grass sickness survivors - advice please :)

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MrVelvet

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Right, as the majority of you know my boy had chronic grass sickness. He started beginning of June. He's over all obvious signs now but everytime he does something new or is put in a stressful position he tucks up quite severely for a bit ... Then after he's calmed down it ceases. The incident with the pigs took 3 days to look 'normal' again. Has anyone else experienced this? The horses have just come in for winter and unfortunatly, while its still wet is just getting turned out in the school - this is his latest stressful situation! I will carry on with short bursts and hope he gets used to it?
 
No advice - just wanted to send you good vibes for keeping him well.

I was going to be having a horse on loan from another forum member. She went down with acute grass sickness a fortnight ago and sadly had to be PTS, its a terrible thingxxxx
 
maybe he needs a much stricter routine whilst his body gets over the shock of the GS?
I have never experienced it first hand but everything I have heard and read about it present a scary image, it must take a long time for the horse to fully recover. I would say it is still early days and maybe its normal for it to have this effect at this stage, I would speak to my vet and see if they can shed any other light on it though as they may offer something to help keep him more settled when the routine changes
 
Try and avoid anything that you know may stress him. They can have a mini relapse if stressed, so a good, regular routine doing things he likes would probably be the way to go. Mine had one after having his teeth rasped by an EDT who thought the horse should put up with the gag in his mouth for 45 minutes!
I turned mine out as much as possible (not on the fields where he became ill) with other horses he got on well with and 'played' with him a lot to build him up without making him feel he was working. Work in hand bit less, short slow hacks with grazing breaks. Plus several small feeds a day and always kept warm and dry. He eventually made a full recovery but it took a good year.
 
Hi I have just read your story, I lost my horse to acute grass sickness last year and started a group on facebook to raise awareness and let people know what they can do to minimise the risks. there is loads of info on there and lots of survivor stories, everyone will be only to glad to help you, the link to my page is http://www.facebook.com/groups/219636401382141/ Also the Equine grass sickness website is brilliant for info and you can phone them with any questions, they are really helpful, just stay positive you will have up and down days but you can do it. www.grasssickness.org.uk
 
Thanks Planete! I wondered if they were like mini relapse's. I'm gonna leave him til the New Year now and try again - reassuring that it's normal though thankyou!

Ulla I have been in touch with the Dick vet college and tried to join a couple of facebook groups but never got accepted lol! I will join your when the page finally loads! Thankyou :-) sorry for your loss, its a very cruel, unfair disease xx
 
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