Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

Re: [RC] Moon blindness - Lysane Cree

I don't think its contagious, but if there is an
environmental factor causing it, it could end up
affecting more than one horse. They all drink the same
water, they are more or less all in the same pastures,
all live in the same barn and eat the same hay.
I had never heard of this "environmental aspect"
either, but I did find a little bit on the internet
that said that its not just beavers, it can be mice,
raccoons, possums, skunk, fox, etc. that can carry the
bacteria. The bacteria would be in their urine (feces
too, I guess) and so if their urine comes into contact
with water or food ingested by a horse or comes into
contact with the mucous membranes of a horse, a horse
could develop moon blindness (but its not automatic,
some horses just fight off the bacteria and never get
sick). Out of 35 horses, only 2 have been sick, so I
guess the odds are still good. Apparently though
symptoms can develop a year after contamination.
Yikes.
I getting really worried now! There are the beavers
nearby as I mentioned. And there were two raccoons
that had made themselves a home in the barn last year.
One ended up getting hit on the road and the other we
never saw again, but still they were around for awhile
being a nuisance - ripping open bags of feed and
probably peeing on hay at some point!

Lysane

Elkenchild@xxxxxxx wrote: > Moon blindness, from what
I have heard (though all
ideas about the disease 
are hypothetical), is mostly genetic. Appaloosas are
very prone to it, and we've 
put down two of our mares with it (a
mother/daughter).  I've never heard of 
it being contagious or spread environmentally!

Laura
"Not all who wander are lost." (jrr tolkien)
 

______________________________________________________________________ 
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
============================================================
They're athletes! This is a partnership between horse and rider - we don't
have any jockeys out there, just pals and partners. We'd allow a rider with
a broken foot, a sore back and a nasty cold to compete - but we would never
let a horse in a similiar condition hit the trail.
~ Dr. Barney Flemming DVM

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

============================================================