It was a nice warm day in July when I went down to the field to bring my horse Hayley in to ride. When I approached her, she was standing with her head down low and looking very lethargic, with a heavy discharge hanging from her nostrils. So I brought her in and called my Vet out straight away. Once the vet arrived he asked me if any of the other horses have Strangles, I replied “no”. He said to be that “I will be testing your horse for Strangles just to be on the safe side.” He also said “it might just be a heavy flu, if no other horses have these symptoms”. I did tell the Vet that “Hayley’s jags are up to date and I have never missed any of them in the 14 yrs of having her.”
After the vet left I went straight round to the owners of the yard to let them know that Hayley was being tested for strangles and that is when they told me there had been a few horses already tested for strangles 4 weeks ago. They must have seen the expression on my face and they said “didn’t you know about it?” I replied “No” they then said “don’t tell anyone about this.” i said ok but I never kept quiet, I told everyone in my block and told them not to bring their horses in because Hayley had not to be moved from her stable until the vet said ok. They all thanked me for telling them this and said I probably prevented their horses from contracting the disease. I then told the owners of the yard what I had done and they were not pleased with me. However, one of the ladies went round to tell them that I had done the right thing by letting them know about this.
I had to phone my Vet to let him know that there had been other horses tested for Strangles and just that one of them had come back positive. He then told me that there was a good chance that Hayley would have strangles. I felt angry and totally gutted that people don’t care about anyone’s horse but their own and how selfish they were to keep this quiet.
Roughly 15 horses had contracted Strangles through ignorance by not letting people know. I had shifted my horse into the filed that was riddled with Strangles and no one had told me, and they watched me putting Hayley into that field.
Dealing with this type of situation was very difficult for me. I found out who my real friends are. Driving into the yard I felt physically sick because I was getting dirty looks, people were pointing at me, the nasty comments, I was getting ignored and someone even ran away from me. The people who used to say hello and talk to me no longer did so and only a few people would support me and ask how my girl was getting on. No one cared about my horse or about me or any one else that had a horse with Strangles.
Have learnt a lot about strangles this year, had a friend ask me to take her pony in, as she thought he had strangles and the livery yard were making her life very difficult. He came, was isolated, told two liveries that were here, that he was under suspicion and not to let their horses mix with him. His abscess erupted, very angry with vet as there care and helpfulness left a lot to be desired. He had the swab tests done and was cleared, so went off to his new home, new owner being fully informed of everything. About 2 months after, 2 of my horses came down with different signs of having contracted strangles. While both were lethargic, only one had discharge from his nose, while the other horse showed no signs, except being lethargic. The one horse that had discharge, just had that symptom, the other had an abscess which erupted. The virus was most definelty in wood, after extensive research on the web; this is what I found out. Vet did not give any information about this. I am very lucky that know of a company called Trinity Consultants, I never contacted the vets, as there was nothing they could do. This company made me up a potion for each invdividual horse and they improved rapidly, they were no longer lethargic, appetite returned and within one week everything had improved. Now know that there are different syptoms, up to owner to do extensive research and decide which is the best course of action to take for their horses. Farrier came and I informed him before his visit which horses were infected, said he know of lots of places where strangles is present virtually all the time! Also one vet informed me that a venue where showjumping, dressage is held every week is a known source of strangles. Incidentally this is the one place the first pony had attended an event. Not sure why horse owners are unable to be open and adult about discussing this disease. Saw horses infected with this when living in Egypt and yes horses do die of this, but that does not have to be the case. Luckily I had alternative source of expert advise and knowledge. Vets will always rely on drugs, drugs are backed by big companies, which in my experience their first and foremost concern is to sell drugs!! Helps them to stay in business! Interesting subject and one that needs more more research, horses in the wild do not suffer from this!!?? Also needs much more discussion…Lesley Williams