Grass Sickness in 6 Year Old, Please Read

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paddy2012

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Hi all,

I am 16, and recently we bought a new 6 y/o gelding called Paddy- about 2 months ago. I never thought i would find such a sweet yet such a talented horse.

Unfortunatly, yesterday morning we noticed a lack of droppings in his bed, and he had drunk very little. His belly was a little swollen so we called the vet out just to check. She found that his heart rate was 65 )where it should be 35), and he had a temperature. She felt inside his rectum and found a very large impaction and when she drew her hand out the glove was covered in a mucus substance.
He was also dehydrated, so we tubed him and fed him some electrolytes.
The vet told us that the high heart rate was different to a normal impaction, where it is not usually as high. The mucus also made her suspicious of an underlying problem.
He was then given intro-venus fluids and tubed once again in the evening.

This morning we took him to Liverpool as he had still not passed any muck. Here, they diagnosed him with acute grass sickness. Today they have operated on him and done a biopsy and taken a sample from his intestine to test for grass sickness.
He has deteriorated rapidly and it is likely that the diagnosis will come back positive, in which case he will be put down.
His whole large intestine is solid with muck that he cannot pass.

Throughout this whole thing he has remained the sweet and lovely boy i adore, and this sickness has taken him from me. It is so cruel for a horse this young and with this much sweetness and potential.

I truly wish there was a way back for him.

Does anyone have any experiences of grass sickness of any type that they could share with me? For some reason hearing of other peoples experiences is helping me.

Thank you, and please, anyone who reads this please send a prayer up for paddy tonight that the biopsy results come up negative!!
 
I don,t have any experience of grass sickness, but I am so sorry for you, I will say a little prayer for your boy tonight he sounds a sweetheart! vibes and hugs xx
 
Oh I'm so sorry for you, what a horrible thing to experience.

I've not had 1st hand experience of GS but I've known a few (I live in the Tayside/Angus which has particularly high rates) who have had it and made it and others who sadly haven't. For those who made it they are all back to work and in apparently fine fettle if either overly sweaty or now don't appear to sweat at all.

This website has alot of very useful information on it http://www.grasssickness.org.uk/
 
I am thinking of you and Paddy and hoping it isn't bad news for you. I too will say a little prayer for your boy xxx
 
We still don't really understand this dreadful disease. The only proven factor is that if horses have had it from a certain field, it will reoccur again. No other horse should be in Paddys fileld and the vet should check his companions now if he had had any. Really sorry for you and fingers crossed you have some positive news today
 
Sorry to hear this, it was the same symptoms as mine had, and we had to put him down, it was horrible as he seemed to recover then went downhill very fast. He was in pain and I should have done it earlier, but I knew nothing about the disease, my first vet was correct in his diagnosis, but symptoms seemed fairly mild at the time.
I had had the horse for two or three months and he had been out at grass for two weeks. I suspect he had brought the disease with him rather than picked it up, but nobody really knows.
 
So sorry for you. Although some do recover from grass sickness most don't. If that is what it is then the outlook is not very good.

As a disease it isn't well understood yet - it is thought to be related to something on the pasture. It mainly affects younger horses and if there has been an occurence on a particualr field then it is likely to re-occur. Older horses seem to have a partial immunity and are not as likely to be affected.

There is nothing you could have done to prevent this. It is one of those horrible things. I am so sorry. Let us know when you can.
 
The cause of grass sickness is currently unknown.

And it is not certain that it will reoccur if you graze the field. In some cases on animal has suffer this terrible disease whilst no others ever have who where grazing and continue to graze the same field while several horses from the same yard can all be struck down.

There is no rhyme or reason.

There are three types of grass sickness. Chronic, sub acute and acute. Only chronic grass sickness is survivable. If horses survive upways of five days it is likely to be chronic. The severity of symptoms vary between the three types.

Although the cause is unknown it is triggered by stress. There are two common triggers; a shift from day turnout and night stabling to 24hr turn out and also moving yards. Yonger horses are more suseptiable to the disease. Breed and sex seem to make little difference although more native times seem to suffer. However this could simply be because more native horses are turned out 24/7.

If he is diagnosed with chronic there isa chance with intensive nursing he could survie. Any other form there is not. Acute GS animals are normally pts within 48hrs where as sub acute cases can last up to five days. These are rough guides as it does depend on the horse.

Many years ago I was involved with the death of a horse from gs. As such I have take an interest in finding out more about the disease. My final year thesis was on Grass Sickness. If you require any information please pm me.

Good luck.
 
Uniique said:
The cause of grass sickness is currently unknown.

And it is not certain that it will reoccur if you graze the field. In some cases on animal has suffer this terrible disease whilst no others ever have who where grazing and continue to graze the same field while several horses from the same yard can all be struck down.

There is no rhyme or reason.

There are three types of grass sickness. Chronic, sub acute and acute. Only chronic grass sickness is survivable. If horses survive upways of five days it is likely to be chronic. The severity of symptoms vary between the three types.

Although the cause is unknown it is triggered by stress. There are two common triggers; a shift from day turnout and night stabling to 24hr turn out and also moving yards. Yonger horses are more suseptiable to the disease. Breed and sex seem to make little difference although more native times seem to suffer. However this could simply be because more native horses are turned out 24/7.

If he is diagnosed with chronic there isa chance with intensive nursing he could survie. Any other form there is not. Acute GS animals are normally pts within 48hrs where as sub acute cases can last up to five days. These are rough guides as it does depend on the horse.

Many years ago I was involved with the death of a horse from gs. As such I have take an interest in finding out more about the disease. My final year thesis was on Grass Sickness. If you require any information please pm me.

Good luck.
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Why would you risk it? I would mever ever put mine on grazing where horses had contracted GS. I know someone personally who did that and lost 2 healthy horses she had had a long time. It was certainly one of the suggestions made when I read up on this and I would not ignore it.
 
Unfortunatly Pads was dianosed with acute which is untreatable. He deteriorated in the night and was refluxing horribly- we made the horrible decision to put him to sleep so save his suffering.
He was a special horsey and i miss him so so much already.

I don't think Paddy contracted this from his field- he has been on the same field for quite a few weeks and it has not been mechanically muck picked or anything of the sort.
The thing with grass sickness is that it can be contracted through a blade of grass ANYWHERE. eg, at a show.
Paddy didnt like to drink at events, so we let him graze so he would get some moisture. I am careful where i let him graze though and have done this with all my horses, none of which have had EGS before.
I dont know where he got it, but there is nothing you can do to prevent it :(

Thanks everyone x
 
So very sorry.
There was nothing you could have done to prevent it.
There was nothing you could have done to cure it.
It was just (tragically) his fate :(
I am sorry for your loss.
 
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