Just Shoot Me Now

Where to start....

It's been a roller coaster week.  Ben was feeling OK once the gabapenten kicked in for him.  We started him on the minocycline on Wednesday.  Thursday, he felt awful, but I think it was the antibiotic making him feel sick.

Friday morning, I spoke with the vet again and we decided that Ben would need to show some real improvement by Monday or he needs to either go to Cornell or I need to make a decision that I really don't want to make.

By Friday night, he was feeling somewhat better and I began to have some hope that the antibiotics were finally starting to help.  I do think there is some genuine improvement, but I am rather hesitant to call it that because we have been in this cycle where it looks like he gets better, then he crashes and ends up worse then ever.

He is finally off the banamine and on bute instead, which is much safer for him.  I am taking that as a good sign.  Today, he is moving around and his appetite and interest in life are back, although he still has a lot of joint and muscle pain.

***

Then.....I went out this morning and found Ramsey standing in the exact same spot Ben was in two weeks ago with most of the same symptoms.  The only difference is that Ramsey has a fever and Ben did not, at least not by the time I checked.  I could have missed a mild fever in Ben that precluded his symptoms because donkeys do not show signs of fever the way other animals do.

Ramsey's symptoms are much milder than Ben's were, it is not a holiday weekend and I have the right drugs on hand and started him on them immediately.  I am very hopeful that he will respond faster than Ben and get over this in a day or two.

***

We still do not know what is causing this.  The fact that Ramsey is now sick raises the specter of an infectious disease.  However, they have had no contact with other animals and I never go anywhere, so where did it come from?

I still think this is likely Lyme disease.  Two years ago, they all got Lyme disease at the same time.  I see no reason why it wouldn't happen again.

The symptoms I see in Ramsey are:

• Sudden fever
• Chills with hard shivering even under his blanket
• Joint and muscle pain
• Withdrawn, depressed aspect
• Loss of appetite

Treatment: Banamine controls the pain and brings the fever down.  Minocycline to treat the infection. 

Ben's Treatment: Bute for pain and inflammation, omeprazole to treat ulcers caused by two weeks of banamine, gabapenten for chronic pain, minocycline to treat infection. 

My treatment: Someone needs to book a room for me at the nearest psych ward.

Ben Update

A quick update on Ben....

All of the blood tests we have run so far have come back totally normal.  There are a couple that have been sent out to Cornell that we are still waiting for.

The gabapenten (neuronton) experiment has been very interesting.  Ben is getting it twice a day and just got his 5th dose.  Initially, I saw no improvement and was getting really skeptical about continuing with it.  It did seem to make Ben a bit drowsy at first and he laid down for several very long naps.  I don't think this was a bad thing.  Ben has been lying down a lot because of pain, but not really resting well.  The gabapenten seemed to help him rest more comfortably and really sleep.

When I went out last night after work to give him his 4th dose, he was clearly feeling a bit better.  He tried to run away from me and he argued with me about having more nasty drugs shoved down his gullet, which I took as a good sign.  Today, Ben is still moving very slowly and carefully, but he is moving and his appetite has returned to its normal insatiability.

Now that he is moving around a bit more, it is increasingly obvious that this is not foot pain.  He moves like he has arthritis in every joint, which is exactly what I expect he does have.

My take on the gababpenten so far is that it takes at least 24-36 hours to show any real benefit, but does help quite a lot once it kicks in.  This is not a cure for what ails Ben, it is just a pain medication that is helping him feel better.  We are still working on treating the real problem.  However, Ben was getting increasingly depressed and in growing pain.  He was starting to loose his appetite and a donkey who won't eat is at major risk of life-threatening complications so anything that helps him feel better is a good thing.

The gababpenten was recommended to me by Cornell because they were certain that Ben had laminitis and this in one of the drugs they are using to treat that.  It is also used to treat other chronic, neuropathic pain.  This is not a drug you are going to reach for to treat minor problems, but if you are dealing with acute laminitis or some other hard to treat chronic pain, it might be worth doing some research and having a conversation with your vet about it.

The medication for treating Lyme came in this afternoon and I have started Ben on those as well.  I am very much hoping that this works and we see some real improvement soon.

The 24 Hour Mark

We hit the 24 hour mark in antibiotic treatment this morning and Ben started to show some improvement.

A rare bit of sunshine didn't hurt.

By this evening, at 36 hours, there is definite improvement.  I am thrilled by this, but also a bit depressed and scared.  I am certain now that this whole episode is Lyme disease.

Again.

That adds up to a 100% infection rate for this property.  What the hell am I supposed to do about that?  Nukes really do seem like the only answer.

Happy New Year.

The Not-So-Happy Camper

Ben added a few more grey hairs to my head this morning because he decided to do this for several hours rather than get up and act like a normal healthy donkey...

I gave him breakfast in bed.  I also switched his pain meds back to banamine rather than the bute that the vet suggested.  

A side note for all donkey owners:  I have found that donkeys seem to respond better to banamine than to bute.  This is anecdotal and you should talk it over with your vet, but I have found it to be true in every instance thus far.  It is also a well documented fact that donkeys metabolize pain meds faster than horses and generally require higher doses at more frequent intervals regardless of which drug you are using.  If you need corroboration of this for your vet, contact the UK Donkey Sanctuary.  They have documentation available for any vet who is willing to read it.  

This has certainly held true for Ben.  Once I got another hefty dose of banamine into him this morning, he decided to get up and rejoin the land of the living.  He is now getting 10 mls of banamine three times a day instead of two.  I will continue this until Monday and talk with the vet again.

I also started Ben on antibiotics this morning because my gut instinct is telling me that this had to have been triggered by an outside event - such as a tick borne disease.  His little quirks about water are long established and should not have been able to cause this.  There is also no earthly reason why a healthy, adult donkey on a strict low-sugar, hay-only diet would suddenly founder in the middle of winter.  There has to be some triggering event, either metabolically or externally.  Ben has shown no metabolic signs and there have been no external events.  That just leaves the eff'ing ticks.

Ben is now about ten hours into antibiotic treatment and he seems to be feeling a bit better, which is strengthening my suspicions.  I think I will know more tomorrow when we hit the 24 hour mark.

I am leaning more and more heavily towards the idea of thermonuclear warfare.