WA Horse Deaths a Mystery

 

The Department of Agriculture of Western Australia is investigating the sudden deaths of four horses that died unexpectedly last week, over a period of six days, on a property in Margaret River.

Dr Rupert Mothersole, the attending vet, is baffled about the cause.

"We have had to rule out snake bites based on the blood results and the post mortem results," he told abc.net.au. 

"We consider botulism to be reasonably high on the diagnostic list, salmonella would possibly explain it as well, but apart from those two diagnoses, we really don't have a lot of ideas as to what exactly would be causing those deaths."

Initial symptoms of the rapidly progressing illness involve sweating, depression, muscle tremors and difficulty breathing, but with no fever.

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