Can anyone tell me what illness my horse has?

Antibiotic therapy was a treatment based on an educated guestimate of the cause. Antibiotics are only effective in treatment of bacterial infections, and there are numerous other classes of microbes that can infect horses to produce disease. Pathogenic microbes are those microbes that can produce disease, and viruses rank among the most common pathogens. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses or on most pathogenic microorganisms other than bacteria, and are also of no benefit if this is a response to toxicity. You don't mention cultures, cell counts or chemistries performed on blood samples. so I assume they weren't done.

Have you consulted with the vet since the initial examination? If not, then that should be done asap. Your horse is displaying signs that could indicate presence of laminitis but are also signs associated with neurologic (nervous system) involvement that should be investigated further and your other horses should be closely monitored for signs or symptoms as well. In the meantime the horse really should be kept isolated and biosecurity measures instituted in order to prevent spread of a potentially contagious infection until proven otherwise.

This could be an infection that the antibiotic is ineffective to treat, or an issue such as a systemic or organ toxicity or even a secondary drug interaction or toxic response to the treatment itself. It could also be a delayed response to something such as a vaccination or treatment administered weeks ago, or the manifestation of an infection by clostridial bacteria with a long incubation period that developed in a wound incurred weeks ago. Only a vet with the diagnostic tools to investigate can hope to find the cause.

Further investigation as soon as possible is warranted, and you should not administer the prescribed medications again until you consult with your vet. Good luck and I hope it turns out well for her.

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Add................... If you have consulted with the original vet at anytime after the initial exam and nothing more has been done, then you do need to find another vet for a second opinion as others have advised.

Did you have blood work done? If not, the vet hasn't got much chance to diagnose her.

In some ways she sounds like my 30+ year old mare I lost this spring. She didn't have the fever, but she did move very much like your horse is. She had liver failure - her body was no longer able to remove waste products from the blood, which was affecting her neurologically. She didn't know where her feet were, or where she was. It progressed despite treatment as the toxins built up. She became blind, lost, and unable to safely move. Within 3 days, she was gone.

While my horse didn't have the fever, that is a response from the horse's immune system. My horse was much older and had a compromised immune system from Cushings. Her immune system may have just been too depressed to even produce a fever.

We had every test possible done on her. In the end, the vet said it was simply a liver infection of unknown origin that she could not fight off. None of the other horses pastured with her were affected in the slightest. She seemed perfectly healthy, even to the vet, a week before we had to put her down.

So I advise getting bloodwork done, then followup work like sonograms if the vet advises. He can't work blind.

Also, 3 days of antibiotics is insufficient to know for sure. Liver infections - indeed, most internal infections - can take months of antibiotics to resolve.

Good luck with her. Remember she's much, much younger than my horse was, and these things are usually diagnosable and treatable if you give the vet a chance. The antibiotics and anit inflammatory are helping. Further diagnostic tests might allow the vet to pinpoint the problem, and adjust meds and treatments as necessary.

I worked with a forty year old horse who had some of the same symptoms. She developed a disease (i Don't know what) in her spinal cord and "lost" her back end. She knew her hooves were there, but couldn't tell where the ground was. I don't know if she had any temperature. She too was otherwise incredibly healthy, except for allergies. Not to scare you, but her problem was incurable, and she was euthanized when the disease began to progress.

Get another vet's opinion!!! look for a New Bolton vet if you're on the East Coast, as they have some of the best information access of any vets in the world. If they can't solve it, it is likely no one can. Keep the horse's best interests in mind though. If she gets worse, you may need to put her to sleep, as she does not deserve to suffer.

Tetanus

Potomac

Lyme

Equine Protozoal Myoencephalitis (EPM)

Brain lesion

EHV1

What is a 'high fever'? What is feeling 'very ill'?

What antibiotics? What anti inflammatories?

Why are you coming here instead of finding another educated veterinary medical professional to hire for a second opinion? Why isn't your vet consulting with other colleagues? Were any blood samples taken? Any lab work at all?

Wobbler disease? Look up symptoms, knew a horse who had it a long time ago. You need another vets opinion, your vet doesn't sound very good.

Grab your horses tail and pull it to one side. A normal horse will rapidly correct himself. A horse with wobbler disease can't tell where all his limbs are, especially hind legs so you will easily be able to pull it over to one side.

Another simple test is to lift up your horses tail, If there is absolutely no resistance The horse is having some type of nerve function problems in the spinal cord.

Wobblers disease difficult to diagnose because many other ailments also cause the symptoms, but if you find a good experienced vet they should be able to clarify or rule this one out.

I reckon she might have tetanus, not quite sure. Ask your vet to give her a blood test and check her respiration rate maybe twice or once a day. You should probably get another vet's opinion. Maybe even ask any one else that's horsey - like if you have friends that have horses, they might have been in the same position, so ask them if they know what to do or what your horse has. Or maybe ask your riding teacher.

In conclusion, definately get a blood test of you mare and get another vet's opinion.

she could have a virus, such as the ones tht mosquitoes carry, she could have gotten bit and she could have had a fever so high tht it affected her and shes scared to move and dont remember much, she might still feel queasy, just do some bloodwork, check her feet and keep an eye on her. plus she issss getting elderly too so thts something to think about also.

Hasn't the vet done a blood test? Sounds like some kind of virus to me.

tetanus? If the vet isnt sure, well who knows if the horse is even on the right treatment?could even be making it worse. I vote u should get a second opinion

Second veterinarian's opinion, please. Your vet should be doing this already. Has he no colleagues to whom he might speak? Has he no old professor at the veterinary college? Why are you having to do this research?