--- In IceHorses@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > or an Icelandic that had a 50+% chance of being miserable half the year > > where did you get this figure? and what makes you say that the disease > is so unmanageable that the horse is guaranteed misery? >
Here is an article that gives this kind of figure for horses who have been out of Iceland for more than two years, apparently it doesn't always show up right away: "The exposure to the biting insect Culicoides spp., seems to be the main risk factor for developing SE after export. For horses that were exported for more than two years ago and living in a known habitat of the responsible insect, the prevalence of SE was as high as 54%" I have seen a horse with pretty bad SE, it is horrible, bloody lesions, the itching drives them crazy. "The characteristics and distribution of the skin lesions was described for 43 of the horses. The most common signs were itching (100%), thickening of the skin (100%), alopecia (97%), excoriation (91%), scale (89%) and wounds (71%). Secondary infections were not described. The symptoms were recorded at the mane (93%), tail (72%), abdomen (30%), head (21%), side (9%) and chest (5%)." http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1513129 I would not feel good about taking this risk, it makes them miserable. I really don't know how they are going to be reasonably comfortable without being kept in the house or without being covered in the hot weather. I'd rather just stick to my domestic horses (I'm glad they were available) and be able to let them be free outside and not have to watch them suffer. Kim
