How Do Horses Get Grass Sickness And What Is It?
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The disease, grass sickness can affect not just horses but ponies and donkeys too.
First recognized in Scotland in 1907, it commonly occurs in the U.K., Ireland, Europe and North America.
Young horses are more susceptible to grass disease. The disease does not appear to have an affect on suckling foals.
Grass sickness is prevalent in cool dry weather typically between April and July with a peak for the disease during May.
Stress tends to also make horses susceptible to grass disease including recent change of ownership or a move of pasture, introduction to new horses, castration or other surgery.
Grass sickness causes damage to the nervous system. Grass sickness is not contagious as the cause of the illness seems to be multifactor and may also have contributing factors such as stress, environmental conditions or agents.
There are current studies and research into grass sickness investigating bacterium Clostridium botulinum to see if there is a connection with the bacterium and grass sickness.
Grass sickness has three forms that include acute, sub acute and chronic. Two of the forms, acute and sub acute can be fatal.
Symptoms include muscle tremors, salivation, dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing), weight loss, reduced gut motility, which includes colonic impaction. There are other conditions that mimic grass sickness making it difficult for veterinarians to make the diagnosis.
There is no absolute way to diagnose grass sickness except in the postmortem state when the nerve ganglia can be examined.
The mortality rate for chronic cases used to be close to 100% until the survival rate for the chronic cases started to diminish to 70% of cases in response to experience gained through the research done at Edinburgh University Veterinary School.
There is much more research that needs to be done regarding grass sickness.
The Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF), first established in 1988, helps to fund and co-ordinate scientific research into the diagnosis, treatment and also the cause of this devastating disease.
Diseases such as grass sickness are painful for owners to watch as their animals suffer and most die. This is why funding is so important so that this type of research can be continued until we know more about what causes grass sickness, how to treat the symptoms and how to save more lives.
Grass sickness is rarely treatable. There is just so little known about this horrible disease. Most vets will recommend that if there is an acute case where other horses are stabled, that the other horses are taken off the grazing so has to head off any more cases of grass sickness in that pasture.
It is difficult to really get a good statistic on how many horses; ponies and donkeys have had grass sickness, as it is not always confirmed by postmortem inspection.
There is a stigma attached to the occurrence of grass sickness that can ruin the livelihood of boarding or stables if they report cases and the horse owning public finds out.
There needs to be more public awareness of this terrible disease, so that perhaps more funding can be achieved to pay for more research.
Currently research being conducted on the possibility that Clostridium botulinum is the causal factor could possibly lead to conclusive evidence, which would then lead to possible prevention techniques, and a vaccine.
Previous Articles By This Author
- Buying Your First Horse
- Equipment for Horses
- Basics of Horse Care
- Grooming your Horse
- The History of Horses
