|
|
Veteran
Posts: 282
 
Location: southcentral pennsylvania | Here in the Northeast, Lymes disease appears to be on the upswing, in dogs, horses and people. My sister is struggling with the disease, her dog was diagnosed too late and died from complications. My mare(20 years young this spring!) has had vague lameness at the trot since last summer. I put her on a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement starting last fall in hopes of a positive outcome this spring, to no avail. When the vet came for the first round of spring shots, he did an evaluation, with no conclusive results. On his second visit, he asked to do the "snap" test (quick results) on the horses for lymes disease, suspecting that as the cause of her lameness. Out of the 4 horses, hers was the only one to come back positive. She is now on doxycaline (sp?), 45 pills twice/day for 8 weeks. Her lameness seems to be improving. The vet said he has had more horses this spring with a positive diagnosis than ever before. He wants the other horses on a tick preventative, such as "Spot On," which I have done. Hopefully a vaccine will be developed to add to the arsenal the horses already get! |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1989
 
Location: South Central OK | I am doubtful of a vaccine, because it's not a virus. Lyme's comes from bacteria, thus the antibiotics. |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 282
Location: southcentral pennsylvania | I will keep my hopes up, as there are now vaccines for both the pneumococcal bacteria and meningococcal. (pneumonia and menningitis). |
|
| |
|
Regular
Posts: 93
Location: ark/ok border | Well with all the rain we are having here in OK trying to keep fly and tick spray on is a never ending job. But here near the OK/AR border I am more worried about west nile virus. I have vacinated my horses but there is still a slight chance of them getting it even with the vaccines. Ticks here are horrendus! We are going on a 126 mile cross country trip next week(Okie-Arkie trail ride) and I hate the thought of the thousands of ticks my horses and I will get,grrr. But there are a lot of water crossings on the ride and most nites we are camped on or near water so I know the mesquitos are going to also have a feast. I have a friend that is mixing a very small dose of malathion with her fly spray and having good results but I'm not sure it is good for the horses. Any idea? |
|
| |
|
Regular
Posts: 99
Location: New Mexico | Last year I started feeding garlic powder to the horses. One mare would always have mesquito bites all over her neck. face, udder areas, after feeding about a week 1/2 tablespoon each night I started noticing a difference, she had less bites. This year I want to try the Wendals garlic salt lick tub. That with sprays seemed to help. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1989
Location: South Central OK | Avon skin so soft works wonders and will make your life easier. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 1989
Location: South Central OK | Originally written by heritagelanefarm on 2009-05-14 8:27 AM
I will keep my hopes up, as there are now vaccines for both the pneumococcal bacteria and meningococcal. (pneumonia and menningitis). I believe they are more correctly called immunizations. To each his own... |
|
| |
|
 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 479
Location: central sierra nevada foothills | Ticks are really bad out here in Cali. too. Josie got bit in the chest back in Feb. and it left a huge bald spot, plus swelled up really, really bad. Then she got bit in March and left a spot on her inside rear leg and did the same thing. Asked one of the vets that works up at ours, and he said sounded like a bad reaction to a tick bite. She's fine, nothing different acting about her, but next time I take her in (wed. for a float) I'm gonna question about the Lymes test.... |
|
| |
Lymes Disease
