Strangles - should it be a notifiable disease?

[Dovorian]

Or at least have some controls? We had a recent case and sadly were unable to persuade a livery not to take her horse here there and everywhere. Risk of spreading caused us a lot of worry bu this lady basically told us that she would do what she wanted with her own horse. Of course there are people like that (she has since moved and hasn't mentioned to the new yard what the reasons were), the only way to dissuade such foolish actoins seems to be tougher handling of the disease.

Personally I would feel awful if I knew that other horses had succumbed following contact with one of mine but then I am probably far too soft!

I'm told that vaccinating is not the real answer so what is?

 

[fatpiggy]

Yes. Many yards get it purely by accident and there is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about it in those circumstances. If we knew where it was we could take better avoiding action. With the present situation it is all rumour and hearsay and that helps no-one. As for a livery refusing to stay put during an outbreak- I'd show them the door PDQ as they are obviously entirely stupid, entirely selfish and more than likely to flout all the other rules too.

 

[Birker2020]

We had it twice on a previous yard I was on, and the first time my horse remained strangles free. The second time (after about two months of being swab cleared from the first outbreak) my horse had an increased temperature (I took it every day) and I managed to get antibiotics from the vet into him and he did not go on to develop any nasty problems. As for vacinating not being the real answer I would agree but not for the reasons you state. About three years ago approx half of the 40+ horses we had on our yard were vacinnated against strangles. That same day every single one of the vacinated horses were poorly and ranged from not eating their nets/feed to standing in the stable shivering violently and feeling very poorly. One horse went on to have an enlarged heart as a result of the vacination side effect. Fortunately I did not have my horse vacinnated (it was a choice of each owner whether they wished to vacinate) as he was on antibiotics at the time so was unable to have the injection anyway. The livery whose horse had the enlarged heart managed to get all her vets fees back from the drug company and the vet treating her horse said he would never use this vacination again. Her horse (and all the others) went on to make full recoveries luckily.

I personally do not think strangles is the big deal people make it out to be. I know I will probably get shot down in flames for saying that and there are always exceptions to the rule, but so long as it is carefully monitored and the horses are nursed appropriately it is relatively easy to deal with.

 

[fatpiggy]

Hi Applecart. Did the yard use the injected vaccination or the inhaled one? The last I heard on the subject wast that the inhaled version wasn't available in this country, but in the USA they never use the injection any more as the side effects are common and well known. Apparently the inhaled version causes almost no problems.

As to how bad or mild a case can be I think every case is different. I nursed a middle aged mare on my old yard and to see her getting thinner and thinner because she just wouldn't/couldn't eat was horrible. She was very down and depressed for weeks. A friend had her home-bred 3 year old shot when the swellings formed deep inside his ears and she found him bashing his head repeatedly on the wall to try to get rid of the pain. A third case belonged to a veterinary nurse (middle aged horse again) and having gone on to develop ******* strangles and hem pupura, the steriods given for that gave it severe laminitis and it was touch and go again. Given the choice I wouldn't want my old girl exposed to it.

 

[magicgirl]

I don't see how it can be a notifiable disease when horses can spread it without showing any symptoms themselves, these " shedders " can do this on and off for years. Quite often a horse can only show the symptoms of a mild cold and actually have strangles.