If you know of anyone who has lost a horse to Grass sickness or lost one yourself

Do the vets not do this as a matter of course?
Lost my girl to GS a month or so ago, we asked them to report to the EGSF & to, well, use her in any way necessary if it could be of any use to the research. We were told that GS cases were automatically reported?
But this may have simply been the vets that we used, so I apologise if I'm incorrect (and definitely advocate reporting all known cases). It's a truly grim disease.
 
I lost my boy to EGS two months ago and reported it via the website. There's a very basic form on the website and I was hoping that I'd be contacted to fill in a more detailed one as I'm convinced mine had a lot to do with chickens (dead and alive - its a long story). I think what I ought to do is call them direct. The more information they have, imho, the better.

This is a shocking disease and one that needs more research and publicity to ensure that a routine vaccination becomes the norm.

I'm hoping to hand out leaflets at Burghley this year and Badmington next - its amazing how many 'horsey' people are in the dark to EGS. I'm also fund raising so please, anything you can do to help would be great. However small, it all helps.
 
My experiences were all a few years ago but certainly then cases weren't being recorded. I've known a few horses get grass sickness and all bar 2 were destroyed at home. The Dick Vet only took in horses that were easy to treat/handle and the advice for the horses was just to pts. Alot of horses must have died and never been confirmed as grass sickness cases and the facts about their illness never recorded. I'm in East Scotland which was the worst area for grass sickness and amazed that the vets seem no nearer to knowing what causes the illness.
Why is it so bad in some areas and unheard of in others ?
 
It's common in NE and E Scotland mainly it's thought because of a combination of environmental factors

- thin acidic and sandy soils
- consequent are patches where soil is exposed eg by moles or harrowing, or contaminated eg mechanical poo sweeper pickers
- climate - the weather patterns that seem to increase GS cases occurring are exactly what we get a lot of up here, long periods of cool dry weather
-horses out 24x7 just on grass as there isn't a shortage of land so owners can have them out 24 7, this increases the GS risk.
-not poo picking daily (which happens up here as less shortage of land so large fields which people don't poo pick)

There are other factors not linked specifically to this area eg young age, stress so cases can occur anywhere but climate and soil are the key ones.

It's strongly believed that a botulism in the soil is the cause of GS and progress is being made (eg up here several livery yards which have suffered repeated GS are taking part hopefully next year in a vaccine trial, the first ever) ...... but that might only go ahead if we all raise lots of money for the EGS fund (you can do it by normal shopping eg at M&S) it you follow the link on EGS site and say you want your cashback to go to EGS)
 
bonny said:
My experiences were all a few years ago but certainly then cases weren't being recorded. I've known a few horses get grass sickness and all bar 2 were destroyed at home. The Dick Vet only took in horses that were easy to treat/handle and the advice for the horses was just to pts. Alot of horses must have died and never been confirmed as grass sickness cases and the facts about their illness never recorded. I'm in East Scotland which was the worst area for grass sickness and amazed that the vets seem no nearer to knowing what causes the illness.
Why is it so bad in some areas and unheard of in others ?
Click to expand...

thats not quite correct Bonny. The Dick Vet has made huge leaps in the treatment of chronic grass sickness and have done this by selecting those cases that through experience, have shown them to have the best chance of survival. This includes degree of gut mobility and ability to swallow among others. The recommendations to have others PTS is based on welfare grounds after decades of experience in treating cases.

Many horses will have dies of GS and not been 'reported' its true. The only definitive way to diagnose is via postmortem sampling, many owners do not want it or can't afford it and too many vets just aren't clued up enough or bothered to report it in the past.

As for reporting it officially as it were, that is now happening. For those of you wondering why it wasn't done in an official capacity before-well, who do you think would pay for it? The Equine Grass Sickness Fund is a small charity that works extremely hard but its not always that easy to get funding. Believe me when I say what they've achieved, particularly in the last couple of years towards funding of initial vaccine trials, is astounding.

As for vets not knowing what causes it, well its not for lack of trying given the funding they've had available to them. Its a complex disease that doesn't fall under the usual remit and vets and scientists have been investigating it for decades on limited funds. If it bothers any of you that the cause is not yet found, ask yourself if you horse needs that new fleece or if you need that new Joules top and maybe donate the money to the fund instead.

I am also in the East of Scotland and have been peripherally involved with the EGSF since 2001. There is a hypothesis that the east coasts of Scotland (and England, GS in Newmarket was the worst kept secret there for decades!) due to huge shipments on guano from South America in the 1800s. South America has an identical disease called mal seco (dry sickness). The disease has slowly spread across the country (not horse-to horse) since then.
 
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