Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Carol Longo

How this Illinois Horsewoman Saved Carl's Big Mac from West Nile Virus

by Kimberly A. Rinker

Horsewoman Carol Longo is adamant when it comes to vaccinating her horses for the deadly West Nile vaccine—and with good reason. One of Carol’s favorite Standardbreds, the pacer Carl’s Big Mac, survived a near-fatal bout with West Nile and is now miraculously back racing.

Carol and husband trainer-driver Gerald Longo share a 25-acre farm located only three minutes from Balmoral Park in Crete, Illinois. Their farm includes a half-mile training track, an 18-stall barn, their home and various outbuildings.

The Longos originally acquired Carl’s Big Mac—an Illinois-bred son of Armbro MacKintosh out of the Genghis Khan mare Khanair—from Hampton, Minnesota owners Carl and Frances Robeson in 2001.

"The Robesons contacted us to see if we’d race Carl for them here," Carol said. "Carl immediately became my favorite, he’s got personality plus."

The medium sized pacer has earned $86,662 lifetime—with $62,506 and a mark of 1:50.3 earned while in Carol’s care. That first season he was third in the 2001 Dan Patch consolation on Super Night.

The Longos had every intention of racing Carl’s Big Mac the following year again in the Dan Patch on Super Night. That day, September 14, 2002, the then five-year-old gelding didn’t eat his lunch and Carol became concerned.

"He was in to go in the Dan Patch consolation that night," Carol recalled. "He had been fine that morning, but I noticed he hadn’t cleaned up his feed tub for lunch, so I took his temperature, and it was pushing 104. Of course we had to scratch him from the race. We continued to monitor his temperature and gave him some Banamine."

Carol went up to her house for about an hour to have some supper and returned later to check on the horse.

"When I came back he was down in the stall," Carol said. "And I mean down. He had no heartbeat, no breath, nothing. I started jumping up and down on his rib cage and I still got no response. Then I started shaking his halter and he finally opened his eyes and looked up at me as if to say, ‘gee lady, can’t a guy even die around here in peace?’"

Carol finally was able to get the stricken pacer to stand and began walking him. She continued walking him until 3 a.m. when he collapsed again in the middle of a big paddock.

"We called Dr.Larry Leininger early the next morning and he came to the farm and told us he thought the horse had West Nile Virus. Carl’s temperature at that time was 106. The vet gave him a DMSO jug but the horse never got up."

Dr. Leininger—a veterinarian based in Crown Point, Indiana—came routinely every day, morning and evening for the next 18 days, but still the horse never got up. His temperature hovered right around 106 degrees and a blood test confirmed that Carl’s Big Mac did indeed have West Nile Virus.

"We had to turn him over every three hours," Carol said. "At times he would kind of sit up and ask for his dinner too. That’s one thing about Carl—throughout this ordeal his appetite never waned."

"I treated the horse with DMSO, Banamine and some Genocine," Dr. Leininger noted. "Carl’s Big Mac had the most severe case of West Nile disease I had ever observed in a Standardbred. I’d seen mild to moderate symptoms in other breeds of horses, but this horse was just a real trooper. It’s amazing that’s he’s made it back to the races. At the time I thought he’d be lucky just to be a nice pasture horse."

"Nobody slept in the house at all," Carol said. "My nephew Joey built a tent over the horse while he was in the paddock, and we had put eight inches of shavings on the ground with coolers over those. Despite all we did to make him comfortable and to give him a nice soft surface to lay on, he still got severe bed sores. His elbows were roughed up, and he had tears on his stifles and little scrapes here and there. His temperature stayed up the whole time, and all the while the vet treated him with masses of antibiotics to fight off pneumonia."

Finally, after 18 days, Carl’s Big Mac’s temperature came down to 103 degrees.

"We really felt that he needed to stand at that point, and there were lots of horsemen that came over and helped with him," Carol said. "Balmoral sent over their big scooper and we were able to move him into our big barn arena, that is 104 by 96 feet. Charlie Wolf sent over a sling that they use for downed cows and we were able to lift Carl up using a tractor. It took eight people to get the horse on his feet, but he made it through the use of this harness."

"He stood up for five minutes, but was very weak and had to lay back down after that," Carol said.

The Longos and friends and family repeated this process for the next three months, and it wasn’t until December 15 that Carol returned to the comfort of her own bed for the first time since Super Night in mid-September.

"I had slept in the barn with this horse every night since he had gotten sick," Carol said. "This horse is such an intelligent animal, and there was no way that I was going to leave him out there all alone. I wanted him to know that we were all pulling for him."

Little by little, the amount of time that Carl’s Big Mac was able to stand was increased and by March of 2003 he began jogging again.

"I took things very slow with him," Carol recalled. "We just took baby steps in everything we did. By September of 2003 he began training again, wearing the hobbles. And this Spring he qualified at Balmoral with Brent Holland."

The April 14 qualifier at the Crete oval was an emotional moment for all who had been connected or close to Carl’s Big Mac, as he paced to a 1:59.2 clocking.

"Just to see him out there really tugged at my heart," Carol said. "There weren’t too many dry eyes around us. We were all crying and laughing at the same time. To know what this horse had been through and to see him out there on the track again was just too much."

"He really is an amazing animal," Dr. Leininger added. "The biggest problem is not with the disease as much as it is that the horse was down for such a long time. The muscle tone just goes, and the horse’s coordination goes right along with it. There have been some West Nile horses who have continued to be good eaters throughout their bouts with the disease, but they had no will to get up or even try to stand or want to do anything the way this horse did. I don’t believe that there’s ever been another case of horse having this severe a case of West Nile Virus and surviving. Let alone to come back and be a competitive race horse."

Carl’s Big Mack returned to the races on July 18 at Hawthorne, and while he failed to grab a check, paced in 1:55.4 with Andy Miller at the lines.

"Andy told me that he was just tickled pink with the horse’s performance," Carol said. "He’s the type of horse that needs to get raced into shape, so we were quite happy with his effort in his first start back."

"The horse is very fortunate to have such a strong support team and people who love him," Dr. Leininger concluded. "His owners couldn’t have been more terrific. They were very patient, and very supportive of all of his lengthy treatments. In this day and age where racing is such a business, they deserve a lot of credit for seeing the horse through this."

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