PSA for those of us in the humid south

[khall]

3 of my horses (well 2 actually mine, 1 a boarder) have been battling an upper respiratory something now since September. I had actually noticed in August that my gelding was snorting a good bit. So late September my big gelding developed a severe snotty nose, had vet out, lungs clear, upper respiratory something, SMZs and there you go. He mostly cleared up, took a bit but then it came back to a lesser degree. Then the other gelding he is out with had severe snotty nose and coughing, same thing lungs clear, upper respiratory whatever, SMZs again got a bit better. Now they are also out with a long yearling, she really had no symptoms of much of anything, maybe if you looked hard somewhat wet nose but that was it. Meanwhile my gelding would still have a bit of a wet nose, no coughing, still snorting, funny whinny. Finally decided needed to scope him, boarder at first was not going to do her gelding then he started coughing again and she changed her mind. Scope showed the boarder's horse with almost scalded upper airway passage, guttural pouches were clear, very inflamed, my gelding was very inflamed but not as bad as boarder horse. Filly still was not showing much so did not scope her at that time. Vet suggested unusual presentation of Pythiosis better known especially in Florida as swamp cancer. Now I have never heard of this before, it is a fungal like organism that the 3 horses were having a reaction to from being exposed to it in the pasture. Blood test and cultures on boarder, blood test only on my gelding. The Elisa came back high negative, borderline positive for Pythium. Thankfully there is a therapeutic vaccine for the organism which we just started today, 3 dose protocol. Very unusual here in Georgia, rare to see the upper respiratory issue (which is actually an allergic reaction to the organism not the organism itself) usually presents as skin lesions which is the organism. Can affect humans (tropical areas mostly) and dogs/cats. The more I read about this organism, the more it scares the sh*t out of me. Filly just started showing symptoms this week, scoped her as well. They all started the immunotherapy today, have two more to go. Will scope again in 10 days and then after the last dose. This is an emerging disease/issue especially with all of the wet warm weather this summer. I have learned more than I wanted to about this issue. Jingles would be appreciated, this stuff can be deadly yet with the allergic issue better than the skin lesions. UGH So if you horses have upper reparatory issues that are not resolving I would get them scoped.

[piedmontfields]

Thanks for the heads up, and jingles for your herd. It has been terribly warm and weird in the mid-south, too.