Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Another update....and some interesting debates about fevers which DO make this a little bit endurance related....

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Tracey Lomax

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Alexa Hyde-Clarke ; saddle@xxxxxxxxxx ; Equinetraining@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:53 AM

Subject: [RC] Another update....and some interesting debates about fevers which DO make this a little bit endurance related....

Anyway, once there was some smoke (yay, smoke!!) coming from the bucket, I put it under Dice?s nose and waited for him to inhale.  Woo, hoo!! Is this boy a pothead or what!!  He started taking great gulping whiffs and within seconds he was drooling and fluid was draining from his nose as well.

Does anyone remember the film, "Electric Horseman" with Robert Redford?  Remember when the horse he was running away with had severe congestion and Redford built a fire, put some sort of aromatic leaves on it and held the horse's head over the smoke so as to clear his congested sinuses?  That scene always impressed me......

On the whole ?fever to kill the virus? debate, I got hold of the homeopathic vet who told me that I must do nothing to fight the fever.  Now, let me state upfront that I have a lot of respect for this vet and for homeopathy in general.  My concern was the following:

1.      To me fever = bad.  No fever = good.

I have always heard that high fever damages the brain in humans.  Any reason this wouldn't be so with horses, too?

Anyway, today I was told by the vet that he has a 95% success rate and that other treatments have a 50% success rate and that I was basically doing a disservice to my horse.  His theory is that the fever kills the virus.

I find this hard to believe.

Oh, really???

So I phoned a THIRD vet, one that I had used for ten years, before I moved home, and whom I trusted implicitly.  He told me some fascinating news : their clinic and four others had started blood testing all cases which presented to them with AHS symptoms.  They have found that in only ONE case out of the hundreds they tested, did they find the virus in the bloods.  IOW, by the time the horses present with the symptoms, the virus has already cleared out of the body and what you?re left with is the body?s response to the damage done by it.  I asked if it was possible they?d tested too early and was told that they?d done follow-up tests.  So there is no virus left in the body for the fever to kill.

He agreed that fighting the fever was a must-do, as they?re finding that the high fevers are causing frequently fatal secondary problems : laminitis, heart failure, respiratory problems, brain dysfunction. 

Barbara 

Looks like your decision to follow your instincts is working.  Good for you, and good luck!