Poorly Horse - advice needed

smallgirl

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Hi all

My horse has a virus, the vet has been out last night and is currently running the bloods he took, he also gave him an injection to bring his temp down which worked in the short term.

Has anyone else's horse had a virus, so that they become really stiff and don't want to walk about, his temp is 40 degrees overnight and today is about 40.5 degrees so all is not well.

He is eating, drinking and pooing properly but it seems like his muslces are very tight and cramping, like when we have the flu I guess, TBH I thought he had hurt his back when I first saw him last night trying to walk in from the field hanging his head to the left all funny but the Vet assures me it's not a back problem.

Is there anything anyone would suggest that may help him even little things to cheer him up.

Its times like this I wish they could talk, all I want to do is tell him its alright, he's my world and for the first time I'm really worried about him.
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Rambo

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Horses get all sorts of viruses which manifest themselves in lots of diffferent ways
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No specific advice on making him more comfortable but would say, give him plenty of time to recover as they do take a while to clear the system
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smallgirl

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I think they can still, but not too sure, I'm sure someone like GTs will be able to put us right though.

He is up to date on jabs, they are due again in mid-October. I think he knew what I was up to yesterday as I joined BD and am going to be a stressage queen so he thoguht 'ah ha time to kybosh that one'!
 

charlie76

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It sounds like Azoturia? Horse becomes stiff and reluctant to move, patchy sweating, pulse, breathing and temp may ride due to the pain.

Just a thought?
 

smallgirl

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Vet ruled out Azoturia, pulse was OK, no sweating, things like this are a minefield, at least with a cut you can see the injury.

At the moment there are no outward signs he is ill apart from being quiet and a bit listless, although not too listless to go off his food etc.
 

Toby_Zaphod

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About 6 months ago a horse on our yard had identical symptoms. He was very stiff in his body, reluctant to move about but still had an appetite. We initially though Azoturia, as another poster thought, but that was ruled out after blood tests
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. It took a few weeks to clear up & we never really found out what it was. The vet told us it was a virus. He was given various powders & potions. The horse was gradually brought back into work over a couple of weeks and he's fine now. It was very worrying at the time though. It's always worse when you know something is wrong but no one has a clue what it is. Hopefully your's will clear up soon. Good Luck
 

rema

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My lad picked up a virus this time last year.And i really knocked him for six.He lost his appetite completely went very Anemic (sp) and lost a shed full of weight despite me throwing feed down his throat by the sack full.It took him a good 6 months to come right and put the weight back on.I now feed him Echineacha (sp) to boost his immune system.It's not a nice thing to see.I hope your horse makes a speedy recovery.If only they could talk eh??.
 

Marilyn

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Sounds like azoturia, get the vet to run another blood test (or better still look at the one he's already taken) and look at muscle enzymes...my mare was diagnosed with a virus and although I'm sure she did have that as a problem, she was exhibiting signs of tying up at the time and we all said (often blood test) that the virus has been making her lethargic but it turns out that we were wrong.
 

smallgirl

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Thanks so much for the support, Vet has been back out, as temp is still at 40.5, gave him anti-inflammorty and anitibiotic jab and another wait and see night, temp went down to 38 so have left him for a few hours.

The vet ran muscle enzyme tests and they came back fine as did the rest of his blood results!

Hopefully it will peak and he will start to lose the stiffness, he has a really good appetite so I know he is kind of OK, just makes me so sad to see him poorly
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henryhorn

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I wondered about saying this but it sounds horribly like tetanus possibilty to me. Are his jabs up to date?
I do hope not and your Vet is bound to have eradicated this in his tests, but asking him might not harm?
I think all you can do for a sick horse is leave them in peace eating what they want and keeping them rugged accordingly. I've always found broad bran mashes appeal to sick horses, and don't do any harm in the short term.
I hope it's a short term virus and he is soon feeling better.
 

smallgirl

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Hi all again

Last night was a nightmare, Vet was out in the afternoon, gave him anti-inflammory and anti-biotic jab and I hand grazed him for an hour, left him at 6.30 temp was 38.

Went back down at 9pm to find girl I keep him with throwing rugs on him as he was freezing. Once the rugs went on he started to tremor, not from cold but muscle spasms, this lasted for an hour and a half, whilst we were trying to get hold of Vet, his temp went back up to 40.5.

She gave him opiates to calm him and he settled again about midnight.

This morning he is happier but not eating as much, so picked him grass and Vet is going back out to check him before lunchtime, his temp was down to 39 at 7am and 38.7 at 8am so a bit happier, I know this just means the drugs are working.

There was talk of referring him, as they can't put a reason to the illness, I don't want to travel him at the moment as he really can't walk properly and seems to not have great balance.

He is jabbed up to date so we have discouonted Tetanus very early on, also discounted azorturia, strangles and grass sickness (when they mentioned that I started to panic).

Fingers crossed he strats to get better soon.

Didn't sleep last night, just wanted to take the pain away from him, really hurt to see him hurting
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