Vet or knowledgeable folks, come here: multiple neck abcesses

[CindyCRNA]

Ultra long story short: mare has a tooth pulled (upper) developed abscesses in the lower jaw that extended to the neck. Tested, not strangles. She spent 6 days at the vets, opening up new abscesses, flushing and draining. Abscesses open, draining, she was sent back to the barn. Low grade temp…no antibiotics because the vet wanted the abscesses to come to the surface. Owner is trying to manually express abscesses. Mare is on banamine. Mare spike a fever of 105.5 and goes down. Becomes neurological, seizes, is put to sleep.

As a health care worker, I am scratching my head. First, (I’m not a vet) I would have put penrose drains in every abscess I could find to keep them draining and the mare would have been on at least 2 antibiotics. I think she was on antibiotics at the clinic but they stopped them when she was taken home to let the abscesses come to the surface. Is this normal treatment?

[Irish_Ei_s]

My guess is she was septic before that tooth was pulled
A vet c an only prescribe what an owner is willing to administer or able to afford.

[CindyCRNA]

I know this owner threw a bunch of money into this. It was a beloved lesson pony at the barn.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

My vet prefers not to give antibiotics until the abscess has burst, as they can inhibit that. But. Systemic infections should have had antibiotics on board, IMO, and I think mine would have prescribed them. Did the they culture the abscesses to see what was causing them?

Hard to know if the tooth being pulled may have triggered the rest or not. But maybe a staph infection of some kind, which could have been introduced during the tooth pull - or be secondary to it.

[Irish_Ei_s]

Then I have no clue.
Even I know to ask for abx if they haven’t been offered by the vet.
Another underlying condition ?
I’m deadly allergic to penicillan, hives the size of my fist in my mouth and throat.

Perhaps they were hives and not abcesses ?

[Brown_Derby]

Possibly wooden tongue? I’ve only seen one case but it developed after dental work. It can effect the spinal column.

I’m sorry for your friend. Very sad indeed.

[LilRanger]

@CindyCRNA

Owner is trying to manually express abscesses

This could be a problem too. There are a lot of things happening here, it’s not clear without some work up what was going on and what infections were involved. You say “not strangles” but what was it?

It’s hard to lose a beloved pony, I’m sorry this happened to them,

[NaturallyHappy]

Botulism can enter the body through the hole left by a pulled tooth and does result in neurologic symptoms. Do you know if the pony was vaccinated or if they tested for botulism? The abscess piece doesn’t fit anything I’m aware of w botulism, though.

[Angela_Freda]

I hope pony was quarantining?

[RedHorses]

You have accidentally posted in Off Topic. If you ask the moderators to move it to Health Care you might get more answers…

[hoopoe]

in the absence of antibiotics,they didnt culture to aid diagnosis? Somewhere your friend did not hear or misheard knowledge from the vet. Without a necropsy and tissue pathology you can only speculate due to the absence of information.

[trubandloki]

I do think it is very easy to say - if we had done it this way - afterwards, but that the time what is being done is within normal treatments.

[Angela_Freda]

@Moderator_1, can you move this to horse care where it might get more responses to help the OP?

[LilRanger]

Tetanus is also a clostridium and causes neurologic symptoms too

[CindyCRNA]

Pony was quarantining at the vets office when the negative strangles result came back.

[CindyCRNA]

That is what the owner said the vet said. But if you aren’t treating with antibiotics it just seems like a systemic infection can get out of hand.

[Kyrabee]

My guess…the infection reached her brain. That is not unheard of when an upper tooth is involved. The infection can easily spread to the sinuses. The bones between the sinuses and the brain are pretty thin.
I had a co-worker whose brother had a brain abscess due to an abscessed upper tooth. Granted human vs. equine but the structures aren’t that different. It sounds like she had a pretty invasive infection but the high fever then being neurological indicated the infection reached her brain. I think in this case with multiple spreading abscesses that antibiotics probably were warranted. Then again, a brain abscess is not a common complication.

So sorry for the outcome.

Susan

[NaturallyHappy]

Oh gosh… I knew of a horse this happened to 25 years ago. I’d forgotten about it.