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Faster Horses- West Nile?

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Faster Horses- I heard on the radio today that they have found the first cases of West Nile for this year in the state- down in your area...Which to me is surprising as to the fact its the first....A couple years ago and it was everywhere in the state-- I know last year the state guys had a mosquito trap about a mile north of me on the river--a large percentage of those trapped were carriers...

I'm wondering if everything is building an immunity to the disease- like it did sleeping sickness back in the 30"s? We had a couple of bad years with sleeping sickness in about 38 and then never a case since.......
 
I told my vet that I didn't vaccinate any of my horses and he said it would be alright as he thinks our horses have built up an immunity. Claims we went from 200+ cases to 20 some in a couple years and doesn't think the vaccine is why.
 
Jinglebob said:
I told my vet that I didn't vaccinate any of my horses and he said it would be alright as he thinks our horses have built up an immunity. Claims we went from 200+ cases to 20 some in a couple years and doesn't think the vaccine is why.
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How exactly does a horse "build up immunity" to west nile? By getting bitten and exposed to it, but not enough to catch it????
 
I'd think it might work like that. gitting bit once and the body building antibodies . Just like getting a vaccination of sorts I'd say. Live virus in small amounts builds antibodies????
 
you can only get west nile once and a lot of ppl get it and never know they have it. I would assume it is the same in horses.
 
Jinglebob said:
I told my vet that I didn't vaccinate any of my horses and he said it would be alright as he thinks our horses have built up an immunity. Claims we went from 200+ cases to 20 some in a couple years and doesn't think the vaccine is why.
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I didn't vaccinate any of mine this year either-- Vet here told me the same thing...I know that at least two of my mares already had it- one was pretty sick and wobbly for a couple of days- other barely showed any symptoms- others may have had it too and we never even noticed it....Since they had suckling colts at the time its possible they could have passed an immunity on to the colts too....
 
OT,

what treatments did you give and what were the costs????? A lot of what I have heard are some fairly horrrendous stories. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I tend to have Charlie Brown luck, so for me an ounce of prevention goes a long way. Plus, we live next tio a resevoir that has lots of skeeters and birds,


I explained to my dad once a 12 dollar shot times 7 head will pay for what I have heard one treatment to cost several times over....

PPRM
 
PPRM said:
OT,

what treatments did you give and what were the costs????? A lot of what I have heard are some fairly horrrendous stories. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I tend to have Charlie Brown luck, so for me an ounce of prevention goes a long way. Plus, we live next tio a resevoir that has lots of skeeters and birds,


I explained to my dad once a 12 dollar shot times 7 head will pay for what I have heard one treatment to cost several times over....

PPRM
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PPRM- I did nothing with the ones I knew had it- they were out on pasture when we noticed it--one was really wobbly and wouldn't eat for 2 or 3 days- never went down...The other just got a little stumbly and slow for a couple days--had some muscle tremors -- both came out of it fine. Guess I was lucky...They tell me that once they go down they need IV's or they won't make it....(And nobody could live in an area with more mosquitos-when Lewis and Clark went by my place the only comments in their journal was about the swarms of mosquitos... :lol: )

I also question the vaccine after hearing the horror stories some had in the midwest with mares aborting and having deformed foals which they believed were connected to the original Fort Dodge vaccine... I vaccinated only one mare the first year and she was also the only one that absorbed her foal....Decided after that to take a chance with the disease with the mares I was getting bred instead- which was also the advice of my vet and the state vet....

I haven't heard anything on the investigation (?) USDA was supposed to do about the vaccine--I called the USDA hotline # and another number my vet gave me, and never could get a response- recorded message that they would return my call-- never did...
Must have thought I was going to sue or something...That was one of the first things that shook my faith in USDA, long before their current fiascos......But they did come out with a different vaccine now.......
 
OT, if that vaccine shook your faith in the USDA, didn't it shake your faith in Fort Dodge as well? They marketed that vaccine without knowing a whole lot about it. They love a crisis. Made a lot of money on a similar deal with dogs a few years ago.

I don't like Fort Dodge vaccines. The young man who buys our calves is close to Ft. Dodge and he says no one there will buy their vaccines.

I didn't know about the West Nile Horse here and I work at the newspaper. Guess I will have to find out tomorrow about that. I saw the woman that works at the vet clinic twice today and she never said a word.

The vet at Ekalaka recommeded that people not vaccinate their horses a couple of years ago, but quite a few horses died in that area so I really don't think that was sound advice. You need to do what you can. If you have LOTS of horses, probably chance it, and don't vaccinate. We only vaccinated our using horses for West Nile. But then we haven't had enough water around here for the past seveal years to hatch mosquitoes either.
 
FH- I'm not even sure if a horse got it- sounded more like it was the first West Nile carrier mosquito they had even found in the state this year--- and hopefully they will disappear shortly.......

USDA let Fort Dodge release the vaccine as experimental-- in the long run it may have helped more than it hurt- don't know....I had 30 mares then and I wasn't going to put out $36 a pop for them- and I lucked out...I did vaccinate the stud, the young stuff and the ones I was riding until this year when I quit on all of them.....

How do you like this cooler weather- Predicting 60's and 70's for the next couple of weeks...The drawback is that I got a chance to talk with a couple of the weather boys during the Fair and they said that the pattern is setting up just identical to back in 89 ---when we got snow in August :???:
 
Snow in August? Well, perhaps that will get rid of the mosquitoes. :wink:

Seriously, thanks for the tip about West Nile. I will run that to ground, as we should have something in the paper about it. (We are often the LAST TO KNOW THESE THINGS~)

1989, August. That must have been the year the kids in W. Montana made snow forts at the fair...
 
I believe there is some merit in the idea of building resistance due to exposure.

Right now there has been anthrax around the area. Producers along the river have been vaccinateing. Eastern sections of South and North Dakota have also been affected.
 
EJ said:
I believe there is some merit in the idea of building resistance due to exposure.

Right now there has been anthrax around the area. Producers along the river have been vaccinateing. Eastern sections of South and North Dakota have also been affected.
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Do they have to quarentine for Anthrax? If so how long? will it affect the ablility to sell calves?
 
Faster horses said:
Upon checking, I found the mosquitoes testing positive for carrying West Nile virus were found around Terry, Mt. and in Sheridan County. So that's a ways from here. Thanks for the tip, OT. It might have been here.
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Sheridan county is right south of me. We have been so dry right at the ranch that mosquitos are listed as ENDANGERED"
 
Big Muddy rancher, what I`ve been told by one of the state vets, the quarentine is 30days after the last death. The highly suggest vaccinateing as the wind can responsible for moveing the spors around.
 
EJ said:
Big Muddy rancher, what I`ve been told by one of the state vets, the quarentine is 30days after the last death. The highly suggest vaccinateing as the wind can responsible for moveing the spors around.
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Thanks EJ, that wouldn't be to bad, Just hope the death loss stops. Was at a meeting yesterday and was informed that vaccinating and antibiotic use have to be properly timed or one can cancel out the other.
 

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