Grass Sickness
There is still much to learn about this often fatal disease that can affect any horse, pony or donkey at any age often with little or no warning signs.
The disease is categorized into chronic, acute and sub acute:
- Chronic
Horse suffering from chronic grass sickness often have the best chance of being nursed back to health, this is because the disease is usually slow to progress. However this will depend upon the individual, the level of pain that they are in, if they have retained their appetite and there general demeanor. - Acute
In acute cases the onset of the disease is often very sudden with the horse suffering from rapid weight loss , inability to swallow food and extreme bouts of colic. - Sub Acute
This is usually not as severe as acute grass sickness but still causes colic and rapid weight loss, in some cases the horse will still eat small amounts of food but often has extreme difficulty in swallowing.
Cause
The exact cause is still unknown. It is believed that bacterium clostridium botulinum type C is involved which produces toxins that enter the horses body causing damage to various parts of the nervous system in particular the intestines which are essentially prevented from working causing the horse to severely waste away.
Symptoms
There are many symptoms that are often present in horses suffering from grass sickness, such as:
- Several bouts of colic
- Gut paralysis
- Severe weight loss
- Lethargy
- Muscle tremors
- Patchy sweating
- Difficulty swallowing
- Loss of appetite
- Dribbling saliva
Treatment
There is no set treatment for this debilitating disease, some horses who suffer from very mild cases of grass sickness have been carefully nursed back to health, however the majority are not so lucky and are usually euthanased on humane reasons to prevent further suffering.
Prevention
Because the exact cause is still unknown preventing your horse from this disease is difficult. If there is a case of grass sickness at your yard consult your veterinarian who may suggest removing any other horses from the immediate
grazing area.
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