Immune System
You have heard me mention the immune system more than once in my writings about the health of the horse. This is a subject I am hearing about from the horse owner more and more all the time. As I watch these new diseases come on the scene, I am made increasingly more aware of the importance the immune system plays in the welfare of the horse and his total health. We keep hearing talk about the possibility of biological warfare threats posed by terrorist groups, and we keep thinking the threat is in the future. It may very well be a future threat, but I feel like it is an issue to be dealt with now as if it were an issue. I am not sure how much I want to get into this subject and how much I need to get into it to help you see how important the immune system is, and what we, as horse owners, can do to keep from being caught unaware.
The Immune System and West Nile Virus
A few days ago I went to a veterinarian clinic which was hosted by our community and the college, pertaining to West Nile Virus (WNV). I spent about 5 hours listening to a very well informed and well educated veterinarian, who has dealt with quite a few cases of WNV. She is also, obviously a very good veterinarian with a large practice. She showed video of actual cases she was working with and spent a great deal of time explaining what they had done to help these horses through this fast moving disease. As you probably already know, this is a disease which is non-selective in age, gender, and location. One thing they (the experts) know, is it is spread by a mosquito. Some of the most severely affected states, however, are Kansas and Nebraska, both of which have just completed one of the worst drought summers in modern history. Mosquitoes are known to like a wetter environment so it seems odd to me these pests have chosen such a dry place to launch their most ferocious attacks. Why did they not launch their attacks equally as well in some of the wetter states, and why have there still not been reports of the virus in coastal regions like western Washington and Oregon? Why is the panhandle of Texas also among the more seized areas and the southeastern part of the state, where it is both warmer and more humid not where we are seeing more of these cases cropping up?
Is the mosquito the only one to blame for WNV?
I think I have posed reason enough to ask the question, is it just the mosquito or is there something else we are faced with. How hard is it to keep the mosquitoes out of your horse’s area anyway? It is hard enough to keep the pests out of my own bedroom, let alone out of the stall area. The vet who was teaching this particular class was talking to about fifty vets from around this area and to my knowledge no one in the room, other than her, had ever seen an actual case of WNV. She went into a lengthy discussion on the vaccine being used to alleviate the symptoms caused by WNV and how and when to administer. I wish I were more educated about the drugs, but I just don’t use them so I must plead uneducated about them. I know she said they were using dexamethazone, as an anti inflammatory and DMSO as a free radical scavenger. If the horses could not support their own weight, when slinged, they were pretty likely not to survive the ordeal. She went on to say, a large percentage of the horses which showed improvement early on in treatment would survive the disease, and you should know within about 24 hours if they were on the “will” or “will not” survive list. She also stated Equitec (not sure of the spelling) was one of the most important parts of the recovery. This is an immuno serum, as I understood it, which is to stimulate the immune system.
What exactly is the Immune System?
What is the immune system and how does it work? The immune system is, simply put, the vital organs working with the blood and lymphatic system to accomplish the optimal welfare of the body. When the immune system is not working in harmony or if it is given excess work to do right when it is already working as hard as it can, it simply can not, and will not, be able to handle the job it is designed to do. What has this got to do with anything? Well, every thing put into the body is either food or it is not food at the cellular level. If it is recognized as food the cell uses it. If it is not recognized as food the cell simply can not use it, so it then becomes a toxin which needs to be evacuated from the body. The immune system plays a vital role in this evacuation. The liver, kidneys, blood, lymphatics, digestion, skin, etc. are all asked to step up the pace to evacuate these toxins. If the organ mentioned already has a full schedule, it must miss some of the toxins, which causes congestion, either in that organ or some other part of the body or the blood. In other words it taxes the immune system..
Immune System Stimulation
To stimulate the immune system is fine if the immune system is strong in the first place, but if it is not it simply drains it more. I compare it to using a cattle prod on a cow that is down and weak. It will stimulate her but it will not help her stay up if she does get up. What the cow needs is something to make her stronger so she can get up and stay up, not something to stimulate her to do something she is not capable of doing. The same stimulation will work well on a strong cow who just needs a little gentle persuasion. I use this as an analogy to help you see what is happening inside the body as pertaining to the immune system. Remember, the physics do not change on the inside of the horse which we know to be true on the outside of the horse. Water still runs down hill unless under a pressurized system, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, gravity is always at work to pull the body down, etc.
Is a weak Immune System the real problem?
Can the weakness in the Immune System be the reason no one can positively say the WNV vaccine is working or not on these horses? It is my observation, there are as many horses getting the virus who have been vaccinated as there are who have not been vaccinated. The vet teaching the clinic, I mentioned, said the vaccine should be administered in three parts. The first shot should be administered, then in thirty days the second shot should be administered, then in thirty days a booster shot should be administered. What is happening within these ninety days to protect your horse from the virus? What if you were feeding to build the immune system instead of waiting and wondering?
Feed the Immune System for Prevention
How can feeding do the immune system any good? Every part of the horse is made up of its own vitamins and minerals. For instance, you are aware the bones and teeth need calcium to keep them strong but so does the heart need calcium to perform its constricting action. Now, the body has its own built in “pecking order”. When calcium is made available the heart will get what it needs first, because the heart is most vital to the survival of the body. The bones will get second pick because it is in the bones where bone marrow and blood cells are produced, which is of greater importance than are the teeth and then if there is still some calcium available the teeth will get it. The body treats all of the vitamins and minerals in this way. Therefore if we want the liver, or the kidneys, or the heart, or the bones, or the total of all of the above healthy, we need to feed what makes them healthy.
How would a horse do it?
When a horse is grazing on natural vegetation, which has not been sprayed for “weeds”, he will eat a number of different plants and a number of different parts of those plants in the course of a day. This is the optimal feeding conditions for the horse. Not only is he getting what he needs but he is also getting an easily assimilated form of the vitamins and minerals as they are available in the natural vegetation and the amount of each he wants. This is what we must look at replicating when we are feeding our confined horses. Horses fed on their natural vegetation in this manner generally have a pretty strong immune system because they pick the plants they need when they need them. The difference in stimulating the immune system and building the immune system is the difference it generally takes to win the really tough battles fought within the internal body parts. It is absolutely necessary to have the horses’ bodily functions helping you. This is why we concentrate on keeping the horses’ immune system working for us by building the natural strength, or immune system, through nutritional supplementation. Once again the best defense is a good offense, or prevention.
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