Posts: 792 Location: East Tennessee, USA, Planet Earth
Hello Everyone!Between my monitor not working and Wild Blue being down due to T-storms and what-not, I haven't had much luck getting online. HA~!Huginn has completed his Eqstim injections. He had his last injection Friday afternoon. So far, he has had no high temps for one week. YAHOO! We are still taking his temp twice per day.If you didn't know Huginn, you would say that he looks fine. But, to those who know him..he still looks a bit tired and is "quite". Huginn is eating, drinking and staying hydrated. His hair is growing in...it's a peachy soft fuzz, like a buzz hair cut. I am still spraying him every morning with Water Babies Sun Block.Some good news.....Huginn's PCR test came back negative! What does that mean? It means that Huginn has never had or been exposed to strangles. IMHO..this is good news, because it means that he is not a "shedder".So...what the heck caused Huginn to be so ill?Here is what all the vets (five U of MN vets, Huginn's personal vet, and the two Stillwater vets) are telling me.They all believe that Huginn was exposed to a very nasty cold/flu/bug from the woman who vetted him at the endurance clinic. This in turn...set him up to the opportunist bacteria(s) that are normally found in a horse's mouth/trachea/stomach. Once they took hold...he had a hard time fighting them.What I do know is this...that the woman who brought the sick horse to the endurance clinic, had every horse at her mother's endurance training barn sick for over a month. I was told that every horse in that barn, pasture, paddock had been very ill for over a month. Then they seem to be "fine", then a few weeks later some horses got sick again. they put some horses, including the one brought to the endurance clinic on bactrim to help the horses "get better".Bactrim is also known as Sulfadiazine/Trimethoprim Sulfamethoxazole-Trimethoprim.Even with the woman's horse showing signs of a illness (snotty noses, sneezing, etc) this woman and her mother decided to bring a sick horse to an event that they were speaking at and helping with. IIMHO...this is very unesponsible on their part. The man who organized this endurance clinic was aware that the barn had sick horses and was aware that a sick horse had been brought to the clinic. ~:8[Now...as to Huginn's high calcium count; this is either a "normal range" for him, or he has lymphoma.Since there is no way to test Huginn for lymphoma, we are going to take a "wait & see" stance. The plan is to keep an eye on Huginn and bring him back to the vets in one month to re-run a complete blood chemistry to check to see where his calcium level is at.The vets are still telling me that they do feel Huginn has lymphoma. BUT..I am going to forget about that and concentrate on the fact that for now...Huginn is getting better!So...that is all I know at this time. We'll take it day-by-day.I again...want to THANK YOU ALL...so very much for all your warm thoughts, prayers, healing energy, love and support.There is NO way that I could have gotten through these six very long weeks without each and every one of you!!My most heart felt thanks to Debbie for all that she has done for Huginn. Love ya!!!Huginn send "horsey kisses" and Dixie sends "mini hugs" to all!
Posted 2007-07-30 7:37 AM (#64624 - in reply to #64617) Subject: RE: Huginn Update 7/29 Sunday
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 326 Location: Gallatin, TN
I fell in love with Huginn when I saw him the "Trail Rider" magazine. What a precious little fellow. I am glad to hear you have some good news and will pray that he just has a high calcium count. Thanks for the update.
Posted 2007-09-25 5:57 PM (#68379 - in reply to #68375) Subject: RE: Huginn Update 7/29 Sunday
Expert
Posts: 1989 Location: South Central OK
People take sick horses to events all the time. This is one of the main reasons I isolate animals and all but sterilize everything that goes off property. It only takes one of these scares to bring a barn manager around to "isolation" techniques...as Martha Stewart would say "it's a good thing."
Huginn Update 7/29 Sunday
