I have been in touch with her throughout this
ordeal.
The information on the WCVM web site for some reason is
not telling the entire story. I read it just a few minutes ago.
Trish has 8 out of 9 horses sick to
some degree. One colicked , the pony died, 5 are wobbly, and 2 have eye
inflammation, in only 2 did she document fever. The only one not effected
is her mare Miss Mocha that is taking $2000 dollars worth of anti virus drugs as
protection.
Personally it drives me crazy that this is not a
reportable disease. They seem to think that only diseases that effect humans
need to be reported. Do they think this does not effect us. We may not catch it
but it certainly effects anyone who owns a horse when it is ill. Having lived
through Sids ( my gelding) illness I am an expert on how much. They are our
family.
My 2 cents worth and mine alone is you would think that
after the BSE crap we have been through in this country the powers that be would
pull their heads outta the sand and get on top of this right away. They
should have stopped the auction ( as mentioned on Myna s email I have left
attached) and tried to contain this. Better to be safe then sorry.I find it hard
to believe that Trish is the only one whose horses caught it from a riding
lesson at the stable. Lots of others were there so it could be spreading every
where. Not all horses will show noticeable symptoms. This is not your normal
Rhino but some kind of mutant that is extra nasty. I don't even need a PhD to
figure that out.
Trish has been a vet for 20 years and a horse owner for
32. She did not even know what she was dealing with for 17 days. Brian, her
husband kept asking her "Are you sure this is not the herpes?" She is now eating
humble pie.
I want to bubble wrap my boys.
Put the Dowling/Zwann family and horses in your
prayers.
A very sobering
and sad email forwarded from Melissa Ribley, Chair of the AERC Veterinary Committee.
I have known
Trish Dowling for more than 15 years since we were both faculty at Saskatoon¹s Western College of Veterinary
Medicine in the 90s. She has an outstanding
international reputation as pharmacologist, internal equine medicine specialist, and a horsewoman. She has
been a fine friend of mine for many years and
fabulous supporter of all things endurance. She is one of a kind.
This is a truly terrible thing, and my heart
goes out to her and her family.
For those of you of who would want to send a
sympathy note, her email is trisha.dowling@usask.ca
Olin
Subject: please
send out to members
I wanted to let everyone know that Dr. Trish
Dowling from the vet college in Saskatoon is
involved in a really awful situation with her horses. She had taken two of her horses to the stable for
riding lessons that has since been
quarantined with the EHV (Equine Herpes Virus) outbreak . The horses were never in contact with other horses and
didn't drink out of stable buckets etc. But
they both came down with symptoms and one died. All the rest of her horses are now sick except her
international which she is giving very
expensive antiviral drugs to. 5 of her horses are showing neurological symptoms. There was an outbreak of EHV in
Florida in January and there was 7 horses
with neurological symptoms and 6 of them died. So this is a very dangerous strain. Apparently there was a horse
sale in Saskatoon yesterday and one of the
horses in the sales ring went down and seizured. It might not have been EHV but it quite likely could have
been and in that case the disease will have
been spread far and wide. So I think we all need to be very careful where we take our horses.
Don't want to
alarm everyone but I think we need to be aware.
