HELP - Strangles!

[Horsenonsense]

Hi, I am looking for some urgent advice.

Horse is ill, vets been out and strangles is strongly suspected, bloods have been taken and am awaiting results.
I have good advice from vet from a treatment perspective and have fully researched strangles so I know the complications etc.

What I am looking for advice on is what the hell do you do if you have to leave yard you are at?
Also, I know that once they are well, most horses continue to shed the bacteria for a short while afterwards, but in about 10% of cases the horse becomes a carrier.

Now understanderbly so, no livery yard is going to allow you in, or let you stay with a carrier.

Has this ever happened to anyone? How did you deal with the problem?

I guess what I am worried about is I could get told to leave current yard and quickly, I have to have a back up plan.
I am doubtful that the dealer who sold the horse to me will take it back (this horse developed full blown strangles symptoms on day 4 of ownership!!!!), and really they should take it back as I believe its not sold fit for purpose.

So worst case is, dealer wont take it back, and current YO puts me out - what are my options? I do not want to be backed into a corner whereby I have to put this horse down as I've no where to go, that would be so unfair on the horse after going through what they have been through.

There's gotta be owners of carriers out there...............

 

[JenHunt]

My friend's horse got 3 bouts of strangles in 8 months, and is now a carrier. She looked around, found a little yard with only 4 other owners. She was brutally honest with them, told them the risks, got her vet to help explain to one woman, and moved in. Shadow has never been happier, and none of the others have even shown any signs of poor health, never mind strangles.

Chin up, fingers crossed, I'm sure it'll all be fine soon.

 

[Horsenonsense]

Wow! She's a very lucky friend of yours, I just dont see many folk being so understanding.
I know a wee acre or 2 field would do once she's better with no other horses, have another of my own and I could vaccinate her to keep her company.
But land is just so hard to find in my area, almost impossible in fact, and as soon as you mention strangles, its feck off!

I feel in such a desperate situation, and for all the information on the internet, not one bit of info telling you how to deal with a long term carrier problem, just information telling you that they exist.

 

[Crazy Friesian]

Strangles is not a death sentance, a pain in the butt, but not a death sentance!

It is not GUARANTEED that horses will get Strangles. Most have a natural immunity to it. I had my old horse at a livery yard and came into contact with horses every day on that subsequently had Strangles. My horse did not come down with it, neither did my ponies that I kept in a seperate field and saw every day. That yard had about 200 horses on it. Only a SMALL fraction of the horses came down with it.

Another time I bought a foal (Pan) - from a stud. I took one of my ponies (Mags) as a travelling companion. That day Mags (inadvertantly) came into contact with my old boy and then the other 2. 24 hours after arriving at my fields it was very clear that Pan had Strangles which then went on to produce abcesses that took 2 lots of antibiotics and 3 months to clear.

It would be unusual for your horse to become a carrier.

I am not for a second suggesting that Strangles should be taken lightly but there seems to be a little bit of "over hysteria" connected to this pain in the butt condition!

 

[Venive_Beach]

Dealer has no real reason to take her back, please dont call your horse an it, plus the stress of travelling/moving to a new home could have bought it on, i've known this happen, maybe she had been in the same stable/horse box one with the bacteria for strangles and no-one knew, the only way you have any real case is if the horse had it full blown when she came to you.

 

[legaldancer]

VB, I don't think she's identified the horse as a mare or gelding.

 

[beckiebeckyboo]

my mare caught strangles on the boat over from ireland, took her 6 months to get over it properly. livery yard i was at was brilliant. said wasnt my fault and we would just have to deal with it. 40+ horses on the yard. some of the other liveries werent quite so nice though! but yo told them it could of happened to anyone and i didnt take her there on purpose! she was 4 at the time she now 10 and grade a and has had no lasting effects she travels to county shows etc and last year went on the sunshine tour. so definatly no death sentence just an inconvienience at the time and i felt so sorry for her as she looked so sad and lost a lot of weight. correct vetinary treatment is a must though.
good luck to both of you

 

[JANANI]

Don't panic. There is normally no ill effects and most yards have it at some stage. The yard I was in years ago had it and my mare had a bit of an reaction (other symptoms except abcess)but not full blown strangles. Years later I found out she had strangles when she was two. The older horses were amune to it and only the younger horses taking a reaction.

 

[minesadouble]

Firstly - could be wrong - but am pretty sure the chance the horse would become a carrier is less than 10% .

Secondly should the worst happen and horse was a carrier there is an op the vets can do - I have known 1 horse that had this op and succsessfully cleared horse of the virus but the after-effects of the op were not pretty and were long term. The horse could still work as normal but had bad nasal discharge for more than a year after the op.

If a horse is a carrier realistically unless you have facilities to keep the horse in isolation and said horse was happy to live this way the only other option is PTS.

Don't want to scaremonger though as I have known an awful lot of horses contract strangles over my 30+ years in horses but only ever known one carrier.

But lets hope it's not strangles - yard near us had suspected strangles but tests all came back negative and was a different virus. Fingers crossed for you!

 

[Hippona]

Our yard had strangles a few years ago- most but not all the horses got it.

When they were well we swabbed ALL the horses on the yard 3 times ( that was pricey- I've got 3)......all were clear, none were carriers.

Your YO shouldn't ask you to leave whilst strangles is present.

When we had strangles 2 liveries were given to notice to leave for various reasons but YO told them they could only leave AFTER their horses had swabbed clear. YO would bget a very rep for booting an infected horse onto another yard, and you would be lucky to find anyone who would knowingly take a horse with strangles onto the yard as it effectively shuts the yard down until its all cleared.

2 of mine were bad, one only very mild- all made a full recovery with no ill-effects. ( in fact- the shettie lost a load of weight and we then managed to keep it off her...always a silver lining eh?

)

 

[Doublethyme]

I'd be surprised if any responsible yard owner would chuck you out because a horse had strangles, to me that's just being irresponsible to the rest of the horse population and would I imagine be frowned upon by the vets.

My advice, don't panic, but please please be totally honest and up front with your yard owner. The bad feeling tends to only occur when people don't keep others informed.

My understanding was that if a horse still had the virus in its guttural pouches after the treatment had ended, then it could be flushed with antibiotics, retested and this continues until the horse is tested clear. Most horses can be cleared in this way was my take on the disease, but I could be wrong.

Certainly that is what happened to a friend's little mare recently, who was immediately put in quarantine and none of the others horses caught the virus.

 

[xnaughtybutnicex]

Don't worry, it will be OK. I've seen a lot of horses with strangles (on a big yard with a riding school that buys horses from dealers yards) and I've seen one die from bastard strangles - all others got better.

I doubt the YO will chuck you out but may put your horse in quarentine and ask you to stay away from all other horses.

It is unlikely that the dealer will take the horse back, they probably didn't know the horse had strangles and I doubt you could prove otherwise. It's not like the horse has a broken leg, it will get better. It's inconvinient but your horse will be fine.

 

[ollierdog]

Hey 3 years ago i took my horse out hunting on boxing day 3 days later she came down with strangles,after a week 12 of the 25 horses on the yard had come down with it,only 2 had absess mine and another all the others had mild symptoms, 8 weeks later she developed bastard strangles and her body and legs swelled up,vet told me only case hed seen had died and it wasnt looking good

as a last resort we tried steriod tablets starting on 100 a day after a year of steriod tablets gradually reducing by 2 a week she eventually got the all clear,all in all it took a 1 year and a half for her 2 recover!
She is now the first living case in the surgeryand is back whippng in out hunting and showjumping! Try not to worry too much all the other horses in the yard recoverd very quickly,sure your YO will not ask you to leave mine was very very good! Hope your horse is better soon!

 

[aduffield]

I had a 3 yr old get it some years ago. He caught it off another horse as he hadn't been anywhere. He was really ill and we thought he would die. He had a temp of 104 for 4 days and went from well covered to a skeleton in 4 days. He did recover and grew 3 inches in the next 3 months. Old saying says horses are better for having had strangles as it makes them stronger. The virus we had in our area at that time was very viralent, it got onto a point to point yard and 3 died of bastard strangles. My vet didn't believe in giving anti biotics as said stopped the abcesses from forming and Bitts had 3 whooping ones but as soon as they formed and burst, you could watch him get better. Just remember really good hygene strangles is infectious but usually from nose to nose or bad hygene .

 

[PeterNatt]

As regards the dealer you can of course return the horse to the dealer. The fact he did not know it had strangles is not the point. It had Strangles end of story. The horse has to be fit for purpose.

 

[LadyRascasse]

This happened to me, the best thing you can do is speak to you vets about the ins and outs of strangles, then speak to your yard owner about putting a strict hygiene procedure in place. isolate your horse as best you can from the rest of the horses and disinfect everything. don't touch other peoples horses unless you absolutely have to, and disinfect yourself between horses. we did this and only my mare got it on a yard of 25 horses.