Grass sickness in 2 yr , what's the percentage of recovery

Daisy11

Daisy11

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Hi my 2 yr had symptoms of colic last night , vet was called
And she was treated while she was here , we talked about the fact of her possibly having grass sickness , due to decrease in weight , spasms in back legs (which was treat as colic for now )
Vet has said to keep an eye on her inless something else changes such as more loss of weight or green snot
She also has a irregular heartbeat which a gain was put down to colic but needs to be checked on again in a wks time
If she does have grass sickness and I'm hoping not what is the percentage of survival in such a young animal
 
Sounds very like my 2 year old who had chronic grass sickness in June. A lot of the statistics will say there is only 2% chance of recovery, but if you look closer, the % for recovery in a chronic case is more like 50%. The main thing is to keep them interested in life. A young horse has just as much chance of surviving it as an older horse. I kept a photo album of my girl's progress, and some of the photos are pretty scary, but she is looking fab now, still skinny, but eating normally and looking like a 'normal' but skinny horse, rather than a rescue case. She went downhill in the space of 2 weeks. Feel free to PM me if you want any more info. My vet was pretty guarded about her chance of survival, but he was very much of the belief that she had to fight it on her own, if we got to the stage where we thought she 'needed' to go into hospital then it was probably too late. Fingers crossed for your youngster, sorry if i've gone into detail and worried you, but it's something i have looked into a lot over the last 4 months. My girl can attest it isn't always a bad outcome.
 
My arab recovered from chronic grass sickness. As long as they can swallow liquids they usually have a chance. Mine went through a phase when he could not even swallow his saliva and it dripped out of his mouth but this only lasted a few hours. I kept him alive by dissolving nuts in water with added molasses and oil so he could drink it. He was given this as many times a day as he would take it until he started improving. My vet also tried steroid injections but I am not sure whether they made a difference. This was nearly twenty years ago, I hope more help is available nowadays. Travelling a horse in this condition is up to the vet of course, but I would worry about the added stress.
It is an awful disease and I hope your horse does not have it but if he does I hope our stories of survival will help you. Big hugs to you and your youngster.
 
hi we went to a talk the other night and with regards to the chronic cases alone, 60% is the recovery rate.

the grass sickness link provided above is well worth a look.

hoping your pony gets better x
 
I'd get all the horses off the grazing asap though just incase and certanly never be using it again if it turns out to be GS
 
Poor horse and poor you Ischa, it is every horse owners nightmare and I know you love and look after your horses beautifully. I have no useful information (apart from a local 2yr old who survived it and is now doing really well) but just wanted to say our thoughts are with you and please let us know how you get on.
 
Thanks canteron
, she seems better today , eating and drinking
So fingers crossed , but unforually at the moment , only time will tell , vet is on standby if she deterates and got to keep checking to see
If any sweat patches form
 
She had breakfast and has had hay which she has demolished
And still searching , will try and little bits of carrot etc try keep her interested
 
I'm so, so glad your youngster is picking up. I lost a 5yo mare and her newborn foal to acute GS in April. He died soon after being born, and she was colicky all night, went through stages of looking well, then breaking out in patchy sweating. She had muscle tremors on her hindquarters. To begin with, she was picking at a haynet, and drinking. She stopped trying to eat the haylage, kept dunking her mouth in the water then letting it dribble out. She stopped trying to drink and lay down for a rest. While she was lying there, fluid (saliva ?) kept dribbling out of her mouth. My vet came out, referred her to the local equine hospital and a couple of hours later (after tests confirmed GS), she was PTS. I stayed with her the whole time.
 
Little wild one , I'm so sorry to here about your loss to lose one must be awful but to lose 2
, for me in the time I've owned horses ( touches wood) I've never really had a horse put down , I think if I lost her I would completely give up horse care all together because the heartbreak
I would never want to go through again
 
Ischa, i have PM'd you, something i forgot to say is that with Nellie we literally tried anything i could get my hands on to tempt her to eat. The vet advised sloppy feeds as the GS causes paralysis of the throat, so anything to make life easier for her to swallow. I also syringed a lot of things down her throat, molasses, liquid paraffin, oil, a solution of pink powder to try and help her guts along. Another thing i tried was Immunall, it was recommended by a friend who has youngsters and swears by it, no idea if it was that that really helped but something did.
I really hope your youngster is doing well, please let us know how she is getting on.
 
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