Vaccinate your pets #1
Apparently, this summer is going to be a banner year for West Nile Virus. Im not an insect person, so I have no idea how we have mosquitoes when we have had no rain in forever and surging temperatures every day (mosquitoes can lay eggs in dust and dried up grass?), but its shaping up to be a bad year for West Nile.
Bad is relative, though. A bad year for West Nile in humans isnt really that bad (compared to other things), so there is not much motivation to formulate a human West Nile vaccine.
Thats not true for horses, however.
Mosquito-born illnesses like West Nile and Eastern equine encephalitis virus have a 30-40% and 75-90% mortality rate, respectively, in horses. So, we have anti-West Nile and anti-EEE vaccines that provide protection for ~95% of horses, with two doses.
Of course, for the vaccines to work, you have to give them to your horses.
Unvaccinated Glenn County horse has West Nile virus
A horse from an area near Orland has been diagnosed with West Nile virus equine infection, the first case diagnosed in Glenn County in almost eight years, and is not likely to survive, county officials said. The animal had not been vaccinated against the virus, they said.
How does that horse get to die?
In a small percentage of cases, WNV overwhelms the immune system and penetrates the blood-brain barrier resulting in inflammation of the brain and spinal cord called West Nile encephalitis. Clinical signs include: loss of appetite and depression, fever (101 F or higher for two or more days), weakness of hind limbs, paralysis of hind limbs, muscle fasciculations (twitching or trembling), impaired vision, ataxia (incoordination), head pressing, head tilt, aimless wandering, convulsions, paralysis of the muzzle or tongue, droopy ear, vertigo, drowsiness, narcolepsy, inability to swallow, circling, hyperexcitability or coma. Horses that are recumbent and reluctant to rise are least likely to survive.
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Vaccinate your pets #2 [erv]