Rhodococcus equi

[midnight star stables]

There was a post last night that discussed this disease. It was delete, as even though no name were mentioned. My heart goes out to those who lost horses.

However, as a horse owner, I thing people should know about this disease! I had never heard of it and it seams like it would be a VERY important thing to know about - people, names, and horses aside.

This is scary and I think people should know. OH! This post is NOT directed at anyone involved with recent incidents, but rather the disease it self.

Article

 

[~Lisa~]

I am sorry such a important post was removed. You are right it is something that everyone should know about I am still unclear as to if adult horses exposed but perhaps not ill can carry and spread this disease and I will be talking to my vet about it today

 

[Becky]

There are some very good articles on Rhodococcus equi on thehorse.com. It is important to note that Rhodococcus is likely found on many, many farms including yours and mine. It's not limited to just a farm or two and management seems to be the biggest factor as to why some horses (foals) get it and others don't.

Here are a couple of recent articles that I found most interesting.

Virulent Rhodococcus equi in Soil Not an Indicator of Pneumonia Problems

Azithromycin Protects Foals Against R. equi in New Study

And one more. This one is most interesting.

Are Mares a Source of R. Equi For Their Foals?

According to this study, ALL mares shed R equi after foaling. So ALL farms have the potential to have sick foals.

In the removed post regarding R equi, I remembered someone posting that their vet was vaccinating their mares/foals for Rotavirus. Just wanted to note that is something entirely different. There is no current vaccine available for Rhodococcus equi.

 

[targetsmom]

Thank you for re-posting the link to the article. This time I bookmarked it!! I agree that this scary disease is something we need to learn about, whether we breed or not.

 

[Devon]

Can a horse carry this disease and be uneffected? Passing it to other foals; Can adults carry it if they were exposed late rin life?

It is such a scary thing

Just the fact that it effects you long after the foal passes on or even if it lives your soil is contaminated

I understand why it was deleted it is not our business to talk about other farm's as we don't know every fact. But the disease itself is good to know about and I think this post will be good.

 

[MiLo Minis]

Apparently even if you could thoroughly disinfect your stalls which most of us can't, this is a tough thing to get rid of because it can hide in cracks and crevices and in the dirt. Foals born outside are much less likely to inhale the contaminant because the sunlight and fresh air dilute or destroy the bacteria. It can stay in the soil though and crop up again with the next years crop of foals. All it takes is one foal with a vulnerable immune system to get a faceful of dust from his mom stomping her foot while he is sleeping and you can have a sick baby who will shed the bacteria onto your farm. And then it isn't an obvious illness as usually the foals continue to eat and drink well and may only have a slight cough and a high temp. How are you going to recognize if you have it or not?

 

[Sunny]

I'm sure many know the breeder involved.

Maybe, but I certainly don't, and I'm so tired of threads that hint at who is involved in situations!! If there is wrong-doing of any kind, then the parties involved need to be identified! In this case, if it is known without a doubt that this disease originated at a particular farm, then it should be common knowledge and not that of a select few.

I haven't read all the articles about this disease yet, but I will. From what I've read so far, though, it's extremely serious and potentially devastating. Is it a reportable disease, such as strangles or West Nile? If not, should it be?

 

[wildoak]

We had a group of foals two years ago who became ill. We were on vacation (shocking in itself lol) and came back to find a filly with what looked like strangles. She never cultured positive for the disease, was never terribly ill. All five foals though were just "off". When they got worse again, we decided - on vets advice - to treat for rhodococcus. Long, expensive treatment regime but they did respond to it and all recovered uneventfully. Next years foals were fine, no illness whatsoever.

The summer they were sick was a very hot, dry season here - the pasture they were in had a very dusty area at the front where manure had built up, and for some reason the foals liked to lay there. As we were gone for nearly 2 weeks, I missed getting a jump on whatever it was but when we returned and started treating them, we moved them to a clean pasture and did some clean up where they had been. I don't use that pasture for mares/foals now, and to date no more problems.

It is a nasty disease, and difficult to treat. I have to assume it's what we had but it was never confirmed except in their response to meds.

 

[MiLo Minis]

This is a septicemia type problem - bacteria present in the environment at all times and only those horses that are immune deficient or suppressed are likely to have a problem with it - mainly babies of course. Apparently we all have it in us but our immune systems combat it and keep us and our animals from becoming ill from it. From what I have read about it all you can really do is keep your farm as clean as possible by harrowing manure in the fields, cleaning and disinfecting the stalls best you can, dipping navels, ensuring your foals get their required colostrum in the first 12 hours, keep the mares and foals on grass not dirt, etc. Practice the best horse management you can and you are less likely to have a problem. Apparently it can build up over the years with large numbers of horses until it only takes that one faceful of dirt inhaled.....

 

[zacharyfarms]

My recent visit to the Pulmonologist for myself after having 3 bouts of pneumonia brought up the question of Rhodococcus...it is one disease that people can get from horses. FYI...I have never to my knowledge had it on my farm but in the event I get pneumonia again before May, they will do a bronchoscope to test whatever they can pull at that time to see if my pneumonia is being caused by environmental pathogens. But from the article about azithromycin my pneumonia wasn't caused by Rhodococcus as it was not sensitive to azithromycin even in twice normal doses.

 

[srpwildrose]

Thank You sooo much for posting information about such a deadly disease reagarding our horses.

And thanks to Becky for the links.

Thats whats so great about this forum is getting the best information we can regarding raising our miniature horses.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

I was shocked to see the post was deleted, why?, this is very important, who are we trying to protect I wonder

Thanks for bringing this back up again, and I'm sorry to everyone who was involved.

 

[Carolyn R]

I was shocked to see the post was deleted, why?, this is very important, who are we trying to protect I wonder

Thanks for bringing this back up again, and I'm sorry to everyone who was involved.

I am not a rocket scientist, but apparently people felt their toes were being stepped on.

 

[AppyLover2]

(JMS Miniatures @ Mar 24 2009, 11:15 AM) I was shocked to see the post was deleted, why?, this is very important, who are we trying to protect I wonder

Thanks for bringing this back up again, and I'm sorry to everyone who was involved.

I am not a rocket scientist, but apparently people felt their toes were being stepped on.

I'm confused too. If a name had been mentioned I can see the concern for slander. But since none was, and the post has now been removed, it seems to me that any breeder in that particular state may find that people are reluctant to buy from them just because they don't know who to be concerned about.

I don't know about trying to protect anyone....but I think it's fairly obvious that the 2 ladies who bought these sick horses posted about it because they were trying to protect all the rest of us. My hat's off to them for their concern.

 

[Tango]

I was going to post on that thread yesterday and it vanished. I am sure there was a good reason, but do feel this a very important subject to discuss and for people to be aware of.

I was going to ask about the possiblility of this disease being transmitted to humans and I see from a previous post it looks like it can be.

Thanks for the links about this disease.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Listen all... I do not want to remove this thread and want people to LEARN all they can about this... BUT we can not allow condemning farms on this forum.. If I see a hint of it, this thread will be removed.. Please keep this topic to learn more about this disease and leave farm names out of it..

THANK YOU MARY LOU

 

[Sunny]

I'm confused too. If a name had been mentioned I can see the concern for slander. But since none was, and the post has now been removed, it seems to me that any breeder in that particular state may find that people are reluctant to buy from them just because they don't know who to be concerned about.

I agree completely! Just last night, there was an ad for a nice little horse n AR. Not knowing which farm was affected by this disease most certainly CAN make people reluctant to purchase from anyone in that state or general area!

 

[MiLo Minis]

Then in reality you should be concerned about purchasing a horse from ANY State or Province or country for that matter. Rhodococcus is on ALL OUR FARMS!!! It is only when over a number of years and horses it becomes built up that it becomes an environmental problem. I am not protecting any particular person and neither do I condone selling and transporting a horse IF they KNEW the foals were septic. Think of it though - this disease presents itself with very few symptoms and the foals appear healthy until it is TOO LATE. We all know the first sign of real trouble with a horse is usually that it goes off its feed. How concerned would you be if your foal had a slight occasional cough but still appeared bright and healthy, was nursing and nibbling? How many of you check your foals temperatures on a regular basis or listen to their lungs? The stress of weaning and transport could easily bring on the disease after they left the farm they contracted it on.

 

[Jill]

I have a business obligation and need to be out of here fast, but for those concerned, google the disease and educate yourself. I never thought you could get something on your farm you can never get rid of, but that is the case.

Horses beyond the age of 3-4 mos will not be able to get sick from this bacteria. This bacteria is something I have discussed many times with my vets and the state lab over the past several months.

If you do get this on your farm, the best way to insure your foals do not catch it and that it cannot be carried by them to other farms is to do what Harvey and I are doing -- have your foals transfused. We are doing this at birth and again 6-8 weeks later. Luckily, the timing of our foals worked perfect this year. As one is born and ready for the first transfusion, the other is timed about right to get a second transfusion. Since the minis at birth get 1/3 a bag of $300 plasma... the older foal gets the remaining $200 "worth".

See my girls sporting their boo-boos... shaved spot is where their IV's went in. As clean as we kept the paddock that had the sick colts, with as damp and cold as the weather was, etc., there's a good chance we really already did enough but not going to take a chance of letting something get hold of my foals:

 

[minie812]

Since this has been reposted and more links given so that I can read and understand this horrible disease that affects all farms it will just make me more mindful about watching my little ones for any signs. It is also interesting to note about it affecting humans also as my hubby tends to have issues with his lungs due to a defect at birth. Thx for the links and info