This message is from: Gail Russell <g...@zeliga.com>
Well..Decaffe now has laminitis, but we may have the tongue problem licked. Below is a message I sent to the ECHoof list asking for help regarding bute and Jiagolon. Thought you all might be interested in what has gone on with him since I asked for your help earlier. Gail My horse has been battling Woody Tongue for about six weeks. Initially he had a fever and a very bad abscess, and was probably days from dying from an inability to drink that we did not recognize. He had a huge abscess under his jaw, to the point where I could get my finger stuck into his jaw up to the second joint, and the only thing that stopped it from going further in is that the jaw bones form a V and the space between them gets narrower and narrower as you go toward the nose. When he first went in, he was quite "stiff." I thought it was just his arthritis. I now realize that it was laminitis. We treated for three weeks with antibiotics and bute, and thought he might be better, but the abscess and tongue ulcers and tongue nodules came back with a vengeance. His tongue was a bit like Swiss Cheese. The vet put her fingers right through it from one side to the other. After he relapsed, we tested the bug. It was Actinobacillus lignieresii, which causes Woody Tongue in cows, and in a few horses. We had him laid down and they examined him thoroughly and did a more thorough job of lancing the abscess. He was much improved, and we brought him home approximately two and a half weeks ago. At that time his feet seemed to have improved. He moved pretty freely and his attitude was quite good. About a week and a half ago we had the trimmer out to do his once every three week trim. He is a horse that has chronically thin soles, was shod a long time, and needs excellent foot care to get his feet in shape. When the trimmer came, he found bruising at the white line all the way around, and noticed he was stocked up behind. Since then I have had him in Soft Rides and on 1 gram of bute, morning and night, plus his antibiotics. I took him to the vet again today, and he says the ulcers are almost gone, and the abscess looks like it might seal up without getting re-infected. Apparently this bug is a tough one. We are still on antibiotics. His feet were pretty sore today, and he did have a pulse after a half hour trailer ride and a few steps on gravel when he got out of the trailer. The treatment today was intravenous sodium iodide, which is antibacterial. So....vet says to do bute at 1 gram, Soft rides, and low starch diet. (We have him on an untested meadow grass hay with a tiny bit of alfalfa. I am sure it is not high sugar because my insulin resistant horse's crest gets really ugly if the hay is high sugar/starch. He is on California trace, Vitamin E, iodized salt, beet pulp, and flax seed.) I have been giving him some carrots and apples to get the meds down as he is getting very sick of them and we are having trouble getting the down him. (I need a better dosing syringe than the sawed off syringes my vet gives me that my weak hands cannot push closed with the meds in them). >From what the vet told me, a bacterially induced laminitis is probably an ideal candidate for Jiagolon. I see in the EC List files that a ½ tsp of the powdered type is what one should start with in an older horse. (this is a 21 year old QH who I am pretty certain is not insulin resistant, though I do plan to get him ACTH tested when this attack is over because he does look just a tad ribby, like maybe he has the early muscle wasting of Cushings, plus the fact that he is one of the few horses to get infected by the Woody Tongue bacteria, and having it run wild indicates he may well be immune compromised. I need to know how to phase out the bute and introduce Jiagolon...if that is recommended. And where I can get the Jiagolon fairly quickly. Gail Forestville CA Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
