Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Kathie Ford

>  Joane Pappas White
>  Hi Ridecamp,
>  Although I always lurk, it has been some time since I have actually
posted
>  on Ridecamp.  For the last year, however, I have been involved in some
>  serious research concerning West Nile Virus and several other equally
>  frightening new viruses.
Joane, your post is very interesting.  And alarming.  I have yet to decide
to vaccinate my horses as I am constantly hearing different thoughts.  I'm
totally confused, yet my gut feeling says to wait to vaccinate.  There have
been mosquitos in my area this year for most of the winter.  I don't have
standing water anywhere and keep my place spotless.  But I do have a compost
pile.  Last year in the summer we didn't see hardly any mosquitos and found
out why.  We had a large bat population and they were down by the compost
pile every night.

I also have tons of wildlife around me especially birds.  We do have crows
and redtailed hawks, bluejay and all sorts of stuff. So far all are healthy
and I've found no dead birds.

However, last year mind you, when I went out riding I saw many dead animals.
Mostly pigeons (turtledoves?).  I also found a few dead skunks that
displayed no injury or capture  by a predator, and a dead fox.  Both the fox
and skunk were curled up looking like they were sleeping but were dead.  The
skunk after a few days turned green.  Very gross.  One of my horses got sick
mysteriously and I didn't know what was wrong.  She was staggering, pawing,
(no colic), and had a 103 + temperature.   After bute for three days she was
okay.  Now she is stronger than ever and much more herself.  Yet, I did have
the vets out for that.  They tested her for epm and of course was negative.
Her face did have some weird twitching that has since disappeared.

My thought was that WNV was here already.  Maybe mildly.  There was not
other explanation.  I spoke to my neighbors about the birds; some had also
seen them and passed it off as maybe being poisoned or something.

My horses are healthy now, infact healthier than last year.  We had some
pretty weird things happening.  I also lost a mare, seemed like colic, but
had normal vital signs, yet she was in pain and it was very acute.  There
was nothing we could do except put her down.  She couldn't even stand up.

I'm curious with you experience and research what your thoughts are on
this...also, what do you think of the new DNA vaccine the zoos are raving
about?

kathie



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