My wee head tilt Kermit - had negative EC test results back - opinions please?

Hopefully someone will be able to help.

When Kermit had head tilt to begin with he got 6weeks panacur, 6weeks baytril.....then after that the vet referred him to the vet hospital, where he was getting stemetil injections and at that point he got blood taken to test for EC.

The vet at the hospital told me it would be 6 weeks for the test results....so ive been trying to get a hold of him for a month (after the 6 weeks!!) for the results, i eventually get the receptionist, who tells me that the tests are negative for EC. I asked to speak to the vet, but he is operating at the moment......ill call back but later on.

Now, does this mean that they are negative because the panacur has killed all the EC spores, or does it mean that he never had EC in the first place? Any ideas?

likely that the ec spores were killed were the blood tests taken after the course of pannacur or ebfore? if before then i guess it is more likely to be something else like a cva that maybe casued the head tilt.. how unusual..sure jacks jane will know xx

The blood tests were taken after the 6 weeks panacur, so i think probably the panacur killed it off.
Still the tests dont really answer much, which is rubbish!!

tomhighway said:

The blood tests were taken after the 6 weeks panacur, so i think probably the panacur killed it off.
Still the tests dont really answer much, which is rubbish!!

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to be truthful iv heard recently that even if you get tests donw they arent conclusive unless done over a variety of weeks as a healthy bun who has been exposed to ec in the past but has no syptoms cna also show up positive sometimes... so you need weeks of stress ful tests to confirm if ec.. and if ec spores growing or decreasing. i woudlnt worry to much about it now as long as kermit is getting better. (ps i hope what iv said is true its only what iv learnt off ru the last few weeks while thinking about stitch and his eyes so it may be only speculation im no expert! )

I thought EC test tested for antibodies produced against EC. It should therefore follow that even if the panacur has reduced the number of spores if he has had EC then he should still show positive to a low number of anti bodies. :?

If he had tested positive then it would be worth getting a series of tests done to see if the levels were rising or falling. But as it has come back negative then there is little point doing this

Hugo's There said:

I thought EC test tested for antibodies produced against EC. It should therefore follow that even if the panacur has reduced the number of spores if he has had EC then he should still show positive to a low number of anti bodies. :?

If he had tested positive then it would be worth getting a series of tests done to see if the levels were rising or falling. But as it has come back negative then there is little point doing this

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ohh hok so i misinterpreted wha ti was told before. so does that mean kermit never had ec? in which case how come the panncur made him better?

does he still have the head tilt now?

The result could have been a 'false negative' if the bloods were taken before antibodies started to be produced.

The Panacur wont have 'made him better' as such. He was also on abx and anti-inflams and it would be those that had the 'get him better' effect.
Panacur does not 'cure' EC - ie the damage done by it but it does rid the Bun of EC spores.

Thanks guys for all your replies.....i think ill just have to accept that i should be glad the tests were negative but still treat him with the 6monthly panacur and watch for anything else......so basically just as i was going to do anyways before i got the results!

He still has head tilt, it seems to get better a wee bit as time goes on, i dont notice it getting better, but people that havent seen him for a while notice when they see him.

Thanks again.....you guys just seem to be so knowledgeable

I'm glad he is a little bit better. Did they look for other causes of head tilt?

well the vet hospital said they could CT scan his brain to see if there was a brain there.....hehe...only kidding, to see if there was anything wrong with it, but this was shile he was still quite poorly and i wasnt keen on putting him thru the anaesthetic, so we never went for that.

he seems to be ok apart from the head tilt, still mischievious!

Ill just keep an eye on him in the future

ta x