Strangles

[Cheryl Newbanks <horsetrails@inficad.com>]

Hi Group,

Ok if you were going to a ride and renting a cabin, DOWN THE ROAD from the
ride, at a farm where they had a strangle outbreak, would you still go to
the farm?  

I need to decide if we stay in the cozy cabin, with our horses in a HUGE
approx 30 stall barn and turn out paddocks, or rough it  2 miles down the
road at camp.  I talked to my vet and she said that first of all all our
horses are 9-10, so the odds of older horses getting it are lower, also if
our horses had no contact with the horse or the horse's mucus we should be
alright.  So if we brought our own water buckets, our own feed tubs, our
horses were in stalls that never had exposed animals in them, or paddocks
that they contagious animals were never in then we may be ok.  

But then there is the factor that this horse was exposed at least 10 days
ago and how many horses has he exposed to the virus that may of been in the
stall we are renting.  So possibly every horse at the farm may of been
exposed, but aren't they only contagious when the horse is actively sick,
not during the incubation period?  

What would you do?  I am leaning towards roughing it at base camp with the
rest of the gang!
   
                                 Cheryl Newbanks 
                ~~ ^ ^       Just In Time Ranch
~~~\   _  ~~/ /\ /       Buckeye, AZ
       ( )__     ) ' '        horsetrails@inficad.com
       //         \\ 
      //           \\
     **           **