Strangles at yard...

PapaFrita

PapaFrita

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Over the past week or so a few horses have had swelling under their throats/jaw area. In all but one case the swelling went down in a few days and horses went back into work normally. They were all quite perky and well in themselves which is probably why the vet wasn't sure it WAS strangles at first. Yesterday though, the abcess on a 3-year old mare popped and is oozing pus. She is also quite happy in herself and otherwise seems fine.

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All the infected horses are (so far) in a separate stable block to the main one, but of course the grooms are going back and forth, not to mention owners, and sometimes tack gets used on several horses...
Fortunately for me, PF is still in Buenos Aires. She's due to come back at the end of the month although I can and will delay as much as possible. I know Tia had an outbreak on her farm and she contained it very successfully and her horses recovered very quickly, BUT I don't have that much faith in my YO's preventative measures. I think he's quite capable of taking his horses to a show next weekend. He's got a show at his yard on the 6th April too... I don't know if this will be cancelled (the obvious course of action to take!) because I've not seen him today- vet was going to the yard again yesterday.
Basically, I think the most sensible thing to do from my POV is to keep PF away for as long as possible and wait for the strangles to pass.
So, I was hoping you could share your strangles experiences with me, so I know what to expect, how long your yard was in quarantine, etc, etc.
Thank you
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When we had it on our competition yard in the UK, the whole place was quarentined for around five months.

You're meant to wait 6 weeks from the final outbreak clearing up before anything moves onto or off of the yard. All horses should really be swabbed also to find out if they're likely to be silent carriers of strangles (which basically ends the competitive career of said animal).

Ours had to have two lots of swabs done. I cant quite remember the time frame on those but they were 6 weeks apart. We had to wait for the final case to clear and then all the horses to have these swabs done before anything could move from the yard.

Most of the horses were well in theirselves. One little mare got quite sick and ended up being given anti-biotics as her temperature was deemed dangerously high. Nothing else on the yard had anti-bis due to the concerns of bastard strangles developing.

My horse had a very snotty nose and puffy glands but absolutly no absesses.

We had large trays of disinfectant all over the yards to wash boots in. Our yard was split into 4 seperate sections due to its desing and the staff were split into teams and had to stick to their own yard. They all wore protective suit things too.

We managed to contain it in that 1 of the yards never contracted strangles at all. The others had already been in contact with the horse that brought it onto the yard so not much could be done there.

The fields were shut completly until the 6 weeks after the final case and then all troughs were emptied and disinfected along with the fencing being sprayed.

Similarly all the boxes were disinfected also.

It completly ruined our 2006 competition season. Everyone missed qualifying for the summer regionals completly but it couldnt be helped really.
 
That is really quite scary!!
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I do hope YO will be responsible and close the yard down!
I've read that it's safe(r) to give antibiotics once the abcesses have burst, is that correct? I'll have to find out if the horses who had swollen glands were given them as (we're so backwards here in some ways!)... if bastard strangles is a real possibility I'll have to reconsider taking PF there! Jeez, I thought I'd been unlucky that PF has proven a bit tricky to get in foal (still not absolutely sure!) and actually it's been a blessing in disguise!!
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We were told by our vets that they didnt want to give anti biotics at all and they were specialist equine vets. Ive read varying things on here about it being safe at certain points and so on but i cant remember quite what. We just followed our vets advice which was strictly no anti-bi's unless the horse's temperature raised to a point where it was dangerous to the organs.

We only had this with one horse on a yard of 18.

Jack had a slightly raised temperature, but nothing major.

Personally, id keep her away if possible. Although given the time period with strangles, i dont know if this is feasible for you. I cant imagine it can be great for an in-foal mummy to be exposed to it!
 
Oh dear... it does seem as if our lot are doing it all wrong
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I'm sure I could keep PF away for a while especially with the baby concerns.
I'm so bummed out
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PF has been vaccinated a few times for Strangles (some yards here require it), but not for about 6mths now. It's not very effective though, is it?
 
We have strangles on our yard at the moment. From the picture posted it certainly looks like strangles to me.

All our infected horses (about 6 on a yard of 40-50 horses) are stabled and kept away from others. Owners disinfect everything and only see to the infected horses after which they do not touch any other horses, if they have more than one they see to the uninfected one first. At first some people were keeping theirs in (including me) to prevent them catching it. Now however we have all turned them out, besides infected ones which are still in. As if they are going to catch it we would rather them get it now than have the infection going on for months and months.

We have a mild strain on our yard. First horse did not have temp, was not off food and was generally ok in herself. One horse was swabbed last week (about 5 weeks after first positivly swabbed horse) as a precaution as it had been stabled next to infected horse. Turnes out it had had strangles but had shown NO symptoms at all. This is why infected yards need to be kept in quaranteen. No horses should be allowed off the yard and no new ones let on no matter how well they seem. These measures should be in place until all infected horses have had 3 clear swabs.

Swabs are taken I think 2 weeks after the symotoms have cleared up, 3 swabs taken over a 2 week period. It will usually take 2-3 months before the yard is in the clear.

So in short, Keep your horse away from the yard until all infected horses have had the all clear. YO should not be taking horses to any competitions and should most certainly not be allowing any other horses onto the yard.

Fingeres crossed poorly horses make a quick recovery.

Good website
http://www.strangles.org/
 
Oh and forgot to add, over here vaccine is now withdrawn from the shelves. Not effective at all aparently and caused more problems than it was worth.
 
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