# Polio : Treating blind staggers/polio/Thiamin Defficiency~Vicki



## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

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The textbook dose of thiamine for polio is 10 mg/kg (100 lbs is about 
44.5 kg, so 445 mg thiamine at 100 mg/ml is about 4.5 cc of straight 
thiamine) IV to start, then repeat every 6 hours (subsequent shots can 
be IM or SQ) for a day or so. The Dex at the dose you used was good (I 
had used 4.5 cc per 100 lbs). I don't normally give antibiotics for 
polio. Once they show marked improvement, I usually just continue the 
thiamine beyond the first round of injections. Sometimes they stay 
blind or partially blind for a while but still recover. If they've been 
off feed for a while, the lactobaccilus/ electrolyte/ transfaunation 
with rumen contents from another animal approach is also useful to speed 
recovery - if not eating, they won't be making B-vitamins in the rumen 
like they should and I would be tempted to give some B-vitamin shots 
until they were on feed again.


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