Armas
Well-Known Member
I have cut and pasted this from a French forum, as I think its an important piece of information for any horse owner and the owner of the horse wanted to warn people.
Yesterday I had one of the worst days of my life.
I came home after being out for the afternoon and went to see Bentley, my big horse who was banging his stable door. I found him trembling all over and breathing very fast and coughing. I took his temperature which was 38 degrees and then I rang the vet and described what was happening and he said he thought he had been stung by something and told me to give him two bute and he would be fine in an hour. I rang my friend who advised me to check his mouth for stings or obstructions and when I did I could see his tongue and gums were blue. I tried to get him to eat the bute but the coughing was worse and he couldn't eat. I rang the vet back and told him to come NOW.
I brought him out of the stable and tied him outside and I thought he was going to die right in front of me as he couldnt get his breath and was just coughing and coughing and his tongue was going more and more blue.
The vet arrived and immediately said that Bentley was having an asthma attack and he had no lung sounds on the right hand side. He also had a temperature which had gone up almost 1 degree since I had phoned the vet. The vet gave him a huge injection of an anti biotic and then almost immediately he had a massive allergic reaction to it. He went rigid and then threw himself over backwards. He got up and then threw himself the other way.
He landed on our metal gates and then on a pile of roof tiles smashing them to bits.
He then went absolutely mental and I had to let him go and he galloped off to the field. He jumped the hedge which is well over 5' into the field and then galloped around for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately for me he is supposed to be halfway through 6 weeks box rest.
Eventually we were able to catch him and bring him back in and the vet was able to inject the drugs to help him breath.
He has said that there is something in our barn where the stables are that has caused the asthma and that Bentley must not go back in there.
I am still in major shock and have a terrible rope burn to my left hand. Bentley is turned out and being checked every hour.
On Monday the vet is coming to take blood tests to see what his white blood cell count is.
He had also burst a blood vessel or something and was pouring frothy blood out of his nose.
This morning he seems ok. He is battered and bruised (as am I) but his temperature is normal and he is only coughing occasionally. His cuts and grazes have been slathered in sudocreme to keep the flies off. He actually trotted up to the gate to see me. He looks sound so that is a blessing after the gallop he had.
He has to stay out which is a b****r because the flies are bad. I have put a fly rug on and a fly mask but the rug is a bit small on him. I sprayed the rug with fly spray but it made him cough so I can't spray him. I have given him haylage to eat because we have no grass and I dont want to give him hay just in case that sets him off again.
The vet left me with a syringe of Cortisone just in case he should have another asthma attack.
Apparently reacting to Penicillin injections is not rare and I am telling this story here to warn people. Here is a short passage explaining what happened that we found on the internet.
Penicillin is very commonly administered to horses in a formulation known as penicillin procaine G. The procaine is a local anesthetic, related to lidocaine, novacaine and cocaine! It helps to give the formulation a long-acting effect, so that it can be administered only twice a day. When correctly injected into the horse's muscle, it causes no problem. However, if the formulation is accidentally injected into the horse's bloodstream, the procaine goes to the horse's brain and triggers a spectacular reaction (imagine a horse getting a "hit" of cocaine). Most horses begin to tremble violently and throw themselves over backwards. There is no antidote when this occurs and an affected horse will recover in just a few minutes as long as it doesn't damage its skull or spine. Obviously, this reaction can be very dangerous for bystanders.
The only thing that was different yesterday from any other day was that we opened a new bale of hay but it was from our normal supplier so God knows what caused the asthma attack.
Yesterday I had one of the worst days of my life.
I came home after being out for the afternoon and went to see Bentley, my big horse who was banging his stable door. I found him trembling all over and breathing very fast and coughing. I took his temperature which was 38 degrees and then I rang the vet and described what was happening and he said he thought he had been stung by something and told me to give him two bute and he would be fine in an hour. I rang my friend who advised me to check his mouth for stings or obstructions and when I did I could see his tongue and gums were blue. I tried to get him to eat the bute but the coughing was worse and he couldn't eat. I rang the vet back and told him to come NOW.
I brought him out of the stable and tied him outside and I thought he was going to die right in front of me as he couldnt get his breath and was just coughing and coughing and his tongue was going more and more blue.
The vet arrived and immediately said that Bentley was having an asthma attack and he had no lung sounds on the right hand side. He also had a temperature which had gone up almost 1 degree since I had phoned the vet. The vet gave him a huge injection of an anti biotic and then almost immediately he had a massive allergic reaction to it. He went rigid and then threw himself over backwards. He got up and then threw himself the other way.
He landed on our metal gates and then on a pile of roof tiles smashing them to bits.
He then went absolutely mental and I had to let him go and he galloped off to the field. He jumped the hedge which is well over 5' into the field and then galloped around for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately for me he is supposed to be halfway through 6 weeks box rest.
Eventually we were able to catch him and bring him back in and the vet was able to inject the drugs to help him breath.
He has said that there is something in our barn where the stables are that has caused the asthma and that Bentley must not go back in there.
I am still in major shock and have a terrible rope burn to my left hand. Bentley is turned out and being checked every hour.
On Monday the vet is coming to take blood tests to see what his white blood cell count is.
He had also burst a blood vessel or something and was pouring frothy blood out of his nose.
This morning he seems ok. He is battered and bruised (as am I) but his temperature is normal and he is only coughing occasionally. His cuts and grazes have been slathered in sudocreme to keep the flies off. He actually trotted up to the gate to see me. He looks sound so that is a blessing after the gallop he had.
He has to stay out which is a b****r because the flies are bad. I have put a fly rug on and a fly mask but the rug is a bit small on him. I sprayed the rug with fly spray but it made him cough so I can't spray him. I have given him haylage to eat because we have no grass and I dont want to give him hay just in case that sets him off again.
The vet left me with a syringe of Cortisone just in case he should have another asthma attack.
Apparently reacting to Penicillin injections is not rare and I am telling this story here to warn people. Here is a short passage explaining what happened that we found on the internet.
Penicillin is very commonly administered to horses in a formulation known as penicillin procaine G. The procaine is a local anesthetic, related to lidocaine, novacaine and cocaine! It helps to give the formulation a long-acting effect, so that it can be administered only twice a day. When correctly injected into the horse's muscle, it causes no problem. However, if the formulation is accidentally injected into the horse's bloodstream, the procaine goes to the horse's brain and triggers a spectacular reaction (imagine a horse getting a "hit" of cocaine). Most horses begin to tremble violently and throw themselves over backwards. There is no antidote when this occurs and an affected horse will recover in just a few minutes as long as it doesn't damage its skull or spine. Obviously, this reaction can be very dangerous for bystanders.
The only thing that was different yesterday from any other day was that we opened a new bale of hay but it was from our normal supplier so God knows what caused the asthma attack.
