Virus - anyone else had this

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Domirati

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My daughter's pony picked a virus up this summer. Apparently there has been quite a few cases locally. He started blowing after jumping a sj course. We went home via the vet and he had his blood tested. His WBC count was fine but the reading for his muscles was at1790 when it should have been 350 so basically oxygen was not getting into the muscles. He had some time off, antibiotics and strong vitamin/mineral supplement. He is back to normal hacking and looks bright again. Yesterday we took him xc schooling and he was not himself. He was lack lustre, lethargic and did not want to know and he adores xc. This is 6 weeks after the blood test. Going to ring the vet again tomorrow. Had his back checked last week and that is fine. anyone else had anything like this and how long did it take to get back to normal? When tired he has a thin white discharge from his nose. No coughing or chest noises.
 
We have a 3 year old racehorse in for rehab at the moment. He has been sick with a virus for 5 weeks. REady to run - very flat, temperature filled hind legs, revolting snotty nose etc., has had 3 different A/B's has come to us put in isolation - took 10 days and more a/b's temperature fluctuatiing daily - have turned him out for longer and longer every day head down so he drains - Friday he began to look and feel better. He still has filled hind legs but temp has stabilised at 37.8. No other horse in a yard of 60+ horses are showing any signs. Some of these viruses are taking a long tiime to clear the system and you have to give them the time otherwise they just keep coming back. We will scope him again and redo bloods before he goes back into training but needs to be completely clear to start work again.
 
I wonder what made the vet think it might be a virus?

I'm guessing that you mean that CK (creatine kinase), the main indicator of muscle damage, was raised? 350 is generally taken as the high normal for that, so anything over that amount is indicative of muscle damage.

Muscle damage can be for all sorts of reasons, including nutritional and genetic causes. Some vets only seem to recognise muscle damage if/when a horse ties up fully, but there are varying scales of it from a reluctance to work up to an inability to move at all.

Presumably your vet talked about making sure the pony's diet does not include grains/starches etc (as these can be a very easy cause of muscle damage to eleminate).

Even in a horse that has tied up fully, CK should return to normal within only a few days of the attack, if the cause has been removed.

Sarah
 
Ok. So update is that his muscle enzymes are still 4x what they should be. We think that he caught a virus at camp as 3 others in his ride who use the same vets have also shown symptoms. As he is an absolute superstar he kept going even though he was obviously not 100% (he did not appear unwell) we did the pc area eventing with him 5 days after camp. Vet thinks that he did some damage to himself then. Heart, lungs, WBC all fine. Vet thinks he will be ok long term. He is off out for a holiday and we will get going again (hopefully) in January so he can do some BE events. 13 year old daughter not happy. Fingers crossed he will be fine. Meanwhile youngster come in from field with a swollen fetlock so thinking of,taking up flower arranging instead!
 
Domirati

glad to hear the pony is progressing in the right direction;

I am rather interested to read that antibiotics are being prescribed to treat viruses especially as the WBC was fine !
 
Domirati said:
Ok. So update is that his muscle enzymes are still 4x what they should be. We think that he caught a virus at camp as 3 others in his ride who use the same vets have also shown symptoms. As he is an absolute superstar he kept going even though he was obviously not 100% (he did not appear unwell) we did the pc area eventing with him 5 days after camp. Vet thinks that he did some damage to himself then. Heart, lungs, WBC all fine. Vet thinks he will be ok long term. He is off out for a holiday and we will get going again (hopefully) in January so he can do some BE events. 13 year old daughter not happy. Fingers crossed he will be fine. Meanwhile youngster come in from field with a swollen fetlock so thinking of,taking up flower arranging instead!
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Well done you for giving him the time off he needs to get himself better. I too think its odd that WBC was ok - my horse had a long running recurrent virus and his WBC were all over the place. I found iron/vit tonic helped perk him up quite a bit (I used Visorbin but its no longer made but there are similar ones made by Equine America/Naf etc). Hope your youngster is back up and running too soon!
 
One of mine had a horrible virus a couple of years ago and he had to have complete rest for 2 months before he was starting to get back to himself. Poor thing really did look awful - was terrified something dreadful wrong with him :(

He wasn't prescribed anything other than rest, good food to try and get some condition back on him, to be kept warm (the obvious stuff really) and I used the Equine America tonic, Propell Plus think it's called

No miracle cure for some of these things, just time and rest so sounds like you're doing all the right things. Warning though, the Propell Plus was like rocket fuel when he was feeling better ... made for an interesting first couple of weeks back in work :D
 
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