Lead Posioning - have you heard of it in horses

[lister]

Hi

Has anyone heard of lead posioning in horses. My horse is currently in hospital with a possible lead posioning.

do you know anything about it.

All info greatly needed


Ta

 

[Patches]

We had a couple of cows with lead poisoning a couple of years ago. First cow was spotted literally spinning in circles constantly, panic stricken and blarting. Sadly she died from a heart attack before a diagnosis could take place.

Second cow was separated from the herd, clearly blind and confused. Took a great deal of effort and many people to catch the cow as it was hard to capture and treat a panic stricken, blind cow. She was just running in a "blind panic" (excuse pun) whenever we tried to approach her. When caught she just wandered to the cow trailer and pressed her head on it constantly. Vet said this was due to an extreme headache. She was treated by the vet (I can't for the life of me remember what she was treated with though) and she made a complete and full recovery over a course of a couple of weeks.

It was found that lead paint from an old door that someone had fly tipped into the wood had poisoned them after licking it.

Very scary, but can be treated. Not sure what the survival rate in horses is. We had to inform the ministry and restrictions were placed on the herd. I'm sure that wouldn't apply in the same way to horses not intended for human consumption though.

Good luck x

 

[lister]

Thanks, seems very similar to what my horse was like. except he has blind and parlysised for about 24 hours a week laters and he's still in intensive care but getting much better.

 

[Patches]

We didn't think the cow would recover and assumed she'd be blind for life. How wrong we were. She really did make a complete recovery. Was a bit poor condition wise for a while as she was only young, but she was 100% normal and matched the condition of the other cows by the next summer.

We could have done with her being intensively treated but she was so panicked the vet decided it was better to leave her with the herd to save shock. She felt safe when they were around. We just shut them in one field so they couldn't wander and therefore she couldn't lose them.

Was very, very scary though. Do you know what the source for the lead was?

 

[lister]

Sadly no, but we are trying to find the right people to invesitgate. The vet a Liphook is hoping to get some contact numbers for me

 

[Patches]

Top suspects when the ministry came to check our land (they were sent to investigate the source) was old roof felting, car batteries, old painted gates, contaminated water source and any old piping.

Of course, it turned out to be a section of a door that had been fly tipped. Don't know how they found it in the undergrowth in the wood and I have no idea why anyone would have gone to that much effort to dump it there!

Hope you find the source. Have you had to remove other horses from the grazing?