Ridecamp: RE: [RC] was: REACTION TO VACCINE? now: strangles

In my particular case, the horse (Maryben, this was Raz, not Nick) had a
temp of 106, which the vet said can be life threatening if sustained, so we
definitely treated the fever.  Beyond that, this horse also developed a huge
abscess under his jaw (which exploded on its own), continued to get worse
and eventually had a massive (football sized) abscess at the base of his
neck/upper chest and that eventually exploded as well.  This is as gruesome
an event I've ever witnessed and if someone had told me that this huge mass
could explode through his chest wall I'd have thought they were crazy.  We
did use antibiotics from the beginning, and there's no way to know if they
caused the expanded problems or not...it would be a particularly cruel trick
of nature if that was the case...

The horse eventually recovered, but his immune system never really got back
on track, and he ended up with a form of cancer that eventually caused his
demise.  And the WHOLE thing started with a simple sarcoid removal surgery.

Mike Sofen

-----Original Message-----

Hopefully one of the vets will respond here.  But,
actually, leaving strangles alone -- or at most
lancing the abscesses -- is debatably the best
treatment.  The use of antibiotics or attempts to
lower the fever can possibly cause the abscesses to
internalize.  That can change it from an unpleasant,
but usually harmless disease, to one that can kill...
Of course, this is all highly debatable and everyone
has their own opinions on how to treat strangles.

>From my own experience (moved to a new place and every
horse came down with it), horses left untreated all
recovered pretty quickly after various degrees of
symptoms.  The one horse that was treated at the onset
of symptoms (older mare with foal at side) ended up in
the hospital from "colic" and advancement of her
previously-existing founder (she did recover).  Purely
anecdotal, but enough to convince me which way to go
in the future.

~Nicole



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