Mysterious illness at barn fevers any ideas?

[Meshach1]

1: My horse got sick first – fever 103.8 , went to vet school, colitis and peritonitis. antibiotics, IV fluid and electrolytes. tested negative for coronavirus, salmonella. home and fine. still on antibiotics

2: a nearby horse got sick next (sometimes they share a fence line) – fever, went to vet school, colitis. no peritonitis. high heart rate (he is old and neurological – sidewinders) got home last night, fine. tested negative for corona, salmonella, Potomac horse fever

3: horse in same pasture as my horse (although it’s now been a week since they have been together) – fever 102.9, just given banamine seems fine now. I think they sent his samples to UC Davis.

4: horse also in same pasture as my horse (again over a week since they have been together) just came down with fever today 103.6. vet at barn now. feel so bad for owner as she also owns #2.

this is in central NC, horses have been in this pasture for years and years w no issues. it’s a very large pasture with about 5 horses. The buttercups are out (trying to get a guy to spray) but vets say buttercup toxicity is different symptoms.

oh and nobody has left recently. Last time my horse went anywhere was December, other horses haven’t been anywhere for a couple of years.

Anyone have any ideas?

[ChocoMare]

Possibly Ehrlichiosis

[Meshach1]

isn’t that Potomac Horse Fever? That test came back negative. There has been no diarrhea in any of them. My horse was more the other direction – not enough passing of manure and dry. The other 3 have had no issues either way.

[Angela_Freda]

Ehrlichiosis is a tick borne disease

[beowulf]

@Meshach1

isn’t that Potomac Horse Fever? That test came back negative. There has been no diarrhea in any of them. My horse was more the other direction – not enough passing of manure and dry. The other 3 have had no issues either way.

Ehrlichiosis is a tick-borne disease. Both Ehrlichiosis and Anaplasmosis can cause sudden onset of fever and colitis-like symptoms. Both are transmitted through ticks. It would be unusual for seemingly all of them to be infected, but in the scheme of things not unheard of - especially if there is an infected host living nearby.

Has Lepto been ruled out? My immediate suspect[s] would be there is either an insect-borne disease or a contaminant in the pasture.

Fingers crossed for your horse and your barnmate’s.

[Meshach1]

Thank you all! That is what I am leaning towards also, something in the pasture. Which would be hard to track down, ugh.

[joiedevie99]

I agree with tick borne. We had a case of anaplasmosis present much like this. I haven’t seen ehrlichiosis myself yet, thankfully, but it’s in the same boat.

[Huntin_Pony]

Agree that it sounds like erlichiosis or anaplasmosis. Ticks are everywhere and the variety of illnesses they harbor and spread seems to increase every year. This seems more likely than plant toxicity or the like, based on symptoms.

Are you in an area where the vets have not seen these things often? Seems odd to me that they did not mention these as possibilities.

[islgrl]

If it was one horse I would think erlichia, the number of infections makes it less likely I think.

[JB]

It sounds like a generic VUO - virus of unknown origin.

1 horse, I could agree possibly anaplsmosis (formerly called erhlichiosis)

But the odds of this many horses getting anaplasmosis in some sort of sequence, is pretty slim.

The fact that #3 was fine with just some banamine also sort of points against anaplasmosis.

But I would want a tick panel done anyway because it’s not impossible.

[Meshach1]

I asked vet about Ehrlichiosis, Anaplasmosis and Lepto and I guess the 3rd horse was tested for that and came back negative. But I guess can’t be ruled out. All the vets seem to be fixated on corona virus but every horse has been checked multiple times now.

I kinda have a co-managing position at the barn and have been trying to get weed guy to come out and spray.

[atr]

Sounds like “some sort of virus” to me. It’s that time of year.

Could have come in on someone’s shoes, via the vet or farrier or dentist or saddle fitter or massage therapist, or… or… It’s so hard to maintain a decent degree of biosecurity nowadays when there are so many people traveling from barn to barn. It’s obviously fairly virulent if so many horses are getting it. Any talk of other barns seeing the same issues?

I hope everyone recovers rapidly and fully.

[StormyDay]

Sometimes horses get the flu. Not any sort of labeled one, just the flu. Or a cold.
It went through my barn once. We ran tests too and all were negative. Everyone got over it just fine. When it happened to me it was early spring and no one had travelled in months.

However, I may throw out the grain if they all eat the same thing. Just to be safe.

[Meshach1]

actually, yes. a friend’s horse in another barn had this same issue – fever, colitis. all negative tests. And vet said another one of her clients had it too at some barn nearby.

[FjordBCRF]

I didn’t catch it if it was mentioned; were all the horses vaccinated?

[fivestrideline]

I’m in NC. Grapevine says there’s a few barns in one of my vet’s practices that have similar cases. They’re testing for strangles but otherwise no results.

[Meshach1]

interesting, definitely no strangles type symptoms here. no swollen lymph nodes and no respiratory issues.

[fivestrideline]

Yeah I think it’s a Hail Mary attempt to find SOMETHING

[Meshach1]

they were vaccinated on 4/7. some including my horse split their shots and that was on 4/14. My horse had his symptoms start on 4/19 but this last horse was yesterday,

[BraveSC]

I am in SC and my guy had a fever of 104 for a few days back in January and NO other symptoms. Tested negative for everything so not sure where it came from. The next week, a pasture mate of his got the same “thing” with again, no answers. Just last week, a third pasture mate had a fever and colic and tested positive for salmonella. No idea if hers was related to our two back in January but all equally frustrating!