Grass sickness or Botulism ???

A horse at the riding school where my boy used to be in livery developed what they thought was botulism. It was pitiful to see and I didn't think he'd survive but he did. He was very weak, too weak to stand a lot of the time. Lost a vast amount of weight. Lost interest in eating, life, everything. But he stabilised and over a few weeks, gradually recovered. It was many more weeks though before he could be ridden again and the first time he went on a hack he was weak and sweaty and clearly not quite ready for the work. But he did make a full recovery.

I have no experience of grass sickness. Whereabaouts are you JillyB? It's more prevalent in Scotland. I think with grass sickness your horse would be a lot sicker. There's chronic or acute grass sickness and horses with acute gs go downhill rapidly and are usually humanely pts because of the effects of total gut paralysis. Chronic gs, some horses recover but it is a long, long journey. Have you asked your vets to explain their findings in detail to you? I'd google both topics on a decent veterinary website and try to see where your horse fits in. Wishing you every good luck imaginable. Stay strong.
 
Botulism IMO was much worse we had a horse in at the vets that had it and the poor horse was in so much pain - lying flat out and literally thrashing the walls like it was galloping and sweating.

Grass sickness the horse at our yard did end up with a nasal discharge, looked very colicky somedays could not move. Have good days and bad days, one day couldn't eat drink, sweated up and in agony, other days could manage a walk and eat a bit - improved for a while but after about 8 months they had to call it a day - v sad
 
I had a pony a mare with a 9month foal who both had a nasal discharge on saturday. The mare got worse throughout the day and on sunday morning her breathing was laboured and she was hot. She was treated with penicillin and bute but died during the night, the foals discharge stopped. On monday morning another pony had it,the same , different Vet more specialist checked everyone including foal said not flu or colds but may be botulism, ponies have had no haylage or feed running up to this I read about both grass sickness and botulism and both give the symptoms my mare had. When she died there was no evidence of her thrashing around, no marks in shavings or anything it just looked like she lay down and went. My Daughter was naturally devastated so was I and I arranged for a cremation, in hindsight ( a wonderful thing) I should have had a Pm.
 
the symptoms are similar with GS and botulism. GS is thought to possibly be a type of botulism whereby toxin is produced by the bacteria in the horse's gut. classic botulism is caused by the horse eating the toxin itself and can come from eg contaminated haylage. the differences in delivery of the toxin are thought to cause the slightly different clinical signs.
 
I had a mare that had botulism poisoning, the first symptons were her being very hot and just uncomfortable, during the night she slowly became paraylsed from head to tail as the toxins were going through her body, she was unable to drink or eat.

Somehow we managed to get her to the hospital and she was put on a drip , I suppose at the start she did thrash around but probably due more to panic than anything else, it was horrific to watch.

She defied all the odds and survied but her showing career was over due to all the white marks she had on her bay coat due to pressure sores whilst being on the floor for what seemed months.

The vets at Liverpool were involved and that thought the toxin was possibly in the mud in the haylage that we bought, probably produced from a second cut which was cut to low to the soil.

I think the onset of botchulism is quick and the symptons are varied dependant on the strength of the toxin, weakness, breathlessness , and the inability to eat/drink.

I hope this helps, but I am sorry for your loss and hope you find the answers you need pm me if you want any more information.
 
Sounds like Botulism with the breathing and sweats, have seen one go down with that and it was dead within 24 hours unfortunately the vets couldn't save it. Have had a grass sickness case as well again unfortunately the little one was a fighter but we had to call it a day 6 weeks into trying as it was getting too much for the horse.
 
As part of my dissertation for my second year of my HND at Guildford College, Merrist Wood campus I’m looking at whether the breed of horse effects the likelihood of getting EGS at whether it effects the prognosis. I would be very grateful if owners with horses/ponies who have suffered from EGS could fill out this brief questionnaire.

What date was the horse diagnosed with EGS?

What was the age and gender of the horse?

What region was the horse was the horse in when it was diagnoses with EGS?

What breed is the horse?

Did the horse suffer from acute/ chronic or sub-chronic EGS?

Did you choose to:
• Euthanize without treatment?
• Euthanize during treatment?
• Euthanize post treatment?
• Or treat it and the horse made a full recovery?

Did the horse live in or out?

I appreciate that some of the information provided in this questionnaire is going to be sensitive to most horse owners. However any information you supply will be strictly confidential. No names will be mention in the study and the information supplied will not be used for any other purpose.

Thank you for your time.

Sam Boseley
Sam.boseley@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you very much!
 
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