Swamp Cancer

[Miri]

I am also terribly sad for your loss Heidi, though i have not had a horse before, your story hits close to home. I planted a kurrajong tree (Brachychiton populneus) about 8 years ago to mark such an event, and it is really starting to thrive now.
Kurrajongs are great because they are hardy, native (to your area i believe), offer shade, attractive for ourselves and critters, sink deep roots -so as to not interfere with surrounding pasture growth and branches can also be supplemented as stock fodder (so long as you don't cut back too much too often). And i also just read that chooks favour the seed as well (i think you have some chookies?). Aboriginals ate the young bulbus roots, made the fibre into rope and netting, and ground the seeds to make flour and also a coffee like drink.
As you can gather, i am kind of a fan (my ancestor convicts brought some trees with them after herding cattle from Sydney and settling in Seymour). Downside is that they can take years to reach a mature size (but i have seen them grow unexpectedly well in rich compost soil).


I think Tommy would approve.


Miri,
Budding (mind the pun) landscape architect among farming and other things

[heidi]

Thanks Miri,
I hadn't thought of a kurrajong... but have planted lots of Lace Bark trees (Brachychiton discolor) in the house paddock from small seedlings in 2003, and they are higher than our two storey house, and flowering... so the soil should be good for the kurrajong you suggested. I have actually planted a Candle Nut tree there, but am reconsidering because it has the potential to become an environmental weed (although we are surrounded by cane... and nothing is going outcompete the cane!). The area that has been fenced off is large enough for  a few trees, so may plant more, to compensate for the inevitable losses.

This week I can talk about Tommy without tears, although yesterday, I called the other horses up from the bottom paddock, and the first name out of my mouth was his... habits of over a decade can be hard to break.


I suppose the up side of any of this is that, after my enquiries,  the owner of the laboratory that produces the immunotherapy/vaccine for pythium insidiosum in Michigan State University, is now pursuing an Australian distributor for his product.  The product has a 75% - 90% success rate, without surgery, if given in the first two weeks of infection. Maybe one day this will be readily available in Australia, and mortality rates for pythiosis will be much less.


  Thankyou all for your thoughts, they are greatly appreciated. I know Tommy was an animal, but, grief is grief, and its good that my kids have been able to witness first hand that with animal ownership comes great responsibility, and that you must make decisions that are in the best interest of the animal, and not ourselves.

H

[Miri]

The lace bark tree is certainly a dolled up cousin that i had not taken notice of before (and probably has many similar properties to the kurrajong) and i think the planting of a grove is a great idea. I have thought about planting such trees and other natives (espescially wattles such as Acacia melanoxylon and A. mearnsii....i think but i may have muddled these with the many other names afloat in my mind) in my own grove as a buffer (to traffic sound etc) but also for the hens to be using during free ranging...as they love the seeds, and the native birds can make good use of the tree tops as well.

it is kinda funny that trees offer so much already and after all this in benefit of nature, a figure of solace for ourselves as well. In a abstract sence, they are tall and gracefull, with foliage flowing like mane, and bodies strong, but for carrying of time....one can even imagine the children playing on swings in the branches to be like the student riders eager at commanding the reins.

See Heidi, your story has me reverting into poetry mode .

[Cowdude]

Hi Heidi sorry about you lad, something I have never heard about "swamp cancer" hope I never come across that one! 

CD

[heidi]

Hi CD,
Yep, pythium can also affect cattle, and other livestock, but as they have thicker hides, it is less common to infect them, because the mould needs a small wound, crack, fissure etc, as a point of entry into healthy tissue. This is a pathogen that I think I could've lived my life without knowing about! Mind you, I think I've  lived a pretty good life, when I consider that this is the worst thing I've ever had to deal with.
H.

[snipe67]

Is it common to more horses to get that swamp cancer?
hope it will not happen again to your other horses and my horses too......

sorry again for your loss..

[heidi]

Whilst its not common to get pythium (swamp cancer), it obviously does occur . I had known vaguely about it, but not first hand experience, and I had thought it was something that was easily treatable! I couldn't have been more wrong.
Pythium is a waterborne mould that is endemic to certain warm regions around the world. Certain seasons and circumstances make it more prolific than at other times... for example, the swampy area in our back paddock stayed much wetter than it has been in the past decade because of the May 2009 flood. Equally, the pythium does need a point of entry into the horses flesh, however small, so without that, the pythium is powerless to infect.
Regardless, I have moved the animals around, so that the cattle and sheep are in the back paddock, and the two aged horses are in the dry paddock, being molly coddled through winter. I was paranoid that one of them might get the infection, and got sick  checking them over every day, scared that I had missed a small wound that may have provided entry.
Bye for now,
H.

[Suzie Q]

I am so sorry to hear that Heidi.  You did everything you could and you let him go in peace.  You are a wonderful person.

My old horse also got this.  I used to see him every day and it was not there the day before.  It was there the next day and was the size of an egg, that is how aggressive it is. 

I have seen one once before, but it was already being treated.  It was being treated with arsenic cream, but I  guessed that that was no longer being used.

As Heidi said it is fatal if not treated.  I put Vaseline around it and put bluestone on it.  (copper sulfate), I think I actually did this twice, which you only usually use bluestone once as it is very aggressive and you usually don't want to go beyond the good healthy tissue.  Again Vaseline around it and you can dampen a tissue and tip the bluestone onto that and just press it to the wound.

After the blue stone I applied debrisol.  Debrisol is a spray, that promotes healthy tissue and also eats away proud flesh.  So there was no bandaging or anything just spraying what was now down to skin level.  Fast forward and the hair grew back and you wouldn't have even known he had one unless I told you, but as I said I probably started treating it within 24 hours.

I am telling you this because the shock of seeing that on his leg in less than 24 hours.  Well now you know about it and what to do, so hopefully you won't be as shocked as I was.

The other horse had it on her neck.  Pepper had it on the inside of his hind cannon bone.  It starts of as a wound, which I never saw as the organism enters the wound and is so aggressive that you only see the swamp cancer.  As I said the size and shape of an egg sitting with a pointy side against the leg.  I would have hated to see what had happened if I hadn't found him sooner.

[Miri]

My goodness. I am one of those who simply cannot check the cattle myself (except for mostly every other week), though dad keeps an eye on them (perhaps 1 eye too few). I would imagine most livestock do not receive the kind of attention and looking over as a favourite steed, but none the less they should suffer just as many ailments.
I moved a neighbour's cow and calf slowly from a gully, aware that she was lame and in pain and thinking that the yards would be of respite where she could receive attention. He smiled at my work and duely commented that she had a broken hip and that the calf would be soon switched to a jersey. Only a year earlier, one of my own cows sustained a hind leg injury (looked to be mostly stifle -we couldn't even get her to the yards for the vet) from mating also, and walked in a manner even worse than the broken hipped cow and yet she has come good 100%, though it has taken close to a year. Another time one calf (perhaps trodded on) had some kind of ?spinal injury and could not walk on it's front feet and shuffled about to a small degree on it's stifles, then in a couple of months progressed to it's hocks. As it seemed healthy otherwise and not apparently suffering we just let it go and in months it seemed to make a full recovery.
Then one year (i think after mis vaccinating) we lost 4 of the best vealers to pulpa kidney/black leg? This was virtually instantaneous.
Of course the odds are not so much of a gamble with this swamp cancer so i am much hoping i never come to experience it.

[dorpersheep]

Aww Jeez Heidi I just found this post and read it through....not until the end did I think it was going to end that way.
 
My thoughts are with you, even though it was a little while back now I know it still hurts.
 
We lost Pat (paint yearling I bred) back in February this year and I still cry when I pass the fence we cut to free him before the vet arrived.
It is all still damaged as OH can't/won't go near the spot to replace it.
 
Would be even worse as you had Tommy a lot longer than we had Pat. Give all your others a pat on my behalf.
Have you chosen a tree yet? I think that is a great idea, I think I will definitely put in a tree up where Pat died.

[heidi]

Thanks Dorpersheep,
We did plant a Candle Nut tree over his grave, which is fenced off from the sheep. I got the news one Sunday afternoon that he wasn't going to improve, and so me being me, I had to get it over and done with then and there. (I don't think I could have got through the night knowing what I had to do the next day). Consequently, I didn't really think that much as to the location of his grave, which is in the front paddock that I drive past every single day. It was difficult at first, because I would start out every northbound trip into town crying! However, it has probably helped me be able to think about him and smile rather than sob.

I suppose I do hope that people who own horses become more aware of it pythium and that it really is life or death.

I did read that you lost you yearling in the "Finally" post, and that you had lost another horse as well. I don't think it makes much difference how long you've had an animal, it just matters how much you had bonded with them.

So, anyway, down to two old horses now, my Gypsy, is thirty years old, and I've had her since she was rising 2. She's still in excellent health, good enough teeth and iron hooves, so my vet thinks she'll go another few years yet! She's lived a good life, and really, when it comes time for her to go, or for me to have to make that decision, I know not many horses have had it so good for so long. The other horse, Cobber, was given to my husband to learn to ride on, a great big thoroughbred. I haven't ridden him for a long time, a bit like riding a giraffe!

Thankyou for your kind words,
Bye for now,
H.

[dorpersheep]

Hey Heidi,
this is a pic my 'angels'.
The medicine hat is the first foal we lost (at 10 days old), he was 3 or 4 days old here.
I named him Apache cause he was in the wars right from night #1...
Then when his brother came along he was named Ima Patchee Too, or Pat.
He managed 18 months before he injured the same leg as his brother...
 
Their dam carries a major injury on the same leg too. All caused by fence accidents. I almost think the entire family is predisposed to injuring that leg!!!

[heidi]

Oh, what lovely horses they were! Beautiful markings. Just "not meant to be" doesn't help much does it! Time does heal, for that I'm grateful! These photos of Tommy were taken in his last five minutes or so. You can just see the bandage on his near hind leg (he's resting the wrong one!) He was a good horse, and I think that's the best that anyone can say about a horse!
H

[dorpersheep]

He looks like an absolute sweet heart.
 
Tough decision but down the track you do realise that you've done a wonderful thing freeing them from pain - especially in your bloke's case, he obviously wasn't too fussed about the leg with the problem, right up to the end.
 
RIP Tommy.

[Farmchick]

i can really feel for you.  i get all teary about an animal i have only known for a few weeks so a faithful friend of so many years would be no easier than losing a family member.  only difference is that most people dont understand that you are grieving, and you dont get all the ritual that accompanies human death like the funeral and the after match function and the condolence cards and all that which actually helps you deal with the shock and denial of the event.  people just think, it's just an animal, big deal,  but hopefully through a forum like this you have found like minded people who share your grief.  still thinking of you now these months further down the track.  hope the candlenut grows well: just hope it's nowhere you need to mow! (i heard the nuts are a bit nasty on mower blades...)

[snipe67]

Oh, what lovely horses they were! Beautiful markings. Just "not meant to be" doesn't help much does it! Time does heal, for that I'm grateful! These photos of Tommy were taken in his last five minutes or so. You can just see the bandage on his near hind leg (he's resting the wrong one!) He was a good horse, and I think that's the best that anyone can say about a horse!
H

very cute tommy..^^,
I'm Glad that your recovery is in progress..
Tommy leave those happiest and memorable moments in your life..
have a rest in peace Tommy..