Pigeon Fever

[Twisting]

Talk to me about Pigeon Fever. Apparently a horse at the ranch has it. The ranch hasn’t felt the need to let anyone officially know about the sick horse, but you know how word gets around. No attempt has been made to move the sick horse from his normal location.

My horse has no direct contact with sick horse, or anything sick horse has been in contact with (food, water, that sort of thing) However, they are only about 75 meters apart, so they likely share flies. I have been spraying liberally, and I haven’t seen any open cuts recently, though he did has some oozy fly bites two weeks ago.

This is the third appearance of Pigeon Fever on the ranch in the past four years. 3 horses in 2014, and 2 in 2012. It is typically seen in the polo ponies, who travel more than most of the ranch residents.

Obviously I will be keeping an eye on my boy for any signs of swelling or lethargy, anything else I can do?

[Stretchy]

We have pigeon fever here in our neighborhood and it appears on one or more of the farmettes each year. Typically the horses get through it just fine, it’s just a pain in the rear. Fly spray and swat are your tools so you are covered there.

Maybe take your horses temp to catch any illness early? Insist that your vet run a blood count if your horse isn’t quite right to catch anything early.

Unfortunately I have had both external and internal PF. 2 horses got both 4 years ago and with lots of treatment, antibiotics and $$ they both recovered.

This year I have another one who is sick. He was dropping weight and more quiet than normal so we checked blood and it came back showing an infection and liver changes. Sent for a PF titer and it came back high. Ultrasound showed an abscess in the liver. Since he was really sick they took a biopsy of the abscess and we are waiting for culture results to confirm if it is PF or something else.

The vet said he does see internal PF with no external abscesses and a couple of the horses never ran a fever either. Observant owners saw something wasn’t right and got the vet involved.

Do they have internal PF in Hawaii? Hopefully not. Good luck.

[Hermein]

We lost a nice horse due to internal pf, didn’t find out what was wrong until the necropsy. I’m of the opinion that any horse who does show signs of depression, lack of appetite, and general malaise should be titered right away so you’ll know what you’re dealing with.

Another of our horses had a less severe case that expressed externally.

One of the pharmaceutical companies has developed a vaccine, but I haven’t heard whether or not it’s approved at this point.

It’s in the soil, and is carried by some type of fly. I’ve heard that one horse cannot catch it from an infected horse, but the vet that told me that is sort of dyslectic, so I’d take precautions.

[allons-y]

OP, I’m so sorry for your concerns Re your horse’s health, but… I just have to say, Wow, just Wow. You live in Hawaii AND have horses?!?

WHAT did I do so wrong in MY previous life? Dang it! I sure hope I get to try again, go around one more time in another life!

[Stretchy]

Hermein I’m so sorry you lost your horse. A farm near us lost one that way as well.

My horse just came home from spending a week at the hospital under the watchful eye of an internal medicine specialist. He is doing very well so fingers crossed.

I asked the vet about doing a titer on my other horse who has not shown any signs and he warned the information could be misleading as it only represents exposure but not confirmation of an active disease. He suggested checking white blood cell counts first.

They are working on a vaccine but it has not been released yet.