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Rabies?  I'm so sorry for your loss!
Laney

sherman wrote:
> My friend’s 13 yr young Shetland/mini-horse cross, Muffin, died here 
> yesterday with severe sudden onset neurological symptoms, staggering, 
> head pressing in corner of stall, with legs flailing, going down, trying 
> to get up but unable to control legs, neck, when up unable to lift head, 
> mouth hanging open, tongue dragging, later clamping teeth onto tongue, 
> death within a couple of hours as we were consulting via telephone with 
> vet as the symptoms progressed.
>
>  
>
> It started in the AM with a somewhat healthy looking Muffin, being 
> treated with a half tab of bute twice daily for laminitis that popped up 
> out of nowhere 2 weeks ago, even though there had been no change in her 
> feed, for months, she was in very good body condition. I gave her the 
> bute, put her in a stall with her food & water as I’ve been doing, then 
> I let her eat for 2 or more hours before muzzling & turning out in the 
> pasture. After feeding all the other horses, I checked on her as she 
> gave a pathetic whinny as I entered the barn. Muffin’s water was knocked 
> over, I refilled, noticed she hadn’t eaten much if anything, so gave her 
> soaked beet pulp thinking her tooth may be giving her problems again. 
> She hung her head in the pan but seemed unable to take anything up, she 
> put her lips on the hay but nothing went into the mouth and got chewed. 
> Heart rate was 80 BPM, temp 100.5, good gut sounds, had just done a nice 
> looking moist poop. Called the vet, said to give some banamine, went to 
> get some from a neighbor, by the time I got back I could see she was 
> covered with spider webs from the corners of the stalls, her mouth was 
> hanging open, tongue was hanging loose, she couldn’t put her head up and 
> I assumed couldn’t swallow as her mouth seemed useless. I called the 
> neighbor to bring a shot instead, she began staggering around, pressing 
> her head into the wall, etc. She got the shot, tried more to stay up, 
> maybe because the shot made her feel better, but still unable to really 
> control her legs much, went down and struggled much to get up, we had to 
> keep her head from getting stuck under her body. Still consulting with 
> vet, says probably he should come out to put her down. We give her 
> another shot to help with pain, if there is any, and she goes before the 
> vet gets here.
>
>  
>
> 3 years ago, she nearly died, symptoms much milder, only slight tremors, 
> but didn’t eat then either, I syringe fed & watered her for weeks as she 
> recovered. At that time, she also had an infection that showed up after 
> the tremors & failure to eat, possible caused by a long tooth scraping 
> the gum below where a tooth was missing, allowing the long tooth to grow 
> too much. After her heart rate returned to normal & she was eating a bit 
> on her own (sloppy mash) she was taken to UCD, but no firm diagnosis was 
> ever made, other than have that tooth filed down. She was kept on 
> antibiotics for about 3 mos back then. She’s been totally healthy since 
> then, until now. Could this be EHV1, retreated into the nervous system & 
> brought out by stress of laminitis? Or what else would act like this? 
> She was kept fully vaccinated on a regular schedule.
>
>  
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Kathy


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