Everything You Need To Know About Horses

Horse Strangles

Strangles

This is a highly contagious bacterial infection. The horse presents with a depressed, dull outlook, high temperature (around 39.5 degrees), nasal discharge, swollen glands under the jaw. It is a condition horse owners should always be concerned about, especially on properties where there are horses coming and going on a regular basis, such as studs and agistment facilities.

It is not a rountine disease to vaccinate against, but in high risk areas, such as agistment properties and studs, vaccination will reduce the incidence and severity of strangles, although the vaccination is by no means 100 per cent effective.

A course of three injections is given two weeks apart followed by an annual booster. You need to maintain this annual booster to maintain some degree of immunity, but the injection can also cause some local irritation. Horses that have previously contracted strangles are not immune to the disease for any more than about twelve months.