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 Expert
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Location: IL | I have a 4 yr old mare, who got a cough and runny nose about 2 weeks ago. I called the vet, put her on Uniprim for 4 days, running nose and cough came back. Then my 12 gelding also go runny nose and cough. We put him on 4 days of Uniprim and it also came back. Called vet again, he gave us shots of Excede for both horses. I needed to call him at 4 days to check in. Gelding seemed fine and is still fine, mare had another runny nose and cough. He instructed me to give her another shot of the Excede, that brings me to today and she still has slight runny nose and cough. Not sure what to do. I don't want to put her on more antibotics, and I also don't want her to get sicker. Anyone have a cold that will not go away? Never had problems with her before. I'm getting nervous
Edited by merdth6 2018-04-03 1:09 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| I would have the vet pull blood and see if, in fact, there is an infection. If blood work shows no infection, then you can go from there. Some viruses take a while to run their course. The times my vet has had me use Uniprim it was for a MINIMUM 7 days, and most likely 10 days for anything respiratory. 4 days , in my opinion was not enough and could very well have caused bacterial resistance if thats what was going on. My mare gets a runny nose and cough every time it rains! SOmething in the air/ground gets stirred up when a rain comes. Vet said it could be a bush mile away that rain water carries by her pen or wind blows something she is sensitive to from who knows how far away. THis same horse will also get an INSTANT, and I mean INSTANT snotty nose ( Thick white ) when she eats fresh grass. Doesn't affect her so I let her eat few bites of grass, she coughs and blows chunks, I wipe if off and her nose stays dry.. lol |
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 A Barrel Of Monkeys
Posts: 12972
Location: Texas | I usually give Uniprim for 5 days.
Giving Excede right after the Uniprim can cause big problems, i.e., bad diarrhea in the horse.
I had a similar situation, took the horse to an equine (internist) vet, who pulled blood and found no infection. He said sometimes there's an inflammatory response after the bug, so I left her alone and she got OK. |
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Expert
Posts: 2335
Location: IL | I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede
Edited by merdth6 2018-03-27 11:15 AM
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| merdth6 - 2018-03-27 9:11 AM
I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede
Might have the vet check for strangles, that is pretty classic symptoms of that disease. Usually low grade fever at the beginning but the swollen nodes makes you wonder. Strangles horses for sure have a persistent cough and discharge as you describe and it takes a LONG TIME to heal and get over. |
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Expert
Posts: 2335
Location: IL | FLITASTIC - 2018-03-27 11:25 AM merdth6 - 2018-03-27 9:11 AM I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede Might have the vet check for strangles, that is pretty classic symptoms of that disease. Usually low grade fever at the beginning but the swollen nodes makes you wonder. Strangles horses for sure have a persistent cough and discharge as you describe and it takes a LONG TIME to heal and get over.
Isn't strangles a summer virus? It's still super cold up here in IL and we haven't been anywhere with the horses. Been home all winter. It's also clearly lymph nodes, not huge just tell they are enlared. Also my gelding is fine, so are my other 2 horses. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 310
Location: North Dakota | merdth6 - 2018-03-27 12:37 PM
FLITASTIC - 2018-03-27 11:25 AM merdth6 - 2018-03-27 9:11 AM I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede Might have the vet check for strangles, that is pretty classic symptoms of that disease. Usually low grade fever at the beginning but the swollen nodes makes you wonder. Strangles horses for sure have a persistent cough and discharge as you describe and it takes a LONG TIME to heal and get over.
They can contract it any time. A friend with a horse in MN just finished treating hers for it. I would definitely have her swabbed |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | Yup strangles isn't afraid of the cold... is actually more prevalent up here in the north in early spring it seems, or atleast that is when I always here about it. I just went through 2 weeks of temp checking all horses at my boarding barn everyday as I was stalled next to my friends horse at our last barrel run and her horse tested positive for strangles shortly after that run. I was worried the mare I had at the run picked it up from her stall neighbor. Luckily all of ours had normal temps for the two weeks and no signs of anything else--thank goodness! The fever then snotty nose and cough is exactly what my friends horse went through who tested postive for strangles, her horse never even had swollen lymphs but had everything else.
Usually anitibiotics aren't recommended for strangles but if you do use the antibiotics I have always been told 10 days if it is uniprim. My friend who I meanioned above did put hers on 10 days of antibiotics per vet instructions because her horses fever wouldn't break.
Keep us updated. If your crew does have strangles then quartentine your place and let it run its course. Usually they are back to feeling good before you know it. |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | merdth6 - 2018-03-27 11:11 AM I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede
I'd be willing to bet your mare has strangles. In most cases antibiotics won't work until after she busts open. All they will do is prolong it. Can you get a picture of where she's swollen? |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 494
| I had this same cough deal get 3 of the horses at my barn. Uniprim didn't kick it and it came back twice with one horse. I called a friend in Kentucky that said his whole barn had it also and the vet said it's viral. I've seen several coughers at races this fall/winter. I thought the vitamin C supplement helped mine recover quicker. |
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| If it is strangles DO NOT USE ANY ANTIBIOTICS ..
they will drive the strangles into the horses lymph gland system
and become Bastard Strangles which can develop abscess' all over
their body in weird places ... which is bad bad news as bacterial
infections will also show up!!
DO NOTHING as long as the horse is eating and drinking and turn outside
in the sun every chance you can to let the sun sanitize it. Spray and wash
everything you can with 10% bleach and water.
Any type of virus has a protein protective shell around it and the only
way a human or horse body can fight it is to run a temperature to
break down the protein shell so the body's attack system can kill it.
The horse does not have to come in contact with another horse with
strangles .... because the owner, vet or another horse owner can
carry it on their clothes and bring it home to your barn.
This is one time ...
DOING NOTHING IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO ...
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 477
Location: Lost in the swamps | Things that come to mind:
Strangles
Glutteal piuch infection
Tooth issues
Upper airway issues.
Have the vet check her out for abscesses and also Scope the glutteal pouches for Infection or strangles. We had a mare we had to flush her gluts three times because she caught an infection in there and antibiotics wouldn't clear it up until we went in there and flushed and medicated right in the pouch. It wasn't strangles though. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 883
Location: Southern Indiana | merdth6 - 2018-03-27 12:37 PM
FLITASTIC - 2018-03-27 11:25 AM merdth6 - 2018-03-27 9:11 AM I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede Might have the vet check for strangles, that is pretty classic symptoms of that disease. Usually low grade fever at the beginning but the swollen nodes makes you wonder. Strangles horses for sure have a persistent cough and discharge as you describe and it takes a LONG TIME to heal and get over.
One of my friends horses...in IL got strangles in the winter. A colt they bought in a sell brought it. That being said if your horses haven't been anywhere and no other horses that have been at your barn I'm doubtful that's what it is. It's actually strange that they would get any kind of cold without going somewhere but I guess it's possible. |
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Expert
Posts: 2335
Location: IL | TheDutchMan01 - 2018-03-28 9:00 PM merdth6 - 2018-03-27 12:37 PM FLITASTIC - 2018-03-27 11:25 AM merdth6 - 2018-03-27 9:11 AM I thought 4 days of Uniprim am and pm was not long enough, but I love my vet and trusting him. I do have the mare on probiotics. The Excede has been 8 days now and I would think that would be long enough. She had a temp in the beginning and now no temp but her lymph nodes are swollen under her jaw. She is still eating and drinking fine.
Edited to say the uniprim was for 5 days not 4. I got it cofused with Excede Might have the vet check for strangles, that is pretty classic symptoms of that disease. Usually low grade fever at the beginning but the swollen nodes makes you wonder. Strangles horses for sure have a persistent cough and discharge as you describe and it takes a LONG TIME to heal and get over. One of my friends horses...in IL got strangles in the winter. A colt they bought in a sell brought it. That being said if your horses haven't been anywhere and no other horses that have been at your barn I'm doubtful that's what it is. It's actually strange that they would get any kind of cold without going somewhere but I guess it's possible.
Really not thinking Strangles....My other gelding that caught this bug from her is fine now. She hasn't had a temp in 2 weeks, just coughing and snotty nose. Her lymph nodes have gone down alot. I'm thinking it's some kind of weird virus. I have 4 horses total and knock on wood my other 2 mares seem fine. The gelding that caught it was fine after his dose of Excede. I've heard there is some sort of Crud going around with a runny nose and cough and taking a long time to get rid of it. I haven' t brought my horses anywhere since last October. A friend did come over and ride with me back in January, but her horse is fine and hasn't been sick. I started my mare on a Immune support supplement with a bunch of vitamin C and I also just gave vaccines to help stimulate her immune system. I have been vaccinating with Fort Dodge and my vet said their vaccines are way out of date and they haven't changed the strain in 10 years, so he thinks she might have picked up some sort of Rhino or influenza. We will see. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| You need to scope and a bronchial lavage to collect a culture before treating again. |
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Expert
Posts: 2335
Location: IL | So far knock on wood, the cough, lymph nodes, and boogers are gone. I put her on an MVP supplement with a lot of vitamin C and I gave her vaccines. I think it helped kick her immune system in. All my other horses are good too. Just some yucky viruses in the air around here. IL needs some warm weather and sunshine to kill of all these germs. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 495
Location: Saint Paul Minnesota | We had this happen to us and the only thing that would get rid of it was a shot of LA 200. We did one shot and then another one 4 days apart. It cleared it up right away. We wasted our time with uniprim and exceed. |
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boon
Posts: 2
| I would not rule out strangles. All four of my horses got sick. The first one snotty nose after 4 days Uniprim he was well, the others Uniprim they too got better. The last horse no snot, running fever, no appetite, and on and off cough finally after 10 days of Uniprim a shot of excede, and running fever on and off I took him to the vet for the 3rd time. He had many blood test and all the test read he was anemic. Showed no infection. Long story short I knew he wasn't right. Took him to the vet and told them I needed his glutteral pouches flushed. The pouches were full of puss and yes he tested positive for strangles. So after 5 days of flushing they finally flushed clean. Glutteral pouch infection doesn't always show up in blood work. He had many vials of blood work and it never showed an infection. he was given another shot of excede and at this point ten days after last flush he was flushed again and he is clear. This drug on for two months before I could get it figured out because the antibiotics would mask. |
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