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I bred Mal and in August last year, at just 5 years old, he took sick.  On the 20th of August 2014, Mal was diagnosed with EGS.  My heart sank when I realised the battle he had in front of him as I knew EGS was serious and the survival rate wasn't high.

 He wouldn't eat to start with and we were syringe feeding him every hour and a half.  He went from just under 750kgs to 596kgs in just 3 weeks. (thats over 24 stone that he lost in 3 weeks)!  He was trembling all the time, sweating constantly, tucked up and standing with all 4 feet almost touching underneath him.  His heart rate and temperature were both high and he had no gut sounds at all. He had shrunk to half the horse almost right in front of our eyes.  

I had never dealt with EGS before so didn't know where to start in dealing with this.  We got a lot of support from the EGS fund in regards to advice and the feed companies, in particular Baileys were fantastic and he started eating again just after the 2 week mark. We battled for 14 weeks before I knew he was going to make it.  Cononvet were out checking him throughout the 14 weeks and were happy with his progress.  All my other horses are now participating in the EGS vaccine trial.  I personally never want to have to see or deal with this horrible disease again and can only hope that the vaccine trial gives us some prevention going forward to try and protect our horses.

Mal is now happy and pretty much back to normal.  He still sweats more than he would have before when being worked but he is back to being full of character and mischief again.  I am one of the lucky ones.  So many other horses unfortunately don't make it.

I am going to hold a fun show on the 22nd of August as it is one year after he was diagnosed.  There will be lots of fun activities as well as information available on EGS. We are having a raffle as well as some show jumping, pony club games, showing classes and fancy dress.  Entry forms can be found on the Facebook Event page or you can request one from me via email.  

Please ensure when you are kindly donating that if you would like entered into the raffle, write raffle in your comments and make sure I get your contact details. You can email them to me if you would prefer at y.maclean@btinternet.com