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[RC] Salmonella - PattiSalmonella is normally present in a typical horse environment and many horses are "colonized" without being "infected" (this occurs with a lot of bacteria in animals and humans). It'sd "opportunistic" - more likely to become an infection in an animal whose immune system is already compromised.
As the infection route is fecal/oral rather than respiratory, it's not spread as easily/less contagious than respiratory borne illnesses. Good hand washing, rodent control and manure/farm animal litter management can reduce the prevalence, and likely all that's needed to prevent spread of infection.
A pretty good overview is at
I lost a mare to salmonella infection some years back - but her immune system had already been severely compromised from a series of prior events - the salmonella was simply the final coup de grâce. It did make me leery of continuing to keep chickens (at least near the barn), but they are actually less of a reservoir than the common rodents in the area (cute little bunnies and nasty pack rats) and my other (healthy) horses never had a problem. But it is an ugly infection, sharing some similar signs with botulism - a primary one being inability to swallow - which has taught me (the hard way) to always check a non-drinking horse who's only playing with their water to determine if they're not drinking because the *won't* or because they *can't*. (The difference between can't and won't was missed by two vets and myself and might have made the difference of appropriate treatment sooner.)
Patti K Vail AZ (who's going to get baby chicks again cause they sure keep the flies down)
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