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Discussion on Coliform contamination
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Member:
Srobert
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Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 6:57 am:
One of the things that convinced us to buy our current property eight years ago was the lovely babbling creek that ran through the property. Great for horses to play in and a very convenient water supply for them as well. We had the water tested then and got the vet okay in terms of safety. Unfortunately, we came very close to losing our coming 4 year old arab this week because someone upstream has apparently decided to use the creek as their own personal sewer.
He had been somewhat “off” for several weeks – but we had attributed it to recent vaccinations to which he had a history of mild reactions. We had to rush him to the vet on Tuesday when I found him standing in the field, head hanging, eyes dull, unwilling to move or eat. He arrived at the vet soaked in sweat, trembling, flanks heaving. Vet was on her way back from farm calls to meet us, but the assistant administered banamine and we got him inside the airconditioned building. When the vet arrived 40 minutes later, his heart rate was over 100. Rectal exam revealed a small amount of FOUL smelling diarrhea. We left him in her capable hands and DrOve away with heavy hearts. Calls from her later than night indicated he was still unwilling to eat although his heart rate had come down to 48. No eating, no passing manure, still very sick. Nasty blood work numbers suggesting kidney weren’t functioning well and that his body was under a lot of stress (don’t have the numbers in front of me but she indicated they were not ones she wanted to see) but liver okay and no systemic infection. She suggested we start looking for toxins in his environment. As a part of that, we took a sample of the water from the creek in for testing and started hauling water from the house for the other two horses.
Long story short, the creek was TEEMING with coliform bacteria (report came back as "too numerous to count"). Since he had been drinking from the creek for years without problem, we assume that this is somewhat of a new development. Our story has a happy ending as Rajah came home last night with a new set of test results that indicated normal results across all parameters (still somewhat anemic but I don’t think I’ll worry much about that based on Dr. O’s article about testing for this). Vet thinks the contamination must be fairly recent because he bounced back so quickly given treatment. However, we are now forced to come up with another way to supply water and are trying to figure out how to get our horses from pasture to pasture without stopping to drink in the creek (they currently just cross it at will).
Morale of the story. If you are using a “natural” water supply, have it tested from time to time as a part of your horse health regimen. Vet believes that the contamination must be fairly new since Raj bounced back so quickly (72 hours). Luckily, there appears to be no permanent damage (other than to our bank balance) and the two older horses were not yet affected (may have been only a matter of time). My daughter is on a mission to find out where the contamination is happening (this was her horse) and is planning to write letters to the newspaper, the EPA, lawmakers, and anyone else who might listen to the fact that this type of contamination almost killed her horse. She plans to take today – her first day off from school – to drive along the creek’s course warning other horse owners about the danger. Unfortunately, there are many people in this area of the US (western Pennsylvania) who have little regard for the environment or what their actions might do to others who share the same resources.
Don't take chances - test your water!
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Member:
Eoeo
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Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 9:49 am:
Can She take water samples as she goes? That would be my thought on how to track it down. If she labels each one as to location and one comes up clean, that would narrow down the location of the culprit. So glad your horse is fine. EO
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 10:43 am:
Do you have any dairy farms nearby, Shari? Have you had lots of rain recently?
We had a deeded spring in Vermont . . . It was the water source for our home for about 200 years. Every spring, the runoff from snow melt, and spring rains ran into the spring which was downhill from a very large dairy barn. The first spring we were there, some of us got terrible stomach pains and diarrhea . . . I didn't want to get dehydrated, so kept drinking water! LOL . . . We drilled a well on our own property and had no more worries, but run-off is my first thought about your stream, and it may be quite unintentional.
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 11:15 am:
I'm so glad your daughter's horse survived o.k. Good thing you "caught" it when you did. Poor thing! I wish your daughter success in tracking this down. I would think if you call EPA they would do most of the work for you. I own a business in NY state and know that in NY the EPA is death on this type of thing. I would think they would be of great help.
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Member:
Srobert
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Posted on Friday, Jun 10, 2005 - 8:51 pm:
These are all great suggestions. Today we walked along the creek and took a closer look. We found all sorts of crayfish dead in the shallows, but couldn't see any live ones. We also noticed the rocks and run in our "rapids" was black with horrible gunk. How did we not notice this sooner??? I feel terrible we allowed our boy to get so sick.
We do have a dairy farm upstream, but they have been there for a long time and there hasn't been any unusual amounts of rain of late. IN fact, it has been rather dry. I also thought about testing the water at intervals to see where the problem might be coming from. Unfortunately, at $35 per test, that gets pretty expensive. So, we are going to contact the EPA as you suggest Sara. I don't have as much faith in them as you do, but at least its a place to start.
My husband was able to put together a pumping system from a spring fed well that is near the barn so we do have a good water source for now. We will have to get creative again during the winter. Thanks for your ideas and support.
By the way, our boy is flying around the pasture with his tail flagged, his nostrils flaring and everything arched (we call this "playing arab"). He is a happy camper again. Thank goodness he is a tough little guy.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 11, 2005 - 8:49 am:
Shari, a permanent solution might be building a series of settling ponds where the creeks enter your property. The idea is to slow the flow of water and give the combination of bacteria and algae time to remove organic and some nonorganic contaminants. As they go down so does the bacteria count. The water moves from pond to pond by a surface drain so any contaminants that are heavier than the water settle out. I am no expert here so talk with your local water experts about whether this might be feasible.
DrO
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Member:
Srobert
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 11, 2005 - 5:46 pm:
Thanks for the suggestion Dr. O. Luckily I have a husband who is pretty handy and he just might be willing to take this on. We would have to check with the local authorities, however, because they get a bit touchy about messing with the natural flow of creeks around here.
My husband happened to strike up a conversation with a gentlemen at the local airshow today who turned out to be the deputy director of an environmental agency in the state (imagine that coincidence). He gave him a name, phone number, and instructions to call on Monday using his name to get some action. So, we will move forward from here. Thanks again for the suggestions and concern.
I can't decide if we have been very unlucky of late (because we have had some serious horse problems) or very lucky (because they have all eventually had positive outcomes)!
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Member:
Bethyg2
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 11, 2005 - 7:22 pm:
Shari-
So glad your horse is OK. If it had been people, the powers that be tend to take it more seriously, imo. Like when some kids here in Fla. all came down with e coli poisoning, it didn't take authorities long to trace it to a petting zoo's goats, it was all on the news for days. Major investigation. When it comes to horses, I doubt the police will be serving search warrants.
Boy, I would be majorly steamed if it were my creek. You and your family could have become ill....hmmm, sometimes a little white lie....maybe a human problem would be more urgent (you didn't hear it from me...)Beth G.
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 11, 2005 - 9:00 pm:
Shari...an airshow? You have a husband that not only likes horses, but airplanes too? Hang on to him!!!
Let us know how you make out with this.
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Member:
Srobert
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 12, 2005 - 6:31 am:
Yep, my husband happens to be a private pilot. He flies search and rescue missions for the civil air patrol. He has his little expensive hobby and I have mine. Now, if we could just find a way to make either one of the profitable!!! I will let you know how things turn out (and I like your idea Beth....hmmm, my stomach HAS been a little upset lately....)
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 12, 2005 - 10:54 am:
Shari - if you ever figure out how to make either flying or horses actually make money, please share your knowledge!!
Good luck with the creek problem.
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Member:
Green007
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Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 10:26 am:
Flying horses. Now THAT would make money.
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 11:54 am:
I can just see them now in their little airline uniforms...or did you mean a la Pegasus?
Ummm, think I've been sniffing too much manure this a.m.
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Member:
Srobert
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Posted on Monday, Jun 13, 2005 - 9:48 pm:
Maybe we could cater to the ultra-rich crowd and provide a luxury airline service for discriminating equines and their owners. Rather than having the horses fly, we would fly them. After all, horses deserve vacations, too! (Maybe we could work something out with Christos and make Greece one of our featured destinations. I know if I were a horse I would want to go there). We would advertise in all the horse magazines about our air conditioned box stalls with complimentary farrier service. We would serve a selection of the finest carrots and apples splashed with champagne (the owners would get the rest of the bottle). We would only use gold-plated manure forks and silver hay racks. I even know a pilot who we could rope into flying for us.....Hey, it could work! I am always amazed at those folks who truly don't seem to know how to spend all of their money. We could help them!! How do you two feel about becoming airline attendants for horses (it can't be anything all that different from what we are already doing here on the ground!!)? Then we would have to wear those uniforms. Of course, it would have to be called Air Pegasus....
Hmmmm.....the manure here must be even more potent that yours Sara- probably due to all that coliform that is still being flushed out....
By the way, everyone here is fine but I am getting tired of hauling water by the bucketful to the front pasture for three horses!!! (They think it's great to have "room service")
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Member:
Green007
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005 - 9:39 am:
"Air Pegasus" is for the champagne and caviar crowd. For the "lowest fare" types that just want to go on a vacation with their horse, we will have "Horseflies" airline...
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005 - 11:01 am:
I, personally, am not sure I want to deal with "that type" of clientele, and I'm sure my horses feel it would be beneath them!
I like the gold and silver manure forks, though. Who needs diamonds when you can have a good manure fork?!
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Member:
Dyduroc
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005 - 12:00 pm:
Please let me know when you're hiring!
D.
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Member:
Mrose
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005 - 2:29 pm:
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