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| Author |
Message |
    
lynn lambert
| | Posted on Tuesday, Jan 4, 2000 - 6:37 pm: |   |
My boarder's horse has bizarre symptoms that started with skin pain..to the point where the mare would nip just at being touched...which she used to love.
This has progressed to the point where she has become dead lame. The vet has been out on call several times all to no avail.
I recall a partially read article about Lyme Disease in horses and recall only that it was a mare that had an uncharacteristic aversion to being touched as it appeared painful. It was treated as Lyme disease with happy results.
We are all stumped, including the vet and I can only come up with possible Lyme disease or EPM (we are located in Southern California and I am unaware of Lyme disease in this area am aware of EPM locally.....but who knows?)
Thank you |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
| | Posted on Wednesday, Jan 5, 2000 - 7:39 am: | |
Hello Lynn,
Both that's a tough one. Off the top of my head dermatophillus can occasionally be quite painful with minimal signs of skin disease. I see this mainly on the back of well maintained horses. I usually am called out to look at a horse with a sore back but minimal stimulation to the skin produces a very painful response.
Running a search on 3 different large databases and checking a half dozen texts comes up with very little. Rabies and tetanus, neither of which would occur without other signs. There is a uncommon condition described of a hyperesthesia associated with the hairs turning white which is thought to be a viral disease.
EPM has been associated with decrease sensation but I cannot find a case where increased sensitivity occured but if the organisim lodged in the right area it might be possible. I find Lymes an unlikely cause of any kind of disease in the horse much less this.
How long as this been going on?
Is there any dandruff, hair loss, whitening of the coat, or irritaion of the skin?
Is the skin hot to the touch.
Is it just one area or the whole horse.
How sure are you that it is pain on touching versus does not want to be touched for behavorial reasons?
Do any other horses show signs of skin disease of any kind?
Has a complete nervous system exam been done?
Check carefully for other symptoms and when all else fails run this by your Vet, treat for subclinical dermatophillus: nolvasan shampoo and a week long course of procaine penicillin might do the trick. Without a diagnosis it is difficult to say but it is cheap.
DrO |
Diane Morey (Emerald)
| | Posted on Monday, Sep 11, 2000 - 1:54 am: | |
Dr. O, are you aware of any Lyme (or paralyzing tick) cases in Arizona? What are the typical equine symptoms of Lyme disease?
I ask because my gelding suddenly became incoordinated. We originally believed it was due to pulling back. Concurrently, I noticed a growth on his sheath which I thought could be a tick. The vet looked at it and believed it was a skin tag or some type of skin growth. Well, interestingly, it has disappeared and there are several marks on his sheath where it had been lodged. I am now wondering whether the tick could have had some part in the incoordination episode.
I ask this because the acupuncturist who examined the gelding about four weeks after the incident, believed that more was going on than the neck injury. She believed the gelding had many symptoms of EPM. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Tuesday, Sep 12, 2000 - 6:58 am: | |
Hello Diane,
I do not think this likely to be a Lymes case. Run a keyword search on "Lyme" and you will find a lot of discussions on it. I keep intending to pull them all together...
DrO |
Katrina Turner
Member
Username: Kthorse
Post Number: 37
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Monday, Sep 30, 2002 - 11:20 am: | |
reply My horse had symptons as you describe.My article is under sore back, pelvis. My vet thinks its lyme. The results come back tomorrow.If positive. I will let you know how the outcome is after 6 weeks of antibiotics
Katrina |
