At Equinox we have multiple hyper immunized plasma horses. Most of the time you will find these horses in the fields, but at a regular basis these horses are taken in at the clinic to take plasma.
This happens through plasmaphereses. With a plasma device blood is taken from the horse and here from the plasma is filtered. Afterword’s this filtered plasma is kept in plasma bags which we keep in the freezer.
Plasma is full of antibodies, protein and clotting factors. This could be a life saver for horses who don’t have enough of this themselves. A newly born foal for example does not have antibodies in the blood, a foal only receives the first antibodies through the colostrum milk of the mare.
Sometimes it does happen that the foal does not receive enough anti bodies through the colostrum milk. We always advice to take a blood sample 18 hours after the birth of the foal so the number of antibodies can be verified. If this number turns out to be to low the risk of infection is much higher. Luckily, we can than administer plasma full of antibodies. This is given directly into the blood with an intravenous drip. Not only foals, but also adult horses may benefit from plasma administration for example when suffering from a worm infection or serious diarrhea.
In many cases, plasma is an absolute life saver. Because of the many antibodies and the yellow gold color it is often called the liquid gold. We are extremely happy and blessed that we have various plasma horses here at the clinic, this way we can give a second chance to a whole lot of horses.
To prevent your foal from needing plasma it is crucial that the mare is well vaccinated. Also, the first hours after birth are very important. Always keep a close watch on the intake of the colostrum milk right after birth. You can have the colostrum milk checked by your vet. When there still are problems it is very important to have a narrow contact with your vet and follow the situation very closely.
If you have any questions regarding plasmaphereses, please do not hesitate to contact us!
