Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh strangles!

[aimeetb]

Its seems that there have been a couple of confirmed strangles break outs in the area.

We had someone come looking round the yard the other day with a view to moving their horse to us, they liked it and arranged a date to move, just after one of the other liveries found out that these people had their horses at one of the yards where strangles had been tested for and was waiting to be confirmed

Why would someone go to another yard and arrange moving their horses when they know (found out later they do know) that strangles is suspected!? It makes me so mad!

We have soo many babies on the yard mines not quite a yearling yet! The livery that found out told the yard owners and they have stopped them from moving for now.

As its around, should I get my baby vaccinated, I heard that a vaccine that was made a few years ago turned out to be ineffective, is the recent one any better?? I was thinking about having her done with a dead vaccine (if there is still a choice) so that if she does get it it would minimise the symptoms. I have reservations about a live form of the illness just incase!

What do you guys think??

xx

 

[ImogenBurrows]

THere is no vaccine.

There was on but as it turned out there were many breakthroughs of strangles cases despite vaccination and also there were a lot of reactions as the vaccination was done in the mucous membrane on the inside of the upper lip (swollen lips; off feed; resentment to vaccination and psuedo strangles episodes).

There has been no replacement launched as yet.

HTH

Imogen

 

[Sam22]

The strangles vaccine was re-launched in the UK by intervet in Oct 2010 and is now available. I am not sure if it dead or alive but it is the only one available so you don't have a choice. As it has only been around for a very short time it has not yet been thoroughly tested in practice but this kind of situation is exactly what it is perfect for. Immunity is not aquired until they have had 2 injections which should be 4 weeks apart. Immunity lasts for 3 months after the second injection. Ask your vet about it and maybe others on the yard will want to have it too. The is some complication with diagnosis once vaccines have been given which you should discuss with your vet.

 

[ImogenBurrows]

The strangles vaccine was re-launched in the UK by intervet in Oct 2010 and is now available. I am not sure if it dead or alive but it is the only one available so you don't have a choice. As it has only been around for a very short time it has not yet been thoroughly tested in practice but this kind of situation is exactly what it is perfect for. Immunity is not aquired until they have had 2 injections which should be 4 weeks apart. Immunity lasts for 3 months after the second injection. Ask your vet about it and maybe others on the yard will want to have it too. The is some complication with diagnosis once vaccines have been given which you should discuss with your vet.

Ah - I stand corrected and as we have had no info press regarding this so far I shall take it up with the other vets at our clinic too!!

Ah having done some reading I can only find that a Swedish company have had success with a pure recombinant DNA vacc (not using actual bacteria so not live) but I can find no where that says it is commerically available....that report was oct 2010...any one any more info?

Oh wait - hidden I found intervet have relaunched StrepE vaccine - it's the same as the first (but safer apparently - I'd poss still have reservations and may be tempted to wait....but it is around apparently. It is a live vaccine.

HTH

I'm still confused though! Whay are they not making lots of noise about the relaunch??

 

[alsiola]

I'm still confused though! Whay are they not making lots of noise about the relaunch??

They started to - around July/August last year they sent flyers about free Strangles CPD days, but these never materialised. Haven't heard anything since, and we aren't carrying the new vaccine atm. Not even sure it has even made it to market. Don't know why.

 

[aimeetb]

Thanks all,

I am concerned, our yard is now closed to outsiders but we do have a right of way through a couple of fields so not completely closed. I will have a chat with the vet, I just want to protect her. Thank you all for your time looking into it.

xxxx

 

[Baileyhoss]

I am fairly sure that you can close a right of way to stop the spread of disease. Not sure what the rules are for England, but might be worth checking with the Council or DEFRA.

http://www.newc.co.uk/advice/docume...df?PHPSESSID=8516f3133977315134e21edce01306ff

 

[aimeetb]

Thanks Baileyhoss, I'll def look into that! xx

 

[MochaDun]

We have it in our area at some yards at the moment and I was horrified to spot an ad in the local freebie paper from someone with an uninfected horse at a yard looking for somewhere to go so they could get off the yard to continue PC competing in the spring/summer...even though they were looking for somewhere they could be in isolation I thought the whole point was it was a total lock-down with horses not going anywhere once there are cases at one location?

Sometimes I think part of the problem with strangles hanging around for so long is that measures just aren't followed as thoroughly or correctly as they should be (that was a very useful link from the Redwings site)..although I know it's a complicated bug to shift for a while.

 

[aimeetb]

Exactly, I just wished people thought a bit more about it. If it was on our yard I wouldn't dream of going anywhere near other yards, you dont know what you're carrying on your clothes not least what your horse is carrying, its just unbelieveable!

When my baby had warts (totally harmless) I refused to touch any other horse or share anything and when I moved stables i scrubbed it top to bottom 3 times with the pink anti viral stuff from the vets! Just to be sure, it wouldnt hurt them put I dont want to pass things around!

What area are you in if you dont mind saying? xx

 

[MochaDun]

Exactly, I just wished people thought a bit more about it. If it was on our yard I wouldn't dream of going anywhere near other yards, you dont know what you're carrying on your clothes not least what your horse is carrying, its just unbelieveable!

When my baby had warts (totally harmless) I refused to touch any other horse or share anything and when I moved stables i scrubbed it top to bottom 3 times with the pink anti viral stuff from the vets! Just to be sure, it wouldnt hurt them put I dont want to pass things around!

What area are you in if you dont mind saying? xx

Do you mean me Aimee or someone else higher up the thread? If it's me, I'm north of Bristol area.

 

[Mike007]

With regard to the spread of strangles, as with so many things in the horse world ,people get hysterical and loose sight of the true situation. Yes ,if my horse was possibly carrying strangles I would avoid all contact, and keep a good distance from other yards and horsey areas, but I certainly wouldnt stay at home and not exercise. Which is the more likely mode of transmission? My horse who is showing no symptoms wandering down a track in the fresh air ! Or the vet who has been handling the horse that IS actively snotting. Or even the vet that has missdiagnosed strangles as somthing else,then continues on his round!.

 

[ImogenBurrows]

They started to - around July/August last year they sent flyers about free Strangles CPD days, but these never materialised. Haven't heard anything since, and we aren't carrying the new vaccine atm. Not even sure it has even made it to market. Don't know why.

Spoke to my boss you received the latest update re vaccination last week at aa meeting. Apparently the StrepE intervet vaccinae is due for release this month again - having solved the stability issues, for which it was withdrawn from the market. The rest of the concerns appear to be unfounded (?) as the vaccine remains unchanged I believe.

HTH
Imogen

 

[aimeetb]

Do you mean me Aimee or someone else higher up the thread? If it's me, I'm north of Bristol area.

Yes, sorry, I did mean you, just wondered where else it had been confirmed. I'm sure all of them will be fine as long as we are just careful.

xx

 

[aimeetb]

With regard to the spread of strangles, as with so many things in the horse world ,people get hysterical and loose sight of the true situation. Yes ,if my horse was possibly carrying strangles I would avoid all contact, and keep a good distance from other yards and horsey areas, but I certainly wouldnt stay at home and not exercise. Which is the more likely mode of transmission? My horse who is showing no symptoms wandering down a track in the fresh air ! Or the vet who has been handling the horse that IS actively snotting. Or even the vet that has missdiagnosed strangles as somthing else,then continues on his round!.

Mike, I totally appreciate your point, I am probably one of the people that gets hysterical! Absolutely the more likely mode is the people handling the actual infected horses and of course, unfortunately, accidents can happen, vets, passers by wanting to pet the animals etc but as caring and conciensous (sp) owners we should do everything we can to control the spread.

I just think if you are at a yard where strangles is suspected even if your animal is not showing any signs (the incubation period is a few weeks so you may be carrying the infection and not know) it's not too much of a hasstle to keep to your yard for a few weeks until its over with as a courtesy to other horses and their owners. At the end of the day, a few weeks of mild inconvenience to a few owners could save alot of people alot of money, stress and upset and save alot of horses being so ill and occaionally death with such a horrible infection.

I do appreciate that walking out in the fresh air and not coming into contact with anything isnt a problem, as I say I probably am one of the hysterical ones so I'd be worried just incase we did touch anything whilst out and about.

xx

 

[Mike007]

Mike, I totally appreciate your point, I am probably one of the people that gets hysterical! Absolutely the more likely mode is the people handling the actual infected horses and of course, unfortunately, accidents can happen, vets, passers by wanting to pet the animals etc but as caring and conciensous (sp) owners we should do everything we can to control the spread.

I just think if you are at a yard where strangles is suspected even if your animal is not showing any signs (the incubation period is a few weeks so you may be carrying the infection and not know) it's not too much of a hasstle to keep to your yard for a few weeks until its over with as a courtesy to other horses and their owners. At the end of the day, a few weeks of mild inconvenience to a few owners could save alot of people alot of money, stress and upset and save alot of horses being so ill and occaionally death with such a horrible infection.

I do appreciate that walking out in the fresh air and not coming into contact with anything isnt a problem, as I say I probably am one of the hysterical ones so I'd be worried just incase we did touch anything whilst out and about.

xx

Your concern does you credit ,but the thing you have to realise is that strangles is pretty well endemic these days (certainly in the more equine populated areas) . And while a concientious yard might shut down and sit it out, the problem is that it came to them from somewhere and will probably therefore do so again regardless. I do not advocate turning a blind eye to the situation,far from it. I think all yards should take reasonable and realistic precautions ALL THE TIME. It horrifies me when I see on a sponsored ride ,horses drinking from a trough ,and taking in the backwash from several hundred other horses. How often do people disinfect horseboxes, etc etc. There is a trade off betwean the health and sanity of the horses and safety of riders by keeping them properly exercised , and the rather dubious (my opinion) benefits of a flawed attempt of total segregation.

 

[aimeetb]

Your concern does you credit ,but the thing you have to realise is that strangles is pretty well endemic these days (certainly in the more equine populated areas) . And while a concientious yard might shut down and sit it out, the problem is that it came to them from somewhere and will probably therefore do so again regardless. I do not advocate turning a blind eye to the situation,far from it. I think all yards should take reasonable and realistic precautions ALL THE TIME. It horrifies me when I see on a sponsored ride ,horses drinking from a trough ,and taking in the backwash from several hundred other horses. How often do people disinfect horseboxes, etc etc. There is a trade off betwean the health and sanity of the horses and safety of riders by keeping them properly exercised , and the rather dubious (my opinion) benefits of a flawed attempt of total segregation.

You are right, you cant stop all contamination, as you say, you cant completely segregate, it would do no one any good, horse or human and I totally agree, the sharring of water at these public events is beyond me and just asking for trouble! It just really angers me when people who knowingly have these illnesses on their yards try and escape all too late and risk passing it on to another set of horses. Unfortunately, I tend to think its more to do with ignorance than maliciousness.

Obviously you have a good balance where as I think I am mildly insane! LOL

 

[MochaDun]

Your concern does you credit ,but the thing you have to realise is that strangles is pretty well endemic these days (certainly in the more equine populated areas) . And while a concientious yard might shut down and sit it out, the problem is that it came to them from somewhere and will probably therefore do so again regardless. I do not advocate turning a blind eye to the situation,far from it. I think all yards should take reasonable and realistic precautions ALL THE TIME. It horrifies me when I see on a sponsored ride ,horses drinking from a trough ,and taking in the backwash from several hundred other horses. How often do people disinfect horseboxes, etc etc. There is a trade off betwean the health and sanity of the horses and safety of riders by keeping them properly exercised , and the rather dubious (my opinion) benefits of a flawed attempt of total segregation.

Mike I do see the sensible approach of where you're coming from but I think it depends on the location and situation in some circumstances. Our yard backs straight onto a restricted byway, most of the local horses from a variety of livery yards and private owners in the area use this byway, in places it is no more than 5 feet across if that, as we pass other horseriders all of us are well within nose touching distance of another horse should they attempt to greet each other. At the far end of the byway there are also 2 very small private yards where the horses look over their gates onto the track...easy enough for transmission to take place if a horse stops to greet another.

 

[Mike007]

Not an ideal situation ,I can see the problem . But also remember that by the time a case has been identified , All the horses down that byeway will probably have been exposed . Or at least the posibility will be great enough to consider that all the horses should be treated as infected.Ask yourself if realisticly that is going to happen?Also,what if one of them is a carrier and gave it to your yard . It can all become very complicated very quickly. Now strangles has been about for a long time and we cope with it to a large extent because most horses have some immunity. What really scares me are the "exotic " horse diseases that are moving north due to global warming. We all need to be thinking about this possibility now rather than when it is too late.

 

[orionstar]

When I was doing my BHS stage 2, the owner and instructor of the course bought a house from a dealer who has endemic strangles in his horses. I had just brought a 6 month old colt and she was quite nasty to me, when I said for the foals health I would not be finishing my exam course at her yard! I couldnt comprehend how she didnt understand that even though she had quaranteened the horse, it was still in the middle of the yard and i wasnt risking it. Last year I was astonished to see someone competing at affiliated showjumping from a yard that had strangles. It never ceases to amaze me when people are so ignorant!

 

[xxMozlarxx]

When I was doing my BHS stage 2, the owner and instructor of the course bought a house from a dealer who has endemic strangles in his horses. I had just brought a 6 month old colt and she was quite nasty to me, when I said for the foals health I would not be finishing my exam course at her yard! I couldnt comprehend how she didnt understand that even though she had quaranteened the horse, it was still in the middle of the yard and i wasnt risking it. Last year I was astonished to see someone competing at affiliated showjumping from a yard that had strangles. It never ceases to amaze me when people are so ignorant!

How would it affect you? The horse was quarantined so you would have no direct contact with it? Its not an airborne disease, you would need to have snot on you then put it to your horses nose........ get real.
Im saying this as we have had strangles on the yard, neither of my horses got it as they dont come into contact with the horses that did. The only horses that got it were in direct living nose to nose contact.
In reality the chances of your foal getting strangles was negligible.