My brain is so full of everything that has happened in the last few months that I hardly know where to begin this blog post.
About a month after our successful Oroquin treatment, Blue began showing signs of illness again. He was standing sideways at the hay feeder again, and started slipping from he sheath off and on. He also started leaning on his stall wall at night, and standing with that "kicked out" hind leg.
Dr. Ellison at Pathogens gave me a stern talking to over the phone. Blue is not "cured," no matter how successful to Oroquin treatment. A course of Levamisole (NeuroQuel) was prescribed to help shore him up. After the two week dose was over, he needed another round, then a round to every other day. Every time we tried to wean him off of it, he would relapse. I resigned myself (quite happily) to the idea that he would just have to be on an every-other-day dose for the rest of forever. At $60 a month, NeuroQuel is affordable into the forever, and it worked.
And then...
It stopped working. Well, I mean that the NeuroQuel was not nearly as effective. I don't know if it stopped working because I am too terrified to take him off of it. I called Dr. Ellison again (Blue's mom on line 2 again!) Again, she talked me down off the wall. It's chronic, sure, but manageable. Let's try dexamethasone orally and see how it goes.
Orally, the dex is not really working, either.
In the middle of all this fun and games, Blue got kicked in a pretty real way. The inside of his right hind was in bad shape - pretty swollen and with a big superficial wound. Dr. Miller (always on speed dial) set us up with SMZ and bute to get him through it, as he was injured in the leg that is already an issue. Also, dexamethasone can hinder healing in immune-deficient animals. And I'm pretty terrified of what an infection would mean for Old Blue.
So we became a hospital once again, devising a clever system of jelly jars, dry erase markers, maple syrup and a coffee grinder to get Blue to eat everything. The meds schedule was like quantum mathematics - every other day on alternating days for the levamisole and dex, every day for bute and U-guard, twice a day for SMZ and vitamin E.
After his wound had healed and he was back to walking better (yet still tilted), Dr. Miller suggested we switch to dexamethasone shots for better absorption, and I agreed.
Also, as a fun aside, dex causes gastro issues including ulcers and can cause a horse to lose weight pretty dramatically. Convinced of the worst, I bought another tub of U-Guard and ran to the feed store to get some beet pulp with molasses.
And so, here it is - Blue's medication schedule (don't tell my husband how much this all costs).
1. Levamisole tablet (NeuroQuel) every other day.
2. 2.5 ml (That's 10 mg) of dexamethasone by injection every alternating day.
3. Two scoops of U-Guard every day
4. Two scoops (10,000 IU) of vitamin E every day.
maple syrup to make the medicine go down.
5. 1 pound (building up to 2 pounds) of soaked beet pulp every day.
6. 1/2 cup corn oil once a day to maintain weight (may go up to 1 cup and may switch to an oil lower in Omega 6 and higher in Omega 3).
I also learned how to give a horse a shot and Blue, to his credit, was a very good patient about it.
He got his first dex shot last night. I am not brave enough to ask Dr, Miller what happens if the dex simply does not work. Part of me just doesn't want to know.
