Treating Buckshot for Lyme

Buckshot has been diagnosed with Lyme disease. He was chronic high positive. That just tells us he's had it more than 2 months. But, I can be quite sure he didn't have it when he came to Maine from Mississippi in February (2013) as Lyme is not an issue in MS. My regular vet clinic wanted to treat him by IV at the clinic with tetracycline for 8 to 10 days followed by 8 weeks of doxycycline orally. But, after getting a very scary price quote for this treatment, my friend Brooke talked with her vet and she said if I moved Buckshot over to Upper Pond Stables, she would put in the IV port and teach me how to do the treatment myself and it would be less than 1/2 the price quoted by the clinic. She wanted to treat Buckshot with 3 weeks of IV tetracycline if we could keep the port in that long, followed up by 4 weeks of oral doxycycline. The vet wanted Buckshot at Upper Pond because the stalls there have full walls so there would be no half walls or doors for him to hang is head over and rub the IV port out on. And I would have Brooke to help me as she has experience with giving meds and working with IVs and such. And I'll say here that her experience had been invaluable to me. 

I moved Buckshot over to Upper Pond Stables December 20th. The port was going to be put in on the 21st. That ended up getting pushed back to the 30th but it worked out in a way giving Buckshot a week to settle in to the routine at Upper Pond before starting on the medication. And I have to say that he settled in very quickly and seems very content there. Many mules really hate being in stalls but Buckshot doesn't seem to mind at all. Buckshot and Brooke's horse Levi quickly became friends. Too much so actually. Brooke and I were watching them play over the fence one day and at the same time as thinking how cute they were, we knew that it was not going to end well. And sure enough, Levi go his feet into the fence and tore some down. Brooke and I spent many hours that day , with some help from Karen and Cierra, knocking ice off all the lines and insulators so that we could get the electric working again. 

The vet came December 30th and placed the IV port. Mules sometimes require more sedative than a horse but we decided to go with a normal dose. Buckshot is a laid back mule and has no issues with vets or needles so we though that would be enough and it was. And Buckshot could not have been a better boy than he was. He made no fuss at all about having the port inserted and stitched in place. The vet gave him his first treatment explaining all that had to be done, and all the things to watch for. I was so grateful that Brooke was there as it was a little bit of an information overload. Nothing was hard to do, just a lot of little things to remember. Flush the port with saline, remember to pull back just a little until you see blood in the line, then draw 30ccs of saline and 30ccs of tetracycline into the same syringe, and attach to the IV port and push that in SLOWLY. She told us what could happen if we did this too quickly and told us a couple stories of things she's seen to have us appropriately terrified of rushing this part of the procedure! 

Once we were done with Buckshot, we put him back in his stall, I paid my bill and we chatted for a little while with the vet. I was getting ready to leave when Brooke went back to check on Buckshot before heading upstairs to her apartment and it was a good thing she did. Buckshot was having a reaction to something, either the sedative or the tetracycline. He was trembling all over, pawing, and kicking out. We quickly got him out of his stall and took him into the indoor arena as he was also looking like he wanted to go down. We put a blanket on him and walked him for over 30 minutes with no signs of improvement. Brooke called the vet and asked if it was ok to give him 5ccs of banamine. The vet said yes so we did. Within just minutes, Buckshot relaxed and came right out of it. PHEW! When we were quite sure he was doing fine, we put him back in his stall and watched him a little while longer. He went right to munching on hay and he was fine after that. The vet felt his reaction was from the sedative as she felt he would have reacted much sooner if he was having a problem with the tetracycline. 

Tuesday morning Buckshot looked good and the IV port looked great. No signs of any heat or swelling at all. And Buckshot acted like he didn't even notice it was there. Brooke and I were very pleased. His stool though was very soft. He had some diarrhea overnight and that was something we'd have to watch and we were adding probiotics to his feed. Brooke walked me though the whole procedure, and I went very slow with administering the tetracycline. When I was done, I put Buckshot in his stall and now the watch was on to see if he was going to be ok. Unfortunately, within 10 minutes, he was showing full blown colic symptoms. The only difference today was that he didn't have the trembling that he'd had the day before. Since we knew what was going on, Brooke quickly gave him 5ccs of banamine and like the previous day, within minutes he was fine. We were both so disappointed to find out that it was the tetracycline that was causing the reaction. Brooke called the vet to see what she wanted to do. The banamine was working to pull him out of it but we didn't know if it was safe to keep giving it to him every day. The vet said that it was. She wanted us to try giving him 3cc's of banamine before the tetracycline the next time and see how that worked. That evening I went back to the barn with the intention of riding him. But, though he was eating and drinking well, he didn't seem to have much energy so I just walked him around the arena for a while and put him back. He really seemed to be ok, just not quite himself. 

When I got to the barn this morning, Brooke and I talked over whether or not to turn Buckshot out or keep him in the barn. The vet wanted us to keep him in the barn as she was worried about him rolling and dislodging the IV port. While this was certainly a risk, as mules are rolling fools, I decided that he would be stressed if left in the barn alone and stress will trigger a mule to roll and he was just as, or even more likely to roll in his stall. For today, it was the right decision. He was very happy to go out but he didn't try to roll. We were both very happy to see that his stool was solid and normal. When we brought Buckshot in to give him the meds, we did as the vet suggested by giving him 3ccs of banamine, and then the tetracycline. Again, he was as good as gold making no fuss about leaving his friends and being brought into the barn. After we finished with the meds, I walked him around in the arena for a while. (It was -20 degrees this morning, so, I was staying INSIDE with him) Anyway, he did ok. The only thing he did was some odd licking and chewing but no real colic symptoms. So, just that mild reaction and that didn't last all that long. We may go back to the 5ccs of banamine for tomorrow. We'll decide  that in the morning. I put Buckshot back in his paddock and watched him. For a few minutes he just stood there doing the odd licking and chewing. Then he turned around and started eating his hay quietly. I left feeling quite sure he was going to be fine and with the security of knowing Brooke would be keeping and eye on him throughout the day. When I talked with Brook this evening, she said that at turn in time Buckshot was running and bucking and demanding his supper. It was great to hear that he was feeling that well!