Monday, March 23, 2009

Horse From High Wycombe Allergic To Grass

Pandora a thoroughbred mare is suffering from an almost unheard of complaint - she is allergic to grass. The five-year-old spends her life encased in a specially designed high-tech coverall which means she has the freedom to go outside.

Otherwise, she would have to spend her life locked away.

Owner Emily Pearce, 24, first discovered the problem when Pandora developed a large itchy lump on her stomach at her stables in High WycombeBuckinghamshire.

The lump grew and soon there were more lumps spreading elsewhere; despite treatment, the horse was in constant distress.

She was given steroids but they did nothing to help.

After numerous tests, it was discovered that poor Pandora was allergic to every type of grass.

Pandora's fond owner says her horse is now fed with a special diet of sugar beet chaff and soya oil, as with as more than a dozen anti-histamine tablets a day.

"She does look silly, but it is the only thing that helps her," Ms Pearce told the Daily Mail.

The condition is extremely unusual, a vet who specialises in equine care told Sky News Online.

"Horses' entire digestive systems have been geared towards grass for thousands of years so it is almost unheard of for something like this to happen.

"If they have a skin allergy reaction, the natural treatment is steroid injections and the majority of horses respond well to them.

"In the extremely unlikely event of that failing, we'd do an intra-derma skin test and then develop a vaccine made up of a dose of the allergens and we'd expect that to sort the problem out."

But what if the allergy cannot be controlled?

"It depends on the horse's quality of life," he says.

Άλογο με αλλεργία... στο γρασίδι

"A bad allergy could affect the horse's behaviour. If it were frantic with discomfort and itching then the irritation could increase aggression. In that case the owner might seriously think about putting it down.

"If it's just an aesthetic reaction, then it's something everyone can learn to live with - as long as it's kept away from grass for the rest of life."

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