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Re: [RC] Moon blindness - Lysane CreeI 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/ ============================================================
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