A disease that kills up to 30 per cent of horses has made its way to Alberta.

Veterinarian Dr. Gillian Haanen at the Moore Equine Veterinary Clinic in Rocky View County says Potomac fever is a disease that makes horses quite lethargic and lacking energy.

"Potomac horse fever is a disease that causes horses to become lethargic, quite dull, just kind of standing around, not really doing much. They stop eating and then they also might have a fever, so you notice that they're not doing too well and then sometimes they will also have pretty bad diarrhea," she says.

It comes from a bacteria picked up from snails, slugs and insects that are dead in the water, pasture or hay the horses digest which cause the gastrointestinal disease.

She says they become dehydrated and that affects the heart and cardio system and they can pass away quickly.

"It definitely can be fatal, we've had a couple of people call us and by the time we go to the farm the horse has sadly expired or they were so bad that we had to actually euthanize them on the farm," Dr. Haanen says.

Dr. Haanen says they usually see cases through late spring into summer and fall because of the amount of bacteria in the environment.

The outbreak reached its peak in late August but she says they still had a case just last week.

She says horse owners have been vigilant which is why out of the dozen cases she's seen this year only one horse died from the illness.

About half of them had heard of the disease while Dr. Haanen says the other half had never heard of it before.

 

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