Disinfecting Show Ground Stalls - how thorough are you?

[wildoak]

In a perfect world, show stalls would already be cleaned and disinfected lol, but in our world we usually have to spray them down. How thorough are you before moving horses in? I just read an article that suggested washing down stalls with soap and water, or additionally spraying a disinfectant. Again, not in my world.

I spray them down before I bring horses in and if there is old bedding manure left we obviously take that out. Most barns do a pretty good job of cleaning out bedding thankfully. Do you spray floor, walls, outside walls where you tie, etc, where do you draw the line?

Jan

 

[HGFarm]

We use bleach water and spray all the walls and floor of the stalls we are using, including the one we use for grooming. Also usually spray the outside front as we will probably tie horses there too... Knock on wood, in many many years of showing and competing I have never had a horse get sick from it. We also dont share grooming stuff, water buckets and NEVER use a community water trough or bucket at any show.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Very. Bleach is deactivated too easily by organic material. I'd strip stalls and spray with Virkon, wait 5 min, and go for it. Its a very good disinfectant, and is much stouter than bleach, and kinder to you and the horses too.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=063c7eba-a7ff-4ceb-bf52-7463c15bf346&gas=virkon%20s%20disinfectant

 

[Minimor]

I do not spray stalls down at all when I go to the shows. Never have. For years we hauled around to a lot of the local fairs where we were stabled in old wooden barns. IMO there would be no point at all in trying to disinfect those because the old, old wood and the dirt floors would not wash down well. Now in the better facilities we show in...we still don't. We have never brought anything home from a show.

Seriously--I've been to enough shows where someone was showing an obviously sick horse--when you walk through the barn & see snotty nosed horses, or have a horse in the adjoining stall coughing and blowing snot in the direction of your stalls, with nothing but bars between that horse and ours I don't figure there's much point worrying about what might already be in the stalls/on the walls. The latter incident happened to me only once but over the years I have seen sick horses at shows many different times.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

That's why Virkon is so good. It still works on wood.

 

[targetsmom]

In over 50 years of showing - off and on - I have only had 2 cases where my horses got sick from something picked up at shows. In one case, my horse never left the farm and neither did any of the horses in his barn. Someone at another barn 2 miles away picked it up and the owners must have transferred it back to his barn where all the horses got it too. And these people were always super careful. The other time was in 2010 when one of our minis picked up something (Rhino) and it went through our whole herd. We showed off the trailer, so never used a stall, and are always careful to keep noses away from ANY other horses. Never saw or heard a sick horse and don't think spraying a stall would have helped in either case.

 

[Lori W]

I know personally when I visit show barns (whether miniature or full size horses), I don't pet noses as I walk stall to stall. Think about all the germs that an innocent little pat on the nose can spread. Problem is that the minis are usually so darn cute that people can't resist petting this one, the next one, etc., and potentially spreading something. Not much we can do about that!

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

We spray down the stalls, but it doesn't help much when you have people going from stall to stall petting everyone. We showed at the Fort Worth Stock Show last January, had a great time and did very well. Came home with some kind of respiratory crud, which infected every horse we had under the age of three. And we had isolated the ones that had been at the show when they started coughing. Ended up taking two yearlings to the vet clinic, they were so bad. One DIED. The other made it through and is fine. And neither of these two had gone to the show, nor were they stalled in the same barn as ones that had gone! Plus, when we were at the clinic, there was a Gypsy Cob yearling there with the SAME THING. And their show had gone on the same time as ours and they were stalled across the aisle.

Needless to say, we are seriously debating going this year. It was fun and very reasonable to enter- until the $550 vet bill for one and $1800 for the other one that died came in the mail.

 

[wildoak]

I think stock show is notoriously bad.......so many breeds coming in back to back, lots of horses and little or no time between shows plus LOTS of spectators and non-horse people who come through and pet the horses. I've had the same problem at World & Nationals though, coming home & shortly afterwards having all my youngsters sick. Sorry you lost one, high price to pay.

Jan

 

[Barnmother]

We have always vacinated our horses and made sure all boosters are given before consider showing. We always worm horses regularly and when we return from any show.

We have disinfected stalls at some show grounds and have used Nolvassan Disinfectant mixed in a garden sprayer. We make sure all old bedding is removed and we spray the floors even if they are dirt. We have let them dry and then dusted with "lice powder". When spraying stalls please make sure that you aren't spraying "the neighbor's horse" particularly if you are using bleach.

Figure an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If one of the horses was to come down with something we did everything we could.

How about putting some hand sanitizer on a little table in front of your stalls with a cute little sign that says something about not wanting to share where you have been or where you are going. Might raise awareness of the dangers of petting everyhorse you can reach and offer something to possibly help prevent the spread of disease.

 

[Zoey3]

Were the horses up to date on vacinations when they got sick? We are going to start showing this fall and i want to do everything i can to help from our horses getting sick. Thanks

 

[shalakominiatureshowhorses]

I never thought of petting the noses.....how it can spread, It makes so much sense!!! Now i feel horrible, when i was like, 9 maybe, i went around and petted all of the horses in the show barn! I feel terrible!!! Of course, this was years ago, but i have a horrible conscience! Ive always been protective over my minis, like about little kids i let hold them or who walks them around, im even worried about my parents sometimes!!! Its stupid, i know, but ive been like that my whole life. Now that i think about it, it may be how my little guy got under the weather at our first show together, from people petting everybody....I think i'll go into overload about protecting my little guys now (not really lol)! Not sure if ill disinfect stalls, but ill make sure to wash my hands if i have to touch any other horse (like showing someone elses horse) to prevent spreading. Good thing i always prevent my guys from nuzzling anybody anywhere, unless i know the other horse. Its amazing how i learn something new everyday!

 

[Sandee]

Never wash down the stalls at a show unless it's a stall that - I - ntended to live in.

We have washed those horrid paper covered plastic solid walls at Gordyville for our tack room. So nasty we just couldn't stand to look at it.

My horses are always vaccinated in the spring and usually a booster before Nationals. I've only had a horse get sick once in over 15 yrs of showing, big and little ones, and that was, IMO, because we stopped overnight at a friends and stayed in their cow barn ----yuck, yuck,yuck! I keep my horses in the trailer since then.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

I get my vaccinaed for just about everything, including strangles. I have only shown off the trailer so far, however, when i used to show my big mare pinto, we would put TekTrol in a spray bottle and spray down the walls before we put her in the stall.

 

[drmatthewtaylor]

Cleaning/disinfecting stalls can help prevent the diseases that are spread via direct contact with feces or nasal secretions.

Unfortunately, the viruses that cause the most common respiratory diseases are spread more commonly via moisture droplets in the air and no amount of cleaning will limit that type of transmission.

Having animals in a high health status able to fend off these viral attacks is the only defense. Vaccinations are part of this (and vaccines are not equal), but overall health status is also important. Also air quality and movement at a show are important.

Dr. Taylor

 

[HGFarm]

I agree with disinfecting stalls! It wont stop everything as Dr. Taylor said, but can sure help with some stuff. I also have NEVER shared grooming supplies or water buckets. I have also NEVER allowed my horses to drink from a 'community' water trough at any arena. I take my own water buckets and that stuff is strictly off limits to others. I have even noticed clipper blades, when shared by others I have seen at shows, are disinfected before loaning them, and again when they were returned.