My little Gem of a pony was just diagnosed with Equine Anaplasmosis. Her counts are 50X acceptable levels. Our treatment will be a week of IV tetracycline.
What symtoms got you checking him?
The Tet should bring it under control pronto. We’ve dealt with it in New England for years and years – it used to be called Ehrlichia.
As for symptoms, I’ve seen legs like tree trunks, full-body hives, high fevers (105 F) — and that’s just in my own horses.
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Thanks
My mare just seemed off…No swelling, just looked kind of sore. Didn’t seem like she was drinking enough water, just picking at her pasture, slow to eat her grain… At first I was afraid she was getting ready to colic, so I dosed her with a bit of Banamine. That seemed to help, but I had my vet scheduled to do her teeth and since I’d plucked a tick off her face a week earlier, I was afraid of Lyme. Dog had it last year, neighbor got it this year… hot spot. When vet came, we did a blood draw and had it sent to MSU. Results came back in two days with the numbers off the charts. We do the first IV round in a couple hours.
We need two things; a quicker test, like the rudimentary ones done for dogs (kind of like a pregnancy test), and some vaccines please!
Yep, it’s here in NC. My guy only presented with a 107* temp. Thankfully he didn’t have any other symptoms. It seems very often the only, or first symptom is that large temp spike.
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Oh, and NO fever! Which I know surprised my vet. Though that was 36 hours later, so maybe it was down by then.
I responded to your other thread but wanted to respond here - in my area (NY) vets treat fever of unknown origin as tickborne. They don’t wait for blood test results because they are often false negatives anyway - so they just treat.
My guess is that your horse did have a fever, but by the time the vet came out it was down. And/or it was relatively low and just a bad read on the thermometer.
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(Don’t want to edit - but the banamine might have been the reason there was no fever).
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It is super common here in the northeast. The fever is usually the dead give-away but you can miss it so they have other symptoms and the fever has come and gone. The good thing about it is when you treat it its gone, it doesn’t linger like Lyme does…
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The problem is that it does take several days to develop enough antibodies to produce a reliable test result, so yeah, if you pull blood the second that fever spikes, it’s likely too early. But blood drawn a few days later is likely to give you a reliable test result.
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No! … You want a PCR test, done with blood drawn before administration of any antibiotics. The PCR does not test for antibodies, it tests for DNA to identity the organism causing the illness.
PCR = Polymerase Chain Reaction
PCR is a technique used to amplify DNA or RNA (Reverse Transcriptase PCR)
PCR is a highly sensitive diagnostic technique that can be used to detect small quantities of bacterial, viral or protozoal DNA in patient blood, fluid or tissue specimens.
PCR does not amplify or detect antibodies or antigens, only DNA or RNA. Therefore, the targeted organism must be in the sample for DNA or RNA to be detected.
ï‚· Use PCR prior to administration of an antibiotic or antiprotozoal drug to confirm active
infection (i.e. presence of DNA equals presence of the organism). Antibody tests confirm exposure to the organism and may or may not be reflective of active infection. When in doubt, store an EDTA-anti-coagulated blood sample in the refrigerator prior to administering treatments. “It is better to have a pre-treatment sample and not need it, than to need the sample and not have it”.
https://cvm.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Molecular_PCR.pdf
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In areas with high tick populations, though, many (most?) vets will treat before the test results are back. My dog had anaplasmosis a couple of years ago - symptoms were high fever, joint swelling, lethargy. The Snap 4DX was negative but vet prescribed doxycycline. He was treated immediately and back to normal within 48 hours (continued doxy for…can’t remember 10 days or 30 days…) They may have taken blood to confirm but they did not wait to treat.
As I said - most of my animals have had it. It’s very common.
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I had the same experience with one of my dogs; high fever, Snap test negative. My vet drew blood to send to lab (for a PCR test and CBC before any antibiotics were administered) and then immediately gave her her first Doxy pill.
Dog felt 100% better within 24 hours BUT vet called and said we had to go to the emergency hospital right away - dog was seriously ill - PCR test showed positive for anaplasmosis and her platelet count was dangerously low - only 10,000. Anything below 20,000 - 30,000 could cause a spontaneous bleed, either external or internal. Anaplasma can cause low platelet counts so the PCR test, in identifying that disease, eliminated any need to try and figure out what was causing the drastic platelet drop.
Emergency hospital let her go home but to be kept crated except to be walked on a leash for potty breaks. They also gave me instructions on danger signs and said to rush her back if any doubts. We also had to go back for daily blood tests every day until the platelet counts were out of the critically low zone, which took about a week.
We were very lucky and had no problems and the platelet counts went up to normal (350,000 at about 6 weeks out - thanks to Doxy.
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Keep in mind, she first looked like she wanted to colic, so in those cases, I ALWAYS administer a tiny dose of Banamine pronto. I’ve lost one horse to colic and seen more over my lifetime.
The port lasted about two hours. She dislodged it and I removed it, so we’ll be sticking her every time - dammit. (and I’ve discovered she’s TERRIFIED of clippers. As in, something-horrible-happened-regarding-clippers. To be worked on later). Today will be another adventure. Hopefully we decide - as others have suggested - that four days will be enough.
https://www.vet.euroimmun.com/docume…0mE_D_UK_A.pdf
^ states that antibody detection is the method of choice
Either way it kinda doesn’t matter. Draw blood, treat based on what it’s likely to be (consider time of year, symptoms, housing situation, etc), and then you have the blood to test later, or you can redraw blood later if treatment isn’t working.
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Spiking antibodies were the clue. From a normal of about 150 parts to over 5200 for my little Gem!
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Day seven of the IV was yesterday. She gently bucked off one of my littles. She’s feeling much better. 
(and the little was fine, I now owe her an ice cream cone)
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also in Michigan, one of my neighbors just had a horse with this last week. he seems to be on the mend after IV abx, don’t know which one, I would assume oxytet. Ticks are getting horrible around here the last few years.
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We live in a high tick area, and Lyme disease is common, but recently Anaplasmosis has also been found.
My pony was diagnosed Christmas Eve and has responded super well to the oral Doxy and has been back to his normal ponyish self since Monday. He has another week of the Doxy.
My question is…should be be riding him? Not at all? Lightly? Normal work?
