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RE: [SPAM] Re: [RC] Pigeon Fever - heidiRegarding Pigeon fever, I have seen two posts that mentioned giving antibotics to the horse (penicillin)....from what I have heard from my vets, and also seen, giving shots can delay the formation and drainage of the abcess and can encourage it to internalize and rupture in the abdomen instead of exiting the horse.... If the horse seems comfortable and no high fever, I would personally not give antibiotics. Karen, you're on the right track. Some antibiotics (and penicillin is one of the culprits) kill bacteria by retarding growth. In situations where there is abcess formation, this can indeed delay recovery, or worse yet, cause the horse to relapse at some point. One of the antibiotics that does not do this is sulfa--so that should be the choice in both pigeon fever or strangles, if an antibiotic needs to be given. I am not as confident that pigeon fever just gets better, as some have indicated here. In endemic areas where horses have had previous exposure, your chances of recovery are much better, because the horse is more apt to have some low-level immunity. But when pigeon fever hits a previously unexposed population, it is ugly. Cases just go on, and on, and on. I had the unfortunate experience of having to treat 77 cases in such a population of horses in about a 6-week time frame. The advice I got from a vet in central California (where it IS endemic) was excellent. He recommended giving one massive IV treatment of sodium iodide, which is a drug long used in cattle for deep tissue infections. He also instructed us to lance those abcesses that we could, and to put the horses on sulfas. Additionally, selenium is vital to a horse's white blood cells' ability to engulf and kill bacteria, so being selenium-deficient, we also gave each affected horse a shot of E-Se. We only had one difficult case out of the 77, while others around us struggled and struggled to get it cleared up. Our tough one did indeed have internal abcesses, but the horse did survive, after many months of treatment. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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