Re: RC: Antibiotics & Strangles

[Dave & Abby Bloxsom <cyclone@snet.net>]

In our summer camp program we lease a new set of horses (purchased by a
dealer at auction) annually, strangles is a real threat.  It's one we
can't vaccinate against, since we don't have the horses in our
possession.  Our prevention/treatment protocol, developed after
discussion with several vets (who were all in agreement) is as follows:

1) The horses we own (the camp's few and the instructors' personal
horses) receive the intranasal vaccine a month before the leased horses
arrive.

2)  New arrivals are put on probiotics for a week or two to minimize the
stress of the transition.

3) Apparently healthy horses are kept in a separate pasture with a
separate water source from any horses who have nasal discharge or a
temp.  There is no sharing of stalls, feed buckets, or water among ANY
of the horses.  If we exchange any of those things, they're bleached
thoroughly.

4) Horses affected with strangles receive no antibiotics initially.  We
do provide palliative treatment for those guys who feel really crummy. 
The research (I don't have any cites, sorry) seems to indicate that
using antibiotics at this point increases the likelihood of bastard
strangles.

5) Once a strangles abcess has ruptured (which we sometimes speed up by
lancing it), we use antibiotics to speed up the last stage of recovery. 
We usually use a solid week of long-acting penicillin.

6) Every once in a while this doesn't quite do the trick, and there's a
little discharge continuing.  Then we add 2 weeks of sulfa/trimeth.  The
horse is usually back at work during this stage.

Why don't we send them back to the dealer for the treatment period,
since we can't use them during this time?

Usually by the time the strangles hits, we've put in 3 weeks of training
at least. For a horse who's only likely to be with us 10 weeks total,
that's quite an investment.  We never know what kind of horse we're
going to get as a replacement.

Because strangles has been present at this camp for 25 years (not all at
the same pasture) it's not a question of isolating the healthy horses
from the germs.  They're there.  We just do our best to keep the tough
ones tough, and the sick ones away.

-Abby B

> I'm pretty
> sure you DON'T want to use antibiotics in the case of strangles.  Also, never
> use antibiotics "if in doubt".  Just like what is happening with humans,
> animal bad guys can develop stronger more virulent strains in response to
> over-use of antibiotics (at least that's my understanding -- Heidi -- correct
> me here).
> 
> Sylvia
>


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