I need help solving a mystery. All 6 of my mares got sick - they all become lame to varying degrees, and all developed swelling in all 4 lower legs. It started on Sunday, and each developed the symptoms within a 3 day period. Two are all better, and 4 are getting better but still lame. Two had elevated temps. All have been eating normally, and manure and urine output is the same. None had a runny nose, cough, or any other symptom other than leg/hoof pain and leg swelling. Blood tests run on the two worst ones came back negative for everything they could test for, including EHV-1. The mares were all in good health prior, up to date on everything, have regular hoof trims (the last one 2 weeks before this happened). Their ages range from 6 to 18. None has gone anywhere since spring, and no new horses have come here. None of the boys (two 5 month old colts and a donkey) got sick. I live in the Shelton area. All 9 animals are stalled at night, and out in a pasture during the day. The pasture has very little grass in it. Grain is not a common factor - they have different grain diets. I normally purchase my hay (E. WA 3-string alfalfa and compressed timothy) and shavings (Peninsula) from a hay dealer in Satsop. The truck broke down recently , so in order to stuff as much as possible into the car, we temporarily switched to compressed alfalfa instead of the 3-string.. One evening, on 9/24, my husband got hay (E. WA compressed alfalfa and compressed timothy) from a feed store in S. Olympia, and also purchased Gem shavings from there. After that was gone, we went back to Satsop, still got the compressed alfalfa and timothy and our regular shavings. (Now we have switched back to our regular alfalfa). As far as poisonous plants, no symptoms match except for black walnut shavings, but those dont even grow around here. Has anyone experienced anything similar, or heard of any problems with hay or shavings from Olympia or Satsop? Because it was something different, I am suspicious of the compressed alfalfa and the Gem shavings... Sorry the post is so long, but I wanted to get all the facts out there.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 04:35:29 +0000
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