At 10:40:00 on 22.11.10, farasi wrote:
Just hoping that Horse Vet may have a suggestion or some thoughts on this. A friends horse, is always tired and yawning, on further investigation it was orginally anemic, treated for that, and now it is not producing white blood cells, there are no signs of lukemia in it's blood, so that is out, it's on steriods for two weeks and they have increased it's count to 3.2, from 2.5. If it comes off the steriods and the white cell drops again they will bleed 8 pints from it. He is well in his coat, eating fine, just tired yawns all the time and can walk for about 10 minutes without running out of steam. It's an ex racehorse who is only about 7/8 years. I've spoken to some paediatric nurses and they suggested aplastic anemia. We are really just clutching at straws but do hope that you may have a suggestion that is worth a try. Many thanks

At 23:28:46 on 22.11.10, HorseVet wrote:
Hi It depends why the WBC are reduced - are they being used up in fighting infection or not being produced at all? Is there recent vaccination or other treatment that might cause this as a direct side-effect or by inducing an auto-immune disease? Are there any other signs or symptoms either now or in recent history. Anything else showing up on bloods to indicate any organ involvement? Looking back when did it start - something previously dismissed by the owner may well on retrospective thought be an early sign that might help identify what else was going on at the time that could indicate a cause. Treatment would have to be very general without any definitive cause to treat in the hope that supporting the horse would allow it to get over the problem. Based on what other information might come to light there could be a variety of treatments that might help from the alternative perspective. Best wishes HorseVet
http://www.naturalhealingsolutions.co.uk

At 08:52:00 on 23.11.10, farasi wrote:
The horse was all fine, then suddenly just lost all its energy a few months ago, it had bloods and was anemic, treated for that. Now it's not producing white cells. It has produced white cells with the use of steriods, but shows no other signs. I'm not quite sure why they want to bleed it, I suppose to force the body to produce blood and see if it improves the white cell count. I'll ask if he was vaccinated or if anything different, when the first signs started he was away at a competition clinic in a different area. Could it be something up there? One of the nurses (humans)I work with suggested aplastic anemia, but it's rare and I do not know if it is something a horse would get. Many thanks, I'll get back to you with more information.