Strangles Blood Test

[cazzypolox]

Hi need some advice on the new strangles blood test!
i have a horse with strangles which is isolated from all my other 5 horses, (we rent the whole yard, no other liveries) but we want to test the others,
Vet is recommending the 3 swabs which is takes 3 weeks to complete!
or a blood test, but how accurate is the blood test? is it reliable??? and how specific is it, as we want to compete and need to know if 1.) are any of the others infected and 2.) are any of them carriers!

advice, especially from those experienced this terrible disease would be very helpful!

 

[hellybelly6]

If it were me, I would ask the vet these questions.

Strangles is a very nasty and easily spread disease.

 

[Jemayni]

My horse has just recovered from bastard strangles and in my experience swabs are very fickle - my horse had several internal and external abcesses, however he never tested positive when swabbed. Because of this we relied fully on blood tests, I know that in a sufferer of strangles the blood test is very reliable as they are able to isolate the pseudomanas/bacteria that cause the infection; however I dont know whether it will tell if your horse is a carrier. An additional factor to consider is cost - after racking up a £4500 vet bill because of strangles - I can tell you first hand that testing does not come cheap!

All I can offer you is my experience, which isnt based of fool hardy scientific fact, but hopefully it will give you a bit more background knowledge for when you talk it through with the vet again!

 

[Karenlawson01]

We are based at a yard where there are 15 horses, and one of the horses was diagnosed with strangles. Only a small number of the horses on the yard compete, but once we were made aware of the situation the yard was put into " lock down" with no movement of horses in or out of the yards parameters, and access to owners was kept to a minimum. All the horses undertook the blood test which is extremely accurate. From this is was possible to establish very quickly that 95% of the horse were completely negative of having/ been in contact with/ had in the past the strangles virus. There were a couple of horses that showed very slightly raised levels of antigens in their blood but subsequent swab tests and follow up blood tests 10 days later proved to be negative, with no new outbreaks occurring during the known incubation period.
The yard owner and the vet have worked very closely together and put together a programme of controlled isolation, which all the owners were happy to follow. Without this co-operation from everyone, then we may have been many months trying to control the spread of the virus.
Based on our experience I would get all the horses blood tested - the results took 3 days to come back. Then at least you will have a better idea what you are up against.

 

[Bounty]

Cazzypolox.... are you who I think you are?!?! If so, how's Ronaldo?

 

[cazzypolox]

Thanks for all your comments and advice, after much deliberation we decided on the 3 swabs, as the vet said that the blood test could come back positive (but doesn't mean that they in infected ) as there is a high chance the others could of been exposed to the disease through my infected horse, but with the swabs the vet said that'll tell us if any of them have actually got the disease, its all so confusing!!!

we have also locked down our yard and so far so good, none of the others have showed any signs / symptoms...waiting for 1st set of swab results today!

with my infected horse i am going to insist that his guttural pouches are swabbed and flushed, to eliminate him as a carier...expensive but he is insured thank goodness !

(Hi Meg, it is me...Ronaldo is getting there, still very under weight, but not coughing and snotting any more! anti-biotics are doing the trick!)

 

[Cazsteve]

Hi need some help at my yard new horse came last week had blood tests done for strangles and came back as 0.4 and 0.8 I think it was but she saying she had horse a year and never shown any signs of strangles so why the 0.4. Reading and coiled my horse catch it if been in same field thanks

 

[ajdovecot]

I've just has a vetting completed on a horse I want to buy and have had to have a strangles blood test so that I can get him into a livery yard.
The test came back with one antigen showing a reading of 0.4, the other was clear, but the lab advises 'exercise caution'. What does that mean? I've been advised to get another test in 10 days, which I'm doing (another 60 quid).

Who knows how many horses are carrying this virus and how many owners will be put off by the rigorous testing. There needs to be clear guidelines to vets and prospective purchasers on how we should deal with blood test results.

 

[Misog2000]

My yard insists on a strangles blood test for anything moving on, anything that comes back with any level in their blood has to have a gutteral pouch wash which is then checked to see if they are a carrier, or not come to the yard.

 

[Kallibear]

A positive blood result means they have been exposed to strangles, as it's a measure of their immune reaction to it. They can be carriers (carry it but ill with it), infected (showing sympotoms) or just fought it off in the past (may or may not have shown signs)

Borderline cases can either be just their natural level of it OR they're been exposed in the distant past OR they're starting to develop strangles. They need retested in a couple of week. Same result again means they're just naturally high (or have had it years ago). A positive 2nd result often means they're got strangles/developing it

A negative result is good news (they're neither had nor been in contact with it) BUT it needs to be be done a couple of weeks after last potential contact as very recent infections can come back as negative.

We had a strangles scare last year. One new pony developed a snooty nose about 6 weeks after joining our herd. She tested positive on bloods for strangles. She was whisked off to complete isolation and the rest were all tested a week later.

2 of the remaining 6 horses came back borderline, the other 4 negative. The two borderlines were isolated by themselves and re-tested 2 weeks after. They came back with the same borderline results (phew!) so it was just their nature levels. The other 4 didn't need to be re-tested (but would have been if the first two had come back positive). Interestingly, of the 2 borderline case: one had been on a yard to the previous year with a strangles outbreak (but hadn't got it) and the other had been to a riding school 2 yrs before. All the others had been privately owned on private land since babies.

Inital new pony was kept in isolationg for 6 weeks and developed no further signs BUT she could have been carrier, so she was flushed and swapped to check. It came back negative. Therefore she just had a cold (typical baby) but had been in conact or had had strangles previously. Unsuprising since she can for a large cowboy dealer!

 

[Miss L Toe]

I will be frank, and it will upset vets on here, but they don't take the precautions that I think they should when dealing with horses, and I would NOT want any vet to take swabs three times from my horse and presumably taking swabs from other horses at the same time.
When my boy had it, diagnosed by temperature increase, the vet examined him briefly, but with contact, I did not observe any hand washing or changing of protective clothing.
The swab test is not definitive, takes weeks and gives false negatives.
You should be taking all precautions, including isolation and treating all horses as though the infection was likely to spread.
I assume you are taking temperatures twice per day of all your horses.

 

[loopylucifer]

Strangles is such a pain. Having just got the all clear from it i know how frustarting it is! We were is total lock down for 7 weeks which is actually quite short and thankfully we only had 2 out of 47 with it.
We were recomended that horses that had it were not swabed and that they were scoped instead as that was the only true way if knowing if clear, swabs were too unreliable and would prob end up scoping anyway.