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    Re: [RC] Pigeon's Disease?? - Heidi Smith


    > I agree with you, Merryben. I believe I said that although you can give
    > antibiotics, lance etc., my opinion was to isolate and drain and keep
    > Icthanol on it. The antibiotics seemed to make the disease last
    > longer--- no help at all in the few cases that I allowed the vet to give
    > them.
    
    Only if you give the wrong sort.  Pigeon fever gets deep into the tissue and
    is apparently in the lymphatics--not the sort of situation where a typical
    blood-borne antibiotic can penetrate.  And of course, there is no
    circulation into an abcess, either.  An appropriate "antibiotic" for deep
    tissue infections such as this is one like IV sodium iodide--used to be an
    old-time treatment for things like woody tongue in cattle.  A vet in central
    CA who dealt a lot with pigeon fever advised me, when we had a horrid
    outbreak of it in central Oregon, to use sodium iodide in addition to a
    regular antibiotic (SMZ was the antibiotic of choice, since abcesses will go
    ahead and form and rupture when one is using it).  We took his advice, and
    in an outbreak where we treated 80 head in just a few weeks, we only had a
    handful that didn't heal quickly and uneventfully.  One massive IV dose of
    sodium iodide, in addition to lancing and debriding, and accompanied by SMZ,
    turned out to be by far the most effective treatment--WAY better than just
    SMZ and lancing, and also way better than just lancing and cleaning.  We
    also found that the horses in our selenium-deficient area that were on
    adequate selenium levels did not get hit near as hard as those that
    weren't--so we also gave selenium to our cases.
    
    BTW, pigeon fever very often CAN leave ugly scars.  The only horse I ever
    had who got it (amazingly, none of mine got it in the big outbreak, but one
    filly got it when Kevin Costner and his crew were filming The Postman right
    across the road from us--at least we dodged the strangles, influenza, and
    all the other infectious diseases that the movie horses dragged into our
    neighborhood) carries a scar on her chest from her abcess to this day.
    
    Heidi
    
    
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    Replies
    Re: [RC] Pigeon's Disease??, Merryben
    Re: [RC] Pigeon's Disease??, Bette Lamore