Potomac horse fever/vet questions

[heidi sowards <ribbitttreefrog@yahoo.com>]

Hi, have a friend who's pony was diagnosed this past
weekend with this disease and is slowly recuperating after
over 19 liters of IV fluids. Now my questions are this:

This pony lives in SW washington state, not normally known
for this disease, right? Would it be normal to not test for
this (she wasn't) and just assume since symptoms match then
that's what it is? They said the tests cost more and they
already have $1000 into treatment and the treatment would
be the same with or without the test. 

But we are talking about a seriously contagious disease,
right? None of their other 4 horses show any symptoms. They
are are all together at least part of the time. The pony
goes out to a local arena for lessons and they took her
team penning the Wed. before the weekend she got sick. To
my knowledge, no one has tried to contact any of the other
riders to warn them of the potential for getting this, or
whatever it is. They are using bleach for their soles of
their shoes, not sure what other quarantine process they
are using. Heidi Smith, in case you see this, they are the
same people you got Chance from. 

BTW, the pony is probably a Welch cross, probably 20's,
good health normally. Looks like the connemara in the Black
Beauty movie.

=====
Heidi-aerc#M20935  /\_/\~    http://www.synjinarts.com
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