Ferin
Well-Known Member
I had posted a while back about our mare, Belle, and the wierd sores that she had developed on her withers. For those that never saw the first post or dont remember...
In May we went out one morning and found a huge lump on Belle's withers...it had pretty much appeared over night. We had our vet out that day to examine the lump. He found no marks where she had hurt herself or been bitten. He gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and had us soak it with Epsom salts and put Ickthomol on it twice a day. We did that for about a month until the one big lump turned into 3 good size lumps that erupted. Our vet came again to take cultures and draw blood. The blood test was negative for Brucella and the culture came back showing Pasteurella Haemolytica. It is a bacteria that is found in a cow's respitory system...it's typically found when cows have pneumonia. It is very rarely seen in horses. Well the vet put her on antibiotics and we were supposed to continue cleaning the area. Off and on the sores would get better and a new one would pop up and open. He kept her on the antibiotics for quite a while longer.
The sores when they first opened up in June...
Well at the beginning of October she was looking great. Her sores had almost completely healed and we thought we were well on the way to a complete recovery. That didnt last too long...a new soar ended up popping up and opening. That's when we decided to get a 2nd vet out. What the 1st vet was doing did not seem to be healing the sores completely and we needed another opinion.
Our new vet came out and took a culture and put Belle on a very strong antibiotic that kills bacteria in the bones. He wanted to make sure something was fighting the bacteria in case it had gotten into the bones. His culture results came back something totally different then the 1st vet's results...Streptococcus Discopatia. It is a bacteria that is found in cow's udders when they have mastitis. Our vet has never heard of it showing up in horses. The clinic where this vet works had just purchased a new digital xray machine and it was to get here in a couple of weeks. Well it arrived a few days ago and he came out to xray Belle's withers this morning.
He found what he thought was a couple of bones (circled in blue) that are deteriorating from the infection, one bone (circled in red) that is starting to deteriorate, and the rest are normal bones (circled in yellow). He told us that the antibiotics are pretty much just keeping the infection at bay...they really arent healing it. Pretty much the only thing we could do was take her to the state vet school and have her debrided. That is where they go in and dig out all of the infected area. It isnt guaranteed to cure it and she may end up being deformed from it.
Well, now for a little bit of good news. After looking at some of his books our vet called tonight and said that the bones may not be as bad as he was thinking at first. The pictures in his books didnt look too much different then the xrays but he couldnt tell for sure because of the big difference in how the xrays were taken. He is going to talk with some vets at the vet school and see what they think we should do from here.
So right now we're pretty much at a waiting stage. She's still on the antiobiotics so the infection doesnt get any worse. Im praying that she doesnt have to have the surgery. We've already spent thousands on her and the surgery will cost thousands on top of that.
Please send your thoughts and prayers for Belle. Ill keep you guys updated when we hear something.
In May we went out one morning and found a huge lump on Belle's withers...it had pretty much appeared over night. We had our vet out that day to examine the lump. He found no marks where she had hurt herself or been bitten. He gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and had us soak it with Epsom salts and put Ickthomol on it twice a day. We did that for about a month until the one big lump turned into 3 good size lumps that erupted. Our vet came again to take cultures and draw blood. The blood test was negative for Brucella and the culture came back showing Pasteurella Haemolytica. It is a bacteria that is found in a cow's respitory system...it's typically found when cows have pneumonia. It is very rarely seen in horses. Well the vet put her on antibiotics and we were supposed to continue cleaning the area. Off and on the sores would get better and a new one would pop up and open. He kept her on the antibiotics for quite a while longer.
The sores when they first opened up in June...
Well at the beginning of October she was looking great. Her sores had almost completely healed and we thought we were well on the way to a complete recovery. That didnt last too long...a new soar ended up popping up and opening. That's when we decided to get a 2nd vet out. What the 1st vet was doing did not seem to be healing the sores completely and we needed another opinion.
Our new vet came out and took a culture and put Belle on a very strong antibiotic that kills bacteria in the bones. He wanted to make sure something was fighting the bacteria in case it had gotten into the bones. His culture results came back something totally different then the 1st vet's results...Streptococcus Discopatia. It is a bacteria that is found in cow's udders when they have mastitis. Our vet has never heard of it showing up in horses. The clinic where this vet works had just purchased a new digital xray machine and it was to get here in a couple of weeks. Well it arrived a few days ago and he came out to xray Belle's withers this morning.
He found what he thought was a couple of bones (circled in blue) that are deteriorating from the infection, one bone (circled in red) that is starting to deteriorate, and the rest are normal bones (circled in yellow). He told us that the antibiotics are pretty much just keeping the infection at bay...they really arent healing it. Pretty much the only thing we could do was take her to the state vet school and have her debrided. That is where they go in and dig out all of the infected area. It isnt guaranteed to cure it and she may end up being deformed from it.
Well, now for a little bit of good news. After looking at some of his books our vet called tonight and said that the bones may not be as bad as he was thinking at first. The pictures in his books didnt look too much different then the xrays but he couldnt tell for sure because of the big difference in how the xrays were taken. He is going to talk with some vets at the vet school and see what they think we should do from here.
So right now we're pretty much at a waiting stage. She's still on the antiobiotics so the infection doesnt get any worse. Im praying that she doesnt have to have the surgery. We've already spent thousands on her and the surgery will cost thousands on top of that.
Please send your thoughts and prayers for Belle. Ill keep you guys updated when we hear something.
