Ataxia as the only clinical sign of cerebrospinal meningitis in a horse with equine infectious anemia

J.P. Held
M.D. McGavin
Dennis R. Geiser DVM, University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Abstract

Three months after a 16-year-old horse had recovered from incoordination and high fever after treatment, it developed an ataxia that did not respond to therapy; it was otherwise alert and clinically normal. Agar gel immunodiffusion tests on serum and CSF were positive for infectious anaemia (EIA). After slaughter, gross lesions were limited to the cerebral arachnoid which was finely granular just lateral to the medial longitudinal sulcus. Histological examination revealed typical changes of subacute EIA in the liver, kidneys and lungs. The brain showed a generalized non-purulent leptomeningitis, multifocal ependymitis, and occasional perivascular cuffs in the brain stem.