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Oscar’s Story
This is the story of a big gentle giant who we tragically lost on Christmas day 2010 due to Grass Sickness and why we need your help to stop this happening to more horses and horse owners in the UK.
Many of you met Oscar whether you were a livery or a riding school client...he was the big chunky boy with soup plates for feet and furry legs. He was a big horse with a big heart who everyone loved and knew. He enjoyed being ridden, hacking in the woods and frightening Heather to death while jumping ha ha!!!.
He enjoyed the shows he went to, bucking me in the air and jumping into the next arena while he was supposed to be looking handsome and being on his best behaviour! He also enjoyed his in hand shows but he was not very good ... he never won ha ha! That was Oscar and I would not have changed him for the world .
Oscar moved to Cranloch in May 2006 where he made lots of new friends with horses and owners. He had been getting on fine and living a normal fun happy life in the summer and in the winter he enjoyed playing in the snow which I didn’t mind as it was the only time his feet were ever white.
He was fine, healthy and happy until December 242010. When I went to see him in the field he was not feeling too well. We phoned the vet but unfortunately they thought it was grass sickness, he was taken to Aberdeen where they did tests on him and confirmed it was acute grass sickness.
Unfortunately know one knows what grass sickness is therefore there is no cure. We said our goodbyes in Aberdeen where he stayed overnight, as the vet was giving him a few days to see if his signs would improve. On the 25 of Dec the vet phoned to say his symptoms had got worse and it was unfair to keep him going as he would be in pain. The best thing would be to put him to sleep so he would not be in pain any more.
Sadly that was Oscar, he was gone in less than 48hours.
This is why we need your help to raise as much money as possible so the vets can find what causes grass sickness and how it can be cured so the horses and owners don’t go through the same pain as Oscar and I did.
About Grass Sickness
The main problems with grass sickness is no one has been able to find out what causes the disease therefore there is no cure.
There are three main forms of grass sickness: acute, subacute and chronic. The acute and subacute forms are invariably fatal but encouraging progress has been made in managing selected chronic cases of the disease.
Symptoms of the acute phase can include muscle tremors, salivation and dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing). Euthanasia/death occurs within 48 hours.
In the subacute form, symptoms are less severe than the acute although the majority will die or require euthanasia within 7 days. As the disease progresses symptoms can also include colic, reduced gut motility, colonic impaction and weight loss. A typical sign of a chronic case is severe weight loss with the horse appearing very ‘tucked up’
It can be very difficult for a veterinary surgeon to distinguish the early stages of grass sickness from other conditions that cause similar symptoms. There is no definitive diagnostic test in the live horse, although urine analysis and one involving phenylephrine eye drops (both developed at Edinburgh University) may prove useful. Definitive diagnosis is only obtained post mortem by examination of the nerve ganglia
The Equine Grass Sickness Fund –what they do
The Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF), which was established in 1988, is a registered charity that helps to fund and co-ordinate scientific research into the cause, treatment and diagnosis of this distressing disease.
The EGSF has funded many projects in addition to two PhD students based at Edinburgh University. Articles about current and past research as well as information, advice and merchandise can be found on the charity’s informative website.
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