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 1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
 
Location: Southeast, Texas | SHE HAS BEEN TO THE VET, FRIDAY, AND HAS A FOLLOW UP EXAM TOMORROW. HER CONDITION HAS DETERIORATED RAPIDLY SINCE YESTERDAY EVENING! WE HAVE A CALL IN TO OUR VETERINARIANS ANSWERING SERVICE BUT ANY HELP FROM YOU GUYS WOULD BE APPREICATED!!!
Has anyone treated a bout of cellulitis? Our three year old is in excruciating pain, with a swollen back left from the gaskin down. It has been ruled as cellulitis. She is on antibiotics and bute, but it certainly is not getting better. This flared up on Friday. Today she has areas on her hips (both sides,) front fetlocks, and knees as well as on her head that have "busted" and are oozing. They look like pressure sores maybe, but she has not been laying down. She is going back to the vet in the morning, but any advice as of now would be greatly appreciated. We have a call in to our veterinarians emergency number, due to her symptoms today. She is much worse today than she was when we found her like this Friday afternoon. This morning the back of her hock busted a hole and spewed blood/puss/fluid everywhere while we were cold hosing. She is keeping her back hunched up today, she appears severely roach backed all of a sudden. She is urinating frequently, small amounts that are very dark. She is not drinking like she should be, and did not eat her feed last night or this morning. Her stomach is very hard and appears distended. Lots of gut sounds, but no poop since yesterday morning. She will not even graze. I could be panicking a bit.. but this seems to be getting much worse, not better. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I would take her temp, heart rate, respirations.
Sounds like pigeon fever |
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 Voice of Reason
Location: NOT at Wal Mart | Sounds like she is septic, she needs torbo, gentamicin or baytril. This could be serious, hope you get ahold of the vet, good luck. Does not sound like PF. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Prayers for your girl, sounds awful. |
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 Crazy Doggy Mommy
Posts: 1419
Location: Where Governor's make the liscense plates | This sounds horrible for you and her- I'd be seeing if I.v. antibiotics were an option she needs to be observed 24/7 imho. I would think flushing out the infected areas would help but I'm not a vet. |
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1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | She will most likely be staying at the vet tomorrow. It's not looking promising.. the skin on her hock is turning black. Our orders of care were pretty darn simple on Friday. Antibiotics, bute, and cold hosing. We just dealt with a case of Pigeon Fever in a different horse, never busted, and they were never together. But, he would have thought about that right off if it had seemed like PF to him. (by him, I mean the vet.) I scrub the gunk off the leg/hock and cold hose. It's got a hole now, where it busted this morning. I have not attempted to flush anything. |
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Crazy Doggy Mommy
Posts: 1419
Location: Where Governor's make the liscense plates | I know it seems crazy because swelling is present but in people if the have localized infection with swelling we advise heat to bring blood flow which is what carries the antibiotics, it obviously doesn't help the swelling but it truly helps bring the antibiotics to the infection. Also putting drains in would most likely help. Prayers for your mare I'd be going crazy if my guy had this issue. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| ABroussard - 2014-05-18 7:48 PM
She will most likely be staying at the vet tomorrow. It's not looking promising.. the skin on her hock is turning black. Our orders of care were pretty darn simple on Friday. Antibiotics, bute, and cold hosing. We just dealt with a case of Pigeon Fever in a different horse, never busted, and they were never together. But, he would have thought about that right off if it had seemed like PF to him. (by him, I mean the vet.) I scrub the gunk off the leg/hock and cold hose. It's got a hole now, where it busted this morning. I have not attempted to flush anything.
If you had one with pigeon fever, there is a good chance this one may have contracted it too. My understanding it lives in the soil.
Check the vital signs, if they are abnormally high or low, then call the vet now, sepsis can go either way, sorry I only know temp in Celsius.
Isolate the horse from all others, designate dirty clothes for going into the stall and change immediately once you leave the stall, place them in a plastic bag. This will eliminate the potential spread of infection.
Warm compresses on the swollen area will help them to burst, so if you can do this several times a day it will help.
I have had my share of sick horses, good luck prayers to a positive outcome |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 600
Location: Oklahoma & Texas | One of the reasons cellulitis is nothing to mess with is that it can go bad and septic real fast...pigeon fever can burst in random places including the lower legs and being that it has occurred recently I'd want the vet to rule that out...its a possibility but I think more likely if they diagnosed cellulitis recently that it's taking a turn for the worse...do not wait as this horse needs medical treatment and antibiotics immediately. I'd be starting them on antibiotics tonight.... |
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | Prayers for your girl, doesn't sound good whatever it is. Any chance you can get her to a vet with a hyperbaric chamber? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 351
Location: Arkansas | Good luck! Sending Prayers also! The only thing that got my horses cellulitits under control was HiGH doses of Penicillin. I believe he was getting 35ccs twice a day. My horse wasn't as bad as yours sounds but he did have it in both rear legs. |
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | When my stud horse had it the vet would not let me bring him home. He stayed there a week. They didn't hose his leg down. High doses of antibiotics is all I can remember.
Then I had it after my BC surgery and I can tell you it is painful.
Prayers for all involved. |
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1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | Thank you all. All the prayer she can get are certainly appreciated. She is heading back to the vet today, and hopefully they keep her. They sent her home Friday on 25cc of penicillin 2x a day, bute, and directions to cold hose.. so that has been our plan of action. She is very dehydrated, and I think she needs IV support for both antibiotics and fluids.. but I'm not a vet. I will let you all know any updates on her condition when we know more. I didn't realize it could get so ugly, so fast. They didn't seem all that concerned on Friday, I figured a few days on antibiotics and she would be feeling significantly better. |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25351
Location: Bastrop, Texas | I feel bad for you. This sounds awful. Ideally, I would think the best thing would be to get a good culture from the pus and then high doses of the most effective IV antibiotic available. If she isn't drinking enough, she might need IV fluids as well. That dark urine worries me. Either she's just dry and the urine is very concentrated, or she has jaundice from liver failure, or her blood is hemolyzing from sepsis. It sounds like she really needs aggressive treatment and needs to be kept at the clinic where they can really get after this. I don't think cold water is the best, IMO. As someone suggested, warm water promotes circulation better and all the pus needs to be aggressively drained and debrided wherever possible. The bute won't help cure the infection in any way, but it might make her feel better. One word of caution would be to be careful with the bute, especially if there is any concern of liver failure, because bute can be toxic to the liver. Sounds like the vet might want to pull some blood on her to check her kidneys and liver function. It sounds like time for a "full court press", and I'm sure your vet will be on top on this. |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | justcruzin - 2014-05-18 6:19 PM Sounds like she is septic, she needs torbo, gentamicin or baytril. This could be serious, hope you get ahold of the vet, good luck. Does not sound like PF.
I second the Baytril; its what I used to get rid of cellulitis in one of my geldings.
Good luck with your horse, sending my thoughts and prayers. |
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1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | I'm sorry I didn't update you all earlier. Cash went back to the vet Monday morning. She was immediately put on IV fluids and a stronger antibiotic through IV as the penicillin just wasn't cutting it. She had already started shutting down, but we all fought hard. We lost her Tuesday afternoon. I appreciate the prayers and thoughts, and all of the advice given. This has NOT been my year. |
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 Worst.Housekeeper.EVER.
Location: Missouri | Oh, no! I'm so sorry!  |
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The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | I'm so sorry. You are in my thoughts and prayers. |
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| So sorry |
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | So sorry  |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | Prayers for you. You fought the fight. We don't always come out the victor. |
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Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | I'm sorry. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | I am SO SO sorry. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1611
Location: bring on the heat, NV | Im so truly sorry |
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Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | Not the update I was hoping for:(
So sorry |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 492
| So very sorry!! |
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1D Lawn Mower
Posts: 1417
Location: Southeast, Texas | Thank you all. It's been a tough week, this seems to be a hard year for many! |
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 Expert
Posts: 2457
| Hugs and Prayers. I am so sorry for your loss. |
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Cellulitis