Wednesday, September 3, 2003

West Nile virus

Bosque Farms woman and her horse survive bout

Jane Moorman News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jmoorman@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms Beth Tietjen watches her quarterhorse stallion, Redd My Name, running around the Bosque Farms Rodeo Arena and marvels that she and the horse are alive.

Both lived through a two-week battle with the West Nile virus. The virus has claimed the lives of four humans in New Mexico and at least 14 horses in Valencia County.

"I've never experienced anything like it," said Tietjen, 68. "I didn't have the symptoms they warn you about."

The Bosque Farms resident said she and her horse came down with the virus on Aug. 14.

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"I just didn't feel very good," she said of her bout with the West Nile fever. "I went to the doctor and they thought it was exhaustion. But it got so I couldn't focus. Everything seemed to be way out there, like the mountains. People ask me something and I'd realize they were talking to me."

During this time, Tietjen's daughter, Julie Ledbetter, discovered the stallion suffering from the mosquito-transmitted disease.

"His lower lip was quivering and his neck was arched way back. His muscles were so knotted that he was sore. And he couldn't swallow," Tietjen said. "We quickly called the vet and got some anti-inflammatory medicine and penicillin in him."

The next day, they took the horse to Dr. Jerry Cosper at Arrow Animal Hospital in Los Lunas.

"About all we can do is reduce the inflammation of the spinal cord with an anti-inflammatory drug and hydrated them with either oral fluids or intravenously, depending on how severe the case," Cosper said. "I've had to euthanize two horses so far because we didn't get to them in time."

Arrow Animal Clinic had three cases of West Nile virus on Aug. 27. "If I see one disease three times in one day, then it says to me we have an epidemic," Cosper said.

While Tietjen and Ledbetter doctored Redd My Name with medicine and a diet of wet bran mash and senior formula food, Tietjen began feeling worse.

She returned to the doctor on Friday, Aug. 15, and a blood sample was taken for tests, the results of which would be back to the doctor in five days.

"Saturday (Aug. 16), she was running a 102 fever and throwing up, so I took her to the hospital," said Ledbetter. "They thought she had a bacterial infection, so they gave her an antibiotic and hydrated her. When her fever began to break, eight hours later, they sent her home."

Having grown up and lived on ranches in Montana and New Mexico, Tietjen has learned a lot through the years about self-doctoring, including what to do when you have nausea.

"I've had doctors and druggist tell me that l-Lysine is the only thing that works on a virus. So I took that and ate black olives to absorb the stuff out of my system," she said. "A weight-loss expert once told me that toxins are stored in the fat, and when you're losing weight, those toxins are released into your stomach, causing nausea. He said a tablespoon of olive oil or a handful of olives help settle the stomach. I couldn't eat much else for about a week."

Redd My Name was also still having trouble swallowing and eating.

"Every day, we'd have to clean out his water trough because there was bran mash and food in it from him washing out the unswallowed food," Tietjen said. "Then, on Monday (Aug. 25), his water was clear. So we knew he was swallowing again."

While battling what the state epidemiologists are calling the West Nile fever, Tietjen lost 10 pounds and her horse lost 200 pounds.

Tietjen said she knew about the equine vaccine for the West Nile virus but worried about manufacturer's warnings about using it on stallions and mares.

"The ads said it might sterilize them for a brief period, but they weren't sure how long that period might be. So I didn't want to risk it," she said.

Horses are proving to be most susceptible to the virus that was introduced into the United States in 1999 and has moved its way across the country each summer with the migration of birds.

Mosquitoes contract the virus by feeding on birds. It is then transmitted to horses and humans when the female mosquito takes a blood meal before reproducing.

This year, the Rocky Mountain region and South Dakota have the most West Nile virus cases. Colorado has had 635 human cases and 188 horse cases reported, while New Mexico has had 49 human cases and 216 horse cases reported, and South Dakota has had 204 human cases and 44 horse cases reported.

But the veterinarians and state officials feel these numbers do not reflect the true impact of the disease on the horses.

"It's my guess that 10 percent of the cases are actually getting reported," said Cosper.

Dr. Donny MacDougall at Los Lunas Animal Clinic agrees that many people are finding their horses too far gone and are putting them down themselves.

In Valencia County, area veterinarians have had 50 confirmed cases of West Nile virus — of those, 14 horses have died.

"One of the horses we had to put down was at a roping on Friday night. By Sunday it was unable to swallow and, after working with it for two days, the owners decided to euthanize it," Cosper said.

While there is a vaccine to immunize horses, the veterinarians say it is too late in the season for it to be effective this year. The vaccination is a two-shot procedure that takes six weeks for the horse to reach immunity.

Now at the peak of the mosquito season, the veterinarians are turning to a new antibody to help fight the disease in unvaccinated horses.

"We have a new way to fight this virus," said MacDougall. "It's an immunoglobulin or anti-serum of equine origin. It provides immediate, short-term protection through artificially acquired passive immunity."

The product brochure produced by Novartis Animal Vaccines Inc. says the antibody "targets the actual disease-causing agent rather than being limited to symptomatic treatments."

While the vaccination ranges in price from approximately $60 for owner-administered to $100 for veterinarian-administered, the anti-serum price is usually from $500 and up depending on the size of the animal.

"Our first horse to receive the antibody was a pony that had been given the vaccination," Mac-Dougall said. "It saved the horse."

With four to five weeks left in the mosquito breeding season, state health and environment officials remind people to help control the insect that transmits the disease by eliminating its breeding habitat of standing water.

Tietjen said that while she has kept her stables clear of standing water, there has been standing water in her irrigation ditch. There are chemicals to kill larva in standing water available through the area municipalities and county.

Cosper said there is a treatment people can put in the horses' drinking water to kill larva and that the water is safe for the animals. Another natural way to kill the larva in livestock water tanks is with gambuzzi fish.

The mosquito breeding season peaks the first of September and tapers off by the middle of October.

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