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[RC] Strangles in SE region - rides2far@xxxxxxxxOK guys, for once I have carefully thought a post through before putting it on here so pay attention. This is NOT fun to post and it would have been pretty easy to shut up and let it go away with nobody the wiser, but I'm trying my best to do what's right here. I officially got my notice today that my place is quarantined for 30 days due to Strangles. There's a good chance that whoever unintentionally gave it to our horses exposed others in the SE so you need to listen up and be as prepared as possible. Just the facts: We went to Skymont on November 1st 2008 and and Hahira on November 15th 2008 and our horses looked great at both. Josie's horse, Cade, finished Hahira 7th place, had a 44/48 15 minute CRI for a 380 vet score so I am confident he was healthy at that time. We did not stop anywhere on the way there or on the way back and had had no contact with strange horses in the week or so prior. Incubation period for strangles is 3-12 days. Four days after Hahira Cade had a runny nose in one nostril and didn't clean up his hay. He was never off his grain. Didn't act like he felt "good" but not horribly sick. I had 3 days worth of antibiotic pills and gave them to him. I have since learned that I shouldn't have done that. He seemed OK in a few days. If Kaboot had not gotten sick we would never have dreamed this was strangles and wouldn't have hesitated to be around other horses after a couple of weeks! About a week later Kaboot got the runny nose on one side. He also did not eat his coastal, but would eat alfalfa and all of his grain. When his nose was inside his feed bucket he kind of sounded like Darth Vader breathing but only when nose was in bucket. Did not seem extremely depressed or anything. He got better and I thought it was over. Then several days after I thought he was well, on New Year's Day I noticed a big chunk of skin/hair hanging down from his jaw. When looked closer (he has a very full mane and long hair) discovered a tennis ball sized abscess between his jaw bones. Since my horses only get sick on holidays I drained the abscess myself and he was as happy as a clown running around the field the next day. Since Kaboot is 19 years old and both his and Cade's symptoms hadn't been too bad, vets I called felt it might be some other form of strep bacterial infection. To determine the exact cause of the infection we had the vet come out and do cultures of both the fluid drained from the abscess and a nasal swab. They both came back positive for Strangles or streptococcus Equi. Neither Cade nor Kaboot had been vaccinated. 7 never got any symptoms at all, though he was in with both of them the whole time (junkyard dog syndrome). He was not vaccinated either. The other horse that had traveled with Cade and 7 to Hahira was vaccinated and did not get sick. Two older horses that I care for across the road did not get sick. Kaboot acted 100% fine once we drained the abscess. We had already started riding Cade again with no problems before we realized were dealing with Strangles but have stopped now that we've quarantined ourselves. No other horses that competed at Hahira have been reported to be sick and there have not been any problems with the horses that live on the farm. The government website says quarantine 30 days after last symptoms. It is possible for a horse who appears recovered to continue to shed virus for several months, which is probably what happened here. Someone thought their horse was healthy but it is a "shedder" that can continue to infect others. The only way to know if a horse that recently had strangles has stopped shedding the virus is to have a series of 3 nasal swabs done in one week. ($80 per whack) I will be doing this before I bring my own horses back to a competition since it's impossible for our horses not to share water at most rides. NOBODY has to fear that I will bring it, but I definitely recommend that people get the intranasal vaccine this year since it's obviously shown up at a ride already so the opportunity to cross paths with a "shedder" is better than usual. Sorry for the delay in info but we honestly did not know for sure what we were dealing with until 2 days ago and wanted to be sure before we said anything. The official from the state that just came to my house said Kaboot looks great and we probably could have started our 30 days post recovery quarantine days ago except the vet has to come back by today and inspect before the 30 days starts. She said this cold snap is good in that the virus doesn't reproduce well in cold. Hopefully that will help discourage further outbreaks this winter...but if I were you, I'd get the intranasal vaccine now. Finally, it seems to me that it would be good to have an e-mail address, just a hotmail account or something where any rider who has any sickness post ride could just send in a report. No big deal if it's just one, but if there's suddenly a bunch we could react. There's really no way to know if mine is the only horse that got sick. There may be others who are just dealing with it silently. Angie McGhee ____________________________________________________________ Free information on Internet Security. Click Now. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw1a6On5bYdWhr83s4ulfJvcDEifcMrXIrrmjUuSEDugZLYQ4/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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