Not me but close, strangles

As long as everyone is sensible it isn't that easy to pass on, but like you I'd still be worrying.

I assume the yard has been sensible & has been on lockdown as soon as they suspected strangles - no hacking out or shows, telling any professionals so they could make visits the last of the day, not going to tack shops etc in clothes that they've just worn to the yard and so on. The fact that so many horses on the yard are showing no signs suggests they've acted quickly & carefully, so fingers crossed it's contained.

For you I guess all you can do is try to avoid shared routes - though any damage would probably already be done by now - & no grazing out hacking. Maybe double check with necessary visitors that they haven't been there first & keeping visitors to a minimum. And pray, it never does any harm & may just help.

 

Oh yes lots of VIBES it has not gone
Any further.
Not being that far away must be a big
Worry.

 

A mile away is nothing. For me that would be like my main hacking route. Very worrying. You also get those that will carry one regardless hacking out.

 

If they were tested negative then they don't pose a risk, and it may be that she's moved them away from the yard to try to avoid infection - that being the case she's going to try to be sensible about biosecurity. Strangles isn't airborne so driving past or being next to the yard isn't increasing the risk as long as there's no physical contact. It's extremely unlikely that she's increasing the risk to yours, but to be safe just don't graze them where she's driven.

 

I would be too, but as long as everyone is being sensible the risk is minimal. The cases to worry about are the ones you don't hear about!

 

Please try not to worry.......

Strangles is a bacteria and bacteria can't walk or fly. You can ONLY catch it via direct contact with snot/phlegm etc into an area of vulnerbility. So there needs to a) be some infectious material that gets up your horse's nose somehow or into their body.

The vast majority of cases are via nose to nose contact or via sharing water buckets/haynets.

In theory you can catch it if an infected horse sneezes on you. Not near you - via air borne disease - but actually sneezes infected snot right into your horse's face.Which is unlikely. In theory animals can carry it on their paws and then run into your field and then your horse can graze. But again this is a minimal risk. Especially as there would be precious little snot left on the paw after a mile!

When we had strangles the vet in charge of the outbreak told us who we had to tell. This was essentially just the venues where horses from the yard had gone to in the days leading up to diagnosis and anyone working on the yard eg farriers etc. We did NOT tell local yards. The vet said there was no need as we did not pose any kind of risk to them.

The 8 horses with the illness were kept in an isolation field with no shared fence lines but they were still on the yard. There were100 horses on the yard and none of them got strangles without direct exposure - there was zero spread beyond those 8 and the 7 had been directly exposed to the first ill horse.

 

I agree with you about the telling people, & I think most people will have more respect for someone who does. I think there is still a bit of a stigma in some people's minds though - we know strangles is simply a bacterial infection but there's probably a few people around who see an infected yard & think it's badly managed or dirty - and so people are reluctant to disclose it.

Remember the horses in the field have tested clear, so even if a bit of hay they've pulled off & dropped back into the truck should blow into your field & then yours should chance to eat it there's no problem because there's no infection to transfer. And are your horses really going to be falling on a bit of loose, blowing around hay when they have enough to eat & the grass is starting to grow?