Lasting Impact of Anaplasmosis (aka Ehrlicia)

[AdvEventer]

Hello! I fear I am long belated to this post, however I have a pony with similar symptoms. Did you ever find out what your horse was suffering from?

My particular pony in question- 14.1 welsh/TB had a 104 fever and cough back in November. The vet Diagnosed him with anaplasma but the cough lasted for weeks and he wasn’t the same Under saddle. The vets put him on Spectus to rid the cough. It somewhat went away but pony who was normally forward and happy to work wants to stop and baulk even at the walk. And still occasionally coughs- a dry cough no mucous. LOTS of head tossing at trot and canter with any sort of light contact, and can’t even do more than one line of jumps without stopping to seeming catch his breath? He does puff too way too much for the small bit of work. Sweats more too clearly his body is working hard to trot for 30 seconds.

so I had him scoped and teeth done.
upon scope vet said it looked like AID as there was mucous in his trachea and top of his lungs.
however it’s been over 3 weeks now of treating h like an AID patient (no straw or dusty bedding) mostly outside turnout, no hay (wet beet pulp and alfaca cubes only) Zyrtec for the allergy (20 pills per day) and fatty acids added to his feed.

after 3 weeks there has been zero improvement under saddle. To be noted- no fever and seems happy in the field. Otherwise happy pony.

my mom sent me up meds she used on a pony with an airway disorder (ventipulin syrup and hydrochloride maybe) Also zero improvement.

its breaking my heart to see this pony not enjoy his saddle time- he used to be such a spitfire and one that loved a job. The vets have spent thousands of my dollars and I can’t keep paying them to find nothing.

Thank you to anyone who has an input! I just started him on Dex to see if there’s any improvement here (also one of the meds that helped my moms pony with failed tie back surgery)

[ladipus]

Sounds like it could also be EDM …https://www.dvm360.com/view/uc-davis-shows-vitamin-e-role-treating-equine-neurologic-disease

[Highflyer]

Did your vet test for anaplasmosis? I’ve never seen it come with a cough, just high temp and lack of appetite/ lethargy.

[ZELLA]

My pony was treated with oxytet for a fever of unknown origin last fall and reacted with bizarre colicky/mild neurological symptoms within hours of each dose. After dose #2, we switched to Excede and had no more of those symptoms. She became neurologically sound in a few days. I had never before seen or heard of a horse reacting like this to such a commonly used drug.

[TheHunterKid90]

@Highflyer

Did your vet test for anaplasmosis? I’ve never seen it come with a cough, just high temp and lack of appetite/ lethargy.

I had one have anaplasmosis that those were exactly his symptoms. Trainer whose barn he was at called to say he went out for night check and the gelding was eating and drinking but he just thought he was NQR and temped him…he was 104. Only symptoms were fever and dull personality. He got it again a few years later. I attribute it to being stressed and lots of cross country travel.

[kande04]

@FineAlready

Following the anaplasmosis, he started to have weird tight muscles and visible muscle tremors. His current symptoms are much the same, but he is also now having trouble holding up his back feet for the farrier and sometimes even for normal hoof picking. He is also intermittently lame behind but works out of it to a large degree if he is given a long slow warmup.

Has anyone noticed any after effects of anaplasmosis, or experienced a situation where the anaplasmosis came back or did not clear all the way after antibiotics. I have asked the vet about it a few times previously, but they have told me that it does not have lasting effects and this has to be something else. But all this weird muscle tightness and trembling started right after the anaplasmosis and seems to be getting worse.

Neighbor’s mini had something similar. Tested positive for anaplasmosis on field snap test, treated with doxy, had the muscle tremors after the doxy was started. That was in 2018, I think. Then in 2019, in February, he started to walk like his feet were sore, but it was impossible to tell if he was sore all over or if it was just his front feet. Another field snap test was negative for tick borne diseases, but I think they treated with doxy anyway, just in case. Pony remained laminitic, down a lot, but eventually recovered with considerable hoof damage. The 2019 laminitic episode went on a for a long time (months, with some days better than others). The pony seems fine right now, but we’ll see.

Another friend had about the same experience but with out of the blue, middle of the winter laminitis. Vet clinic involved, therapeutic shoes, but they just couldn’t get the laminitis under control and ended up putting her down. Can’t remember if there was a tick borne disease involved or not?

Yet another friend’s horse, started with facial and tongue paralysis, positive Lyme and EPM tests, treated and the horse recovered but foundered. Smallish mustang, owner doesn’t ride, so AFAIK, she’s keeping her as a companion/pet.

Another case, positive Lyme, treated, mare recovered but she foundered and is now off and on lame. She’s a draftX, so even though she didn’t founder badly she’s a big, heavy horse who may never be sound enough to ride again.

Two of them (mini and draftX) walked funny when they were foundering. We never saw any kind of a founder stance, but they both lowered their necks and seemed to be shifting more weight onto the fronts so that they could take a bigger, higher step with their hinds. At first I didn’t think it could be laminitis because they seemed to be taking more weight on their fronts than their hinds, even though both of them ended up foundered on the fronts only.

Don’t know about the other two horses because I only saw one of them and I never saw her outside of the stall so didn’t see her walk out.

Vet did tell one owner that none of the tick borne diseases, other than Lyme, are known to become chronic.

These are just horses nearby that I know of.