Strangles - a few questions

[measles]

I know a few of you have experienced this horrible problem and as there have been a few yards affected within a 15 mile radius of us I want to be completely up to speed on symptoms.

Ive read all I can on the internet but:

* does every/do most affected horses have a raised temperature?
* do all/most go off their food and if so is it typically just hard feed or hay as well and what about grass?
* does a cough always/mostly show and if so is it a deep throaty clearance type cough or a light blow down the nostrils (if you can call that a cough!)
* is there anything else that having experienced the disease you'd look out for?

If I had any doubts about any of mine I'd get the vet right out but I'd like to gather as much info as possible to make sure I am as cautious and sensible as possible!

Thanks

 

[mintaka04]

Hi Measles,
first of all, it's mostly spread by direct contact. Nose to nose, or sharing water/grazing with an infected horse, or by a handler touching an infected horse and then not washing their hands.
It won't spread through the air, but if horses from neighbouring yards are infected and still hacking out, there is a small risk they could be shedding bugs along the way.

Temperature, I think it is raised in most, but not all cases.
If your horse has any kind of a cough and there is strangles in the area, it's worth getting the vet just to put your mind at rest anyway.

There is a lot of Equine flu going around, and the symptoms can be pretty similar.
There are a couple of horses at my yard where even the vets are not sure if it really was strangles, but because we were in the middle of an outbreak, they were all treated as such, to be safe.

I hope you don't have the dreaded lergy.
Our outbreak has put literally thousands of pounds into the vet's pockets. (no I'm not vet-bashing, it's just an example to illustrate how lengthy and expensive it can be)

 

[measles]

Thanks mintakamint. There just seem to be so many small viruses around at the moment though thankfully no strangles in the direct vicinity. Trainer was saying the same thing at lesson at the weekend. One of ours was off its hay a little last week and I automatically start to worry, but temp has been carefully monitored, no cough etc. Another in the yard has been a bit flat to ride but is now back to normal. It's just easy to make 2 + 2 add to 5.