keeperofthehorses
Well-Known Member
Darrin has been sick as a dog the last 2 days. He got a preliminary diagnosis today of West Nile Virus. *Insert four-letter word here*
If he can stay out of the hospital this weekend, he'll get the rest of the bloodwork done on Monday for the official diagnosis. If he gets hospitalized, he'll likely have to go on a vent to ride it out. So far, it looks like last night was the worst. He ended up in the ER at 1AM this morning. I just knew when he told me he needed to go to the ER... it just hit me... "He's got West Nile". At the ER, they told him, "Yep, you're sick, go home and go to bed" :new_shocked: This is the same hosptial that currently has 5 people on vents with WNV. His nephrologist was a bit upset with that (the ER never even called his nephrologists last night, they probably would've admitted him). He says he feels like he's got the flu really really bad. Terrible pain, especially in his back, severe GI upset, congestion in lungs and sinuses, severe fatigue. He's a bit better today (so far has kept his dinner down, is a bit less congested, not so much pain except for his back), but he's a little freaked out because of his other health problems. He knows he is in the high-risk category. I told him that the minute he starts feeling even a tiny bit worse, we're heading to Boise. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope the transplant pager doesn't go off for the next couple of weeks, because they won't let him get a kidney while he's sick with this and he could get bumped down the list. On the bright side, if he does have it, he will now be immune to it and not have to worry anymore.
We knew this was coming for either one of us or one of the horses. For the last 4 weeks we've been finding nearly a dead bird a day on the farm, most of them fledglings. On Sunday, we found an adult crow in the pasture, and figured it was WNV. I spent Monday running all over the valley begging someone to test it, but no one is testing single birds because "it's in our county, it's probably WNV". I asked if they would come dip the pond and test the skeeters, I even offered to pay all of the expenses, and they still won't do it.
The horses have been vaccinated (why isn't there a vaccine for humans yet?), but we are still stressing about them. They have been in barn pretty much full-time since the mosquitos got thick and the WNV diagnosis started picking up about 4 or 5 weeks ago. I don't let them out in the pasture because the skeeters are just too thick and only have them in the dry lot for working/free-lunging. I've quit irrigating, but it doesn't really matter because our neighbors haven't. I've gone through $70 worth of horse spray in the last 10 days. It's incredible; I used about 1/3 of a bottle of Bite Free on my TB the other day and they still swarmed her as soon as I let her out. I've actually sprayed the ponies with my DEET when I've taken them out to work. We are going to boost them this weekend just to be on the safe side. We are also going to forego our Organic Certification and start spraying the fields and the pond area. It's just too big of a risk for us and the animals and we probably should have started several weeks ago.
Please, if you would keep Darrin in your prayers for a quick recovery (or for the tests to come back that it's not WNV), and also for our animals to not get it, we'd much appreciate it.
If he can stay out of the hospital this weekend, he'll get the rest of the bloodwork done on Monday for the official diagnosis. If he gets hospitalized, he'll likely have to go on a vent to ride it out. So far, it looks like last night was the worst. He ended up in the ER at 1AM this morning. I just knew when he told me he needed to go to the ER... it just hit me... "He's got West Nile". At the ER, they told him, "Yep, you're sick, go home and go to bed" :new_shocked: This is the same hosptial that currently has 5 people on vents with WNV. His nephrologist was a bit upset with that (the ER never even called his nephrologists last night, they probably would've admitted him). He says he feels like he's got the flu really really bad. Terrible pain, especially in his back, severe GI upset, congestion in lungs and sinuses, severe fatigue. He's a bit better today (so far has kept his dinner down, is a bit less congested, not so much pain except for his back), but he's a little freaked out because of his other health problems. He knows he is in the high-risk category. I told him that the minute he starts feeling even a tiny bit worse, we're heading to Boise. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope the transplant pager doesn't go off for the next couple of weeks, because they won't let him get a kidney while he's sick with this and he could get bumped down the list. On the bright side, if he does have it, he will now be immune to it and not have to worry anymore.
We knew this was coming for either one of us or one of the horses. For the last 4 weeks we've been finding nearly a dead bird a day on the farm, most of them fledglings. On Sunday, we found an adult crow in the pasture, and figured it was WNV. I spent Monday running all over the valley begging someone to test it, but no one is testing single birds because "it's in our county, it's probably WNV". I asked if they would come dip the pond and test the skeeters, I even offered to pay all of the expenses, and they still won't do it.
The horses have been vaccinated (why isn't there a vaccine for humans yet?), but we are still stressing about them. They have been in barn pretty much full-time since the mosquitos got thick and the WNV diagnosis started picking up about 4 or 5 weeks ago. I don't let them out in the pasture because the skeeters are just too thick and only have them in the dry lot for working/free-lunging. I've quit irrigating, but it doesn't really matter because our neighbors haven't. I've gone through $70 worth of horse spray in the last 10 days. It's incredible; I used about 1/3 of a bottle of Bite Free on my TB the other day and they still swarmed her as soon as I let her out. I've actually sprayed the ponies with my DEET when I've taken them out to work. We are going to boost them this weekend just to be on the safe side. We are also going to forego our Organic Certification and start spraying the fields and the pond area. It's just too big of a risk for us and the animals and we probably should have started several weeks ago.
Please, if you would keep Darrin in your prayers for a quick recovery (or for the tests to come back that it's not WNV), and also for our animals to not get it, we'd much appreciate it.
