Strangles, the Vaccine, and your opinion

Miss L Toe said:
It is sensible, as far as you are concerned, the S-P are just reading off the sales blurb, what do they know?
Personally, I would want to talk to S-P senior vet who developed the vaccine, and discuss what is going on, is the horse now infected?
if not infected, what the devil is this abscess infected with?
Click to expand...

Well as far as I understand it from my vet there will be bugs in the pus coming from the abscess on the muzzle but as they are as a result of the virus in the vaccine they cannot infect other horses or multiply like a normal strangles infection.
I know my vet well she is a personal friend as well as my vet if she feels that I should continue to isolate him until the abscess is healed I will do it .
No more pus came out when I bathed it after I brought him in tonight his temperature is normal and hes happy in himself and stayed in the paddock alone ok as he used to jump out if you put him out on his own,so fingers crossed.
I am not taking the horses who are booked onto the jumping clinic to morrow I am going to stay at home until we are sure the abscess is all cleared up hopefully that won't be long.
Horses ! You can't do right for doing wrong sometimes .
 
Miss L Toe said:
Yes, but you see the next horse has then to touch a surface, like my coat, or a haynet, the sneezes, will transfer infective particles, on to another surface, for this reason, all extreme hygiene measures will stop the disease, provided all people stick to the routine.
Contagious means transfer by touch, not necessarily the primary touch of one animal to another.
The Strep is a bacterium and is heavier than a virus which can transfer via the air.
Sneezing or rubbing noses means horses are too close!
Click to expand...

I agree, it only takes 1 person not to follow an isolation protocol and it all goes pear shaped
 
In my experience on yards, horses stabled next door to infected cases got it if not immune, horses who'd shared a water trough/grazing with infected horses got it if not immune. That was it. Even with shared carers, no disinfected boots etc, putting pus filled muck on the usual muck heap within sight of the stables, etc etc. The infected horses were done last - that was the only precaution taken.
 
horsemad32 said:
In my experience on yards, horses stabled next door to infected cases got it if not immune, horses who'd shared a water trough/grazing with infected horses got it if not immune. That was it. Even with shared carers, no disinfected boots etc, putting pus filled muck on the usual muck heap within sight of the stables, etc etc. The infected horses were done last - that was the only precaution taken.
Click to expand...
In my experience three previously sick horses [all next door to each other: a clue there?] were allowed to mix with others including a little pony mare I used to put up a haynet for, I did this this [it was in an awkward place so net rubbed all over my coat]. I then went to groom my pony [who was not out in a field at the time], the next day the mare was discharging pus, and a blood test had come back on another pony, so by the time someone actually bothered to pay for a blood test, the disease had been in yard for six weeks.
Fifty percent of the herd had positive blood tests or symptoms so definitive no test was required.
All horses had their temperature twice a day, this was the only symptom many exhibited.
 
I have been through three outbreaks, two of them horses died, its very worrying, especially as it can go on for months before a yard is clear.

Mine never got it, even though they were grazing with infected horses before anyone told me the first time and in a field next to infected horses the second. As the two yards were either side of a large dealer the source is pretty obvious, although he never declared that he was infected. He even had a sale of 160 horses at the time so they probably ended up all over the country.

After the second time (in two years) I decided to have the jabs, this was about 5 years ago, probably not necessary as my horses were either already immune or built up an immunity. I was concerned as my oldie was over thirty at the time and our youngster was only three.

All three were fine, cant say I noticed any adverse effects at all. They didn't get it again in the third outbreak, but as I said they probably had immunity.

When I asked the vet for a booster he said they were no longer giving the jab as it had been shown to be ineffective. I haven't bothered again and probably never will. The yard we are on now hasn't had a problem (touch wood) which I think is more evidence of the source of three outbreaks in three years at the old places.
 
you should look into how the Australians deal with / vaccinate against strangles... at the farm that i work at.. we vaccinate every horse against strangles -

there is No lock down on the farm if you have strangles -we had mares coming from farms that had strangles - (the mare herself wasn't showing signs of it) for covering.. we treated the mare as infectious - stallion was thoroughly bathed and she was covered away from the covering shed... But in england there would be complete lock down on movement!
 
rachi0 said:
you should look into how the Australians deal with / vaccinate against strangles... at the farm that i work at.. we vaccinate every horse against strangles -

there is No lock down on the farm if you have strangles -we had mares coming from farms that had strangles - (the mare herself wasn't showing signs of it) for covering.. we treated the mare as infectious - stallion was thoroughly bathed and she was covered away from the covering shed... But in england there would be complete lock down on movement!
Click to expand...
I think this proves vaccination programs don't work, otherwise the disease would be wiped out, to be honest, AI would be a better solution.
 
Miss L Toe said:
I think this proves vaccination programs don't work, otherwise the disease would be wiped out, to be honest, AI would be a better solution.
Click to expand...

I don't know if the other farms vaccinate against strangles..... non of our horses that had been in contact with mares from the outside farms ever have had strangles.....

and i personally don't think AI would be a better solution.. not in the thoroughbred industry anyway!
 
My rising 4yr old has just got over a severe case of strangles. Nearly £4000 in vets bills later (luckily he was insured) I can safely say I never want to go through it again.

I think as someone has said the management is key, we had problems on the yard with bad management etc but luckily only one other horse got infected.

The only other horse that got Strangles had had the vaccine.......

I wouldnt bother to vaccine my horses anyway as I've heard numerous bad things in relation to the vaccine, side effects and the fact that it didnt work for the other horse anway!!

If you would like to ask me anything else feel free to PM me, i feel like I know more than my vet about strangles now......
 
I am on a 43 horse yard. About four years ago everyone decided to have the strangles vaccination from the one vet (it worked out cheaper if we had it all done at the same time). Fortunately for my horse he was on antibiotics at the time so was unable to have the vacinnation.

Every horse without exception suffered moderate to severe problems hours after the injections were administered. Two horses were shivering violently and one horse developed colic. Another horse encountered problems, an ECG actually showed as a result of the vaccination her heart had become enlarged. Fortunately the vet was able to treat the problem and show the manufacturers of the drug how it had affected this mare and the girl was able to get her vets bill covered by the manufacturer of the drug.

The vet said he would not be using the strangles vacination again and nor would his practice (he was the senior partner so could make that decision).

I remember walking up the aisles and looking at the horses through the stable bars. It was very obvious which horses had received the vacination by the sorry look of them. They were all depressed, not eating and looking quite poorly. I remember walking along and saying 'Fred hasn't had it, John has, Billy hasn't, Sparkle has, Joey has, etc, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top