I have a sinus infection, Isis has EPM, and Ambush and Stella have urinary tract infections (UTIs). Recovery is on its way through…

The day after Isis came home from the hospital, Ambush had a sugar crash. He was unaware of anyone or anything that happened to him. A trip to the vet, some good wet food and blood glucose test later, he was on the road to recovery. The next day he went back to the vet’s for a full day of testing. Ambush’s blood sugar plummeted from 350 in the morning (no insulin injection that morning or the night before) to about 40 or so four hours after the vet gave him the insulin injection. His liver enzymes were normal except for one.

He was started on a 10-day regimen of Clavamox (antibioitic), which did not sit well with his stomach. Kitty had the runs bad and stopped eating. His blood suagar levels were all over the place because of he lost his appetite. We stopped the Clavamox, put him on a regular “catkins” diet (Innova EVO dry and wet food for all of the kitties), and worked on getting his appetite and litter box routine back to normal. After a few days (and a litlte plain yogurt later), everything was back to normal.

Ambush goes back to the vet either on Friday or next Monday for his antibiotic injection. After the UTI is gone, we’ll get his insulin dose figured out again so he isn’t drinking so much water.

Right around June 22, Stella started peeing on my bed: three times in 24 hours. She was also sleepling a lot more than normal. My bed has a plastic cover. Part of the side-effect of Stella’s kidney disease is that she has “accidents” on my bed periodically. I went through every set of sheets I had, dropped Stella into the bathroom as a containment area, and called the vet. Stella came back positive for a UTI and received an antibiotic injection last week. She is feeling better and is back out. No more peeing on the bed for the past four days, yay! Why do I feel like I just jinxed myself?

It has been difficult dealing with so many sick animals and then getting sick myself. The doctor declared yesterday that I have the beginnings of a sinus infection and gave me some antibiotics. I’ve been getting a fever most afternoons this week. I’ve been at work in the morning and from home in the afternoon. Very glad to be some place that is flexible enough to let me do that.

The Marquis prescription for Isis’ EPM finally was filled on Friday evening. Four tubes of paste: the most expensive paste I’ve ever bought for her. I found it at a better price than other places but it was still amazingly expensive.

Isis was on banomine from the last vet appointment to Saturday morning. It’s odd how being on the banomine changed her personality. She seemed subdued or dulled. The barn owner thought she seemed mellower — maybe from relief of some constant low-level pain we hadn’t been aware of. Isis didn’t seem “with” me when I was handling her. She let me do whatever but she wasn’t focused and playing like she normally does.

She got her first Marquis treatment just before the farrier arrived in the morning. It’s a paste, so she was very good at taking it. The tube’s width makes it awkward to handle.

We are also doing a test: she’s going barefoot for a few days. If she is ouchy, we’ll put her back in shoes. If she isn’t, then her feet will have a chance to return to normal before she starts back in work in a few months. It makes me nervous to not have shoes on her. She was thin soled and shoes helped that a lot. I just hope that we aren’t making a mistake by pulling her shoes. I have to keep an eye on her comfort level and how she is walking.

We will see how she does. The vets are optimistic because we seem to have caught things early. I hope so. Marquis isn’t a cure — it’s more like a treatment that helps put the EPM into remission.

Some good news at least. Isis is still only showing mild symptoms. We’re going to start her on Marquis (oh-my-god-expensive EPM treatment) for a month and then retest her for EPM titers. If everything goes well, the treatments should only be needed once. If the titers are positive, we may have to repeat the Marquis treatment.

Isis is going to be on banomine (anti-inflammatory good for soft tissue) until Friday or Saturday, whenever the Marquis prescription arrives. The banomine should help control any swelling until she can be started on Marquis. Her banomine dose will start at 1,000 pounds and then be reduced to half that on Friday and Saturday morning. Her last dose will coincide with her first dose of Marquis.

My vet said that when Isis had her episode on 12 June, the vet thought EPM was very low on the list because of Isis’ acute onset and quick recovery. She said it was the strangest case she had ever seen. (Which fits in with the way Isis seems to do things — spectacular onset and then a near-miraculous recovery.)

Here’s hoping…

I’ve posted here before about my mare, Isis (aka the Bay Wonder Mare or the Miracle Mare). On the evening of Friday, 12 June, Isis began to act strange. She lost her coordination and staggered about like a drunk person. She walked into walls in her stall. She was unaware of her surroundings. The worst part was that she didn’t know me (heart wrenching — I’ve had her since the day she was born). No recognition in her eyes. She didn’t respond to sounds or movement, as if she was suddenly blind and deaf.

We took her to the vet hospital that night. A neurological exam showed some definite problems, more so on her right side than her left.

She progressively improved over the next few days on her own, without treatment. Saturday she perked up when she saw me. She backed away from me in the stall (something she has never done) instead of following me around. On Sunday, she hollered when she heard my voice. That was such a huge relief.

By the following Monday, she seemed to be fully recovered. The vet took head x-rays and sent off a test for EPM. The x-ray results were normal, as was the neurological exam.

Isis seemed to be doing well. But something wasn’t quite right. Her personality seemed to be back and probably 95% of her coordination. The vet said that on a neurological scale of 0 (normal) to 5 (really bad), Isis was between a 0 and a 1. I was told to give her plenty of rest, no work, and have my regular vet check Isis in two weeks.

She’s been home for a week now. I’ve been out to see her about every other day. She’s seemed pretty normal. She trips a little more than usual. She isn’t quite as coordinated.

When she first came home, she was leery of anyone coming up to her stall. (She showed the whites of her eyes.) Not surprising, considering how many unfamiliar people came into her stall and poked her during her stay at the vet school. She seems to be over that now.

Monday evening the vet called and confirmed that Isis has a greater than 95% chance of having Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM, see http://vet.osu.edu/462.htm), a degenerative neurological disease caused by Sarcocystis neurona protozoans being in the horse’s central nervous system. The disease is spread by horses ingesting the droppings from possums (see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/drfenger/). The “good news” is that EPM is one of the only neurological conditions that is treatable. The most common treatment is Marquis, an expensive paste (~$800/month) that is given to the horse for 1-3 months. If the treatment works, it should return her to a “0″ — basically completely normal.

This morning the barn owner called me and said that Isis was not acting right. She was distracted and startled when her halter was put on. Isis is usually very focused and interested on whomever is in the stall with her.

The vet is coming out today at 1:30. I am not sure what quite to do. I’ve never dealt with a neurological disease. It’s one more thing to learn about.

I hope she can recover from this the same way she has from everything else.

I found this meme on LiveJournal, so of course I had to take it. I think I actually have some of Tove Jansson’s books from when I was little. I’ll have to check.

Pretty in depth, but the author selection at the end is kinda limited. Good quiz, though.

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?…

Tove Jansson (1914-2001)

29 High-Brow, -21 Violent, 25 Experimental and -5 Cynical!

So the Mare in the Post-Apocalyptic Equine Wear(™ to

saigh_allaidh

) is actually quite pretty out of her fly mask and grazing muzzle. I’ve had Isis since she was a baby. Her grandmother was my Mom’s first Arabian mare. There is a lot of history in her bloodlines, history I was part of.

I have almost lost her several times. The worst time was when she had colic surgery due to a strangulating lipoma, a benign fatty tumor suspended by a stalk in her abdomen and had wrapped around 60% of her small intestines. No one had been optimistic after her colic surgery. Five or six days in intensive care, a secondary colic, no motility in her small intestines until five days after surgery, and a history of laminitis. The odds had not been in her favor.

That is one of the reasons she earned the nickname of the Miracle Mare.

A few weeks ago that was really brought home when another mare I know died from tortion colic caused by a lipoma. Within a few weeks, I had two vets tell me that Isis had been very lucky — most horses don’t survive a lipoma because of the sudden onset and little time to get to an equine hospital.

Ever hear an Arabian snort? When they are excited, Arabians flag their tail (carry it almost straight up) and make snorting noises. In this video, you can see Isis prancing around and snorting.

(The full size video is also available (64 MB AVI file).)

She now has arthritis. We’re working on treatment for that. Hopefully we’ll have it managed by July…

The chiropractor finally called me back. The earliest appointment is July 10th. Arg. It is going to be a very very long June.

The ground work is doing Isis a lot of good. She has muscled up on her rump. She still has a little bit of a hay belly, but she is getting better.

I want to ride. Really really want to ride.

I took a friend out to the barn. He had a new Pentax K10D DSLR and wanted to try taking pictures of the horses. He ended up with the picture below of Kasane. It’s probably one of my favourites of her so far. She’s making a face because I’m scratching That Spot on her belly.

The flies are out again, so both girls are wearing their fly masks. Or at least they are turned out with the masks on. Kasane keeps losing her fly mask out in the field. Isis is just annoyed by hers. Two Houdini horses getting out of their various contraptions.

I had brought my own camera, and took some pictures of Isis. Isis is also now wearing her grazing muzzle and her fly mask. She is Not Amused. She walked over to the paddock fence and pestered me to remove something. Normally she asks for her grazing muzzle to be off. This time, as soon as I removed her fly mask she was happy and went back to grazing.

The vet exam showed that Isis’ left side is weaker than her right. To correct this, I am supposed to work Isis at least every other day, weather permitting.

When she first trots, her back legs track wider then normal and eventually straighten out. It’s like watching someone with back pain try to jog. The last time she trotted like this was when we had our riding accident several years ago.

I am supposed to work her for at least two weeks to build up her hip strength. My vet also wants a chiropractor to examine Isis and hopefully adjust her before I get on. Hopefully the chiropractor will call me back soon…

Stella turned 20 this month! She’s the oldest kitty I’ve ever had and is still going strong. She’s eating a new food called Orijen and is back up to about 5 pounds.

I never thought Stella would last this long. She has some kidney issues, but the fluids have helped her. She definitely feels better than she did last year at this time.

Here’s hoping that if you have pets, that they live to be a grand age with few medical issues.