Lawsonia Intracellularis?? Anyone had a confirmed case

No real way of confirming they definately have it other than biopsy on intestine. I have 3 horses tested sero positive for lawsonia antibodies, 2 others negative. Two mares who definately didn't have it (just exposure from a positive foal), the other had exposure, has the antibodies, had a lack of appetite and gradual weight loss for three months with mild colic but blood wasn't sick enough! She eventually got eating on Doxycyline and put weight on really quickly, not lost her appetite since, although she had eating problems for several months after which Doxycycline eventually fixed. She was 17 months old. No way of knowing whether she had lawsonia or just exposure and something else happening at that same time. Six weeks before she got sick a foal tested positive on feacal test.
You could do the blood serology test,(Rossdales or Capital Diagnostics do it) if it comes back negative then your horse doesn't have it. If it comes back positive then your horse might have it or she might just of had previous exposure.
 
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Mmm - mine hasn't had colic. Serious loss of weight, severe diarrhoea, loss of appetite and oedema along the belly line. Bloods suggested infection - high wite cell, low red cell and PVC etc. Faeces are being sent off and we've changed her to a suitable antibiotic - but she's 28 months old.
 
What antibiotic are you using? Norodine is no good if it is lawsonia. Doxycycline is the best one for it and treating with it will do no harm if it isn't. I often wonder whether my filly would of been any different if she had been treated with doxy at the start instead of norodine. I spoke to a few people in US with suspected lawsonia cases in 2 yr olds, none were confirmed, one 2yr old got better on doxy but blood tested negative for lawsonia, another was treated for lawsonia for months but was eventually pts and it was pm'd lymphasarcoma (sp). The fecal test is unrelieable, one day of antibiotic can give a false negative, although my foal had four days norodine x 2 and one day of engymycin and still tested positive fecal. My filly tested negative fecal but positive blood. Blood is better, if you get negative blood now then do again in month, if its still negative then you have your answer.
 
Yep - we started with Norodine but have swapped to Doxycycline. I DID tell vet to check price of the DNA test and if it is silly expensive, we'll just continue treating her for it. Vet is coming again on Monday (or sooner if she deteriorates) so will discuss the blood test with him.
 
Goodluck with her, let us know how she is getting on. When mine were tested 2011/2012 the fecal test was £30 ish and the blood test was just under £20 (blood was done with Capital Diagnostics who were the only ones doing it back then).
 
Silverfire said:
How is your filly doing JanetGeorge?
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She's very slowly improving - but I've brought home another one from the same group who looks suspiciously like HE's got it. Vet came today and taken bloods from both, and faecal sample from him - but he's been put onto Doxycycline too. He's not as bad as she was - a bit of weight loss, lethargy, and a slight temperature - heart rate 40. I'm watching the others in the group like a hawk but so far ....
 
Good that your filly is no worse, not so good that you might have a second one. Hope the rest are okay. Will be interesting to hear test results.
 
Filly is a little better today and the 2nd one is already showing a bit of improvement. We now have a 3rd one - i brought him home the same day as the second because he was dead lame - an abcess - now he's scouring and has a temperature so I've started him on the antibiotics too! No test results back yet - I'm just worried about how many of the 2 year olds will get it - I moved the remaining 7 to a small fresh field today!
 
Good idea to have moved the others to a fresh field, its spread by infected droppings. A lot of what i have read (and i have read loads of stuff) which was written by vets who have actually treated cases of lawsonia says they don't usually scour with it because it usually only affects the small intestine (neither of mine scoured, whether they actually had it or not!). Hopefully this link will work and is an interesting post on a forum written by a vet about lawsonia in foals. http://www.equiman.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=411704
 
JanetGeorge said:
Most of the learned articles I've seen have given diarrhoea as one of the symptoms - the first two faecal tests have come back negative though so now waiting on the blood tests. Whatever it is, the treatment appears to be working, thankfully!
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Would of thought the feacal for the second one would have come back positive if they had it. If the bloods come back positive then you are going to have same result as mine in that you wont know that they definately have it or whether they just had previous exposure and something else, espescially if you have a lot of wildlife around you. Not that it really matters, the good thing is they are getting better on doxycycline whatever it is.
Is there any possibility it could be E-coli? I had a foal with that once, he was about six weeks old, had bad diarrhoea, high temp and stopped suckling off mum. He was very poorly for over a week but did get better. I know that doxycyline will treat E-coli in chickens.
 
Did the second one blood test with low protein? When my yearling filly was poorly her bloods tested normal at start but 8 weeks later her protein was below normal although it might have been because she wasn't eating much. She had no visible odema. She had negative feacal test at 10 weeks and positive blood done couple weeks later. I tested four of my mares because i wanted to know whether lawsonia was in the farm enviroment. The mother of the positive foal was positive, the mare in the stable next to, but not turned out with her was positive (she had foal at foot and i think my yearling was infected by that foal as she was in her stable 18 days before she became poorly). The other two mares who were turned out with the first positive mare and foal both tested negative.
 
JanetGeorge said:
The 2nd one had bloods very similar to the first (who was much worse when we cottoned on) - just the highs and lows weren't as bad. They're now all MUCH better - diarrhoes virtually gone, appetites improving - so whatever it is, we're winning (hopefully!)
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How are they all now JanetGeorge? Have you had any lawsonia blood results yet?
 
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