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SIERRA VISTA — Thursday morning Annette Gerhardt discovered that two of her horses were sick with what appeared to be colic.
“They were lethargic, disinterested in their feed and acted uncomfortable,” said Gerhardt, a longtime horse owner who breeds Rocky Mountain gaited horses. “I did what veterinarians recommend for horses with colic; I gave them banamine injections to make them comfortable and I watched them carefully.”
But on Friday when it was obvious the two were getting worse, Gerhardt loaded them into a trailer and hauled the sick animals to All Creatures Veterinary Service in Benson, seeking the help of a veterinarian and more aggressive treatment than she could give at home.
But it was too late.
 Photo of blister beetles courtesy of Texas A&M University Cooperative Extension |
Despite around the clock infusion with intravenious fluids and viligent monitoring through the night, the filly named Sedona died Friday evening and the mare named Mandy died Sunday morning.
Both horses, according to veterinarian Nancy Leveranz and her associate Debra Tibbits, died of blister beetle poisoning.
The blister beetle is an insect that carries a poisonous substance that can be fatal to horses. The beetles are attracted to the blooms of flowering alfalfa plants, so hay is especially vulnerable to contamination when mowing is done during a time when the beetles are swarming around alfalfa blooms.
More than 30 dead beetles were found in one flake of hay that Gerhardt had fed her horses Wednesday evening. The hay, a blend of orchard grass, oat grass, Bermuda grass and alfalfa, was purchased from a grower in McNeal, someone Gerhardt says is “a good friend who had assured her the hay was blister beetle free.”
Leveranz said, “Historically, people have talked about blister beetles in hay from the Elfrida area. I came here 15 years ago, and we don’t see blister beetle poisoning that often. With Annette’s two horses, I’ve only seen seven horses and of those, saved one.”
The other five horses were seen three years ago. Like Gerhardt’s situation, all five were from the same barn.
The giveaway in diagnosing Gerhardt’s two horses, Leveranz said, was there were two sick animals with the same colic-like symptoms. Once she started asking questions about what Gerhardt had been feeding her horses, the veterinarian recommended drawing blood to check for symptoms of blister beetle poisoning.
“In horses, the kidney function increases and the calcium level decreases,” the veterinarian said. “The beetles cause sores in the animal’s mucosa, so sometimes you see lesions in the mouth.” Horses will slobber in their water as they try to find relief from the blisters and burning sensation in their mouth.
Leveranz, who purchases her hay from an out-of-state supplier, said feed stores in the area do not purchase their hay locally.
“I don’t see how people can guarantee hay as blister beetle free,” Leveranz said. “It doesn’t take very many beetles to make a horse sick, and since the beetles swarm, they could be in one small area of the hay, while the rest of the hay is fine.”
The toxin present in the beetles is cantharidin. It is extremely stable and remains toxic even in dead, dried up beetles, as was the case in Gerhardt’s hay. Therefore, it’s possible for animals to be poisoned by ingesting dead beetles, or even parts of beetles, in hay that has been cut and baled much earlier in the year.
Canthardin, which is abosrbed through the intestine, can cause such symptoms as skin inflammation and blisters, colic, straining to urinate, diarrhea, elevated temperature, depression, dehydration, sweating, tremors and increased heart rate.
“My first horse died within 48 hours, and my second horse died within 72 hours,” Gerhardt said. “These were beautiful, sweet animals that just didn’t stand a chance against this horrible insect. A very small amount of blister beetle material can be lethal to a horse.”
Gerhardt says she hopes the ordeal she endured with her two horses will help others.
“If the horrible example of what happened to my horses will save even one horse, then I want this story out,” she said. “Newcomers to this area need to know about this problem. People need to know and be aware so they can protect their horses.”
Gerhardt has several other horses that she is continuing to watch. She and her husband, Glenn Gerhardt, plan to burn the hay they purchased to prevent it from harming other horses.
Herald/Review reporter Dana Cole can be reached at 515-4618 or by e-mail at dana.cole@svherald.com.
How to deal with this bad bug
• Learn to identify blister beetles. Pull individual flakes of hay apart and inspect the hay before feeding.
• The beetles swarm and mate in late summer. Therefore, first cutting hay is safer to feed than hay cut late in the year.
• Cut alfalfa before it reaches the full bloom stage. Also, reduce the number of flowering weeds in the hay field. Remember that blister beetles are attracted to flowers.
• Modify hay harvesting methods. Crimping traps the beetles in the hay, whereas mowing without crimping allows the beetles to escape from the cut hay before baling. Use a method that allows the hay swath to be straddled by the tractor so that the beetles aren’t crushed and then baled into the hay.
• Consider using insecticides to control the blister beetle population as well as the grasshoppers that beetle larvae feed on.
— ASPCA National Poison Control Center
New Yorker wrote on Nov 2, 2007 6:58 PM: