RE: RC: Strangles

["Kathy Mayeda" <kathy_mayeda@atce.com>]

Yes, strangles is a serious disease, and yes I knew there could be
some fatalities.  Our vet didn't vaccinate those horses that
had already had strangles.  Heidi, do you have stats for %fatalities?
All the literature that I pulled up on the intranasal (yes, I did
do some web-reading while all this was going on) said 60%, as did
our vet on the efficacy.

Dont' get me wrong, I would be worried sick myself if my horses
ever got strangles.  I'd be sleeping at the barn.  But all the
horses (knock on wood) are recovering nicely and are showing good
appetite now.  Sorry about your friend's horse.  A 104 deg. fever
is not good.  I guess I'm just a little burnt out on the hysteria
at the barn.

K.

-----Original Message-----
From: CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com [mailto:CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 6:39 PM
To: Dbeverly4@aol.com; kathy_mayeda@atce.com
Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: Re: RC: Strangles


In a message dated Fri, 4 May 2001  8:56:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
Dbeverly4@aol.com writes:

<<
Well, sadly, Strangles definitely is fatal sometimes. A friend of mine just
lost her 17 year old mare to strangles a couple of weeks ago. The mare was
in fine health, got strangles, died. Very sad outcome. Also, just because
your horse has had Strangles does not mean that he is immune for life. My
Paint gelding had Strangles twice in his life once as a 3 year old and once
as a 20 year old <snip> Also, (I could have this wrong) but I was under the
impression that the vaccine was only 25% effective -- anybody have other
data?  >>

Sylvia, you are painfully correct that strangles IS sometimes fatal, and
also that recovered horses do NOT have lifetime immunity!  It is not at all
uncommon for a recovered horse to have strangles again a few years later.

As for the efficacy of the vaccines--there is quite a range on the
injectables, with some of the old original ones being as low as you mention,
but the newer ones more in the range of 80-85% efficacious.  The new
intranasal approaches 95% efficacy.  In both cases, vaccinated horses who DO
still contract strangles tend to have very mild cases.

Heidi