Needlebone

Needlebone is a fatal bone wasting disease that affects Shardrecks, often just called a drecks. in the Western Cresshar region. Drecks suffering from the condition have no intial symptoms. Eventually, the disease progesses when their bones become so weak that they can no longer support their enormous mass; they shatter leaving the suffering imobile dreck to starve.

Transmission & Vectors

The transmission of Needlebone is not known. It does appear to be mildly contagious, if one Dreck in a villages suffers from it, most liekly the rest of the Drecks will perish too.

Causes

It is not known for sure what causes the disease. However, Barsaminic scholars suspect that the cause is small spirits that invade the gut of the Dreck. These spirits feast on the Drecks food and cause the wasting. After dissecting a Dreck that suffered from the illness, Scholars have found small white calcifications the size of fine sand grains that they claim are the skeletons of the parasitic spirits.

Symptoms

Initially there are not many visible symptoms, some Drecks seem to be slightly more prone to sprains and going lame in a foot. Farmers have noticed that Drecks that passed away from natural causes and were in the initial stages of infection has reduced bone mass and micro fractures in their bones.
The first visible sign of illness is a major break in one of the bones of its six legs. Some of these initial fracture occasionally are a complete shattering of a bone, especially if the Dreck was working hard at the time of injury. Drecks often can recover from a fracture in one leg. However, Drecks with Needlebone soon suffer another major fracture in another leg. If left undealt with, a Drecks bones keep fracturing leading to a extremely painful death.

Treatment

There is no treatment for Needlebone. A farmer or owner who suspects a dreck is suffering keeps the animal as comfortable. If the animal breaks a leg it is kept comfortable in the hopes that it will heal, one broken leg is not a conclusive diagnosis of Needlebone. Once the dreck breaks another leg, the owner is left with little choice except to humanly euthanize the animal.

Hosts & Carriers

The disease is caused by a patristic life form that lives in the gut depleting the Dreck of calcium. The parisite is communal with a coastal Pahar species. The pariste reproduces asexually when in the wild; however when eaten by the Pahar, the parisite reproduces sexually.The parisite can't survive long without contact with the Pahar; thus the disease is limited to the eastern cresshar coast, where the pahar is present but not super common.

Prevention

There is little that can be done to prevent the disease. Once on dreck is know to be suffering, the nearby dreck are almost certainly already infected. This often leads to whole heards of dreck being culled once one is known to be infected.

Epidemiology

Needleborne Paracitic Spirit by Unknown (CC0)

The disease does seem to be geographically bound and the major reason why, Northern Shadcress and the Yenishar Coast don't have Dreck. Eastern Cresshar is the only place where the disease is prevalent, mainly because it is sporadic enough to make owning a dreck beneficial despite the increased rick of having to euthanize it.

Type

Parasitic

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Common

Affected Species

• Shardreck

Needlebone wasting by unknown (CC0)