Coping with AHS

Part 3: Alternative chemical treatments

This third article in our series on African horse sickness entails an overview of treatments used at the moment, despite very little scientific evidence regarding their efficacy. Explanations of their alleged working are those of the proponents of the particular treatment.

Miracle mineral supplement

Several people have been using chlorine dioxide (also called MMS or miracle mineral supplement, first put to use by Jim Humble). The mixture is a volatile oxidant said to attach to red blood cells and latch on to the pathogens encountered, destroying them and enabling the body to fight the virus better because it is less loaded in the body.

Chlorine dioxide and chlorine are not the same. Chlorine is a chemical element. In ion form, chlorine is part of table salt and other compounds. A powerful oxidising agent, it is most abundant as dissolved ions in ocean water and readily combines with almost every other element, including sodium to form salt crystals and magnesium as magnesium chloride.

Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound consisting of one chlorine ion bound to two ions of oxygen. Oxidising agents are chemical compounds that readily accept electrons from 'electron donors'. They gain electrons via chemical reaction. This is important because, relative to chlorine dioxide, all pathogens are electron donors.
Chlorine dioxide's extreme volatility prevents pathogens from developing a resistance. Once introduced into the bloodstream, chlorine dioxide performs a highly energetic acceptance of four electrons when it comes across any cell below a pH of 7. This means diseased cells are essentially vaporised (i.e. 'oxidised'), while healthy cells are unaffected. Oxidised by the chlorine ion, the pathogen becomes a harmless salt.

If the chlorine dioxide ions encounter no pathogens or other poisons, it deteriorates into table salt and in some instances, hypochlorous acid, which the body can use. The chlorine dioxide has a few minutes and then it no longer exists, leaving nothing behind.

Chlorine dioxide is currently not registered for veterinary use in South Africa. It is made by using a mixture of 28% solution of sodium chlorite with 10% citric acid, left for three minutes and added to distilled water, and administered intravenously (not into tissues), or orally, at 1 cc per 100 kg body mass at hourly intervals until improvement is observed.

Dosage for an adult horse is 5 ml sodium chlorite with 25 ml citric acid and for a foal which equates to 3 ml sodium chlorite with 15 ml citric acid. Treatment intervals depend on the severity of the illness. In bad cases, start with hourly treatments times three or two-hourly treatments times three.

The horse has to be monitored and you must decide how to stretch the treatments. As the horse gets better, one gives less treatment, i.e. twice a day. MMS, being an oxidant, should not be used in conjunction with powerful antioxidants such as some herbs and vitamin C, as this would render it ineffective.

Giving honey diluted in lukewarm water straight after each MMS treatment works well; the horse is not negative about the strange-tasting treatment and the healing properties help soothe the mucous membranes so that there is no chafing effect on them.

Ozone therapy

Ozone therapy is an oxidative treatment. It is made up of three oxygen atoms and known chemically as O3. Since ozone is unstable and quick to react, it is a powerful oxidising agent. It can kill a wide variety of viruses and bacteria. It also oxidises phenolics (poisonous compounds of methanol and benzine), pesticides, detergents, chemical manufacturing wastes, and aromatic compounds.

Ozone primarily works by releasing oxygen into the bloodstream, and:
• Inactivating bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast and protozoa.
• Enhancing circulation.
• Dissolving malignant tumours.
• Activating the immune system.

The horse's back and quarters are made wet, a special holed 'rubber' blanket put on, and ozone fed through the holes by means of a machine and special 'rubber' tubes fitted to the blanket. The machine takes in oxygen and converts it to ozone. Ozone can also be injected into a vein, acupuncture point, joint, or soft tissue for prolotherapy.

It can be administered as a gas into the anus, bladder, rectum or vagina. For topical applications, ozone can be mixed with water, olive oil, saline solution or lactated Ringer's solution; then used to rinse an area. It can be consumed in water or olive oil as a drink.

Dosage and frequency protocols vary. Initial high-dose treatments may jumpstart the immune system, followed by lower doses. Some prefer starting slow and going low with dosage and still have good results. However, breathing ozone directly can irritate the lungs and direct treatment of the lungs by inhalation should be avoided. Air (predominantly nitrogen) can form emboli and cause the bends or decompression disease. Oxygen-ozone mixtures cannot cause emboli when injected at reasonable rates, because they dissolve and diffuse very quickly in body fluids.

In 1920, two English doctors in India tried using hydrogen peroxide to stop a pneumonia epidemic. It apparently worked. Years later, the therapy was perfected by Dr Charles H Farr, recently nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. In the 1960s, doctors at Baylor University proved its safety and effectiveness against many diseases, including cancer and hardening of the arteries.

Dosage involves 20 drops or 1 ml of 35% hydrogen peroxide into drinking water as a preventative and 60 drops or 2 ml when treating African horse sickness. Note that peroxide on its own is an acid and thus corrosive.

Formalin

An aqueous solution of formaldehyde, or formalin, is used as a disinfectant, as it kills most bacteria and fungi (including spores). It has also been tried for progressive ethmoid haematomas in horses.

Dosage as per sources: Give a big dose of Epsom salts − about half a cup dissolved in water; allow a few minutes to be absorbed. Inject 20 ml phenylbutazone intravenously. Allow five minutes.

Inject a mixture of 15 ml 40% formalin + 35 ml sterile saline (NaCl 0.9 mols) intravenously. Restrain the horse so that the needle remains in the vein and inject the mixture rapidly to get it in before it starts to burn. Formalin leaked under the skin can cause tissue damage; keep it in the vein.

Don't put the horse in a crush, as it might lie down. If necessary, put on a nose twitch to keep it still and start walking briskly for a few minutes, immediately after the formalin is injected. The horse will groan, sweat, the eyes and nose may water and it will pass manure. These symptoms pass within five to ten minutes.