strangles in Lancs/Merseyside

[rforsyth1984]

There is a confirmed case of strangles on a yard in west lancashire (near merseyside border)... pm me if you need details
If anyone can offer any advice on what to look out for, prevention etc, would be most grateful

 

[vicm2509]

Swollen glands and a nasal discharge are the main signs. I would make sure that you avoid any contact with the yard in question (although this yard should stop ALL the horses leaving the yard until they are given the all clear to leave by a vet). If you use this yard to get hay/straw/feed supplies then get it from somewhere else until its clear. Although it isnt transmited through the air it is highly contageous and you need to make sure neither you or anyone else who has been near the horses with strangles comes onto your yard. It can be passed through direct contact, shared tack, feed buckets, bedding, humans.

Bit more info here
http://www.cyberhorse.net.au/csl/strangles.htm

The yard a few hundred meters down the road from us has it atm. We have been instructed by our YO not to hack out past this yard, not to drive onto the yard in question or buy any feed/hay/straw. Have no friends from this yard visit our yard, basically no contact at all. Although we have gone to drastic measures to prevent it as I would not think hacking past the yard would make a difference but rather be safe than sorry.

 

[Tierra]

Pretty much what the above poster said... the form strangles takes in different horses can vary from swelling of the glands and absesses to discharge from the nose (they don't always get both together). Mine got very very snotty when he had it but never suffered with any absesses. Yet the poor mare in the next block had enormous glands, awful absesses and ended up on anti-bis (vets really dont like giving anti-bis to strangles cases unless absolutly necessary as it increases the risk of bastard strangles).

The best thing is to keep an eye on temperatures, particularly if anything seems slightly "off" as a raised temperature is an early warning with strangles.

Aside from avoiding the yard / horses in question, there isn't too much you can do unfortunatly. It's only air borne in the sense that if a horse sneezed on yours, it would transmit. If a horse carrying sneezed on YOU, the particles would be contagious until they dried (although we were all throwing our clothes in hot washes on a daily basis and using overalls on certain parts of the yard). The vaccine isn't much use in preventing it, but it does appear to lessen the symptoms (both horses on our yard that were vaccinated, contracted it)

Should they catch it, again, treatment is quite limited unfortunatly. Keep their noses clean (which incidently is by far the grossest thing ive ever done), if they're very snotty, consider using haynets rather than feeding from the floor (it was POURING out of my boys nose). We put all ours on box rest on the advice of the vets and the average horse was ill about 3 weeks I'd guess but the yard was completly shut down for just short of 4 months (which messed up the start of the competition season sadly)

Again, monitoring their temperatures is a good measure... we were taking them 3 times a day and taking note at each point. Vets dont tend to be able to do much unless the horses drop very, very poorly. As I mentioned, we had one mare put on anti-bis but bless her, her temperature was through the roof and she was covered in absesses round her glands.

 

[amandaco2]

have heard about it too!

 

[Meganrose]

Yes its around merseyside/wirral too!