Virus

Well show season is over for 2017.

Good news, bad news today.

Which do you guys want first?

The bad news? Ok!

Well, Saturday I fed the horses as is usual, and went to grab Hampton from his field. I tacked him up and hopped on to ride, as is our usual. He seemed quieter than normal, but I blamed it on the warm temps that day.

Once I started riding, I knew he felt odd. I figured I must have made him muscle sore from our hill day a few days earlier. I spent some time at the walk, did a few transitions called the ride a day.

After I untack him, I always feed him breakfast in one of the stalls before I toss him back out.

I gave him his food, and stopped cold.

If you know Hampton, you know that he is not your typical food-loving gelding. He is actually way worse. He eats like the Tasmanian devil. Like throws food everywhere in jubilation. He never wastes food, and will chase everyone else off their food if they don't eat fast enough.

Except that day, he merely took a nibble. Then ... just stood around.

At this point I was REALLY alarmed. I watched him for a few minutes.

He looked like this:

One sick Porkchop

Didn't seem like a colic. So, I took his temp.

105.5

That's not a typo.

Now I went from alarmed to FREAKING THE FUCK OUT, mostly in thanks to the fatal case of EHV1 that occurred at a neighboring farm. Even though the chances of him getting that virus were very very slim. I took his temp with a brand new thermometer. Still, 105. I need a vet.

My usual vet did not answer, so I called the next one on my list. And he was out in 30 minutes.

After a thorough exam, Hampton got a good dose of banamine, and he was isolated immediately. Well, as best as one can isolate a horse on a FARM. It's pretty silly if you ask me. About the only thing you can guarantee is no nose-to-nose contact. But the rest of our biohazard procedures seem futile to me - as the barn cats literally walk all up in his hay, and then walk all over the rest of the barn so ...

Um why is I in a stall???

But anyway. Hampton's fever broke about an hour later, resulting in a rather scary episode of profuse sweating and heavy breathing. Not really normal, but his fever was really high. His breathing did return to normal in about 15 minutes. I did call the vet back, but he said hang tight. Probably just the fever breaking, and it was.

The vet sent off multiple blood samples to UK and Cornell to try and isolate the virus. It could be a tick-borne thing, but his CBC report indicated it was almost certainly a virus. But, the others are being tested anyway.

Interesting fact: If a virus like Flu or Herpes is suspected, the vaccine company may actually pay for the testing to be done on your horse's blood. I was lucky and the vaccine company is paying for Hampton's testing. Otherwise, it would be $1,000+.

So that's a good reason to 1) vaccinate your horses and 2) maybe keep on hand the brand name vaccine you or your vet use.

Some GOOD NEWS is that his tests came back NEGATIVE for Influenza, EHV1, EHV4 and Strangles. It could still be another virus in the herpes family, but not the bad one. Still waiting on other test results.

Oh this is bullshit, human.

So meanwhile he remains in isolation. He spends the day in a stall, and thankfully gets our drylot to hang out in at night. He is displeased with the situation as 1) he has no friends to bother and 2) there is no grass in the drylot. So he is doing a lot of pacing the fence and hollering for someone to save him. I've been trying to spoil him, but there isn't much else I can do. I can't explain to him why all of a sudden he is all alone.

In even better news, his fever seems to have finally left as of Wednesday morning. It was up and down since Saturday, but today it's normal AND he has been off bute.

Depending on what the vet says, he may be able to resume normal life Friday or Saturday. Man I hope so because he is destroying the dry lot.

... and in not so great news, I did withdraw from USDF Nationals. It's a total bummer, but I have NOT regretted the decision - even though he seems to be better. Not worth risking his health, or the health of other horses for a horse show. And while it is Nationals, it's still just a horse show.

It's not fair to take him to a show where he needs to be full throttle, after he ran a tamp for 4 days. He acts just fine - never showed any other symptoms whatsoever - but why risk it? Not worth it to me. If it has been 2 weeks out - sure I would have played the waiting game. But a week out? No. Bad timing.

Them's the breaks with horses.

So meanwhile he continues to recover, and I'll update if I get more results in!

Thank you for all of your support! :)