OVERVIEW OF EQUINE DISEASES

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Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) – Equine cushings disease

Equine dysautonmia / Equine Grass sickness (EGS)

Equine gastric ulceration syndrome (EGUS)

Sweet Itch

Recurrent uveitis

Rhabdomyolysis (tying up)

PPID is a disease commonly seen in the equine population with an increase occurrence found in older horses as it is a degenerative condition associated with ageing (McGowan et al, 2013).  Once thought to be a rare condition of geriatric horses, it is a condition that is now found in a large section of horses and ponies 15yrs and over .This is thought to be due to the increase in the number of aged horses and owners seeking veterinary attention and guidance for older horses as they have a better understanding of the disease than before (Sojka-Kritchevsky and Johnson, 2014).

The prevalence of equine gastric ulceration syndrome remains high particularly in competitive horses.  This is predominantly due to some modern management practices that go against the evolution of the horse as a grazing, free moving non ruminant herbivore. These include limited opportunity to free movement, high grain low forage diets, intensive training and stressful environments which all contribute to a poorly buffered and acidic stomach leading to gastric ulcers (Luthersson et al, 2009). There is a greater understanding of preventative measures such as increased turnout, ad lib forage, reduced training intensity and reduce stress but these are not always possible or effective in some horses and combined with the high cost of antiulcer treatment, the frequency of EGUS in horses remains relatively high (Nadeu and Andrews, 2009).

2.

Equine dysautonmia otherwise known as equine grass sickness (EGS) is a polyneuronopathy that affects the central and peripheral nervous system. It is a condition that primarily affects grazing horses and has varying severity of clinical signs but all cases will show signs of neural degradation in the autonomic and enteral nervous system. The acute and subacute cases tend to be fatal but milder chronic cases may recover with intense nursing.The disease is linked with the bacteria Clostridium b