Actually, OP, now might be the BEST time to run some blood panels. BEFORE you make any changes and WHILE the horse is showing the odd behavior. If you go make changes, you’ve lost the baseline of what might be amiss right now.
Just a thought, it seems the simplest way to go at this time. Minerals and the whole schmear. 
So it turns out that they did also draw blood on Monday on my horse and Dutch horse. Both had identical results with low WBC. So identical that vet sent it off to a different lab to confirm. I am just finding this out–I’d asked them to do the fecal and wasn’t there for it.
Vet texts me tonight with fecal results – Coronavirus.
Interesting on the Coronavirus. I think they had a few cases of this recently in Southern California (in either Norco or Corona, or some combination of the two).
I believe it went around on the other side of the metro area last winter…think there was a thread here on it. But it doesn’t really explain why my horse was acting up for 3 weeks before having loose manure…I thought it was a short-lived thing. And the one other horse has been parking out for months. Vet said he had to do some research and will call me tomorrow.
I haven’t dealt with Coronavirus, so I can’t comment on that. But just reading your initial post, the parking out struck me. I have an older horse with cervical arthritis, and this is was how it initially presented. I sent the horse to New Bolton Center (in PA), where he spent 48 hours being worked up because I sent him to have his urinary tract examined, and there was absolutely no problem there. Anyway, we finally figured out it was his neck. With injections 2x year, he’s great (still jumping at age 22).
Thank you. I will keep that in mind.
ETA - although that sucks because the parking out first started in Oct and we had just injected neck again in Sept.
AAEP publication on Equine Coronavirus:
Is your barn under quarantine?
As if OPs plate wasn’t full enough…the fact the farm is for sale and owners getting out of the business…oh NO. IME (boarding out since 1970)? Never good.
I told one of the trainers who lives on site as she also works at another barn…so she can take biosecurity precautions. I believe she informed BO. I am not entirely sure what’s happening because I’m still waiting to hear from my vets, and I’ve been working from home this morning and have not gone out to the barn yet because we got a good amount of ice on the roads last night.
F8, farms are not selling very fast around here right now and BO has a few horses at the farm that they’d also need to think about potentially moving. Ideally, BO wants someone to take over the existing business, which will be hard to find. They are also not hard pressed to sell financially. But that doesn’t exactly make me feel any better having an infectious horse on my hands at the moment.
I tried to PM you, but your box is full. Did Cornell do the fecal test? I will bump the thread about Stella.
Sorry, Essie. I deleted some messages. It was done by IDEXX.
Head of internal medicine at CSU is skeptical of this result. If other horses’ tests are negative, they want me to retest. They also think it’s very unlikely to be the explanation for the ongoing behavior.
Regular vet is inclined to think the bulk of the behavior is pain related. He said that it was remarkable the turnaround in behavior when we addressed the grade 1 RF (PO) lameness with the PD block. He said it was like flipping a light switch in the horse’s willingness to go forward. He also said this just shows the horse is probably being a “big baby” (vet’s words…lol). Whether it’s orthopedic or IBD or whatever…who knows…likely looking at a workup at the hospital.
[QUOTE=IPEsq;9031998]
So it turns out that they did also draw blood on Monday on my horse and Dutch horse. Both had identical results with low WBC. So identical that vet sent it off to a different lab to confirm. I am just finding this out–I’d asked them to do the fecal and wasn’t there for it.
Vet texts me tonight with fecal results – Coronavirus.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=IPEsq;9032749]I told one of the trainers who lives on site as she also works at another barn…so she can take biosecurity precautions. I believe she informed BO. I am not entirely sure what’s happening because I’m still waiting to hear from my vets, and I’ve been working from home this morning and have not gone out to the barn yet because we got a good amount of ice on the roads last night.
F8, farms are not selling very fast around here right now and BO has a few horses at the farm that they’d also need to think about potentially moving. Ideally, BO wants someone to take over the existing business, which will be hard to find. They are also not hard pressed to sell financially. But that doesn’t exactly make me feel any better having an infectious horse on my hands at the moment.[/QUOTE]
Any word from the CSU vet yet? This is rather disconcerting. 
Horse’s neighbor with the same bloodwork values as mine is negative on the fecal. The lab ran it twice.
Any update today?
My vet booked an appointment for my horse at CSU next week. He’ll get evaluated by his sports med specialist who will look at his inguinal area, check out how his neck is doing, give him a good once-over. Then he’ll get a bone scan, and if we are still banging our heads after that, an internist will look at him and maybe take an intestinal biopsy. He still has cow patty manure but no fever. Vet thinks he would have had a fever if manure symptoms are from the ECoV. CSU is obviously aware of the test results and they are ok with him going up there without waiting 3+ weeks, though he’s not going to like it if they put him in the isolation ward. (Fingers crossed he doesn’t try to kill himself while at the hospital). As of now, we are not redoing the fecal and are treating him as a true positive. All the boarders have been notified.
Should know shortly what’s up with the 3rd horse.
Wow. I’m surprised CSU would be willing to risk spreading an infectious disease in order to perform non-essential lameness diagnostics. That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
If my horse had tested positive for coronavirus I would not consider taking him anywhere. I sure hope you will consider postponing this visit, and have any essential testing/treatments done at your farm.
My horse has an appointment at CSU in two weeks – guess I’ll check in with them before we go.
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Can’t do a bone scan at the farm.
3rd horse negative.
Jingles for all the horses involved
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