Prospective horse has tested +ve for strangles....what to do?

[Oldernewbie]

So after searching for a suitable horse for ages, lots of disappointment along the way in one form or another I finally found a horse last week which I loved in every way and was suitable for me as an inexperienced rider. Five stage vetting passed with flying colours only to find out foday he has come back with a clear positve blood test for strangles. Showed no signs of strangles or illness generally in vetting and vet who knows yard well says no other horses have apoeared sick whatsoever.
I had put a deposit on the horse, spent £450 on vetting etc, got a livery space lined up!
Has anyone else ever been in this position?
I tried to ascertain the vets opinion however he was non committal, he suggested re test blood in 4 weeks or do a gutteral pouch wash to see if there is in fact an active infection. I would imagine that will be very expensive and then what if its posotive....he did not indicate that he felt an active infection or carrier staus could be successfully treated....I am so confused!!!
Obviously moving thr horse with this result is out of the question so the only option would be to buy horse and continue testing/treating at the dealers or to oull out, if I do this I dont actually know if I can get on the merry go round all over again. This was to be my first horse and its all turning into a miserable stressful mess!!
Anyone got any words of wisdom or can share similar experiences?

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I think the seller ought to step up here.

The usual would be to flush and check, if still a problem then flush again in 3 weeks plus antibiotics. This would usually clear the issue. Sometimes it can be difficult to flush one that has solid deposits, this is rare but it can happen. You could be looking at up to a 6 week delay.

If you really like the horse that much, get quotes, speak to vets and seller. Then get either the seller to pay, or deduct cost from sale price.
Well done for getting horse tested

 

[Oldernewbie]

Thank you fuzzy.
I would be totally happy to wait/ even pay to treat if it was more or less guaranteed he would eventually be cleared, but when I asked the vet really didnt want to seem to guve an opinion on whether this was likely!!

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Thank you fuzzy.
I would be totally happy to wait/ even pay to treat if it was more or less guaranteed he would eventually be cleared, but when I asked the vet really didnt want to seem to guve an opinion on whether this was likely!!

I really wouldn't be paying for this as a purchaser, the seller cannot sell the horse (responsibly) in this condition. They are the ones to get the horse fit for sale, not you.
Also, if they did get this clear in a few weeks at the sellers yard, you ought to re vet again to ensure it hadn't aquired any issues in that time.
None of this is cheap....

 

[ihatework]

Shouldn’t be a disaster, just tell the owners you will complete the sale once the gutteral pouch is done and clear/treated.

 

[Oldernewbie]

Thank you ihatework. That gives me a bit of hope!! I’m also quite worried about how other people on the livery yard might react knowing a horse is coming who has definately had strangles, even if I am the yo know he’s clear maybe ther3 will still be bad feeling?!

 

[WHWMo]

I had two ponies that all of a sudden developed little abscesses over their guttural pouches and had the vet out fearing the worst. The scoping and wash was £750 ish for both together and came back as negative- thank goodness! Just two REALLY unluckily positioned infected fly bites!

Anyway, there was talk before doing the lavages of taking bloods and testing for the antibodies, which is what I assume you have had done in your vetting. My vet said that it would only be worth doing as an initial screen if it came back negative as a positive result only means they have been exposed to the disease within the last 6 months and I would have to do the lavage anyway to see if it meant an actual infection, rather than just evidence of their immune responses.

So, basically, your pony may have just been in contact with the disease recently and may just have the antibody response, not the actual infection. Would be worth doing the lavage either way so you can know for sure AND stand a chance of having any other yard touch her!

 

[VRIN]

You love the horse, its passed a 5star vetting. Once it has the all clear for strangles no reason not to go ahead.

 

[Red-1]

I feel your disappointment, I had one pass the vet but as he gave 2 single coughs when I tried him I had a strangles test done.

The strangles test was actually negative, but the dealer had failed to tell me that between me trying the horse and the vetting the symptoms had got worse and the horse was coughing badly. So, it was likely a simple respiratory infection, and I asked the dealer to treat and prepare for re-vetting. The dealer also said they would pay for the re-vetting as they admitted that the horse was not fit to present.

A few weeks later the horse was deemed fit to re-present, the vet went and it was even worse! Now coughing and snots.

I walked away. The horse did not satisfactorily pass a vet exam so I did get my deposit back. Sadly I did not just lose the first vetting fee, I also lost the re exam fee as the dealer conveniently 'forgot' about paying for that.

It is sad, but that is horses for you. In my case it was silly, as I actually liked the horse enough that I would have waited however long it took for the infection to clear, but if I could not trust the dealer to be truthful about weather the horse was fit for vetting or not, I could not in all conscience keep throwing money at vettings!

In your case I would tell the dealer to treat the horse and let you know when he is ready to re-present, if you still like him. It may be worth asking the dealer to pay for the re-test, but if you like the horse then personally I would just pay.

As it did not satisfactorily pass a vet exam, you could simply have your deposit back.

 

[Kaylum]

My friend's horse had strangles and near died. He recovered luckily and went onto be a police horse with West Yorkshire police. He only retired a couple of years ago.

Just to say - He had been on another livery yard for a while and caught strangles. Our YO had a good bio security policy and he was in quarantine when he was diagnosed. I cannot say enough times how yards should have a quarantine policy.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Its the owners responsibility not yours. It is very common for a positive strangles test to come back from a blood test because the blood test just looks for antibodies. So if a horse has been exposed at any time over the last year or so it will come back positive even though it is no longer hosting any bugs. But about 1 in 10 horses become symptom free carriers after exposure and store bugs in their guttural pouches out of reach of oral antibiotics. So the next step is a guttural pouch test. This isn't a wash in a treatment sense - just a diagnostic test. They stick a scope up into the guttural pouches to look for pockets of hardened pus and take a sample from each pouch to test. If they do see pus they may go straight into treatment there and then. Treatment involves flushing several gallons through each pouch then injecting an antibiotic gel. Then 6 weeks isolation. Then re-test and repeat as necessary.
This is unlikely to be necessary (1 in 10) though there is absolutely no way in hell that I would buy a horse with an uncertain strangles status. The owner SHOULD now pouch test. They may choose not to and just re-advertise but I would not go near this without it being addressed.

 

[Goldenstar]

Shouldn’t be a disaster, just tell the owners you will complete the sale once the gutteral pouch is done and clear/treated.

That’s what I would do.
Ring the seller and say well I did not expect that but don’t worry I am committed to buying the horse once you have got this sorted out .
I would then try to keep in the loop with the vet doing the work .
Chin up this should work out .

 

[Ambers Echo]

ETA this happened to me when I was the seller. I pouch tested and that was clear. That's the most likely outcome and is not particulary expensive or time consuming. It would not be unreasonable to split the cost of that with the seller. But walk away if it's a carrier. No one in their right mind would buy a known carrier!

 

[Ambers Echo]

Thank you ihatework. That gives me a bit of hope!! I’m also quite worried about how other people on the livery yard might react knowing a horse is coming who has definately had strangles, even if I am the yo know he’s clear maybe ther3 will still be bad feeling?!

People can be irrational around strangles. If you get to this stage then you may need to educate the other liveries! When mine all had strangles and I was moving yards after getting the all clear I printed out an info sheet and pinned the lab results up next to it in brew room. I explained that the ONLY way to be 100% sure the horse was free of strangles was to pouch test it so my horses were now the safest on the yard (which did not have a strangles testing policy). I offered to meet with everyone to answer questions. Lots of liveries told me later that there was lots of chuntering about me coming onto the yard and that really helped. Ironically I left that yard in the end because they were a schooling/breaking yard with horses coming and going all the time and did not have good biosecurity! My yard now is super strict.

 

[w1bbler]

Op your vet is really failing you here, they should at least be explaining the possible scenarios & associated costs so you can make an informed descion. You can then have a proper discussion with the seller.
As I understand it a positive blood test is relatively common, particularly at a dealer's yard. A guttural pouch wash I the only conclusive thing to do now & isn't that expensive. Definately try to get the dealer to have that done, but if you really like the horse its probably worth paying for.
If that comes back clear then you can task your horse home.
If negatiive its up to the dealer to treat & you walk away, or wait until he is ok, but dealer pay's do treatment etc.
Do ring the vet again for a proper discussion, you have paid them alot of money do a service & explaining properly is part of that.

 

[charterline]

Firstly, ask what tests your YO is happy with.

Personally being in that situation I wouldn’t expect the vendor to pay for a guttural pouch scope

 

[sollimum]

A few years ago a pony I was selling had a positive strangles test. My vet told me that the strangles test was not 100% and they often had false positives. When we re did the blood test it was negative. So don't panic!!

 

[Pinkvboots]

As already said get the seller to do a pouch wash then 're test, one of my horses had reoccurring guttural pouch infections and he tested positive for strangles although he wasn't ill had no strangles symptoms, he just had one snotty nostril they flushed it 3 times and then was blood tested again and he was clear.

 

[sollimum]

My vet told me that the results from the blood test are often wrong, she told me to retest, which we did and our mare was negative.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Firstly, ask what tests your YO is happy with.

Do you mean if the YO does not ask for any tests the OP should ignore the +ve result, buy anyway and bring the horse onto a yard without checking it out? Many YO's don't ask for tests and accept the risks of not knowing but that is very different from ignoring a +ve result! Regardless of what the YO might say, other liveries would have every right to be absolutely furious with someone for bringing a horse who had tested positive onto a yard without further investigation/treatment.

Personally being in that situation I wouldn’t expect the vendor to pay for a guttural pouch scope

I don't understand this attitude. Who should pay then? Or should the vendor ignore the result and just send a potential carrier out for sale?

I feel very sorry for vendors in this situation. Basically it's a percentages game: a small % of horses will return a positive blood test and of those a small percentage scope positive too. So before you start there is a tiny chance that a horse you are buying or selling will be a carrier and many people accept that uncertainty and risk. I think if all yards insisted on pre movement strangles tests a lot of the carriers would come to light and strangles would become much less of a problem. So as a buyer I always strangles test. But as a seller I would not volunteer to do it if the buyer was not bothered. But once you have a positive result suddenly the odds are about 1 in 10 that the horse is a carrier and in my view is is HUGELY irresponsible as a seller to ignore that. It sucks but your horse - your responsibility. A friend was selling hers and exactly that happened. +ve blood then +ve scope then treatment and isolation. The sale still went through a few weeks later but she never questioned her responsibility in dealing appropriately with HER pony.

 

[Fransurrey]

Firstly, ask what tests your YO is happy with.

Personally being in that situation I wouldn’t expect the vendor to pay for a guttural pouch scope

The vendor is the current owner of the horse! Of course they should be paying for the scope!
Never been in this situation, OP, but hope you get it resolved and that any scope is clear.

 

[cundlegreen]

Thank you ihatework. That gives me a bit of hope!! I’m also quite worried about how other people on the livery yard might react knowing a horse is coming who has definately had strangles, even if I am the yo know he’s clear maybe ther3 will still be bad feeling?!

It's really not a big deal even with an abcess, but people in yards seem to get overexcited about it. I knew an older horse get it in a riding school. Only one to get it, and they all lived in stables next to each other. The abcess was huge, but the horse was never off colour, and even with horses within 3 ft of him, nobody else caught it. I certainly think the dealer should foot all the bills and if they don't, get them under trading standards for your expenses, as they were trying to sell you a horse not fit for purpose.