Sallyfinn
Well-Known Member
I'm new to the vet section so please bear with me.
I have a 7yo cob who lives at home and recently went into livery while I went on holiday. When I came back he was really poorly - very thin, running a temperature and pouring snot. I got the vet who took blood tests (which showed raised white cells and fibrinogen). She felt that we should wait 24hours and then think about swabs and antibiotics if he failed to improve. Over the next couple of days with lots of extra feed and living out he got much better so we left it at that. A week later I brought my new 2yo home thinking all was well. Sadly my 7yo took a turn for the worse over the next 3-4 days, tucked up and snoring even at rest. It then turned out that the livery yard has had confirmed strangles - not that they told me that, even knowing that my boy was ill.
The vet has been back and started them both on antibiotics and we are seeing a vast improvement in the 7yo and the baby is yet to look unwell. The vet did not take any swabs but did blood tests in both to look for an immune response to S. equi. She was unable to tell me which immunoglobulins would be looked for, or how long they might take to appear after exposure. Is this a reliable method of testing? Her feeling that was as swabs have such a poor sensitivity the blood test would be better, although I can find very little info on line for this, except as a way of detecting past exposure when looking for a chronic carrier.
Help please.
I have a 7yo cob who lives at home and recently went into livery while I went on holiday. When I came back he was really poorly - very thin, running a temperature and pouring snot. I got the vet who took blood tests (which showed raised white cells and fibrinogen). She felt that we should wait 24hours and then think about swabs and antibiotics if he failed to improve. Over the next couple of days with lots of extra feed and living out he got much better so we left it at that. A week later I brought my new 2yo home thinking all was well. Sadly my 7yo took a turn for the worse over the next 3-4 days, tucked up and snoring even at rest. It then turned out that the livery yard has had confirmed strangles - not that they told me that, even knowing that my boy was ill.
The vet has been back and started them both on antibiotics and we are seeing a vast improvement in the 7yo and the baby is yet to look unwell. The vet did not take any swabs but did blood tests in both to look for an immune response to S. equi. She was unable to tell me which immunoglobulins would be looked for, or how long they might take to appear after exposure. Is this a reliable method of testing? Her feeling that was as swabs have such a poor sensitivity the blood test would be better, although I can find very little info on line for this, except as a way of detecting past exposure when looking for a chronic carrier.
Help please.