Whenever I see rats or mice in a barn, I worry about the various ailments horses can get. Rodents and small animals can nest in your hay and spread diseases such as EPM or leptospirosis. If you find feces in your stacks of hay, discard those bales immediately.
EPM is short for equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. The protozoa is carried by oppossum feces. 'Possums love to nest in hay bales. When horses ingest hay, they also ingest rodent feces. Within a two week period of time your horse's nervous system becomes affected. If left untreated, EPM can be fatal. Again, check your bales and discard if contaminated!
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection that can cause fever, jaundice, uveitis, recurrent uveitis, abortion, and kidney failure in horses. It, too, is caused by your horse ingesting any kind of rodent urine or feces.
Make sure your barn is clean, and free from rodents. Buy your hay from a local, reputable dealer. Always ask to have at least two bales opened to check for rodent feces, weeds, twine, bits of wire, and small animal carcasses that are killed during the baling process.
A trustworthy dealer will always be happy to open up bales for your inspection.
It's your job to consistently monitor the well-being of your horse. A healthy horse is a happy horse.
4 comments:
you cause your own problems, i see a lot of city breeders treat the horses like there indoor pets, if you don't expose the horse to these little irritations they don't build up an immunity to the disease. when they running around wild and free they don't get these problems and you can bet your bottom dollar there is more than just rodent drops in the field.
but then again all our barns had rats and it was very rare we lost a horse because of it, come to think of it we never lost any.
When they run around wild and free they die by the time their eight years old. A few mice are fine, but when you walk into a barn at night, turn on the ligts, and the floor moves because there are so many rats, that's a HUGE problem.
My horses work. They are also loved pampered. They take good care of me. I take good care of them. So there!
I really don't know about these diseases. But you explained very well. These are must be infectious disease in animals.
bodylift, these infectious diseases can be picked up by humans as well if humans are bitten by an oppossum or rat.
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