) could be because his immune system was compromised. He was eventually diagnosed and put on Prascend.



Gloi said:
Repeated infections might mean it is worth having him tested for Cushings.
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