Combination horse and chiken thread..had to have pony put done and test done for rabies UPDATE

[Mskayladog]

My grown daughter got a pony for her kids 4 weeks ago, the pony has been in a stall and her chickens have the run of the barn. Yesterday she called the vet symptoms the pony eyes were dilated, grimacing and foaming at mouth and not wanting to move.
Vet said either lock jaw or rabies.
Can either of those diseases pass through the chicken to the egg? My grand daughter eats the eggs all the time.
Reason I'm asking cause the chickens may have scratched aroun for bugs in the pony pies..

The pony was a rescue with bites all over from horses it had been in a field with daughter rescued it and was nursing him back to health. The pony was separated from her other horses and cows.



TEST CAME back clear not rabies.

 

[michickenwrangler]

More likely the pony contracted rabies from wherever she came from. Rabies can take up to 6 months to manifest after the infected bite. When she got the pony, did your daughter do the round of usual shots? Did the rescue have records of vaccinations?

I highly doubt daughter or chickens had anything to do with this.

Such a tragedy though ...

 

[Mskayladog]

We get the test results tomorrow. I was worried about grand daughter eating the eggs. I know chickens can't get rabies but was worried about the pony poo passing thought the hens system and contaminating the egg itself.

If the results come back positive for rabies, both grandkids, daughter and her friend and her 4 kids will all have to get the vaccine for rabies, the vet said the shots are free provided by the health department.
No there were no records of shots on the pony, but the pony had been seen by the vet when she brought the pony home. Daughter has dealt with lots of horses and rescues this is the first one she couldn't get well. The only shot this horse didn't have is rabies she said she was never sure if the horse would live and didn't want to spend the 50$ on the vaccination.

 

[CountryKitty]

I had a scare a couple years ago with a duck acting funny then dying a couple weeks after a raccoon attack (she'd been healing nicely up til then). There had been a rabid raccoon killed a couple miles away. I contacted a local veterinary lab and learned that the only time rabies had been contracted by a bird, it had been induced in a lab, and that it had only been accomplished once.

I'd say the chances are nil that the chickens could've contracted the illness or passed it on to the eggs--but until she finds out what the pony was ill from for sure, I'd play it safe and not eat the eggs myself.

 

[chickenzoo]

$50 for a rabies shot is pricy, unless she is including the vet trip charge. I pay $9 from my vet. I also buy it to give all the horses myself as a bottle is not that expensive and my vet talked me out of being such a chicken about giving shots. That's a shame they have to go through all of that..... So sad and scary.

 

[Mskayladog]

$50 for a rabies shot is pricy, unless she is including the vet trip charge. I pay $9 from my vet. I also buy it to give all the horses myself as a bottle is not that expensive and my vet talked me out of being such a chicken about giving shots. That's a shame they have to go through all of that..... So sad and scary.

That is something to research, here only a vet can administer rabie shots in animals, I wonder if there is a exception to the rule and she could give her own rabie shots. She was a vet tech so it's not something she would shy away from.

 

[Eggsoteric]

Just curious as to whether or not the test results came back? Oops, never mind - just saw the update - that's good news it wasn't rabies. Was a full necropsy done to determine the cause of death?

 

[AinaWGSD]

Rabies is only passed on through the saliva of an infected animal being introduced into an open wound. Chickens not only are not going to get rabies, but they also can't pass the virus on into their eggs, and even if they could your granddaughter could not get it from eating the eggs (not only would the virus not be able to access her body anyway without going through the proper pathways, but cooking the egg would kill it).

Lockjaw is, from my understanding, caused by the tetanus bacterium. I don't know if that can be passed into the egg or not, but again it's one of those things that usually requires an open wound to gain entry to the body. Both the stomach acid from eating the egg and the heat from cooking the egg should be adequate to kill the bacteria and render it harmless if it's even possible for it to be passed into the eggs (which I really doubt is even possible).

 

[Bunnylady]

Glad to see that the pony didn't have rabies, though I thought that was the unlikelier of the two. Horses can be beastly to each other; unless one of the horses at the previous farm was rabid, bite wounds themselves wouldn't make me think rabies (as long as they were clearly horse bites).

Tetanus (lockjaw) is caused by a very common bacterium that lives in the soil. It only causes a problem when it gets into a wound and gets a chance to grow in a relatively low-oxygen environment. As it grows, it produces a toxin that causes nerve cells to fire uncontrollably, which is what causes the stiffened muscles that are so typical of the disease. The bacterium can't grow in the presence of oxygen. That is why deep or puncture wounds are such a worry, scrapes, not so much. A friend of mine had a sheep that came down with tetanus after it was neutered. The vet gave the sheep massive doses of antitoxin and antibiotics. With weeks of careful nursing, the sheep pulled through. He has managed a complete recovery, and is now as tame as a dog thanks to all the attention. Not many animals survive tetanus, not surprisingly, the sheep's name is Lucky!

 

[dainerra]

That is something to research, here only a vet can administer rabie shots in animals, I wonder if there is a exception to the rule and she could give her own rabie shots. She was a vet tech so it's not something she would shy away from.

I'm not sure about Indiana specifically, but most states have no legal requirement that livestock be vaccinated for rabies - only cats/dogs. So, anyone can buy a rabies vaccine for all other animals. Technically, you can even do your own rabies vaccines for dogs, just that legally it "doesn't count" if your dog were to bite someone.

In AR, WV and FL I can go to any feed/farm store and buy a vial of vaccine and give it to any of my animals.

I did look up the indiana law and it really only mentions a legal requirement for dogs, cats, and ferrets. http://www.in.gov/boah/2485.htm