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Discussion on High fever and low lymphocyte count | |
Author | Message |
New Member: scottr |
Posted on Friday, Apr 3, 2015 - 2:59 pm: I have a gelding 11 years old. Has never been sick and noticed Wednesday evening he was just picking at his food not eating with purpose. Checked gut sounds and they were good. Thursday morning there was no change so we called the vet. Also confirmed good gut sounds but temp 103.1. Vet gave him shot of antibiotics, B12 and gave him banamine also took blood. P was 32, R was 16, CRT was 2.5 sec, MM was pink. We took temp Thursday evening and it was still 102.7 and was instructed to give more banamine by vet. At 6 am this morning no change in behavior (just picking at food not enthusiastic) and temp was now 103.7. Called vet and blood work had come back with lymphocytes at 900. He instructed us to give another dose of banamine and take temp every 12 hours and call for instructions afterwards. Vet says that low lymphocytes are scary. Worse case scenario could be looking at lymphoma. Vet says his gut feeling is he should pull through since lymphoma is rare although he spent a lot of time talking about lymphoma. This could be viral or bacterial correct? How long should it take for him to feel better, is there anything else we could give him to help him get through this (if viral etc. how can we help his immune system fight this off, at what point do we take him in to hospital for further diagnosis. |
New Member: tmpk9bru |
Posted on Friday, Apr 3, 2015 - 5:28 pm: My horse was just diagnosed with coronavirus. She stopped eating, had a high temp, low white blood count, dehydrated, depression type symptoms, etc. Cornell University has a good article on the virus which is highly contagious through fecal matter. It affect the intestines. My mare had good gut sounds, passed manure but had no energy and was extremely quiet. The virus attacks during December to May, winter months, and if you read the article has shown up on the east coast with 38 positive cases. Two horses at my barn contracted the virus and were quarantined for 2 weeks as of April 5th. The vet came out and treated the horse with nasal therapy and pumped several gallons of fluid through a nasal tube into the horses stomach and gave them banamine. The other horse was much worse than my mare and had to get intravenous fluids as well. His white count was 1000, my horse only DrOpped to 4000. Good luck and read that article. Google "coronavirus in horses" and it should pop right up. |
Member: tmpk9bru |
Posted on Friday, Apr 3, 2015 - 5:50 pm: Sorry, but I forgot, the vet sent fecal matter to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY for a fecal examination "Coronavirus PCR, Beta" testing and she tested positive for coronavirus with a count of 23.8703 and the second horse came back with a count of 32.355. There is not a lot of information out about this virus. It seems to be primarily new and stumped our vet as well. I started investigating it on the computer and found this virus and told the vet. We took a chance and it came back positive. My mare is doing much better. Just be careful because it can spread to other horses fast especially young and older, infirm horses. If any horses have a low immune system they will get it. Horses will also start to get a loose stool but not full diarehea. All I can say is fluids, fluids and fluids for him, not much else will help. It's like a human stomach bug without the throwing up. |
New Member: scottr |
Posted on Friday, Apr 3, 2015 - 6:14 pm: Thanks Tina for the feedback. Our gelding is not dehydrated as we nor the vet determined. Good capillary rebound as well as skin rebound on the neck. We have been through the winter months for quite awhile now and this horse has not been around any other horses except our other three for months. We are up to date on all vaccines etc. so we are praying he will pull through this. He ate his Bermuda with a little more energy at lunch so god willing his temp is lower than this morning when we take it in a couple hours. We are anxiously awaiting DrO's input on this post. How long does it normally take to get an equine vet to respond? Thanks! |
Member: tmpk9bru |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 4, 2015 - 8:02 am: They usually will respond within the week. |
New Member: scottr |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 4, 2015 - 9:44 am: not much help if you need answers quickly. |
Member: digger89 |
Posted on Saturday, Apr 4, 2015 - 10:20 am: Sorry to hear about your boy. Did you start antibiotics? We had a horse with lymphoma, he did respond well to antibiotics at first. |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Friday, Apr 10, 2015 - 6:54 pm: Hello scottr,I replied to your two previous posts. We are a bit slow this week as we had a personal tragedy this week but you are right we are not an emergency service. We are here to provide general information on horse health. I am sorry for any misunderstandings and hope my earlier posts are helpful. DrO |