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 Post subject: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:37 am 
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From Sharon:

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What are the suggestions to help the equine immune system. I have a young horse (almost4). He has been lethargic (I thought it was just that he was easy going), has had bouts of loose stools (using probiotics and it's better) and the bugs are eating him up this spring and summer (not so last year). Had his thyroid taken and he and his pasture mate (6 years old) have low counts of 6 and 7 lab ranges are from 12-40. From what I've been reading these really mean nothing. Anyway was advised to put them on Mare and Maintenance (Purina) and Metaboleeze (can only get from Vet) some thyroid meds and only eight hours of pasture and nothing else. Had to decrease everything but the thyroid cause the were having loose stools. I did decrease the thyroid on the little one cause in the am his stall was a disaster and that has never been the case. I thought maybe the thyroid med was too much. I have them in for about eight hours at night because of their restricted pasture time and the bugs. So HELP I don't think this above protocol is working.

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 Post subject: Re: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:38 am 
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No, it doesn't sound like it might be. The key is to try to find out "why"? Where are you located? Is it in a hot climate? Heat can make any horse lethargic at times and the bugs don't help. With cooler weather coming on in the next few weeks, see if that is the base cause of any apparent lethargy. The scours you mention is worrisome. It certainly is a sign of a GI tract anomaly. It seems to me that generally, thyroid dysfunctions are very rare in the horse and gets far too much of the blame for too many things. As one site states: "The classical description of a hypothyroid horse is one that is overweight with a cresty neck, one with reduced exercise tolerance, or one that is predisposed to suffer from mild but recurrent bouts of laminitis." I doubt that your horse exhibits many of those symptoms.

Have you taken a CBC (complete blood count) or fecal counts? How is the temperature of this horse? How does the hair coat and condition look? In thyroid problems, the hair often is one of the more obvious symptoms. I would be suspicious of a low grade infection or parasite problem just from what you wrote.

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 Post subject: Re: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:38 am 
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From Sharon:

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Doug, thank you for responding. I live in Tennessee so it has been hot. I bought him a year ago and he had loose stools then. I started feeding him a product from Vital Royal (organic products) and that helped him. But it is so expensive that I'm fazing it out. He is a little overweight. I have him on restricted pasture which I hate. He doesn't have a cresty neck or any laminitis. I have had fecal counts and have been fighting a parasite problem. I had the first negative 8-15-05 and am waiting to take another. I had a CBC taken in June and his lymphs were high and HGB, HCT, and Polys were low but both vets thought nothing of it and Polys might be viral induced. His temp has always been low 97/98. His hair condition and coat look great. I have always had the feeling of a low grade infection from the start (other than the worms).I have been giving him probiotics and it seems to help.

He doesn't urinate as much as the other horses and I know all are different like us, but even on a trail ride he stops like he's going to pee and doesn't. I've chalked it up to being young and looking around and forgetting what he's doing. I've read that urinary problems are rare in horses so.......I still think it is something like a low grade infection. I've been checking my Nutritional Healing book I use and the second thing they suggest for a weakened immune system is Acidophilus another is kelp (I had been giving them free choice on this before the vets protocol). I don't like all this synthetic man made stuff. Do you have any suggestions as far as a weakened immune system problem?

I'm thinking maybe I should just put them out in the pasture with free choice of seaweed meal (for horses) with supplement of probiotics and nothing else. Except if you have any suggestions. I wish vets would get more info on nutrition it is just about everything for health. Thanks for any suggestions.

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 Post subject: Re: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:40 am 
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Let me mentally digest your case for a few days. Let me say good old garlic comes to mind right away as a nice possible supplement/medication. Garlic has had a long history of fighting many types of infections from fungi upward to the virus. It is said to help boost the immune system. It is also fed to horses to repel insects! I have never done it, but I have read of numerous successful outcomes in the fly department. Might be worth a try all around! Just know that one really has to use fresh garlic. I doubt the non-odor, preserved stuff is really worthwhile to feed. If you are a member of Sam's Club, they often sell large bags of fresh garlic very reasonable. The power of garlic is released when it is crushed. So the key is in either you crushing it or the horse's molars when they eat it. Try and see if he will eat some in feed in some form. Dosage is never straight forward in herbalogy. Start small and see if he will eat it in small amounts and up the dosage.

I am also thinking about poke weed. Do you have it growing around you? I am thinking that Colloidal silver might be an option, too. It is good for man or beast and a generator is well worth investing in. Are you familiar with it?

Thats all for now. I am trying to think of some cheap herbs for you that can be picked in the Tennessee area.

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 Post subject: Re: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:41 am 
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From pHLLLock:
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I realise you want to find herbal remedy to increase immune system for your horse , but I can recommend "man made" amino acid Lysine to use for increasing immune system. I gather any herbal products that have -lysine or similar may be useful. I am not a herbalist so my knowledge on them is very low almost none. I have found giving 20 to 30 grams of lysine daily improve horses immune system and have used them in horses that not responding to antibiotic treatments as well as it should.

I have heard lysine used for treatment of people suffering from herpes virus infection and have produced reasonably good outcome,that is a longer periode of 'remission"

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 Post subject: Re: immune system
PostPosted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:42 am 
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I agree whole-heartedly! Lysine can be very useful! In fact, I am taking 3 grams of it a day as I type this mainly because of Linius Pauling's recommendation of it being beneficial in heart disease. The theory is:

Quote:
The Pauling/Rath hypothesis rests on the pioneering work of two Canadian medical doctors J. C. Paterson, MD and G. C. Willis, MD conducted in the late 1930s through the 1950s. These two medical doctors suspected that the heart disease process is related to the stability of arteries. They noticed that atherosclerotic plaques are not randomly distributed. Plaques usually develop at the same locations in places where blood vessels are stretched or squeezed, i.e., where mechanical forces and stresses are great, e.g., in the coronary arteries.

In 1937, on a hunch, Dr. Paterson measured tissue levels of vitamin C in hospital patients. He showed that heart patients have 80% lower tissue levels of vitamin C in their blood vessels compared to other patients in the hospital. In the 1950s, Willis showed that vitamin C intake correlates to atherosclerosis in both humans and guinea pigs. Willis discovered that 500 mg of vitamin C added to the diet could reverse plaque build-up in about half the human patients. Plaque was not reduced in the controls. Daily vitamin C was 100% effective preventing atherosclerosis in guinea pigs.

Pauling's crucial insight is that our diets lead to heart disease, but not in the way most people think. Our diets have sufficient vitamin C to prevent scurvy, but less than what we need to function optimally and keep our blood vessels flexible and strong. The result is a sub-clinical form of scurvy, i.e., chronic scurvy.

"Knowing that lysyl residues are what causes lipoprotein-(a) to get stuck to the wall of the artery and form plaques, any physical chemist would say at once that the thing to do is prevent that by putting the amino acid lysine in the blood to a greater extent than it is normally." [Linus Pauling, JON, Aug. '94]

Pauling’s invention is to increase the lysine concentration in the blood serum causing Lp(a) to bind with lysine molecules in the blood rendering the Lp(a) inactive.

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