Grass sickness boy :)

pootleperkin

pootleperkin

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Just felt like sharing my (hopefully - fingers crossed) happy story!

The last two weeks have been quite good for me and ponio - mainly because I think that I can say that chronic effects of his having had grass sickness two and bit years ago, now seem to have pretty much gone!

Last year, he didn't have much stamina and struggled in the heat in the summer (yes, there was *some* heat last summer!). This year, he has been schooled more regularly through the winter and I have been trying to rebuild the muscle across his back by introducing him to pole work and insisting that he make the effort to trot and canter up hills.

At the age of 6, I think I have him back to the same sort of shape that he was as a championship winning, very well conditioned 3 year old. We did two, 2.5 hour hill rides last week in the same day (leading out a friends trail rides) and went to a local show at the weekend, where he managed to come 3rd in a open riding horse class, and won the local class. Finally I think we are getting there.

Photos of him at his worst in June 2007 (yes, I know, RSPCA case - he looked like that only about 4 weeks after being diagnosed with EGS) and latest up to date ones from last week. The last sign of his illness is that he still overheats on occasion, but not too much
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All the nursing and angst while he was ill was soooo worth it
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PS - If George's Mum is reading this, I'm loving my new Barnsby APS dressage saddle - I know you have one too - sooo comfy!!

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Wow that's some change!! you must be delighted. Grass sickness is really awful I saw a friend lose her youngster to it...nice to hear that some do recover well.
 
That is such a nice story, he is a very lucky boy to have you as his owner to stand by him. He is lovely looking, good luck to you both x
 
Thank you so much for sharing this
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Beautiful, beautiful horse and some tiny hope for others who have had the chronic form diagnosed. A little pony we loved dearly was lost to the awful, acute form
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only a few weeks ago so you are truly blessed - like you don't already know that!
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In fact, you are going to have to be careful he doesn't get laminitis from the looks of him - I'd really watch that one
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Is he immune to EGS now? Did you move him off the suspect grazing?
 
What a lovely story and so good to hear that your boy has made such a good recovery, he looks wonderful!

Glad you like the Barnsby APS, I so love mine, like an armchair!
 
Thanks all for the nice comments -

Bright eyes (sorry, long answer to your Q's!) - I was remarkably lucky that he had the chronic form of the disease and also that he retained his swallow reflex - this meant that we were able syringe food into him - 4 to 5 time day - like looking after a baby.

As for laminitis - the pic in the stable makes him look quite heavy, but he was super shiny and shampooed up - in reality he has maybe a little excess on him (he is fat scoring 3 out of 5 everywhere bar his ribs, where he is a 3.5), but in the main is carrying muscle - he certainly isn't as fat as the horses he is competing against in the show ring where you can see cellulite (!)and is pretty fit.

We couldn't move him off the grazing - we had only one field at the time and as he started to go downhill, the only thing he would contemplate eating by himself was grass, so we kept him on it - it was a calculated risk, but the damage was already done if you like and it certainly didn't compund the issue. It is such a complex syndrome - I believe there are so many factors that come together in different places and times of year to give the defined symptoms.

I am pretty sure that genetic disposition, or a lack of immunity if you like, is part of the equation (which would explain why young horses are particularly prone) plus environmental factors and stress. It is obvious that where there are hotspots (NE scotland for example) the environment and time of year is the overiding factor in occurence; with Gully, it may have been a freak outcome - just unlucky that the day in May that he ate something perhaps containing c. botulinum, his gut stability was poor and was therefore compromised.

Who knows...... it is now looking like they can get the disease again, but statistically, the chances are low. However, the stats could be skewed a little on the favourable side as there are so few survivors that the chances of reoccurence are inherently low.

What I do is try to remove all of the factors that could cause gut instability, particularly from March to June. I have a 3 year old filly and am obviously worried about her, but we keep field disturbances (i.e. harrowing and rolling) to a minimum, hand pick poo, always have a lick in the field and feed probiotic supplements like pink powder at the risky times of the year. I also didn't do any real work with her through this period of the year, to make sure she wasn't mentally, and therefore physiologically stressed.

It is a worry, but there are so many other worries to combat that you just do what you can - Gully also has sweet itch and sarcoids, so their management keep me busy!!
 
PS Bright Eyes, forgot to say, so sorry about your pony - I haven't witnessed the acute form and can't quite understand how they loose so much weight so quickly - it must have been awful - I know that I was in bits when Gully was diagnosed and I spent 6 weeks thinking that it was going to be like watching my Mum die of cancer all over again
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just watching the weight fall off - so his turn about was a huge mental relief.
 
Really well done for your nursing care. That is one lucky horse.
Sure you have come out of this very knowledgeable about both the disease and the after care.
Lots of people ask can this be prevented?
My own horses have always eaten a little hay right through the summer
Do you feel that everyone should be feeding eg Yea-sacc/Pink Powder at times of stress or times when we know the disease can break out weather wise.
 
Hi Cuffey,

I don't think you can say that the disease can be totally prevented..... as I said earlier, there are so many factors that seem to contribute to an occurence, you would have to be super-human to cover all of the bases - but I guess you can try? They are testing a vaccine for c. botulinum immunity - it will be interesting to see how it affects occurence numbers.

It is really difficult to say unilaterally that everyone should feed supplements at times of stress and partic. through March to June (I'm not feeding anything at the mo' but they have their lick), but having been through EGS, I now feel that it is only prudent to do so for me. It is pretty much a 'throw everything at it' response - as we don't know what caused it, then I try and cover every base!

I NEVER expected Gully to get grass sickness - he was happy, healthy, had good care and management in my eyes - we pretty much did everything my experience in years of keeping horses told me to (I'm a physiologist and am pretty hot on looking after animals properly). But, he still got it.

Things I did 'wrong' - I didn't feed a lick all the time, I did harrow the field about 3 weeks before he got the disease (we were wanting to look after the pasture so they had the best possible grazing - it's a catch 22!) and he was just in the process of being ridden away after being fairly stressful to back. If I had thought there was a chance of him getting EGS, then I might have looked at risk factors and kept them to a minimum, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

This is the problem for most people - unless you live in a high risk area, grass sickness is probably not to the forefront of your mind - other concerns will take priority and so it might just sneak up on you.

I guess feeding a mineral lick is a happy medium if feeding supplements isn't high on your agenda and feeding hay all year round can only be good for gut stability - unfortunately with the quality of hay we have had over the past two years, ours won't even look at it once the grass it through! (Made our own this year though and it is lovely!)
 
It's a horrible disease, I saw a lot of it when I lived in Scotland, and every time we went into the Bush with a horse, there was always a grass sickness case or two about.
The belief is that if you feed a probiotic, then you vastly reduce the chance of it occurring.
Most balancers now have a probiotic in them anyway, so that's how I choose to feed it.

I'm so pleased Gulliver survived to do so well, and really sad to hear about your pony, Bright eyes.......
 
wow he looks so good, i am so pleased to hear he made it through that awful disease, in 2006 i worked at a yard were we ended up losing 4 previously healthy horses to this terrible disease i would say it was one ofthe most upsetting times in my life, so so glad to hear your horsey has beaten it and back to his former self doing well, wish you good luck with him x
 
Well done. I kow just how dedicated you need to be to nurse a horse with EGS. I lost my mare to it, soon to have a friend horse develope it. She shared much of her long and tiring journey with me, and her horse made a full recovery, as yours has.
Your lad is looking magnificant
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