5d (edited) • Vet Cases⚕️
🐴 Case Study: Why Is River Suddenly Refusing to Move?
Meet River, a 7-year-old Warmblood gelding on a Maryland farm sitting along the Potomac River.
It is August. His owner calls because River has been feverish and off his feed for two days. Now he has developed profuse watery diarrhea overnight and this morning she noticed he is standing with his front legs stretched forward, refusing to walk.
You check his digital pulses. Both forefeet are bounding and hot.
River has Potomac horse fever, caused by Neorickettsia risticii, a bacterium he ingested weeks ago inside a mayfly that landed in his water bucket on a warm summer night. Now he is fighting diarrhea, endotoxemia, and developing laminitis simultaneously.
You immediately start oxytetracycline 6.6 mg/kg IV in saline, administered slowly over 45 minutes. You pack his feet in ice. You add low dose flunixin to fight the endotoxin before it destroys his laminae.
By morning his fever is gone. But the feet remain the battle.
💡 The takeaway: In Potomac horse fever, winning the infection is only half the fight. Save the feet.
To learn more about this disease and case, the course is in the classroom or just follow this link
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🐴 Case Study: Why Is River Suddenly Refusing to Move?
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