Strangles???? experiences please

[monstermunch]

One of my horses is currently being tested for strangles. He is showing no signs of illness excep for yellow snotty nose. vet is confident it is just a post viral thing but has tested for strangles just in case.
Has anyone any expeiences of this illness. How long would it take to recover from if he did have it? Have your horses recovered well??he has no wheezing or coughing etc. Any experiences would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jenh166]

is he kept with other horses that are out competing?-that's normally how it spreads. it sounds quite unlikely that it is strangles, as when it swept through my yard, any horse that got it had large submandibular swellings, horrendous discharge, depression, not wanting to eat, and it passed on to probably 70-80% of the other horses, whole yard was in quarantine for 3months. All recoverd fine - usually within a month, although one was extremely poorly and needed lots of help from vet. They are supposed to be immune once they've had it once. I really doubt it is strangles, so don't panick until swabs are back!

 

[Nebraska37]

Hi
My horse has currently got strangles (along with a few others on the yard) - he's having a 'typical' progression, high temp for a few days, then swellings in and around throat area, temp reduced then has come back up; vet not prescribed antibiotics and we're just letting it run its course. Had many horses on yard affected and its affecting each horse differently. Some are just under the weather for a few days and a few have gone full blown developing abcesses which have burst. Some cre coughing; some not. Some snotty; some not. Sorry that's not much help is it? I believe prognosis is generally good though

 

[KJJ]

My horse had strangles.. a few years back now... it was not nice - he couldn't eat or swallow

it was a very frightening time as all we could do was wait for it to run it's course.

Another horse on the yard also had strangles his presented itself externally and he experienced pussy exploding lumps on cheeks and under jaw ... which although not attractive or nice was actually less worrying than my boys - as we were concerned his would stay internal (bastard strangles) however he recovered in around 2 weeks although the horses had to stay stabled and isolated for weeks and weeks.

The virus was thought to have come from a horse at our yard that had it dormant in her system and something triggered it to become active in her system.

Hope its not strangles... its not a nice thing... the washing/changing/no touching other horses/equipment etc is tiring and difficult.

 

[pocket]

Ralph has had strangles twice, the first time he was 4 and really unwell with it, running a temp of 40+, he had a thick nasal discharge, copious amounts and swellings under the jaw. Off feeds, on bute and no anti'b's He was unwell for about 2 weeks and it took a good 3 months before he was back on form. He ended up with COPD.

The second time he had it at 9 years of age, he had the same symptoms, less nasal discharge, but again off colour for two weeks, this time a shorter recovery, but again Copd, needed some herbal treatment (breath easy--works a treat).

 

[jenh166]

sorry KJFIT if this sounds really up myself, but strangles is a bacterial infection, not a virus!! sorry!

 

[Birker2020]

Hi there. My horse contracted strangles twice when we had outbreaks on our yard. There is a lot of hype about strangles and a lot of people are terrified but the mortality rate is only one percent so therefore very minimal. Outbreaks can go on and on for ages as horses become reinfected. Your vet will probably prescribe but or finadyne which control body temperature. Sometimes antibiotics are not used as they can slow down recovery, and it depends on the stage of the infection. Premises should be isolated so no incontact animals leave the yard and spread the disease further. No animals that are infected should leave isolation under three negative swabs have been taken over a two week period and new horses should not enter the premises. My horse did not have a snotty nose, nor did he have englarged glands. I was careful to take his temperature at the same time twice a day and as soon as I noticed it was raised rang the vet and arranged to collect antibiotics for him to be administered straight away. Occassionally strangles develops into something called bastard strangles which can be dangerous as it affects the blood stream. Also horses can contract something called purpura haemo something or other which can be a serious effect of strangles, but again this is very rare.

 

[annunziata]

my friends horses had it really badly when she bought home a new horse. she was under quarentine for a while all horses recovered fine

 

[Rockchick_uk]

My horse got the Bastard form of the disease 5 years ago, by the time the vets diagnosed they told me he had to have an emergency traceoctomy otherwise he would be dead within hours, thats how poorly he was.

It took 5 months of 24/7 box rest and quaranteen, vets visits everyday for the first 2 months then every 3 days for further 2 months then every week for the last 4 weeks, 10 seperate endoscopes sessions, his gutteral pouched flushed 3 times and 3 swabs to determine he wasnt a carrier before he was officially allowed out.

I really sympathise with anyone who is going through this i know how hard it can be.

 

[fatpiggy]

I don't go with the idea that strangles is nothing much to worry about. I nursed an 12 year old mare with it and she was very sick, and off work for 6 weeks. A friend who is a vet nurse nearly lost her older mare to hem purp (she also got severe laminitis as a result of being given steriods for this, the only treatment) and another friend had to have her home-bred 2 year old put down when he developed secondary swellings in his inner ears and was throwing his head against the wall in his distress. Even a horse who has survived it is not immune for life thereafter. In the US, they just don't understand why we don't give the nasal vaccine. There are often repeated tales of how the injected vaccine caused more trouble than it solved - but they knew that in the States decades ago which is why they developed the nasal vaccine.

 

[Birker2020]

Yes, I hear what you say, but I do think sometimes the word 'strangles' tends to create mass hysteria. I know there are exceptions to the rules as the case with you and your friend proves and I'm sorry if I have belittled anyone by saying it is 'nothing to worry about', its just in my experience I haven't come across any major problems myself. I would like to add that about 20 or so horses on our yard were vacinnated with the strangles vacine from a large drug company whose name ends with T. Within hours walking down the aisles of stables (we have three aisles) you could see which horses had had the vacinne and which horses hadn't) the ones that had were obviously feeling very poorly and stood at the back of their stables, heads down, typical 'I'm poorly' type stance. Once horse ended up with an englarged heart as a result of the vacinne which required intervention from the vet but luckily she pulled through without any lasting problems. Our own vets have decided to withdraw from the 'strangles vacinnation programme' until more research has been carried out on the vacinnation and the research/drug company involved in the vacinnation agreed to pay my friend costs towards her vets bills so that in itself speaks volumes. Fortunately my horse was on antibiotics at the time so he did not have the vacinne and a lot of owners decided not to go ahead with second and third vacinnes due to the response elicited from the horses that had had the first vacinne.

 

[fatpiggy]

I suspect that alot of the worry about strangles comes from the secondary effect, ie. the yard should be quarantined until the sick horse is declared clear. If you are a happy hacker, or just have no facilities, or are competition-mad, then finding out you can't take your horse off the premises for the next 4 weeks, or longer if the disease spreads (and as many yards have 50+ horses these days that could interesting!), you can understand why many people get frantic at the news of a strangles outbreak. From my own point of view, my horse is 26 and has to have oral medication every day - the withdrawal symptoms if she stopped eating them would be potentially lethal. She is the youngest in the field - our oldest is 44. A dose of strangles there would likely see them all off. Luckily none leave the yard these days, but we dread new horses coming as there are no isolation precautions, they just get dumped in with the existing ones. Not my choice...

 

[sammiea]

I had a horse that suffered with this horrid thing 2years ago. He was very ill however he never returned a negative nasal swab!! In the end he had a gutteral pouch flush to confirm he was all clear.
We were under quarntine for 3mths

This was his 1st time out for 3mths!!!!