Strangles, reassurance please!

The mad TB

The mad TB

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The lower of our two yards (about a 1/4 of a mile away) has got a suspected outbreak, I dont know much about it :o but it's not terribly bad news is it? I guess we wont be allowed to compete but what would happen if The Mad One got it? Also will the hunters from our yard be allowed out to go hunting?

J x
 
Bad news. My big straong, healthy mare had strangles last winter, she was VERY poorly. Was on a drip and almost died. When she finally regained strength and was turned out it became apparant that her breathing was affected when she cantered. She was scoped twice and scarring on her lymphoid tissue was diagnosed as causing the terrible breathing sounds. Vets said it could take upto a year to fully recover. I put her in-foal and turned her away. Hopefully her breathing noises will have disapeared when the foal is weaned this time next year!
 
Mine had it last summer while at grass and while really unpleasant she got over it without any complications and after being scoped is now totally fine. Some are worse affected than others with the elderly and the young being most at risk. Keep everything clean and disinfected and keep an eye on any horses that where in contact with anything that could spread the bacteria. The infectious bit is the first 10-14 days if my memory is correct, but affected horses show no symptoms at that stage. They them generally spoke a temp, go very quiet then the abscess enlarges.
 
I was on a livery yard that had an outbreak....2 of mine were affected. One was quite poorly, the other had a mild dose....he was quite old so had probably had it before at some point.

All the horses on the yard ( approx 20) made a full recovery.

The worst thing was the not being allowed to compete, hot compressing snotty abscesses twice daily and the local horsey community treating us like lepers....
 
If your first yard keeps to themselves then it shouldn't affect your yard but if people from both yards are coming and going to both yards, then it could easily spread. It's highly contagious and very debilitating until the abcesses burst. A horrible illness for the horse and anyone dealing with it.

We've had it a couple of times over the years, though thankfully, everything recovered with no ill effects. People treat you like a leper if you have it on your yard!
 
It's like people being ill different horses are affected differently. When the yard I was one had it of my 3 horses, 1 didnt get it, 1 was quite mild and the other one had a bad reaction to it and nearly died. There should be no movement on or off the yard until the swabs come back clear.
 
My pony got it in March. I didn't get to see her the entire time I was there (I was working at an event yard at the time so couldn't risk it) so my mum took over her care. She was very poorly but recovered fairly quickly without complications.

Only complications were some nasty people on the yard who treated us as if it was our fault or that we wanted her to have it! No idea where she got it from, she moved yards 3 weeks before there but previous yard was very cautious about it (horses were in isolation until blood tested when they moved there) and they said they hadn't had any there.

Unfortunately 7 months on two people at the yard still need to cause bad feelings about it, even though it was all over and done with, our isolation ban ect lifted within 6 weeks, and not another single horse on the yard got it.
 
I lost a fit and healthy Shetland to it, it mutated to a ******* strain and he has ulcers from the top of his neck to his nose- internal and external. We had him PTS later than we should have- he had septecemia and fell into a coma on the last day.

It was bloody awful.
 
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