Grass sickness

[abi]

a lot of people aren't really informed about this (including myself, addmittatly)

can someone tell us all about it please? xx

[zara]

No personal experience of this thnk God and don't know very much however did find this web site
www.equine-world.co.uk/article_read.asp?id=69&title=Grass%20Sickness
and this one
www.grasssickness.org.uk/
Z

[kateflashy]

what do you want to know mash had it in 1994 she was lucky and got through it

hers started aug bank holiday monday she was fine the sunday before and was actually due to be racing monday night but on mon morning she didnt touch her breakfast which was extremly un known from her , and didnt want to know her hay at all , by the afternoon she had severe colic , so we called out vet , he treated for impacted colic and we just lleft it at that , but tuesday again she hadnt eaten for 24 hrs , and was still really colicy, by thursday she'd stopped drinking and looked like a skeleton with skin on , she had to be stomackh tubed water every couple of hours with loads of suger in it , plus she was also on lasix, finadine, twice a day , she couldnt go out at all because she would just collapse , so i used to take her for walks in hand , it took about 6 months of vertualy living in the stable with her but my vet said as long as i was willing to fight for her mash wasnt gonna give in either and we got through it

she gradually started drinking again , then we would give her liquid feed and just gradually thicker till it was just damped down probly about a year in all before you could say she was back to compleatly normal

[fimacg]

It a horrible disease, it killed Figaro on Easter Saturday 2007 in under 12 hours.

I had him out for a long hack (4 hours) on the Friday, and turned him out when we got back, he cantered off up the field when we got back, I brought him and Chompy in the for the night all fine, in the morning Fig was off his feed, but nothing obviously wrong, by 9am he was colicing, by 2pm he was no better and we were sent off to the vet school, by 5pm he couldn't stand up and by 6pm he was put to sleep.

the research suggests that the disease is linked to botulism, and the biggest risk factor is the weather, cases increase drastically in number after 10 days of dry weather with temperatures between 9 and 12 degrees C.

Other risk factors/ Links
Invermectin based wormers
Construction work
new paddocks
new field mates
history - if EGS has occured occured on the site before it is liekly it will again
age - most cases are between less than 8 years old and still growing

Management measures
poo picking - by hand (mechanical means seem to increase risk)
reduce turn out in high risk periods
make one change at a time i.e. dont worm and move paddocks at the same time leave about 10 days between each change if possible
Feed a pre/probiotic in times of stress, i.e. if competeting, if off colour, worming etc.

Other than that I am afraid it is very much luck of the draw. Last year there was a massive increase in numbers of cases, and 4 horses died in my village from the disease ( and there are only about 20 horses in the village) and 25 died within a 10 mile radius. We are located in one of the worst hot spots for it.

I am absolutly paranoid now, about the disease and if one of the horses is even dopey I am busy checking their eyelashes. One of the clinical signs if for the eyelashes to droop, rather than stick out at the normal angle.

If you know of any cases please encourage then to get in touch with the Grass Sicknees Trust as there is a massive push at the moment for new research, and questionnaires being sent out to every case that has occured after 2000, to see if they can find a link. I have had people come out to check out soil, paddocks, water and take poo samples add to the research effort.

[rebanna]

my old horse picked up a worms test and that had the same symptoms it was awfull he almost died just skin and bone over night

[Jen]

jay who i learnt to ride on died from grass sickness 9 months ago when he went on livery to a new yard. when it was decided that there was no way he would pull through he was put to sleep.

R.I.P jay!

jen xx

[aimee]

We had booked up a riding trip with college to Exmoor, but the woman who owned the school there phoned about a week after we booked to say her horses had died from grass sickness. I think she only had about 8 horses as it was a small privately run yard, and all but 2 died. It was so sudden though poor woman and she had to close her yard and sell up. So yeah I didn't really know much about it so this thread is good as it does happen as this thread proves.