Pheasants causing problems for horses

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Highlander2

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We had 3 horses (out of 30 on one farm) get very sick before Xmas. This three were the only three in a the same field as a pheasant laying pen that had been empty for a few months. Also access to a pile of pheasant rearing pen litter from previous season. They had chronic diariaha for weeks and vets (two practices and one a horse expert practice) did not know how to treat them and we blood tested and faeces tested again and again. Finally a weeks course of white wormers to treat possible immature word burden started to turn two around but we lost one - a two year old Friesian Colt and one of my favourites out of a total of 80 horses and ponies.
Anyway somebody at the Game Conservancy suggested a link between the pheasant ground and the worms. The pheasnats make the ground highly susceptible to worm burdens that can easily be picked up by horses grazing. Our horses were regularly wormed and had been done 3 to 4 months earlier.
Anybody seen or heard anything similar to this before ?
Funny how none of the rest were affected on the ones in pheasant fields.
Now I am frightened to have them anywhere near pheasants this year but our Riding Centre is next to a big pheasant farm.
The lady that was in the place before me lost 9 in one season and the reason was never really found out and I only recently heard about this but she too thought it was some connection to pheasants - 6 of these were at the Dick Vet School when tehy died.
Any help or suggestions appreciated.
 
I am pretty sure that rearing pens for pheasants can deposit quite a lot of nitrogen into the ground, i will ask the game keeper if i see him tomorrow and let you know.
 
There is also an Interesting theory on the horses eating the pheasant litter too because it is still full of dropped feed pellets and the cardboard etc in the litter causes impaction too.
All the experts our two vet practics spoke to suspected the worms were the problem caused by the enriched ground left behind by the pheasants.
I have suggested the better fencing route to my landlord but he is not convinced and wants more eveidence. If he had to pay the almost £3000.00 in vets fees plus the loss of a horse probably worth £5000.00 he might of been more convinced.#
However he does not need to suffer these losses himself.
I might write to the Dick Vet School and ask if they remember all the Newtonmore cases on the one year and what was their opinion on them.
I also need to get the name for the worm expert at the Game Conservancy and follow up with him too.
I have ever seen horses with constant and pure liquid diarioha like that before or the smell :-(
 
Don't know about worms or anything else - but pheasants are the demonic spawn of Satan

Bl**dy pheasant squaked out in front of my big guy at canter - he spooked and deposited me out the side door into a dried up gorse bush with old nettles in it. Not funny, not in the least.

There's a place for pheasants - right next to the mashed potatoes!
 
almorton said:
do pheasants carry salmonella? just a thought
Click to expand...

Oh yes - any number of salmonella species have been found in pheasants (and caused serious losses!) And of course E.coli is another possibility - particularly if horses have access to concentrated quantities of pheasant *****!

We are surrounded by shoots that rear birds and - as a result - we have a high population of 'intelligent' pheasants and partridge. Obviously the population is nowhere near as high as in a rearing area, but we do get the occasional mild case of 'colic symptoms' - accompanied by diarrhoea - which never develop into anything major - and I have my suspicions that these are due to a modest E.coli or Salmonella infection. (Horses are wormed regularly and worm counts are low.)
 
brucea said:
Don't know about worms or anything else - but pheasants are the demonic spawn of Satan

Bl**dy pheasant squaked out in front of my big guy at canter - he spooked and deposited me out the side door into a dried up gorse bush with old nettles in it. Not funny, not in the least.

There's a place for pheasants - right next to the mashed potatoes!
Click to expand...

*SNORT* No, you're right brucea, not funny at all.....
 
I have just spoken to the gamekeeper and he said that he knows of no avian worms that can pass to equines, does not mean to say it cant happen though, i wonder if whatever the Pheasants may have passed into the ground may have caused more of a problem in horses that had a worm burden already? Here is a link to the gamekeepers conservation website, apparently there is a very knowledgable vet who answers questions like this (i would ring but am not in the country) for anyone who wants to follow it up.

www.gwct.org.uk
 
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