Golden Spike Farm's Plog

I wish I had better news but there really is no change.

They performed the tracheal wash to obtain a sample of the fluid in the lungs.  Then set up the culture, yesterday.  As of today nothing is growing, which is not a surprise as sometime it take 2 days for bacteria to grow.  So they are keeping him on the current antibiotics (SMZs) and added Metronidazole (yesterday).  The second ABX is one that is commonly used for pneumonia.

This morning his fever spiked over 104 but again responded to the bute and came back down to 101.  He said that high of a temperature is usually viral and only lasts 2 – 3 days.  Also he doesn’t look or act like a horse with a 104 temperature caused by pneumonia. He does have slightly and occasionally elevated heart rate and respiratory rate but if it was true pneumonia he would look and act sick.  He would be coughing, but instead he is still eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom all normally.

With the additional ABX they were really hoping for improvement this morning and are really not sure as to the cause of the high fever.  They are starting to think something else is causing the fever.  Maybe something related to the swelling in his legs.

So we wait some more for them to figure this out.