pony prison (a sick joke)

Precious princess Isabel is currently locked in pony prison. I took her temperature Saturday afternoon following her coughing and blah demeanor during our lesson, and all was normal. But by dinner time one thermometer got a normal reading and another was high... 

I was scheduled to ride with our bio-mechanics trainer for the first time this year (finally!) on Sunday, and kept my fingers crossed through the morning chores that the high read was nothing more than a calibration issue with cheap digital thermometers. But alas, when I pulled her in from the field, both thermometers read 103+.... Cue calls to the vet.

so true... just replace 'watch' with 'thermometer'...

Vet took a throat culture and pumped the horse up with long-acting antibiotics via injection, plus some banamine to bring down the fever. The plan was for Izzy to get her temp taken each morning and evening, and get a gram of bute whenever she's 102+.

still coughing :(

Essentially she's presenting with a fever, cough, and runny nose (lungs are fine). Could be nothing, but the vet prefers playing it safe and had concerns about a fairly terrifying bacterial respiratory infection. Therefore the whole barn is shut down by the "Q" word {ughhh don't say it out loud}... And Isabel's in a no-contact zone, complete with bleach foot baths...

Wick got pulled into it too, since he shared close quarters with Isabel on the trailer and spiked a fever on day 2. Adding to our impromptu 'sick bay' is a pony from the field next to Isabel's who also came in feverish and lethargic... All were treated with the long-acting antibiotics.

Le sigh. 

The next day a 4th horse came down with a fever (also from the field next to Isabel's). None of the 4 horses were displaying the characteristic signs of the scary bacterial infection, so the vets moved on to diagnosis #2 - a fairly scary viral respiratory infection. Therefore horse #4 was not treated with antibiotics, and fresh cultures and blood samples were taken from all sick horses.

Tuesday night two more horses developed a fever, one from Wick's field and another from the field next to Isabel's (so she's still the only sick pony from her herd). The cultures testing for the viral infection came in negative at about the same time. 

Meanwhile the three horses who received antibiotics (including Isabel) no longer had fevers, whereas the 4th - who triggered the change in diagnosis from bacterial to viral, and therefore did not get antibiotics - was still feverish and lethargic. 

So the diagnosis changed back to bacterial - with more antibiotics administered and more cultures taken... 

The good news is they are hopeful it isn't the big scary bacterial infection (which would mean a 3-month "Q" {ughhhhh whyyyyyy} starting after the last horse recovered), and it is NOT the viral infection (which calls for a 28-day "Q" {fml....} following the last horse's diagnosis). 

In fact, it's still entirely possible that whatever they have doesn't even warrant an official "Q" {srsly kill me}... but it's obviously a little too late for that now. 

The vet is coming back today for another set of antibiotics, and hopefully will have results from the culture & DNA tests... or at least *something* to tell us.

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us  :'(