im extrememly upset..

minimule · Dec 25, 2006

Will I'm dealing with strangles right now. I have 19 horses. The first horse showed symptoms 2 weeks prior to anyone else showing any signs at all. Out of the 19, only 9 developed abcesses. There were 6 that "went off feed" for a few days but the rest stayed perky and alert. I had 4 that developed breathing problems that needed aggressive treatment. We are on the backside of the virus now (at least I hope). There were 2 horses that never showed a sign or symptom but everyone was exposed.

Some of them that developed abcesses developed them only under their jaw. Never even noticed until they ruptured. Then others developed them around their faces. It's nasty!

You can get strangles by someone else coming in with it on them somewhere. Do a search on here for strangles. I posted asking some questions and got some good answers.

I hope your little mare does OK. It's scary but you can get through it. OH, the foal should be fine. I have 2 mares that are pregnant and the vet said the foals will be fine.

Thellwellmini · Dec 25, 2006

Will, I had a big horse that his lymph nodes swelled up evrytime his body was fighting off something! the first time that it happened I was at a show and brought something home the whole barn got the snots and ran 104- 105 fevers didnt eator drink. When the vet came at first he thought it was strangels, but then none of the rest showed the swelling just fevers and snots. Then every time he got sick it was the samething swollen lymph nodes. In fact They would swell before he would show any other symptoms. Good Luck! And I hope it just the bug. Lorie

ponyboi09 · Dec 25, 2006

[SIZE=14pt]UPDATE[/SIZE]

HEY EVERYONE!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Today has been a great day for melody! I'm beginning to believe it may not be strandles, i walked out this morning and she still had a runny nose. Then i checked her after i got back from lunch and things have greatly improved. Her swelling in her neck has definately went down. It isnt near as tight as it has been, or as tender to touch. Oh and the best part of all, she can breath without making a noise. There is nolonger snot or slobber. I dunno what i did, but something has helped, at least she can breath easily for christmas. Thanks again everyone,

Will

HGFarm · Dec 26, 2006

I hope everything is continuing to improve on your place. Strangles can be nasty. The ranch where my X works has had a couple of horses get it this year and it can be nasty. But.... one of the hands almost killed a mare by giving her antibiotics and it drove the infection into her body- she is still recovering but it was NASTY and scary.

I hope this is just a minor incident for you and things are going better now!

appymini · Dec 26, 2006

I delt with strangles 5 winters ago.

It was the most allfull thing to deal with. And someone came to visit and told me they just had it 3 weeks ago.After she had already walked the barn.I had 15 pregnet mares. 10 mares lost the foals in the mature of weeks.3 mares had dead foals born on due time. 2 foals survied. At the 3 months of age one foal just droped dead. Only 1 foal survied..I almost lost a 25" yrling colt I had.the vet come at hours in the night to check up on him.The next yr later I had 2 dummy babies born and 1 blind foal.Lost all 3 .The vet said it was the cause from the strangles,being that they could be carers

.I would never wish that experience on anyone.

ponyboi09 · Dec 26, 2006

Well, today things are still looking up, she is back to agressively eating as she used to(she is our "boss" mare) haha. There is no drainage today, and we have stopped the antibiotics after the first day...so maybe it is really going away and its not just the antibiotics holding it back. The swelling in her neck has decreased very noticably, sooooo maybe we got lucky and we wont have to deal with strangles....maybe..

Thanks

Will