Conference noted::equitation

    yes i think i have. i might have put a note in here about it..
    my friends horse (buffy) died , i have you call her, but her mother
    passed away and i dont know how to get in touch with her..
    anyway they took her up to rochester in nh. and she was thrushing
    against the walls, she took her eye out doin so. they hoisted up
    in a truck to take her to the clinic.. i think they did blood work
    and found nothing... at the end of it all i think she broke her
    neck or her back... anyway they did an autopsy and found that she
    ***might*** (might now, they dont know for sure) have had a stroke
    / heartattack... she was a young horse, i used to school her at
    shows for cheryl, i think she was four.... anyway, buffy used to
    go to shows and she would pin her ears and threaten to bite all
    the time and cheryl and her mom said that she wasnt like that at
    home... i found it questionable... but i did say that there might
    be something wrong with her... 6 months later she got sick...
    i dont know if that is related but i wanted to pass that info on..
    
    also i just thought you might want to call rochester clinic in n.h.
    and ask them, i dont remember when it was i think it was a couple
    of years ago, and i also dont know the name of the vet...
    
    		hope this helps some.. and i'm sorry about your horses.
    
    	wendy o'
    

    
    I don't really know if Colitis (sp) is the same in all cases, but
    my first horse died of it when I was 16, she too was 16. It came
    on very suddenly and didn't last for more than 8 hours. The sysmptoms
    to start were she would not eat anything, very unlike this horse,
    even with normal bouts of colic, she'd go after anything. She kept
    laying down and rolling, then bolting up. It started at approx 9am
    we had two vets with her until approx. 7pm when we decided that
    without constant help or possible surgery she would die, we had
    her put down. I don't think a horse with Colitis could survive 
    very long, maybe other noters have some input here?
    
    Marianne

    
    
    I have a couple of related cases.  When my stallion coliced,
    he was operated on at Rochester N.H. Clinic.  He was diagonosed
    with enteritis (like colitis) possibly saminella.  I asked if
    the saminella could have been caused by my geese getting into
    the water trough to take a bath and was told yes.  I believe
    bird droppings can contaminate the water too.  Maybe you might
    have your water tested.  I've locked my geese into a pen away
    from the brook and the trough the horses drink from and haven't
    had any trouble.
    
    The other case concerns a friend from Lunenburg.  The horse
    wasn't herself for a couple of months but was not sick.  Just
    wasn't acting like she usually did.  One day she just dropped
    to the ground and couldn't get up.  This continued to happen.
    The horse would get up then fall over again.  The vet. didn't
    know what was wrong so the mare was sent to Rochester for
    testing.  The mare continued to stumble against the walls,
    fall down, and they thought it might be some spinal trouble.
    The vets said it was either a connective tissue disease,
    spinal injury or disease or another condition that I can't
    remember.  The mare was there a week for testing and had run
    up over $1000.00 bill.  More testing was needed to discover
    what was wrong and the owner didn't have the money so she had
    the horse put down.  She didn't have an autopsy done either.
    Sounds something like what your horse was suffering from. A
    new disease or virus in the making?
    
    So sorry about your horses.  I know what it feels like to sit
    up night after night worrying.
    
    Linda
    
    

    Ten years ago, I had a horse that had some of the same symptoms
    that your horses had.  She got very sick in the beginning of the
    summer with what seemed like colic.  As time went on, she ran a
    fever of 107 and couldn't put her head down to eat because she 
    would lose her balance.  We treated her with every type of drug
    available, all to no avail.  She ended up dying on her own, and
    the vet did an autopsy and found absolutely nothing.  Like your
    horse, this horse had a white count of 30,000 so she was fighting
    an infection somewhere.  We ended up figuring out that she most
    likely had a brain tumor, because in the autopsy we didn't go
    into her head.  She was a funny horse to ride because some days
    she was great, and other days, I would get off and walk home
    because I was literally afraid of getting killed she acted so
    stupid, which would also be explained if she did have a brain
    tumor.  I also had a 4 year old horse die of a heart attack (I
    have such great luck!) that was a standardbred off the track.
    When racing, she used to just stop on the track for no reason,
    but as it turns out it was because her heart was defective.
    I would go to the barn and find her lying down, and I would
    just proceed to work around her, figuring she was tired.  One
    night we found her in atrial(sp?) fibulation, where her heartbeat
    was completely irregular, caused by a congential disease.  I
    decided to put her down the following day because I couldn't see
    allowing her to suffer.  Did your vet offer any explination as to
    what has happened to these horses?  Is there any type of grass or
    anything that they got into that could have made them sick?  It
    just seems so weird this happened to two horses in the same place
    around the same time.
    
    
    
    

    I just talked to the vet yesterday.  He will never know what 
    Mikey had for sure because we didn't do an autopsy on him, but
    he did say that it could have been related to what his mother 
    had.  He seemed to think that Mikey had two seperate illnesses.
    The first being colitas -- which is just a general term for 
    something wrong with the digestive system, I think mainly the
    bowels or intestines.  He thought that the colitas weakened 
    Mikey's defenses, and then he got attacked by something else.
    
    That something else he thinks might have been Rhino.  What he
    is speculating happened to the mare is that she died of Rhino.
    He said that some horses react to it severly, creating more of
    a problem than it really is.  Anyway, he thought that it attacked
    her spinal cord, then her immune system attacked the rhino virus,
    then started attacking her spinal cord as well.  He said that in
    Mikey's case, since he was severly stressed, the second illness
    that caused his death could have possibly been his body reacting
    to a rhino virus similar to how his mother's did, and he just
    wasn't able to pull through.  He did say that rhino isn't hereditary,
    but how a horse reacts to the virus could be.  Anyway, they tested
    the most recent baby, and she showed no signs of it.  We also
    have a yearling filly out of the same mare that we will have tested
    soon.  
    
    I really appreciate all your inputs!  Some of the things I think
    might be related, but I guess we'll never know.  What I was hoping
    is that someone out there had something that was exactly the same
    as what I've had, AND they knew what it was ... I know ... a little
    unrealistic!  Anyway, if there are any more inputs, I'll be interested
    forever!
    
    Thanks,
    
    Lori
      

You should ask your vet if the mare was given a Rhino shot during pregnancy
    as she should have been.  I would that that the vaccine would be
    good for a year after it was given, as my horses only have it once
    a year.  My pregnant mare had it at the beginning of her pregnancy,
    and will get one again this month, one in her 7th month and one
    in her 9th.  The rhino virus causes pregnant mares to abort, and
    my friends horse never was vaccined with rhino through her whole
    pregnancy, and ended up aborting in the 10th month.
    

    Yes, the mare had been given three rhino shots each year for 
    the past three years ... The vet said that the rhino shot does
    not protect the horse from getting rhino, but that its purpose
    is to aviod abortion.  He also said that the particular type
    of rhino that was found in the mare cannot be vaccinated against.
    
    The mare was also vaccinated for rhino three times when she was
    pregnant with Mikey ... so if he did have rhino, the vaccination
    that he got when he was in the womb did not prevent it from showing
    up later in life.  By the way, Mikey was five ...
    
    Lori 

    I just read an article in the November issue of EQUUS concerning
    a horse who keep losing his balance periodically.  I recall the
    horse had some similar symptoms, but you might see if you can locate
    the article.  As I recall, the vet could find nothing wrong with
    the horse even from testing.  However, the horse eventually died
    and after the necrospy the vet found that a spinal parasite had
    caused the problem.  Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a
    treatment or cure for the problem yet.  I certainly hope your horse's
    problem is much easier to solve.
    
    Terry
        
    

    Thanks Terry ... I'll pick up a copy.
    
    Lori