03/28/2024
Public Statement 🤍
In light of recent events, here is the facts:
Thursday morning a boarded gelding had a small but firm sized lump on his right side under his cheek bone.
The vet came out and did a thorough exam on him. It was discovered he had a fractured tooth right above the lump, along with a bite mark on his neck and a small bump on his nose. These signs pointed towards horseplay.
Due to the location of the bump under his cheek, we (Dr. Cory, The Owner and myself) decided to pull 2 swabs on it in effort to be proactive. The first test being a PCR for infectious diseases, and the other to culture the bacteria. While the PCR returned positive, the culture (taken the same day) returned negative and did not grow strangles. Despite this, the gelding remains quarantined and we have ran ANOTHER test on him to culture to see if the results change.
All of the horses who were in contact with the gelding (either pasture mates or neighbouring paddocks) were tested , all returning negative.
There has NOT been any new horses on the property (this includes ship ins) since March 1, and all from reputable farms.
All horses on farm are not presenting symptoms and have no unusual behaviour. Everyone’s temperature continues to be monitored and to date, no horses are showing any clinical signs.
The boarded gelding has NOT left the property since November. Anyone who knows me, knows we are pretty particular with what comes to the farm. While horses are a hobby for most, they are my livelihood and we take precautions in effort to prevent these types of things from happening.
The boarded gelding was also vaccinated for strangles. The positive test could be picking up the strangles vaccine that is in his system. Interestingly enough, the manufacturer of the vaccine has offered to pay for his test to figure out if it is infact the vaccine strand OR a ‘live strand’ that would of been transferred off someone / something.
Our vet returned to the farm today, and the gelding was started on Antibiotics. The other horses on property continue to show no symptoms or concerning factors. We are expecting the new culture results *hopefully* Friday. He will remain quarantined until he has 3 clean tests.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out!