Monday, October 01, 2007

Equine Influenza

warning..rant about to happen.



It's now been 6 weeks since the first outbreak of this EI epidemic. Only now have horses started receiving vaccinations - but who's been getting them? Geez predominantly racehorses, so that racing can go on - the mighty punter will prevail to ensure the government stops losing more money out of gambling coffers...



The information from the DPI is frankly scant and inaccurate - you try and keep as updated as possible, but they don't report the real truths - the amount of horses that are dying from secondary complications, things like colic and pneumonia. Mares are aborting foals, foals are dying. And who has to foot the bill for all of the treatment? the hapless owners. As if we don't have enough vet bills to contend with on a regular basis.



Now I just sit and wait until my horse gets EI which should be..ooh, roughly in the next few weeks given the rapid spread - it's marching southwards, and gee, we just happened to sit in the shire above the buffer zone. Not that the buffer zone is much of a buffer zone - 300 horses near Mittagong - out of how many thousands.. like that's going to stop any spread further South? Doh.

1 comment:

Sienna said...

We don't have it anywhere near us yet. We have about 20 horses, so let's hope we don't get it too! We've lost 2 kids ponies in 12 months already! My fingers are crossed for you mate.