Grand Adventures Ranch

Pigeon Fever Ordeal

This is an email I received today from a long time canine health customer of mine.  I didn't even know she had horses!

Hello Kay,
We had Rainbow come down with pigeon fever after a new boarder went on a trail ride across town where all the horses on that ride came down with it. She tried to hide it but when her horse got so sick that she needed a vet and other horses were showing symptoms, the truth came out. We had the vet out and put Rainbow on antibiotics and isolated him. He seemed to have recovered or so we thought. Rainbow started to go downhill and had lost a lot of weight. I called out the vet and told him to take blood becasue I needed to know what was happening to Rainbow. Rainbow's drawn blood came out brown! He was urinating whole blood! He was within a couple of hours of needing a transfusion! We spent thousands of dollars and a whole lot of praying to keep him alive! It took over a year for Rainbow to recover! He was so emaciated! He was twenty-one at the time and had been a hard keeper all his life. We adopted him when he was nine years old. He was on holistic herbs, specail supplements, red-cell, and Mezotrace. We gave him his hay, Omolene 2000, Senior food, hay and grain pellets,psylium and carrots. We had his teeth floated twice a year and he had to wormed every thee weeks.

Pigeon Fever Study

Beginning in June of 2006, Grand Adventures Ranch and Mountain View Animal Clinic are co-sponsoring an investigational study of the efficacy of Octazone on horses diagnosed with Pigeon Fever.  Treatment will consist of seven consecutive days of rectal Octazone.  Horses will also be evaluated for diet and immune system strength.  There is no charge for this treatment.  14 days after treatment conclusion horses will be tested for presence of active pathenogen.

As we start this process I am actively looking for input from those who have experienced Pigeon Fever first hand.  My next post is an email I received from a long time customer for dog products and I will be answering her directly and here on the blog.  So if you have advise and experience to share please bring it to the discussion.  Tonight's phone call is also on Pigeon Fever - It will undoubtedly be an active topic of discussion in the coming months.

Kay