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RE: [RC] Let Play:"Stump the Vets!!" ;0) - Mike SherrellYou might try a course of antibiotics -- grasping at straws. You might try several days of anti-fungal shampoo -- more straws. Perhaps rake up all leaves or any other dubious nibbleable items? Examine hay very closely for fungus or mold? Is it dusty with wind-blown dust? In Calif there are molds that live in the soil that can infect people when the dust blows. Examine belly swellings very closely -- maybe tiny bugs, maybe who knows what? Push hair back so you can see skin, maybe use magnifying glass? Seems to me like it could be an allergic reaction, so it would depend on the individual equid's immune response, i.e. not all would be susceptible. Analyze the environment very closely for insects whose life cycle this time of year might include biting horseflesh, and also analyze for plants that have some life cycle transition right now that might come into contact with the inside or outside of the horse and cause immune response. Local ag extension or university might make a brilliant connection for you. Good thing you don't have anything better to do. Regards, Mike Sherrell www.postindustrialhorsemanship.com -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of L gin Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 8:46 AM To: Ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Let Play:"Stump the Vets!!" ;0) Ok-Direct me to any ideas, websites etc.--I am on the HUNT to figure this out. Second time, year apart different animals. I care for these animals at home for years on a daily basis. I read these guys well. Crept out to the pasture (recovering from Staph and cold) with my Hunter Insturctor/ trainer daughter who was visiting Labor day. --- My mare was stocked up in back legs, and had 2 swellings about 4" wide by 8-12" on her belly in front of her udder. Her expression was one of "I don't feel so good". She was walking in a sort of stilted manner. I said " I thought she looked like she was walking funny , when I looked outside yesterday!" My daughter who has cared for a barn of horses , said" look, probably from that fungus on her canon bones'. "Noooo, thats not fungus , that is Warpaint". It has been dry as a bone here, only a few 5 minute showers and they go stand in the barn if it rains.Plus , no one has gotten rain rot , since I started vitamins and Flax and BOSS. I bathed her yesterday, hosed her legs and went over her real good. Nothing else out of the ordinary. I had noticed before I got sick about a week ago, that she had some swelling/endema in front of her udder on two parallel lines forward on her belly.Then I was sick in bed a week. Now it is worse including both back legs. thermometer was broken, so didn't take temp. But she is EDPP , seem normal. BINGO! this is following exactly what happened to my donkey last year! Only he is a boy, duh.And His swelling included his sheath, which grew to 3 times normal size and the endema included his entire belly, which became a thick mass about 4" thick. Enviornment.- Only dirt turnout with a grass aobut 1.5 acre. There are oak trees starting to drop a few leaves, which are dry , there is a poplar, and pines. Everything is drought stressed. No nuts or fruit. They have a grass hay roundbale, pretty good hay, dryed and put up right. Insects in area. Very few now, it is so dry. I let out fly predators monthly. I have fly traps. I sprinkle Fireant mounds as soon as I find them. There are a few hornets /bees/ etc. Sometimes I see deer flys and an occasional horse fly.But very few it has been so dry. Very few mysquitos this year., I know , cause I attract them. I try to keep them comfortable. Last year I called the local farm vet. He shrugged and said , maybe he got kicked..Nobody kicks anyone. These guys have been together a long time and though there is an occasional rare bite on the neck from playing by the donkey and young horse and "if" someone comes near Rascals stall at dinner time , they may get a "nip at..". Donkey actually got worse from vets visit for another week , then it gradually subsided. I treated with Bute. Feeding habits never changed.--I didn't call the vet in again with him, cause he didn't seem interested in figuring it out and just kind of brushed me off. This seems to be following the same scenario.---WE do have roughly 8 dumptruck loads of chicken manure in front of our house dumped by the local farmer who then spreads it on the fields .To get our horses it would have to travel about 500 plus feet on the wind uphill and over the treeline. This has been there for months and another neighbor is trying to get it covered or something, but the ol'd guy doesn't care, ti is furtherst from his house , even though there are 3 babies next door. There are bats, crows, bluebirds, sparrows, finches, owls, vultures, hawks int he area. Coyotes, loose dogs and cats, etc. Typical North Georgia flora and Fauna. And didn't someoneelses' mare have mysterious stocking up a couple weeks ago? I tried to look her up in archives, but didn't find a date. I have looked up in my vet books et. BTW. This mare is a 12 yr old pasture potato. Just green broke , isn't being ridden, has always been on turnout , Never lame or sick. Only one choke , in 7 years. Does get a hay belly. Regular worming and shots. Basic shots, EWT,WNile, Rabies. No physical contact with outside horses . But there are horses , within a couple hundred feet. Electric rope fence. Feet are a little chippy, were past due for filing. So I filed and checked them yesterday. I am stumped--- and am concerned-- as to what effects this can have. Someone said last year about the donkeys , may be congestive heart failure. But here I have another horse with same symptoms.... So far , this seems to have started 7-10 days ago before I went out OOT , came back and was sick inside , and non -horsey son was feeding and checking on them. So if this follows the same scenario, she will stay the same or get worse another week, then gradually clear up. All I can think to do is give her some bute, may be hose , her. I will talk to my neighbor, she does endurance and is a vet tech and see if she has noticed anything with her 3 horses. If it is insect stings, then I have 2 animals getting way overexposed and reactive , which doesn't seem to likely. They all get Warpaint on them, pretty regularly, and sometimes a mix of flick, citronella and Pymethrins--not necessarily daily, but if bugs are bad. This is a very even endema, so I rule out sankebites, or even insect bites. Seems more systemic..... Any ideas? Timiing seems to possibly be involved. Last year it was roughly same time period , give or take a few weeks and someone else had a horse she mentioned on here, a couple weeks ago, but think she was further north. I am in the Tenn./Ga/Ala. corner. This started last week of August. _________________________________________________________________ Test your celebrity IQ.? Play Red Carpet Reveal and earn great prizes! http://club.live.com/red_carpet_reveal.aspx?icid=redcarpet_hotmailtextlink2 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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