What would you do?

[fairhill]

We've had one confirmed case of strangles on our yard. The mare got a snotty nose about a month ago, and it was confirmed last week.
Obviously, we're now in yard isolation, and our YO gave us a choice of keeping our horses in the field, so well away from the infected horse but no riding OR keep our horse in the stable, and ride/lunge in the school to exercise them.

Thankfully no other horses seem infected so far, and there may only be another week of isolation, but we were faced with the possibility of 6 weeks plus of either field rest, or full-time stabling

My mare is out in the field, and loving her holiday, but I've been surprised at how many people have chosen to keep their horses in, so wondered what you would do in the same situation:

 

[scotsmare]

Ehm, I think it's a bit mad if no other horses have been tested to be turning them out together - if something else has it but hasn't shown any signs yet then you've potentially infected them all in one job lot....

 

[vennessa]

I was once on a yard where someone unknowingly brought strangles with them. I kept my horses out all the time. The horses in the barn style stables all contracted Strangles.
I was lucky but also careful. It was not a big yard but the ones that had strangles were kept seperate and it did not spread too much.
Not all horses get it anyway and some to a worse degree than others. Cleanliness is paramount. There are disinfectants that kill the strangles virus and a foot bath is also good.
Sorry to hear your yard has it, it does seem a bad year for it. Good luck.
Also when we have one with strangles we don't stable it. We are lucky to have a semi roofed yard. Air circulation is good for their breathing.

 

[RedVendetta]

I would no neither of those things. We had a strangles case last year and the infected horse was taken away to a field in middle of nowhere, whilst our horses were all tested and those that had the strain were isolated. The YO worked very quickly, did a great job and no other horses actually got strangles. We had to stay on the yard for 8 weeks though in the middle of summer which was awful. I kepy my horse in until we had all the results back, then turned it out with the other horses knowing they were not infected. This definitely work as the strangles case was 3 stables up from me and none of the horses in our barn, let alone the yard, caught the strain. We had to wash our feet coming in and out of the yard and each barn (there's 6 barns and over 70 horses on our yard) and were all very vigilent, leading to a happy(ish) ending. The strangles horse eventually came back to the yard, where it is now turned out with my horse incidently. No problems there. All horses have to be vetted before they arrive on the yard now (even people who are having a horse on trial) and all new horses are in isolation for 2 weeks before being moved into one of the barns.