Do you quarantine?

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budley95

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Do you quarantine when a new horse comes onto the yard? Does it depend on where its from and what condition it's in as to how long you quarantine?
Say a livery has just brought a horse off the yards regular instructor? Or at the other end of the spectrum if someone has brought an unhandled youngster in poor condition wih obvious lice with no veiwing and no vetting?

Any opinions as to how long you quarantine for and why - especially if a dealer running a livery yard on the side - would be very much appreciated :)
 
We have a current issue re quarantine at our yard...

A livery had a new horse vetting including blood test for strangles, this came back positive and showed that he was a carrier. The horse was treated and then re blood tested. Unfortuately the vet read the report wrong and told the livery the horse was clear when in fact it was still a carrier. The livery did not know this until the horse had been moved to the yard that i am on. Horse was not put in quarantine and therefore went into stables next to others, shared water troughs etc and has potentially spread the disease to other horses. We are having blood tests done on monday so fingers crossed we will be clear but in my opinion all horses should do 14 days in quarantine regardless of where they have come from.

If the yard owner had insisted on quarantine we would not be in this position and it would only be the one horse that is in isolation.
 
Yes. Only my horses here but I do keep new ones separate.

I've never been on a livery yard that quarantines though, but I can now.
 
I think it's wise to try and keep new horses as separate from existing horses as possible for at least two weeks.

This is usually enough time to make a reasonable assessment of the horse's general health and temperament.

Unfortunately in the case of strangles carriers they don't always have outward signs so could be quarantined and an issue only occur when the horse has been on the yard a number of weeks and introduced to the herd and subsequently passed it on...
 
The yard I'm on does a mandatory quarantine period and a strangles blood test. TBH it's the only yard I have ever been on that has done any form of quarantine
 
I moved to a new livery yard recently. Their policy is to quarantine for 2 weeks. A strangles blood test is done after 10 days. Unfortunately the Animal Health Trust had some problems with processing around 200 samples on the day my horses samples were sent to them and it took over a week to get results instead of the usual couple of days, so we ended up in isolation for almost 3 weeks. A bit of a pain lugging tack etc down to the field each day and we didn't feel like we were a part of the yard during that time, but it passed pretty quickly. A sensible precaution, especially as we are in an area where there have been a number of cases of strangles over the last 8 or 9 months. Unfortuately, there are only a small number of yards in our area who quarantine.
 
New horses I do, unless I know their history, in part also because I refuse to throw new horses into an established group without a settling in period.

True isolation is very hard to achieve unless you have completely separate yards, and handlers practice absolute bio-security. Change clothing, disinfect etc., ideally you would have to have handlers for each isolated horse.

I have to make do with leaving that horse until last, and then trust that owners/visitors don't ignore the "Don't touch this horse, or others" signs. They do. I had one mare in from the States, she had strangles, within a fortnight I had others down with it badly too because stupid people would not obey signs, guess who got the blame? What was I meant to do, post an armed guard? :mad:

I have competition horses here, they go to rodeos/practice etc, come home and go back in their herd, every time they leave they could have picked something up, and if I was fanatical about quarantine they'd spend all their time in isolation. Swings and roundabouts really.
 
Enfys said:
New horses I do, unless I know their history, in part also because I refuse to throw new horses into an established group without a settling in period.

True isolation is very hard to achieve unless you have completely separate yards, and handlers practice absolute bio-security. Change clothing, disinfect etc., ideally you would have to have handlers for each isolated horse.

I have to make do with leaving that horse until last, and then trust that owners/visitors don't ignore the "Don't touch this horse, or others" signs. They do. I had one mare in from the States, she had strangles, within a fortnight I had others down with it badly too because stupid people would not obey signs, guess who got the blame? What was I meant to do, post an armed guard? :mad:

I have competition horses here, they go to rodeos/practice etc, come home and go back in their herd, every time they leave they could have picked something up, and if I was fanatical about quarantine they'd spend all their time in isolation. Swings and roundabouts really.
Click to expand...

^this.
In the past I've been to look at yards who require a two-week quaratine and have then been quite surprised what that "quarantine" entailed! One yard offered me a stable that was on the walkway to the field which meant that every single horse would have passed within touching distance of mine twice a day during quarantine!! Another yard had an american barn set up so my horse would have had direct contact with long-term residents during the quarantine. Unless it's done properly and thoroughly then it's not worth it for the purposes of preventing infection.
 
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