September 2, 2000, Clayton, Delaware

The shrill ring of the phone announced a call from Tanja Hanyi, DVM, my partner in veterinary practice some years ago. “Hey! Guess what? I think I’ve got a West Nile case!” she said excitedly. No mistaking it, she was wound up tight about something in South Jersey.

I was skeptical. Tanja was known for sensationalizing events in her life. And to date, there really was no evidence of the virus in horses south of the Long Island area.

“It’s like EPM, but with a fever,” she said. EPM is a parasitic neurological condition with many manifestations, including hind end weakness and incoordination. She went on to describe the horse’s presentation–how it was weak in the hind end, especially the left hind, then weak in the left front the next day. There also were small head tremors like a person with Parkinson’s disease. Despite the 14-year-old Thoroughbred’s fever, he still was eating. He wanted to lean on something so much that the owners supported him all night, because when he went down, he flailed too much