Strangles experience

[sassyequine]

I am keen to hear from anyone who has had strangles on their yard and has gone through official testing to be able to move their horse away or to take it to a veterinary hospital?

Essentially, we had 2 confirmed cases tonight. It really adds insult to injury as I urgently need to take my mare to hospital for an MRI but suspect they wont admit her. We wont know if she has it until monday. If she doesnt I want to move her as soon as she is clear, there is a racing code on how many swabs you have to have clear? Does anyone know the detail?
Also I am interested to hear about any recent experience of recovery times and how much it has spread in your yard.
Thanks

 

[sqippa]

You'll probably need 3 negative swabs in close succession. A few years ago when we had it we had to have test I think about 6 days apart and all 3 had to be negative. However as your yards cases have only just shown you would not be expected to test for the all clear until the ill horses are better and no others are showing symptoms due to the incubation time.

Contact the clinic you wish to go to but I would expect that they would be reluctant unless they can offer isolation facilities. Moving your horse anywhere for non-emergengy reasons would be unlikely at present I fear.

Recovery times and spread depend on the individual case, there seems not hard and fast rule. Our yard had it from the late June to late September, my horse was worst affected and was ill throughout.

Hope that helps even if its not what you want to hear,
Squip

 

[FinkleyAlex]

yes its three negative swaps, I believe 10 days apart. We had 4 go down with it 2 years ago, mine was the first, but had the least symptoms and the least problems.Then three liveries got it, oddly enough all geldings so they must have got it from the field, one of them was ok except had a very high temperature a lot of the time and wouldn't eat, the other two were very ill, one of them got abscessed which had to be drained. Didn't help that the two sick ponies were being seen to by another vet who I personally dislike immensly. Another gelding came down with it a couple of weeks in (despite being a grass livery living at least a mile away and only checked on from a distance by someone not in contact with the quarantine yard. It was a long process getting them through it, the two sickly ponies weren't getting better and kept keeping us in, and then funnily enough after they all got two negative swabs and then mine decided to throw in a positive swab so back on the antibiotics and more box rest! Happened a few times, long process but the good news is that they are all in excellent health and fully recovered now. Pm me if you need more details!

 

[PapaFrita]

We had strangles at our yard quite recently. YO didn't do a blinking thing about it and all horses were free to come and go (much to my disgust!) They even went to a show not long after the first case was diagnosed. Only horses under 5 were visibly affected (although one older mare had swollen glands they went down within a few days of their own accord) and they recovered quickly within a week.

 

[vicm2509]

Please see my post above. My horse has strangles now.

I am on a large livery yard of about 50 horses. Initially 6 got it, they all cleared up and were getting clear swabs back. We thought we were clear then my horse got it last week

No horse should me moved off the yard until all infected horses have had 3 clear swabs (usually made within 2 weeks). This can not be done until all symptoms have cleared, usually done 2-6 after symptoms have cleard to make sure no others show symptoms in this time.

It is important no horse is removed from the yard regardless of symptoms or not as they can carry the bacteria with no sympoms especially if they have become immune to it.

Your horse may be carrying this which is why they wont admit her. My horse had been stabled for at least 4 weeks prior to showing symptoms as he cut his leg and had been in no contact at all with any other horse. Then there have been horses out with those that did come down with it who have not come down with it.

We have also had clear swabs from horses showing sympoms and a positive swab from a horse who showed no symptoms at all.

Please do not move your horse anywhere until your yard has been given the clear by the vets. I do appreciate the urgency to move your horse from the yard but this is a terrible infection and do you really want to risk infecting another horse. I do not think people realise quite how easily this is spread and how ill it can make your horse until it happens to you.

Fingers crossed it clears from your yard soon x

 

[traceyf]

unfortunately it is usually the innocent and concientious owners that suffer these problems. my vet said that a 'new' horse on the yard will always get blamed for bringing this type of virus on, BUT it is usually an older horse who is a carrier and has no symptoms that is the culprit!! The new/young horses often have less immunity and so contract the disease!! unless you swab all the horses and keep everyone following the same procedures, it will work its way through them all. some will suffer and others will not!! Its tough when it happens. get everyone into strict isolation procedure and let it run its course. Its a shame the strangles vaccine was withdrawn! is there a new blood test that can identify it before it takes hold ? thought I read that somewhere!!

 

[vicm2509]

The vaccine was withdrawn as it had not been proved to prevent any cases, but had caused problems in some of those that were vaccinated

The new blood test will show if a horse has recently been exposed to Strangles. Hopefully in time this will become procedure for any horse moving yards or being bought and will reduce the spread of Strangles. It has been available since 1st March this year but I am not sure how commonly it is being used yet.

 

[rooooosie]

if you send your horse in to 'hospital' they will charge you £300 a day to keep your horse there on top of whatever else if thye have something such as strangles!!!!

 

[xxxbettyboopxxx]

We have 70 on our yard, 6 positive cases, mine being one and 6 borderline cases. If you want to go to hospital then I suggest having the blood test anyway. The swabs are useless, they are only 40% odd accurate anyway and you need 3. The blood test which every horse on our yard has had is 99% positive and is over and done with in seconds.

 

[sammiea]

tbh from my experience i would not use the swaps as an all claer routine, my horse was providing negative swabs the whole time he had strangles!! so we had a gutteral pouch scope & flush done @ the vets. obviously they wanted to wait until his wounds were healed and he hadnt shown any signs as you would for swabbing and he was taken in and put in an isolation room where this was carried out. It then took a couple of days to get results (as with the swabs) but on the results he was given the all clear straight away, might have been slightly more expensive but as least i got the result staight away and the vets could asses how much scaring it had casue which was luckily none