Horse owners and veterinarians across the province are on high alert with a rise in Potomac horse fever across Alberta.

Fever, diarrhea and colic are among the symptoms that many horses across the province have been suffering from.

Sue McIntosh is the owner and a counsellor at Healing Hooves in Cremona and she says that the gastrointestinal disease hasn't been a common illness in our province until recently.

"It's not usually a problem here in Alberta," says McIntosh. "But this year there's been a significant number of cases and some horses lost to it as well, so its something we have to watch out for."

The bacterial infection is most commonly seen in places with warmer climates, and it's believed to be caused by horses consuming water insects, snails and slugs in standing water, hay or grass.

McIntosh recently had a scare with her 13-year-old horse Finnegan, who came down with Potomac. She says that Finnegan's behaviour was off and she knew that something was up.

"I just noticed that he was a little off, lower energy than normal and then one morning he didn't want to eat, that was a red flag for me that there was a problem," says Mcintosh." That's When we got him to the vet, and as we were actually loading him into the trailer to get him into the vet that's when we noticed the diarrhea and realized that it really was serious."

Fever, diarrhea, loss of appetite and colic are among the most common symptoms that infected horses across the province have been displaying. However, Mcintosh says that Finnegan didn't have all of these symptoms.

"Finnegan did have a little bit of a cough which we were concerned about, but normally they have a fever and he didn't have a fever, so that was a little confusing," says McIntosh.

Finnegan was in critical care for three days. He was receiving fluids by IV and put in ice boots. Fortunately, McIntosh says that his treatment was effective and he's now doing great.

Thirty per cent of horses infected by Potomac however aren't as lucky. McIntosh says that if you notice that your horse is out of sorts, and displaying any of the related symptoms to head to an animal hospital.