This is mainly in response to what I read in Karen’s
response, but also to talk about the only time I’ve been near strangles
and how our vet handled it…
It was February 2004 (the only reason I remember was b/c it
snowed for the Frigid Digit and I had planned on going and then couldn’t
b/c of strangles and was glad I missed the snow. One of the horses at our barn
was dx on Saturday am. This horse had never left our place ever. IN fact, the
owner ended up blaming me b/c I do go places all the time and she decided I must
have brought it back to her horse even though our horses were never together.
They kept that poor horse chicken wired in her stall till she was better and I
remember thinking that they’d all been exposed anyway and it was a lot of
overkill. Our vet’s solution to revaccinate all the horses at 2 month
intervals until we were reasonably certain that no one still carried it. I am
not one to vaccinate very often for this…not at all if I can help it,
though some places I have boarded require it. No one got sick from the extra
vaccines, but after I did the research, I was never able to find the protocol
that he said existed to make everyone else hyperimmune. In fact, everything I
read said that you had a huge chance of getting Purpura if you overvaccinated
for strangles. We were quarantined for 30 days, which was fine b/c it was
really wet that spring (I think we flooded later on that year) and I couldn’t
get out to ride much anyway. Since that time I have made an effort to not get
the strangles vaccine, but this vet will come to do teeth and I when I’m not
paying attention he will give them strangles if I don’t stop him. He
really believes in the vaccine…me, not so much.
